Beautiful lights, exactly what I needed for my dark basement steps, straightforward install.

I was researching stair lights a few months back for my basement, there are so many options across many websites, after a few days, I gave up. I don’t have any ceiling lighting leading to my basement, while it’s not dangerous to walk down, it’s a bit dark. These KOMIGAN stair lights is EXACTLY what I needed! It had everything I wanted, motion activated, the strips are thin enough to fit in the the gap left by the stair caps.
Before you order these, you want to make sure you have access to underneath the stairs you want to install these on, because thats where all the wiring will be. You will have 1 wire on each step connected to the controller. Overall, the kit is not difficult to install and if you’re handy, you can handle it. The instructions could be better, the QR codes on the instructions takes you to the videos on Amazon. Here are the steps I took:

1. Lay everything out, determine how many lights you will need. I needed 13, the kit comes with 16 lights.
2. Measure the width of your steps and cut the light strips to that width. I cut mine about 1” shorter than the width of my steps so there’s room to tick the wire into the hole I drill. I also have stair caps that hides the light strip, so unless you look under stair cap, you won’t notice it’s a bit shorter.
3. To cut the strips to length, I first opened the plastic cover, used a mat knife to peel the LCD strip up and cut where the scissor icon is (on the gold ovals ). Lay the strip back into the channel, put plastic cover back on and cut. I found the most effective tool to cut was a hacksaw with a miter box, each cut took less than 1 minute. An oscillating tool didn’t work, too much vibrating. Then I used a file to clean up the sharp edges a bit, and finally, put the plastic end cap back on.
4. Using the included number stickers, number the wires on both ends, it can prove to be helpful. Each step, starting from the bottom is plugged into the corresponding number on the controller.
5. Position the strip where you plan to mount it and find a good spot to drill a hole for the wire to run through. I used a 1/4” drill but that worked great.
6. Mounting, I tried using the clips, but when I tried to clip the light in, the clips bent. After trying for 10 minutes to get the clips to work, I gave up and took the easy route, using the double sided tape. When I was trying to install the clip, I needed a 90 degree attachment with my cordless drill.
7. Drill all your holes, mount all your lights strips, feed wire through hole.
8. Install motion sensors - I was able to use a 3/4” drillbit, just had to move it around a bit to get the hole slight bigger then 3/4 (manual calls for 20mm hole).
9. Plug all the long wires you had labeled to the short pigtail from each strip. Make sure 1 goes to spot 1 on the controller, 2 to 2 etc. otherwise your lights won’t turn on or turn off in order.
10. Connect the controller to the power supply and connect the wall cord to the power supply (blue to L, Brown to N and Green to ground).

Additional tips

Additional notes
1. Before purchasing, make sure there is space behind each step you plan to install LED strip on. For example, the riser of my top step has a 2x6 directly behind it, so I probably won’t be able to wire that step.
2. After installing lights, you will see every speck of dust and hair on each step!
3. Caulk holes that were drilled for the wires after for a finished look.
4. The metal clips are not very good quality, they seemed to bend easily. Hopefully the 3M double sided tape that came with it holds
5. The plastic clips used to connect the short wire to the long wire doesn’t seem too tight, it’s possible they can inadvertently get disconnected.
6. Would be nice if the lights can be dimmed more, even at its lowest setting, it’s bright.

Update:
After several months of using, I have no issues with these lights. The double sided tape is holding the up perfectly. They look fantastic, pretty much everting they comes over and sees them loves it. One of the best items I’ve received from Vine!