![]() For more detail, see the page on color and color temperature.ĭensity - The number of LEDs per unit length will vary. 5050 LEDs usually draw more current than 3528’s and are brighter as well.Ĭolor or ColorTemperature - LED strips commonly come in either RGB, RGBW, RGBAW, or tunable white (WWA) variants. Package - Strip LEDs generally come in one of two packages (physical forms): 50. For example, if your strips need 4 amps, then pick at least a 5 amp supply. You should leave some overhead in choosing a power supply 20% is a good number. So an RGB LED strip might consume as much as 60 mA per LED when you turn on all three channels. Superbrightleds’ guide has some good tips on managing power supplies and using amplifiers.Ĭurrent - The current on a given LED strip will vary based on the number of LEDs on the strip, and should be listed on the site you purchase it from, but a good rule of thumb is to calculate 20 mA per channel per LED. ![]() When you’re considering a long run, you might want to use +24V LED strips, as they can generally handle a longer run without a significant drop. This adds control complications, of course. If you need a run of LEDs that’s longer than the maximum for your strip type allows, you’ll need to wire an additional power supply in the line. Even if you’re using a 5V microcontroller like the Arduino Uno, you’ll need a separate power source and a transistor to control each channel, because the current of each channel will be greater than the microcontroller’s GPIO pins can supply.Īll LED strips have a maximum length you can use before there’s a voltage drop significant enough to stop them from functioning. Voltage - The most common voltages are +5V, +12V, and +24V. If you think of each channel as a single LED, the channel’s endpoint is the cathode for that LED. Most LED strips are common anode strips, meaning that there’s one shared line for voltage input, and separate lines for control of each channel. There are a number of characteristics to consider when shopping for LED strips:Ĭhannels - how many color channels does the strip have? Most strips feature some combination of red, green, blue, white, cool white, warm white, or amber LEDs. LED strips are type of low-voltage DC LED source, so you might want to read the page on those sources for a general background Electrical and Physical Characteristics These notes don’t cover addressable LED strips, as those strips require a different approach to control. There are many other good guides to LED strips out there, like Superbrightleds’ Ultimate LED Strip Lighting Guide. What follows is a guide to some of the more common types of LED strips, and circuits for controlling the non-addressable types from a microcontroller. In those cases, it’s easy to be confused about what you’ve got. LED strips are easy to come by these days, and often you get them without documentation, or you lose the label. This project is maintained by tigoe Controlling LED Strips
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