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These are bare non-addressable 5 meter long RGB LED strips that come packed with 60 5060 LEDs per meter, that's 300 LEDs. As these are bare LED strips that have no protective coating, your project won't be water proof but there is access to each 5060 LED and each strip length can be easily modified. You will be able to control and power the whole LED RGB Strip together with 12V giving you cool lighting effects for your car or perhaps under cabinet lighting in your kitchen!
Note: These come in 5m segments on a reel. They are preterminated with wires, as shown in the pictures.
The closest Fritzing part related to this LED strip can be found here:
If you are looking at the details, the LED is flipped and IC is the 5060 package.
Apply +12V to the + pin and ground any of the colored wires to turn the LED color on. When using with a microcontroller, you would need an n-channel mosfet [ https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10213 ] to turn it on and off. The LED strips require a lot of power (especially the 5M strips) but worked well with a variable power supply set at 12V/1A. The LED strip does get warm to the touch when using.
If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.
Skill Level: Rookie - You will need a better fundamental understand of what code is, and how it works. You will be using beginner-level software and development tools like Arduino. You will be dealing directly with code, but numerous examples and libraries are available. Sensors or shields will communicate with serial or TTL.
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If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Competent - You will be required to reference a datasheet or schematic to know how to use a component. Your knowledge of a datasheet will only require basic features like power requirements, pinouts, or communications type. Also, you may need a power supply that?s greater than 12V or more than 1A worth of current.
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We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
Based on 2 ratings:
These strips have good colors and nice brightness, far better than the elcheapo strips I purchased elsewhere. The only problem is the the blue and green wires are mislabeled.
I'm working on a weight critical application and could not find weight listed in the datasheet or product listing...Any idea what a full 5m strip weighs without packaging?
Any chance of lowering the volume discount level on these? I need 20m, but if I buy 4 of these I'm going to end up paying $20 more than buying 20 of the 1m version.
Does this strips come with 3M adhesive tape? Do you have any ideas of how to stick this strips to a surface?
Thanks!
How wide is the tape? Does it have an adhesive backing?
A 5V version would be even better. PC power supply puts out a lot more current at 5V than 12V, and a lot less power wasted.
I think more power would be wasted - but that depends on how you look at things.
Edit: Rounding errors are out, fancy spreadsheet is in! spreadsheet (imports nicely into Google Docs, if you prefer)
screenshots for 12V, 5V, 3.3V and 12V with a twist
Summary: A 5V version would actually require more total power, and waste more of it, at least in the strip (not to mention extra resistors). How the PSU's own efficiency at 5V vs 12V affects things is a (shoo, sparkghost!) different matter.
The descriptions say non addressable but they contain ws2801's??
This LED strip has no ws2801's, just plain old RGB LEDs. Although there's no voltage rating stated, it looks like you give these strips +12V and then pull the lines for the color(s) you want to ground. These strips can be cut into any multiple of 3 LEDs. A full 5M strip would pull about 6A at 12V with all LEDs on full.
You can set R, G, and B for the whole strip, but not for each LED.