Best place for LED light strips for a beginner?
- Thread starter hydin
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PHArchivist
Master Member
Email me, Chris.
I have a catalog at home that has some but can't recall the name off hand. Its that company that specializes in small tools for railroad and ship modeling.
PHarchivist@aol.com
I have a catalog at home that has some but can't recall the name off hand. Its that company that specializes in small tools for railroad and ship modeling.
PHarchivist@aol.com
I get mine from Oznium.com: LEDs - flexible LED strips, LED modules, 12v LEDs.
Adafruit is a surprisingly good deal for such a specialized place. The markup is almost nothing. I got an 60-per-meter RGB strip from them for a recent costume. I also was surprised that you can get close to a price match with the Hong Kong suppliers at Amazon -- I picked up two five-meter rolls of green 30-per-meter strips for $14 each there.
All the "analog" strips are wired series-parallel in sets of three with ballast resistors on the tape; you can cut them and reconnect them at any of the clearly marked breaks between sets of 3 LEDs, and they will run off 9 to 12 volts DC from battery or power supply. There are several pretty cheap controllers for the RGB ones, if you aren't up to making your own.
The "digital" strips are individually wired on a serial data bus, and have their own on-strip driver circuits. A lot of them are wired for 5v DC supplies, but the trick is, they need the data to control them. Most people do this with a cheap micro; a Rasberry Pi or an Arduino or similar. They are overkill for display lighting, I think; the advantage to the digital strips is you can control each LED separately, to animate them.
(Incidentally, those strips I bought were for a stage production that is running now. The character of the WIZ has a costume decorated with the RGB, which is animated to color-swirl and is operated remotely from the control booth via an XBee radio link.)
All the "analog" strips are wired series-parallel in sets of three with ballast resistors on the tape; you can cut them and reconnect them at any of the clearly marked breaks between sets of 3 LEDs, and they will run off 9 to 12 volts DC from battery or power supply. There are several pretty cheap controllers for the RGB ones, if you aren't up to making your own.
The "digital" strips are individually wired on a serial data bus, and have their own on-strip driver circuits. A lot of them are wired for 5v DC supplies, but the trick is, they need the data to control them. Most people do this with a cheap micro; a Rasberry Pi or an Arduino or similar. They are overkill for display lighting, I think; the advantage to the digital strips is you can control each LED separately, to animate them.
(Incidentally, those strips I bought were for a stage production that is running now. The character of the WIZ has a costume decorated with the RGB, which is animated to color-swirl and is operated remotely from the control booth via an XBee radio link.)
Awesome!
I was thinking just white LEDs for the moment. Don't need remotes or anything, just looking to light up some display boxes I have.
I am INCREDIBLY new to this whole lighting thing, and just thought a plug and play kit would help out a bit.
I'll check the links out, and I'll drop you an email PH!
Chris
I was thinking just white LEDs for the moment. Don't need remotes or anything, just looking to light up some display boxes I have.
I am INCREDIBLY new to this whole lighting thing, and just thought a plug and play kit would help out a bit.
I'll check the links out, and I'll drop you an email PH!
Chris
Any of the places above will sell you by the meter (or less). Which is all you will need. Wiring is simple for white; DC, two wires. But....we're talking about several amps here, so do yourself a favor and drop ten, twenty bucks on a switching power supply (usually sold by the same people who sell the strips -- so they even have the right connectors on them saving you a step). They will eat batteries, and transformer power supplies will work hard to supply the kind of juice needed. So switching power supply.
PHArchivist
Master Member
HaNDiCaPZaCH
Member
I get some pretty good light strips from my local Autozone. they are only one color and a little pricey but good overall.
Oncoming Storm
New Member
I used these to light up the area behind my monitor... SUPER easy to set up and very flexible. I'm planning on picking up some more for prop displays, as well.
LEDwholesalers 16.4ft RGB Color Changing Kit with LED Flexible Strip, Controller with 44-button Remote and Power Supply, 2034RGB+3315+3215 - Amazon.com
LEDwholesalers 16.4ft RGB Color Changing Kit with LED Flexible Strip, Controller with 44-button Remote and Power Supply, 2034RGB+3315+3215 - Amazon.com
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