I fucking hate TH-cam, social media, etc. It's a blight on society trapping us all indoors for our lives. The problem that's so insidious with TH-cam, is that there are channels like this that provide an INVALUABLE level of detailed, expert information that you can't get anywhere else. My God man, keep up the lord's work.
I just started planning a fun LED light project for my car and started researching. I learned more about light strips in this one video than I have in the past several hours reading. Thanks for putting this all in one place and now I know EXACTLY what light strips I'll be using for various parts of the application. Awesome job!
An in depth explanation of what specific items are and how they function. This is how the internet should be used to teach those skills that you want to learn a little more about. Excellent video and thank you for taking the time to make it!
Dude, this is one of the most informative videos I've ever seen and could understand it all. You're amazing! I had no idea of all the things I had to consider for a LED strip and you've enlightened me to do a very well informed decision. Thank you!
Another +1, except to say I'm not sure I've ever seen a video as concise and helpful as this. I reckon it's the gold standard for product explanation videos.
It will be cool when they start using LEDs as regulation lines, such as street markers and Olympic swimming events. Could you imagine watching swimmers with chase LEDs to mark their progress, lane and times embeddied into the bottom of the pool? Color coded with their team logos....
Sir, your channel has really grown into becoming one of my favorites. I really appreciate the level of detail and research you put into these videos. You have no idea how much frustration you have saved me over the past couple years. Thank you!
One thing I'd add to this list is that on the 12v strips, you can use the same power supply for the controller IF you use a 12v to 5v step down converter. This is easily the best explanation of the types of strips I've seen. Great job!
There are controllers that work also on 12V like SP511e. You just plug 12 DC into box and you can power and control LED from this box. You can also flash on it WLED firmware.
Hoping you can answer a question for me on my LED. I have the WS2812B, 2 of them. But I can't figure out how to get both to light up. I have one working fine with the controller and everything. I plugged int the connector from the 2nd strip to the first one (the White/Red/Green Wire connector), but it doesn't light up. There is still a red and white wire not connected to each other, wondering if i need to splice these two together to get the power to it?
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU! I was just having trouble figuring this out - as I want more ambient lighting for my outdoor cameras, and this is what I needed!!! :)
I'm a veteran at using RGB pixels for Christmas Lighting. Even I learned a few things watching this Video. I had heard of the LEDs with a backup channel but knew very little about them. Thanks for making this clear.
i came into this thinking this video wouldn't be of any help, but I left it knowing what I should do, and finding a better strip that worked for my application saving me money, you're a very good content creator and teacher, thank you so very much!
Thank you for your awesome and informative video breaking down all the led light strip differences. The community will benefit from your comparison spec sheet you created! Great work!
This answered a lot of my questions. I had been pushing some of my lighting projects back due to these questions and now I feel better about some of them.
Just starting to dig into LED strips and WLED controls with only a little Arduino knowledge, this was hugely-helpful in figuring out which strip I want to use for a project. Thank you!
This video was greatly needed. I'm just getting into this technology and chose the ws2811 due to the distance and not nedfing to inject to much power for the house and I'll go for ws2812 for my megatree.
Informative video! I'm always in awe about your no-bullshit approach and summaries for people in a hurry. I've said it before I'll say it again: you're the good guy.
Five years later and this video is still an amazing resource. Thanks for the great info! I'm going to be looking into my own SK6812 lighting system for my living room and then we'll see from there!
A video highlighting the diffences between the “w” , “nw”, and the “ww” varieties would be awesome . Long time fan of your work , I find your videos very helpful and your teaching methods spot on . You should become a teacher for a living 😂
This is the temperature of the white channel for RGBW leds: W = White NW = Natural White (a little bit warmer) WW = Warm White To get the exact temperature of each you need to check the description of the seller.
This is THE best video I´ve seen on the question of strip choice. Thanks for doing the work and showing how things look in reality! For my project, a 5x4m LED ceiling grid (think club lighting for FX, adding to scanners, moving heads etc), I´ll go with WS2815, as pure white is not that important, but keeping cabling simple over 5m is. Would have taken me lots of hours and probably lost money to figure this out by trial and error, so kudos for delivering all the information spot on.
I subbed based on the effort alone put into making this analytical comparison! Not only did you explain it in a way that any can follow you also took the time to make a visual chart comparison! TY (which until now I did not know I was missing from other review vids) My daughter wants to put rgb led strips up around the ceiling in her room and after doing a quick search I realized there were LOTS of different strips to choose from and I had to try and learn what would work best.
We need an updated video to this! There's got to be price updates and new technologies. I find 24V LED Strips to be very common these days. Thank you for this amazing video!
The point is more power draw is more light output most of times. I'd love to see lux output compasion, because I noticed there are up to 150% difference between strip types. In any case, thank you for your comparison.
I use these on racing drones and in racing gates for the drones. This is the best explanation I have found about the differences. Thanks for making this video!
Wrong... you want a white pcb for reflectivity if you are putting it in a diffuser channel and in the same vein you need 60 leds/m or higher for a good diffusion without bright spots. So these things matter quite a lot.
The only thing i couldn’t understand was the electrical theory of it. But over all this video literally taught me a lot and now i can execute this project without worrying about even the budget.
@@mydogskips2 fair, I guess I have some background in electronics and microcontrollers but I've never messed around with big arrays of addressable stuff or power requirements for LEDs so I was counting that as a newbie
This is awesome info that we really needed ! But one thing missing from your analysis is the resulting lumens output adjusted for wattage input. Here we have to simply assume that they are all equal output then judging on wattage usage, which in practice in the strips I've experienced (WS2815 and WS2812B) don't seem to be the same. Would love to see an augmentation to this vid with the addition of lumens output. Thanks for all your great info and all the other great content on your channel !
WS2815's "waste" more power. If you are running white (equal R G and B) they will produce the same light per watt as a 2812 or 11, but when you get into single color stuff the remaining wattage is not converted into light.
@@TheHookUp yeah, i totally get it, but apples-to-apples the real question is do we go with WS2815 for our "normally blue" mobile display that has native 13.8V power and not have to deal with all the extra effort of power injection, or do we go with a 5V setup and add all the complexity of power-injection, voltage conversion, etc, and in the end, are we still getting the brightest display ? AFAIK, nobody has done a comparison of actual light output. Perhaps the WS2811 and WS2815 both excel in actual lumens output regardless of color accuracy ? Anyway, thanks again for this great info.
@@TheHookUp hi I'm so glad you made this very informative video. Easily explained and gave me a way better understanding of leds. I have a question if you can answer please. I want to make my own led set up to be exactly like a led kit off Amazon to try and keep the cost as low as possible. The Brand is GOSLARLIT and here are the specs • Voltage: AC100-240V(input) • Full set quantity: Outer frame(190.56 x 95.76 x 1.97 inches) + 15 hexagon • Power: 552W • Lumen：60720lm-66240lm • CRI: >90 • CCT: White • Material: Aluminum+PC Cover Exporting carton includes following items inside: • Tubes :440*20mm 6w 60 pieces • Tubes :1185*20mm 16w 12 pieces • Connectors: 90° 2-way white 3 pieces • Connectors: 180° 2-way white 8 pieces • Connectors: T 3-way white 1 piece • Connectors:120° 2-way white 16 pieces • Connectors 120° Y connector white 30 pieces • The power cords 3-ends ¿My question is are these JOYLIT brand led strips also found on Amazon the same as the ones in the GOSLARLIT kit? • SUPER QUALITY--High Brightness 5050SMD,6500K cool white LED strip light 12V,CRI>80,high density 300LEDs/16.4ft (NOT INCLUDE POWER SUPPLY) • IP65 WATERPROOF--This waterproof strip light put in clear silicone which protect it very well from dust&water,perfectly for both indoor and outdoor using (DON’T PUT IN WATER) • SAFE TO USE-DC12V Voltage input,touchable to children. Power Supply not included, please search JOYLIT 12V 5A Power adapter • FLEXIBLE & CUTTABLE & LINKABLE & DIMMABLE-Every 3 LED cuttable without damaging the rest strip lights.Flexible to bend it to any shape to meet your requirements
Thanks for the comparison. Great information. BTW, on long LED runs you can compensate for the voltage drop by feeding the +5V from one end and connect the zero volt to the other end.
Yep, what you described essentially increases the wire gauge of the strip traces which leads to less overall resistance and therefore less voltage drop.
Great idea. But, for even longer runs, you'll need to start power injecting, one...and then for even _longer_ runs, both rails...and for those _insanity long_ runs, power inject sections, as stated in the video. The length of the section will be determined by the LED chip type, linear chip density, and max percentage of drive, for that section.
Great Video, Really helpful and Informative. I am currently replacing around 24 metres of 12V RGB Led lighting strips that I installed in my Lounge (drop ceiling) approx 10 years ago. I decided upon the SK6812 RGBWW after seeing your video and researching the options. Testing a 5m strip of SK6812 (300 LED's) with 5V power being injected at both ends I originally measured a current reading of 7.65A (38.25W) if I put all the channels on together. I also noticed that the LED Strip got very hot. Now I know its unlikely that you would put all the channels (RGB & WW) on together, but I want to ensure its safe to operate if all the channels are switched on, accidentally or on purpose. I reduced the length of each strip to 2.5m which stopped the strips input wires getting too hot, but the start of the strips still got very hot. Running with only RGB or WW the LED Strip operated at a much lower temperature. I later tried using a longer supply cable from the PSU to the start of the strips and the this resolved the problem, and the current draw went down to 5A. Do you think connecting the strips directly to the PSU results in too low a resistance ? Anyway the biggest challenge has been how to overcome the Voltage Drop you referred to, especially when using 60 LED''s per metre rather than 30. I have ended up using 4mm (12 AWG) 32Amp cable with a rating of 0.0047 ohm/m to achieve an even effect. Also added fuse protection to each individual section of LED Strip, as recommended in some other guides due to many of the PSU's available not being able to detect short circuits when used with LED Strips.
The problem adding white to WS2815 is that it would increase the forward voltage with about 3.5V, making it minimum 12.5V instead of the currently 9V making the voltage drop a huge issue. A better solution could be having RGB / white(s) every other chip along a strip. Or it would probably need a separate channel for whites anyways. I would really like 12V LED's with R/G/B/CW/WW(/A) and backup anyways, let's hope something like it get on the market soon.
Thank you for this very informative video. I have an outdoor lighting project that I've been researching; it involves 150 FEET of LED strip lighting. I've been looking at the 24 volt LED strips that are available, with some disappointment. If they ever come out with a 24 volt version of the SK6812, my research will be concluded, and I will be a very happy camper.
Absolutely. Facinating topic, and loved the breakdown. One thing I love about his videos is his details, but it's usually lacking for beginners like me on how to integrate, there's a lot of assumption that I'll just know what he means by looking at a Node Red flow. Love the videos though.
I'm left wondering which of these I can simply hookup to a smart light switch (Lutron Caseta), and control it all through Smart Things and Google Home.
Very good Video! What I would have liked in the comparison chart would be a column for all channels with appropriate power injection like you would set them up to use at home so you could see what Power supply to use. But regardless it was a nice comparison. Thank you!
Very helpful video, thank you very much! Could you also do a video about the various types of controllers and/or LED encoders? Just like the different types of LED strips/tapes, there's a lot of different encoders that use different types of controlling protocol, like SPI, DMX, SACN, and other stuff.
Solid video, I've been doing lots of research online and this really cemented all of that info for me - and thankfully gave me the same conclusion, the SK6812 strips! Thanks
@@TheHookUp My chemistry and physics teachers were my favorite in High School. Those teachers actually cared about what they were teaching and were legitimately interesting. Watching your video reminded me of being in those classes when we were talking about relevant but tangential topics my teachers were genuinely interesting. Good times - my 10 year reunion is coming up! Know that you make a difference for kids like me - even if they don't act like it at the time lol
My power supplies and switches are 24v. I want controllable white balanced. Not rgb. for cove. I’m wondering if channel and diffuser is still recommended for cove and the best smoothest light available for the longer runs needed in cove lights .
Clear and concise, the only thing I missed of the common strips is apa102 and such. Also nothing about the pwm method used and its effect on color reproduction at low brightness.
Have you thought of testing all the strips for power draw with the necessary power injection to get "white" on the whole strip? I feel like that would be a more real world test case since that's what would be done in a real project.
Very helpful, thanks. I have used WS2811 and WS2812 for some time, but the additional information on the other types was very welcome. I have just one minor nit-pick - the chip inside the LED package is not a microcontroller - it's a dedicated function specific device. Later in the video you reverted to the term "controller chip" which would be correct.
Do you think you could do an updated version of this video? It seems impossible to find good quality strips without knowing what code to look for or doing a bunch of experiments. I'm also looking for tunable white strips for practice (non -rgb) use 🙂
Funny...You picked the same goto strip that I picked. The 12 volt RGB strips still have a use, provided white isn't required and you need to keep cost low. I'm a big fan of low voltage lighting since lithium iron phosphate batteries became more reasonably priced. Great presentation.
The 12v strips have higher power consumption at full brightness, but could this be mostly because of the voltage drop? If you injected power into the 5v strips at close enough intervals to maintain near full brightness would they be much closer to 20w? Also the W segment in LEDs is good for more than just the colour temperature, the phosphor coating produces a fuller spectrum (Higher CRI) than RGB single wavelength LEDs which looks much more natural.
Awesome video! I'm considering doing outdoor holiday lights and I'm on the fence between WS2812B and WS2815. I have a two story roof so the amount of labor required with power injection is a major factor for me. How often do you have to inject power on WS2815 typically?
OK! You got me! I just used your affiliate link to buy the first 30meter SK6812 setup with 30 meter of channels, power supply, and equipment box. I hope you get credit. THANKS (I think) for getting me into this.
The last column in your spreadsheet is flawed, you're starving the blue and green LED's at the end of the strip. We would expect the answer to be closer to D+150*E, except for the WS2815. Fun fact, blue LED's (and later green) require more voltage than red LED's, which is why they turn red towards the end of the strip. At 4m30s, the voltage drop on 12V strips is actually less than 5V strips because there is less current flowing through the copper traces. Tip: Reducing the brightness by 50% will reduce the power consumption and voltage drop by half, but the human eye will perceive it as only 25% dimmer. Also, static 100% white (where they consume the most power) is super boring, it's usually a bit silly to budget your power/current based on this mode.
I did like the SK6812 for its separate *W* channel but the problem that I run into is finding a individual controller for them. The most common one that I've found, doesn't seem to work properly with 6812s and seller just told me SOL. I didn't want to resort to microcontroller options yet, just wanted a BT controller with mobile app. @@TheHookUp, what are you using specifically for SK6812?
That is a bunch of useful information you gave. LEDs are in top 5 of my ToDo list so i will consider all pros and cons. Thanks for your effort. btw do You have any experience with SP108E controller ?
Wow!! Great video! I have recently gotten into using LEDs for fun projects and the individual designations for the strips have been so confusing. This cleared everything up. On a side note, a spec sheet for some WS2815s that I purchased said they were good up to 13.4 volts. So, I adjusted the output on the power supply up to 13. Thoughts?
If the spec sheet says you're good, generally you're good. The ones you found were probably intended for automotive applications (cars are generally ~13.8v when running). Higher voltage also reduces the percentage of the voltage drop over the strand (as was indicated in the video).
i've also found that the ws2815's can get a little warm if you bunch them all up together for a longer period of time. Spread them apart and give them a little room to breath and that should be more than adequate for heat dissipation. I also have a theory that they will actually run cooler when running all colors at max brightness since no power will be lost to heat since none of the R, G, or B lights will be internally shorted (power lost to heat vs power lost emitting light)
Thank you Rob. I have learned a lot from you and Dr ZZ when it comes to home automation in particular LEDs. I'm building a new house and planning to use SW2812B. I need 40 m in 4 zones. With WLED I can use HA or my Iphone to control the LEDs. So far so good. My only concern is the installation. One zone is 18 m long so I need two power injections. Again thank you for your reviews and I'm going to by stuff based on your recommendations.
Thank you for this. I'm going to do an epic look to my apartment for Thanksgiving. I'm having everyone over my place & I needed to buy some of these so it can just be off of the chart. Especially my theater room & the kitchen needs this last step. Thanks for the video because I didn't want to spend a ton. This video found me just in time!!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks man. I appreciate the clear speaking. The comparison of the ws2811 up to sk6812.I am ready to make purchase after trying to sort through all the different types. I could of saved tons of time if I had watced your video first. Thanks Dude
Just found your channel. good info on strings. We design software and LED string controllers for the addressable led strings. We found the USC1903 has a low standby current so we use them on most of our testing. All our string controller are battery powered so power consumption is very important. Thank you for the link to your supplier I will have to check them for pricing.
Great video! I wish you would have compared power consumption with proper power injection, as I don't see why one would use these strips without giving them the power they need. An extra pair of wires going along the LED strip is cheap and would guarantee that the last LEDs get as much power as the first ones. The power consumption under those conditions might be different, and favor the 12V ones.
I fucking hate TH-cam, social media, etc. It's a blight on society trapping us all indoors for our lives. The problem that's so insidious with TH-cam, is that there are channels like this that provide an INVALUABLE level of detailed, expert information that you can't get anywhere else. My God man, keep up the lord's work.
I just started planning a fun LED light project for my car and started researching. I learned more about light strips in this one video than I have in the past several hours reading. Thanks for putting this all in one place and now I know EXACTLY what light strips I'll be using for various parts of the application. Awesome job!
Thanks, man - I really appreciate your enthusiasm for this hardware. This sort of thoughtful, systematic analysis is hard to come by!
An in depth explanation of what specific items are and how they function. This is how the internet should be used to teach those skills that you want to learn a little more about. Excellent video and thank you for taking the time to make it!
We need more people like this on the internet. Keep up the great work! You’ve definitely earned yourself a subscriber
Dude, this is one of the most informative videos I've ever seen and could understand it all. You're amazing! I had no idea of all the things I had to consider for a LED strip and you've enlightened me to do a very well informed decision. Thank you!
Ditto, NOW I understand led strips, lol
Thanks, Mister Hook Up :)
Same here.
Another +1, except to say I'm not sure I've ever seen a video as concise and helpful as this. I reckon it's the gold standard for product explanation videos.
It will be cool when they start using LEDs as regulation lines, such as street markers and Olympic swimming events.
Could you imagine watching swimmers with chase LEDs to mark their progress, lane and times embeddied into the bottom of the pool? Color coded with their team logos....
YOU are by far the reason why I love youtube. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. It is so valuable.
You are the man. Johnny
Thanks! That means a lot.
Thanks so much for the in depth lecture comparing these! 💚
Sir, your channel has really grown into becoming one of my favorites. I really appreciate the level of detail and research you put into these videos. You have no idea how much frustration you have saved me over the past couple years. Thank you!
your testing is awesome and how you presented your findings are admirable. well done bro
One thing I'd add to this list is that on the 12v strips, you can use the same power supply for the controller IF you use a 12v to 5v step down converter. This is easily the best explanation of the types of strips I've seen. Great job!
There are controllers that work also on 12V like SP511e. You just plug 12 DC into box and you can power and control LED from this box. You can also flash on it WLED firmware.
Hoping you can answer a question for me on my LED. I have the WS2812B, 2 of them. But I can't figure out how to get both to light up. I have one working fine with the controller and everything. I plugged int the connector from the 2nd strip to the first one (the White/Red/Green Wire connector), but it doesn't light up. There is still a red and white wire not connected to each other, wondering if i need to splice these two together to get the power to it?
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU! I was just having trouble figuring this out - as I want more ambient lighting for my outdoor cameras, and this is what I needed!!! :)
I'm a veteran at using RGB pixels for Christmas Lighting. Even I learned a few things watching this Video. I had heard of the LEDs with a backup channel but knew very little about them. Thanks for making this clear.
i came into this thinking this video wouldn't be of any help, but I left it knowing what I should do, and finding a better strip that worked for my application saving me money, you're a very good content creator and teacher, thank you so very much!
Thank you for your awesome and informative video breaking down all the led light strip differences. The community will benefit from your comparison spec sheet you created! Great work!
Really excellent and thorough. Good pace, diction, audio levels and minimal music and graphics just for purpose. Great job.
This answered a lot of my questions. I had been pushing some of my lighting projects back due to these questions and now I feel better about some of them.
Just starting to dig into LED strips and WLED controls with only a little Arduino knowledge, this was hugely-helpful in figuring out which strip I want to use for a project. Thank you!
This video was greatly needed. I'm just getting into this technology and chose the ws2811 due to the distance and not nedfing to inject to much power for the house and I'll go for ws2812 for my megatree.
Man, you put alot of informations on this video that cannot be found anywhere else. This is absolutely the best on TH-cam so far. Great video.
Informative video! I'm always in awe about your no-bullshit approach and summaries for people in a hurry. I've said it before I'll say it again: you're the good guy.
Five years later and this video is still an amazing resource. Thanks for the great info! I'm going to be looking into my own SK6812 lighting system for my living room and then we'll see from there!
A video highlighting the diffences between the “w” , “nw”, and the “ww” varieties would be awesome . Long time fan of your work , I find your videos very helpful and your teaching methods spot on . You should become a teacher for a living 😂
This is the temperature of the white channel for RGBW leds:
W = White
NW = Natural White (a little bit warmer)
WW = Warm White
To get the exact temperature of each you need to check the description of the seller.
I’m a bit late over here but in case it can help: there’s also « cw » which means « cold white » :)
This is THE best video I´ve seen on the question of strip choice. Thanks for doing the work and showing how things look in reality! For my project, a 5x4m LED ceiling grid (think club lighting for FX, adding to scanners, moving heads etc), I´ll go with WS2815, as pure white is not that important, but keeping cabling simple over 5m is. Would have taken me lots of hours and probably lost money to figure this out by trial and error, so kudos for delivering all the information spot on.
Excellent presentation as usual from this retired engineer. I ordered using your affiliate link from my usual AliExpress account. Thanks again!
I subbed based on the effort alone put into making this analytical comparison! Not only did you explain it in a way that any can follow you also took the time to make a visual chart comparison! TY (which until now I did not know I was missing from other review vids) My daughter wants to put rgb led strips up around the ceiling in her room and after doing a quick search I realized there were LOTS of different strips to choose from and I had to try and learn what would work best.
This is a goldmine! Thank you so much for making this video!
We need an updated video to this! There's got to be price updates and new technologies. I find 24V LED Strips to be very common these days. Thank you for this amazing video!
The point is more power draw is more light output most of times. I'd love to see lux output compasion, because I noticed there are up to 150% difference between strip types.
In any case, thank you for your comparison.
What is the most powerful type? I'm really lost in these led strips 😂
@@mirrekku I think it's more depending of manufacturer than chip technology or voltage (between 5050 leds)
I learnt your 1 day work results in just a few minutes. I will read it again. Thank you man
Rob, you hit a home run on this one, thanks for the awesome breakdown, I been holding back on buying some of these for ages.
I use these on racing drones and in racing gates for the drones. This is the best explanation I have found about the differences. Thanks for making this video!
Wrong... you want a white pcb for reflectivity if you are putting it in a diffuser channel and in the same vein you need 60 leds/m or higher for a good diffusion without bright spots. So these things matter quite a lot.
The only thing i couldn’t understand was the electrical theory of it. But over all this video literally taught me a lot and now i can execute this project without worrying about even the budget.
Another really informative video Rob. Thanks. Helps me select the right strip for my first LED project.
3 years later and I'm back for a quick refresher. Thanks again for the informative video! I'd give it a second like if there was such a thing!
Exceptionally useful for a newbie (ie me), wanted to leave a comment to say thanks and drive up that TH-cam engagement
Really, I didn't understand a single thing he said. ; )
@@mydogskips2 fair, I guess I have some background in electronics and microcontrollers but I've never messed around with big arrays of addressable stuff or power requirements for LEDs so I was counting that as a newbie
you are a god thanks for sorting this all out and bringing some of us up to speed
This is awesome info that we really needed ! But one thing missing from your analysis is the resulting lumens output adjusted for wattage input. Here we have to simply assume that they are all equal output then judging on wattage usage, which in practice in the strips I've experienced (WS2815 and WS2812B) don't seem to be the same. Would love to see an augmentation to this vid with the addition of lumens output. Thanks for all your great info and all the other great content on your channel !
WS2815's "waste" more power. If you are running white (equal R G and B) they will produce the same light per watt as a 2812 or 11, but when you get into single color stuff the remaining wattage is not converted into light.
@@TheHookUp yeah, i totally get it, but apples-to-apples the real question is do we go with WS2815 for our "normally blue" mobile display that has native 13.8V power and not have to deal with all the extra effort of power injection, or do we go with a 5V setup and add all the complexity of power-injection, voltage conversion, etc, and in the end, are we still getting the brightest display ? AFAIK, nobody has done a comparison of actual light output. Perhaps the WS2811 and WS2815 both excel in actual lumens output regardless of color accuracy ? Anyway, thanks again for this great info.
@@TheHookUp hi I'm so glad you made this very informative video. Easily explained and gave me a way better understanding of leds.
I have a question if you can answer please. I want to make my own led set up to be exactly like a led kit off Amazon to try and keep the cost as low as possible. The Brand is GOSLARLIT and here are the specs
• Voltage: AC100-240V(input)
• Full set quantity: Outer frame(190.56 x 95.76 x 1.97 inches) + 15 hexagon
• Power: 552W
• Lumen：60720lm-66240lm
• CRI: >90
• CCT: White
• Material: Aluminum+PC Cover
Exporting carton includes following items inside:
• Tubes :440*20mm 6w 60 pieces
• Tubes :1185*20mm 16w 12 pieces
• Connectors: 90° 2-way white 3 pieces
• Connectors: 180° 2-way white 8 pieces
• Connectors: T 3-way white 1 piece
• Connectors:120° 2-way white 16 pieces
• Connectors 120° Y connector white 30 pieces
• The power cords 3-ends
¿My question is are these
JOYLIT brand led strips also found on Amazon the same as the ones in the GOSLARLIT kit?
• SUPER QUALITY--High Brightness 5050SMD,6500K cool white LED strip light 12V,CRI>80,high density 300LEDs/16.4ft (NOT INCLUDE POWER SUPPLY)
• IP65 WATERPROOF--This waterproof strip light put in clear silicone which protect it very well from dust&water,perfectly for both indoor and outdoor using (DON’T PUT IN WATER)
• SAFE TO USE-DC12V Voltage input,touchable to children. Power Supply not included, please search JOYLIT 12V 5A Power adapter
• FLEXIBLE & CUTTABLE & LINKABLE & DIMMABLE-Every 3 LED cuttable without damaging the rest strip lights.Flexible to bend it to any shape to meet your requirements
Thanks for the comparison. Great information.
BTW, on long LED runs you can compensate for the voltage drop by feeding the +5V from one end and connect the zero volt to the other end.
Yep, what you described essentially increases the wire gauge of the strip traces which leads to less overall resistance and therefore less voltage drop.
Great idea. But, for even longer runs, you'll need to start power injecting, one...and then for even _longer_ runs, both rails...and for those _insanity long_ runs, power inject sections, as stated in the video. The length of the section will be determined by the LED chip type, linear chip density, and max percentage of drive, for that section.
Great Video, Really helpful and Informative.
I am currently replacing around 24 metres of 12V RGB Led lighting strips that I installed in my Lounge (drop ceiling) approx 10 years ago.
I decided upon the SK6812 RGBWW after seeing your video and researching the options.
Testing a 5m strip of SK6812 (300 LED's) with 5V power being injected at both ends I originally measured a current reading of 7.65A (38.25W) if I put all the channels on together.
I also noticed that the LED Strip got very hot. Now I know its unlikely that you would put all the channels (RGB & WW) on together, but I want to ensure its safe to operate if all the channels are switched on, accidentally or on purpose. I reduced the length of each strip to 2.5m which stopped the strips input wires getting too hot, but the start of the strips still got very hot. Running with only RGB or WW the LED Strip operated at a much lower temperature.
I later tried using a longer supply cable from the PSU to the start of the strips and the this resolved the problem, and the current draw went down to 5A. Do you think connecting the strips directly to the PSU results in too low a resistance ?
Anyway the biggest challenge has been how to overcome the Voltage Drop you referred to, especially when using 60 LED''s per metre rather than 30.
I have ended up using 4mm (12 AWG) 32Amp cable with a rating of 0.0047 ohm/m to achieve an even effect.
Also added fuse protection to each individual section of LED Strip, as recommended in some other guides due to many of the PSU's available not being able to detect short circuits when used with LED Strips.
Thanks for such an insightful and easily digestible video! Knew nothing about LED's 15min ago this really helped explain all the differences
The problem adding white to WS2815 is that it would increase the forward voltage with about 3.5V, making it minimum 12.5V instead of the currently 9V making the voltage drop a huge issue. A better solution could be having RGB / white(s) every other chip along a strip. Or it would probably need a separate channel for whites anyways. I would really like 12V LED's with R/G/B/CW/WW(/A) and backup anyways, let's hope something like it get on the market soon.
This is so far the most informative video i´ve ever found about LED Strips
Do you want to try our 10M WIFI RGB Strip Light ? Now we need testers.Message me for details.
Good Job! Thanks for this. It's going in my reference library for when people ask me about this stuff. I can just send them this link.
Thank you for this very informative video. I have an outdoor lighting project that I've been researching; it involves 150 FEET of LED strip lighting. I've been looking at the 24 volt LED strips that are available, with some disappointment. If they ever come out with a 24 volt version of the SK6812, my research will be concluded, and I will be a very happy camper.
24V addressable LEDs would indeed be sweet... really hard to do from an existing hardware standpoint, but it would be great.
A follow up video on how to make them smart and integrate them with HA would be nice. :)
Absolutely. Facinating topic, and loved the breakdown. One thing I love about his videos is his details, but it's usually lacking for beginners like me on how to integrate, there's a lot of assumption that I'll just know what he means by looking at a Node Red flow. Love the videos though.
@@scottwilliams1900 Same. He needs a kiddy pool playlist to get some of us up to speed. Great info thought, I'm subbing.
I'm left wondering which of these I can simply hookup to a smart light switch (Lutron Caseta), and control it all through Smart Things and Google Home.
@@luke9822 I think if you have a smart controller you can do it with any of them. He's assuming you're just using an on/off switch with them.
@@dreamingrightnow1174 fair enough, but it seems the Lutron caseta switches want a very specific controller type.
Very good Video! What I would have liked in the comparison chart would be a column for all channels with appropriate power injection like you would set them up to use at home so you could see what Power supply to use. But regardless it was a nice comparison. Thank you!
Very helpful video, thank you very much!
Could you also do a video about the various types of controllers and/or LED encoders? Just like the different types of LED strips/tapes, there's a lot of different encoders that use different types of controlling protocol, like SPI, DMX, SACN, and other stuff.
why did i find this videos so late, search the whole internet for informations like this. THIS IS FKN AWESOME! Thanks for this video!
7:28 0.56 watts = 560mW (not 56)
Solid video, I've been doing lots of research online and this really cemented all of that info for me - and thankfully gave me the same conclusion, the SK6812 strips! Thanks
"Silicon" is what they make electronic chips out of. "SiliCONE" is the stuff they use for waterproofing.
Haha. The worst part is I'm actually a chemistry teacher also... I (incorrectly) always pronounce them the same.
Fake boobies are also made of Silicone, or, they used to be
@@TheHookUp My chemistry and physics teachers were my favorite in High School. Those teachers actually cared about what they were teaching and were legitimately interesting. Watching your video reminded me of being in those classes when we were talking about relevant but tangential topics my teachers were genuinely interesting. Good times - my 10 year reunion is coming up! Know that you make a difference for kids like me - even if they don't act like it at the time lol
@Too Sense Wirth one of em at least.
My power supplies and switches are 24v. I want controllable white balanced. Not rgb. for cove. I’m wondering if channel and diffuser is still recommended for cove and the best smoothest light available for the longer runs needed in cove lights .
Great Video, you explained more in a small amount of time than other TH-camrs in a long amount of time.
Great presentation. That is a lot of good information - thank you!
This video is excellent, i was searching for the difference between ws2811 and ws2812 and this was the only video that explained, and very well
Straight to the point, clear and concise info! SUBBBBBEEEEDDDD
Clear and concise, the only thing I missed of the common strips is apa102 and such. Also nothing about the pwm method used and its effect on color reproduction at low brightness.
Have you thought of testing all the strips for power draw with the necessary power injection to get "white" on the whole strip? I feel like that would be a more real world test case since that's what would be done in a real project.
Very helpful, thanks. I have used WS2811 and WS2812 for some time, but the additional information on the other types was very welcome. I have just one minor nit-pick - the chip inside the LED package is not a microcontroller - it's a dedicated function specific device. Later in the video you reverted to the term "controller chip" which would be correct.
Do you think you could do an updated version of this video? It seems impossible to find good quality strips without knowing what code to look for or doing a bunch of experiments. I'm also looking for tunable white strips for practice (non -rgb) use 🙂
Wow! On the money for a great presentation. down and dirty with supporting doc's. thanks for the work! Made my life easier.
Mate this is a great review!
Funny...You picked the same goto strip that I picked. The 12 volt RGB strips still have a use, provided white isn't required and you need to keep cost low. I'm a big fan of low voltage lighting since lithium iron phosphate batteries became more reasonably priced. Great presentation.
The correct terminology is voltage drop , before power is required
I've saved this video so that I can refer back to it as reference. Awesome information, thank you!
The 12v strips have higher power consumption at full brightness, but could this be mostly because of the voltage drop? If you injected power into the 5v strips at close enough intervals to maintain near full brightness would they be much closer to 20w?
Also the W segment in LEDs is good for more than just the colour temperature, the phosphor coating produces a fuller spectrum (Higher CRI) than RGB single wavelength LEDs which looks much more natural.
Exactly what I was searching for, in depth explanations of the led lighting strip 👍
Awesome video! I'm considering doing outdoor holiday lights and I'm on the fence between WS2812B and WS2815. I have a two story roof so the amount of labor required with power injection is a major factor for me. How often do you have to inject power on WS2815 typically?
OK! You got me! I just used your affiliate link to buy the first 30meter SK6812 setup with 30 meter of channels, power supply, and equipment box. I hope you get credit. THANKS (I think) for getting me into this.
Ha! Let us know how it goes!
The last column in your spreadsheet is flawed, you're starving the blue and green LED's at the end of the strip. We would expect the answer to be closer to D+150*E, except for the WS2815. Fun fact, blue LED's (and later green) require more voltage than red LED's, which is why they turn red towards the end of the strip.
At 4m30s, the voltage drop on 12V strips is actually less than 5V strips because there is less current flowing through the copper traces.
Tip: Reducing the brightness by 50% will reduce the power consumption and voltage drop by half, but the human eye will perceive it as only 25% dimmer. Also, static 100% white (where they consume the most power) is super boring, it's usually a bit silly to budget your power/current based on this mode.
True about static white, but it's a good baseline to budget your power for since you don't want to be maxing out your power supply at 100% duty cycle.
I did like the SK6812 for its separate *W* channel but the problem that I run into is finding a individual controller for them.
The most common one that I've found, doesn't seem to work properly with 6812s and seller just told me SOL. I didn't want to resort to microcontroller options yet, just wanted a BT controller with mobile app.
@@TheHookUp, what are you using specifically for SK6812?
After 4 years, this video may need to be redone.. we now have WS2805 which i think reigns supreme in many applications
On my short list
That is a bunch of useful information you gave. LEDs are in top 5 of my ToDo list so i will consider all pros and cons. Thanks for your effort. btw do You have any experience with SP108E controller ?
The most informative video on led strips out there, great job!
Wow!! Great video! I have recently gotten into using LEDs for fun projects and the individual designations for the strips have been so confusing. This cleared everything up. On a side note, a spec sheet for some WS2815s that I purchased said they were good up to 13.4 volts. So, I adjusted the output on the power supply up to 13. Thoughts?
If the spec sheet says you're good, generally you're good. The ones you found were probably intended for automotive applications (cars are generally ~13.8v when running). Higher voltage also reduces the percentage of the voltage drop over the strand (as was indicated in the video).
i've also found that the ws2815's can get a little warm if you bunch them all up together for a longer period of time. Spread them apart and give them a little room to breath and that should be more than adequate for heat dissipation. I also have a theory that they will actually run cooler when running all colors at max brightness since no power will be lost to heat since none of the R, G, or B lights will be internally shorted (power lost to heat vs power lost emitting light)
Didn't know there were things I didn't know about RGB(W) LED strips! Awesome video!
I'd really like a strip that is both high CRI and individually addressable. As far as I've seen, they don't seem to exist yet.
Thank you Rob. I have learned a lot from you and Dr ZZ when it comes to home automation in particular LEDs. I'm building a new house and planning to use SW2812B. I need 40 m in 4 zones. With WLED I can use HA or my Iphone to control the LEDs. So far so good. My only concern is the installation. One zone is 18 m long so I need two power injections.
Again thank you for your reviews and I'm going to by stuff based on your recommendations.
No APA102 or 104? ohhh
MAn, this was some REALLY good information. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
apa102 and 104?
Thank you for this. I'm going to do an epic look to my apartment for Thanksgiving. I'm having everyone over my place & I needed to buy some of these so it can just be off of the chart. Especially my theater room & the kitchen needs this last step. Thanks for the video because I didn't want to spend a ton. This video found me just in time!!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
He’s my AP computer science teacher lmfao
Excellent work. I have made up my mind now on whats going on the roofline.
Use metric system... Not everybody watching it comes from US...
this is perfect timing for me, I'm looking into putting LED strips behind crown molding
Depending if you want animations or zone control you may want to look into dumb led strips for that. Check out my shelly RGBW2 video for more info.
Thanks man. I appreciate the clear speaking. The comparison of the ws2811 up to sk6812.I am ready to make purchase after trying to sort through all the different types. I could of saved tons of time if I had watced your video first. Thanks Dude
Just found your channel. good info on strings. We design software and LED string controllers for the addressable led strings. We found the USC1903 has a low standby current so we use them on most of our testing. All our string controller are battery powered so power consumption is very important. Thank you for the link to your supplier I will have to check them for pricing.
I'm only 5 minutes in and I've finally understand why voltage output matters XD Great vid!
This is excellent information and will help me decide on future LED strip purchases. Great job!
Thanks for this video! I've had such a hard time finding the right led solution for me.
Thanks man ! That was really interesting and clear ! I managed to switch from simple white LED to RGB LED strip in my projects !
Wow, nice content, excellent editing, really a pleasure to watch. Thank you for the in depth review of the LED strips Rob! Thumbs up and subscribed.
I've been looking forward to this since the Dr.Zzs Live Steam! Great information!
One of my new favorite channels!
You're an absolute hero. Thank you for putting this video together.
Thank you. Thank you. This was EXTREMELY helpful bro - love videos like these
One of the most informative and helpful videos I've eve seen. Thank you
Great video! I wish you would have compared power consumption with proper power injection, as I don't see why one would use these strips without giving them the power they need. An extra pair of wires going along the LED strip is cheap and would guarantee that the last LEDs get as much power as the first ones. The power consumption under those conditions might be different, and favor the 12V ones.
Cleared out all my doubts related to led strips. Thank you.