Cheap LED Lighting

[tb lilley]

I bought some of those dirt cheap LED strips off of eBay the other week. Something like £15 delivered which includes everything you need including a remote. I was inspired to do so after attending an RGP party.

I wasn't expecting a lot for 15 notes, but I reckon these aren't half bad:

Recommended.

 

[guddler]

Very nice - you got a link??

Are they OK on the power supply or do they dump a load of noise on it? I've been a bit wary of cheap lighting since buying one of those illuminated signs years ago.

 

[Luigi]

Aawesome, I like this kind of stuff very much! Thanks god these are getting cheaper.....I remember the days when a single colourcycling LED was something like 10 Euros

 

[Guests]

I've looked at these also James and decided against it due to the price....my mistake

They look really nice.....and what a line up cabs!

Fantastic!

 

[ZedEx48K]

I've used these before and find them great, run from 12V nice and bright and the best part is they are cool unlike bulbs so no more slow destruction to marquees.

Edit, oh I thought you meant the strip of white LEDS in a row, looks ok though, prob annoy me when gaming though.
ZedEx48K2013-09-20 08:52:13

 

[chadsarcade]

I got some of these recently for my kitchen: 5m strip of 5050 leds in warm white for under cabinet lighting, and 10m of RGB 5050 led strip for cabinet tops and kickboards.

The white was about £20 with a remote RF dimmer and PSU (300 LEDs/5m) and the RGBs about £30 with IR controller and PSU (150 LEDs/5m). All came iva EBay.

Both sets are "waterproof" which means there's a transparent rubbery coating on them - well not really what I'd call waterproof (I wouldn't submerge them) but they can be easily wiped down. They're also adhesive backed so easy to apply.

Quite impressed with the light output from them, contemplating fitting the RGBs in the games room instead The static colours are good - there are a few preset colours which can be quick selected from the remote, and you can adjust the RGB levels to set your own. There's a few fade and flash modes too, the fade is not bad on a slow setting but when the flash modes are too fit-inducing to be of use to me.

 

[RGP]

I keep finding new ways to use these strips.

Beware though there are two types 3528 and 5050

3528 can't do static colours or something like that so I always get the 5050's

I might try them under cabinet in lair 2's kitchen area.

You can submerge the waterproof ones but not the connector as its not IP56/IP65 rated.

I wish they'd make one with an opaque cover as I have to dream up ways of hiding and diffusing as the colours don't work well when looked directly at.

 

[chadsarcade]

Beware though there are two types 3528 and 5050

3528 can't do static colours or something like that so I always get the 5050's

3528's have individual R, G and B LEDs so don't look as good for blended colours. The LED size is 3.5mm x 2.8mm (hence the name)
5050's have a single RGB LED module so the mixed colours look better. They also have bigger LEDs (5.0mm x 5.0mm) and are brighter than the 3528 LEDs.

Personally I go for 5050's too.

Watch for LED density too - you get 150 LEDs per 5m strip, or 300 LEDs per 5m strip. The 300's need more current, something like 12v @ 6A for RGBs vs only 3A @ 12v for the 150's.

 

[guddler]

Are the 150's sufficient to get a nice even light without seeing gaps, or would you go for 300's. I'm seriously considering putting LEDs around the picture rail in the living room to give some better mood lighting and control.

I'd need two lots of 5m, one for the RHS of the room one for the LHS, and if I understand correctly, I'd be able to join the two strips with a 5m cable that runs along the back of the room. I'd then need a fairly beefy 12V supply however.

And on that subject, that does concern me a little. 12A on all evening doesn't sound particularly cheap! Mind you, it's 12V, 12A isn't it. I'd have to do the maths on that!

guddler2013-09-20 13:06:05

 

[chadsarcade]

Are the 150's sufficient to get a nice even light without seeing gaps, or would you go for 300's. I'm seriously considering putting LEDs around the picture rail in the living room to give some better mood lighting and control.

I'd need two lots of 5m, one for the RHS of the room one for the LHS, and if I understand correctly, I'd be able to join the two strips with a 5m cable that runs along the back of the room. I'd then need a fairly beefy 12V supply however.

And on that subject, that does concern me a little. 12A on all evening doesn't sound particularly cheap! Mind you, it's 12V, 12A isn't it. I'd have to do the maths on that!

The RGB 150's I have are nice and even, looking at the reflected light from the ceiling anyway but you don't really want to be looking directly at them. Power was my concern too, hence the lower density ones. 12v 6A (72w) would power two 150 LED strips, but obviously you double that for the 300's.

If daisy chaining more that 2 strips you may need an RGB amplifier, as the RGB controllers are only good for something like 2A per colour channel. Stick to 2 strips and keep it simple

They can be cut every 3 LEDs and the insulation stripped back (if using waterproof) to reveal contacts - you can solder to these to extend with wire to bridge gaps, or use solderless clip on connectors to join strips (straight and right angles, I've also seen T pieces and crosses for splitting). You can get solderless connectors wires wires coming out of the other end too but they're usually only 10-15cm so you'd likely have to solder anyway.

A lot of the RGB stuff uses 4 x turned pin connectors, same pitch as IC sockets so you may have useful bits to hand already.

 

[cliff_poole]

Would the cheap RGB strips work with one of these ?, https://www.tindie.com/products/heroic/pixelpusher/ .

 

[chadsarcade]

Would the cheap RGB strips work with one of these ?, https://www.tindie.com/products/heroic/pixelpusher/ .

Nice... it looks like they may need strips with individually addressable LEDs though. The cheap strips are all wired together so all display the same colour.

 

[cliff_poole]

I guess that probably explains the $120 each for the official strips. Can't wait for that technology to come down in price

.

 

[chadsarcade]

Something like this any good? You can get 5m for about £60. They're individually addressable, but I don't know what ICs that controller will talk to...

I got a string of individually addressable WS2801 LEDs for my AmbiLight clone for about £25, they work really well.
chadsarcade2013-09-20 14:44:18

 

[RGP]

Thanks for demystifying the 3528 vs 5050 bit for me.

Here's an example pic of the old main arcade
click me

These are 300/5m iirc but i bought 16A capable psu's to avoid any overload as they are embedded behind the ceiling.

Ideally I need a 12V 30A or better PSU and long DC plugs.

I am working on making these app controlled via arduino and much more resilient transistors.

The remote controls clash like mad with other devices in the same room.

 

[guddler]

I must admit - I spent several hours browsing eBay earlier and the sheer choice of sellers, not knowing who's good, whose Chinese and crap and also not really knowing exactly what I want is a bit overwhelming!!

I think I want 2x 5m RGB 300 per strip 5050's, a 44 key remote a PSU of some sort and some form of extension cable, around 5m to go between the two strips. Maybe with connectors, maybe not. Maybe I can just solder direct.

I think while I don't need waterproof for my living room, I'm thinking the silicon layer might diffuse the light slightly?

And then I'm thinking, will this lot hide behind the picture rails or won't it!

Too much choice

[EDIT] Oh, and when I can afford it, the living room needs decorating. Also wondering if I should leave it until after that or whether I could just tack it up temporarily in the mean time. Haven't really got the £800 for a new carpet and £1500 to have the room decorated at the moment (roof needs replacing first

guddler2013-09-20 22:59:19

 

[chadsarcade]

I must admit - I spent several hours browsing eBay earlier and the sheer choice of sellers, not knowing who's good, whose Chinese and crap and also not really knowing exactly what I want is a bit overwhelming!!

I spent ages looking too, ended up getting the RGB strips from here (no affiliation other than as a buyer) as I also wanted the 44 key remote, most places had the smaller one. They were also cheaper than a lot of the other places. I only got the 150 LEDs/5m as I wanted to keep the power consumption down but I'm quite happy with that, not sure you'd really need the 300's for ambient coloured lighting IMHO.

For bridging gaps I ended up getting a 10m roll of the 4-core cable. However it's nowt special, same sort of grade as std speaker wire but in pretty colours. I figured I'll solder or rig up my own connectors.

 

[guddler]

Cheers - I've given them a go so we'll see how we get on

If they don't end up being much good for the living room then they're not a fortune so they can be used elsewhere!

 

[Urgentemente]

I've looked at getting some of these a few times, as someone clever in the AMBX forum a few years ago designed an interface board to allow the AMBX units to drive LED strips (not sure on max length tho depending on power usage etc).
I've got 2 sets of AMBX lights hooked up to my main PC, mainly for gaming and movies/TV (VLC does a reasonably good job of screen reading and translating it to the lights), I've got a 3rd set as well but haven't got it hooked up yet (need to free up a USB connection, and find somewhere to put it!).

 

[guddler]

OK, just to bring this thread back up again...

My 10m kit turned up mid-week. Initial reaction to the LEDs was great but the remote didn't work. Not a great start but eBay seller sent a new one out which arrived today.

I'm not really liking the fact that you can really see all the individual lights, even when not looking at them directly but I guess that's the trade off for not buying the 300/5m lights and instead going for 150/5m and the lower power consumption. I don't think theres much I can really do about that as diffusers are available but cost a fortune!

But anyway, that aside, I still have another problem. The colours come out nothing like on the remote. And from what I can tell it's because the red isn't as bright as the green and the blue. It's not the LEDs themselves, well unless both reels have exactly the same issue.

Anyone else got that problem? I can probably get round it since I bought the 44 key version so I can program up my own colours but I'm tempted to open up the little white box and see if I can alter the value of a resistor. It'll all be surface mount though so won't be easy.