Club 80-90 Forums

ghost123uk wrote:What I am looking for is summat I can put over the LED strip to diffuse it and make it aesthetically more pleasing.

This looks made for the job - can't tell if it's clear or frosted though.

Thanks for all the inputs Titus and Ghost - I think I'll order a strip and see how it goes.

CJH wrote: This looks made for the job - can't tell if it's clear or frosted though.

On second thoughts, I think this is just a channel for the strip to sit in - sorry.

Choices, choices.

3528 or 5050?
150/5m or 300/5m?

I'm tempted to just go for the brightest option - 5050 @ 300/5m, but they're apparently going to use 6A for a 5m length! I'm sure this has been asked before - do they draw less power when dimmed?

Yes they do draw less power when dimmed.

Mine came with a 5A PSU but I don't think they are taking that much even with 15m of LED strip.

I may bring them to work and stick them on a meter.

Thanks Titus - 5050 300/5m ordered. I'll take some measurements too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/led-aluminium-profile

That should do the job

jacobjoe wrote:http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/led-aluminium-profile

That should do the job

Good find!

I bought a 5m strip of 5050 LEDs with 60 LEDs per metre, so 300 LEDs in total. I took some current measurements - thankfully it's nowhere near 6A.

With all three colours at maximum brightness it draws 2.9A. There are 8 preset brightness levels - on the lowest setting it draws only 0.4A.

But that's not the lowest level possible. Using the 'DIY' presets you can set each colour separately, down to very low levels, so with the absolute minimum increments of Red+Green+Blue the strip only draws 0.07A. Obviously that's not very bright in daylight, but a 5m strip on that setting would probably provide reasonable light in the dark of night.

One thing seemed a bit odd - with just one colour set at maximum and the others turned off, the current draw is different for each colour. Maximum Blue draws 1.32A, Green draws 1.06A, and Red draws 1.40A. And clearly there's some overhead involved in running the strip, regardless of colour, since the sum of those current draws is more than the 2.9A maximum draw.

I guess that's more than most people will want to know, but at least I can rest easy that the strip isn't going to flatten my battery in a matter of hours.

Interesting results but not unsuspected.
Thanks for the update.

Titus A Duxass wrote:

jacobjoe wrote:http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/led-aluminium-profile

That should do the job

Good find!

Indeed

If I don't find a stall at Oswestry selling similar, I will be buying some of that (well THIS ONE actually)


has I can dim mine when set to any colour or shade, but when I set it to fade between colours it goes up to full brightness before fading down ready for the next colour, which then fades up to full brigtness etc. My "dimmer" function does not work when "fading".

Question = Do some of you have a "kit" that, when set to fade slowly through the colours, can still be dimmed ?

Sorry guys I am being really dense here. i have just taken delivery of 2 x 5m strips of lights with controllers.

Electrics have never been my strong point,

so i am assuming red lead to positive terminal and black to negative.

What i dont understand is how to join the 2 strips together and then do i just use one controller?

thanks
Chris

chriscburgess wrote:
so i am assuming red lead to positive terminal and black to negative.

Yes - but put a fuse in the red lead as close to the battery as possible. If you're powering a single strip then a 5A fuse should be fine, if powering both strips then use a 10A fuse.

chriscburgess wrote:
What i dont understand is how to join the 2 strips together and then do i just use one controller?

You can get a 'y-cable' aka 'splitter cable' (e.g. the '2-way 4-pin splitter here). This will connect both strips to a single controller, but it won't make a single 10 metre strip. I can't believe that's what you need, but if it is then I think you can get connectors to join the end of one strip to the start of another - not sure how they connect to the 'blank' end of the first strip though.

Great!

Thanks that makes sense.

I have mixed LEDs.
Just in the market for the sound activated type now and putting white ones on the top of my door shining out for chalet/ awning illumination.

CovKid wrote:Struth John, why do you need the power supply with it? I bough two sets within the last two days (both 5 metres long which you can cut down to whatever), came with remotes and were £8.09 each incl

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RGB-3528-LED- ... 3cd8c2942b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks - Ordered....