1 Meter LED strip

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John From Detroit

John From Detroit

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Posts
28,725
Location
Davison Michigan
http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-led-waterproof-flexi-strip-60-led-1m-white/2760329.html

21.95, it is a meter long, eats 12 volts, but every 5 cM there is a copper pad pair you can cut in half, solder leads to the two halves (one wire to each matching pad half) and lay out a pattern so you could o like this

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|-- 13"--|

and these puppies are BRIGHT.

plus just now at "The Shack" with every purchase you get a 10 buck off on next purchase of 30 or more Good for about 3 weeks..    Plus the package comes with a 5cM "Demo Strip" so you can see how bright they are before you buy.

Have not re-done a Florecesent upgrade with 'em yet, but net time the bulbs fail,, I have the strip.  looks good.
 
Sounds a bit expensive to me for a 4 foot strip. You can buy a 16 foot strip of those SMD5050 LEDs for around $14.

http://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-TM-Waterproof-Flexible-Lighting/dp/B00DTOAVYY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1417525741&sr=8-8&keywords=led+strip+white
 
You may need an external voltage regulator on that strip, unless it has onboard regulation.  Usually self regulated LED packages specify a range of input voltages like 8-14 volts, not a single voltage like that one. 

LEDs have a sharp voltage vs. power knee, and even a slight increase in operating voltage will make their power consumption spike dramatically with an accompanying decrease in the LED's life.  The 13.5 - 14.1 volts you get in an RV plugged into shore power is significantly higher than the 12 volts you'll get from a battery.
 
Regulating power to the led pack is not a problem for me,  I am going to test one.

The thing I like most about it is that I can see it before I buy, test it and see how it works,  I can not do that with Amizon or E-bay nad I've been burned on LED's from those and like sources in the past getting a "Cool White" lamp that was about as wight as the paint job on a Michigan State Police Car (Royal Blue).
 
I took the 5CM Demo strip off the package today and tied it into to one of my switched ceiling lights so now when I use the wall switch to turn 'em on (Even if I turn the fixture off) this strip will light.... Just now I'm not using the lights much since I am dog/house sitting at daughters and doing most of my internetting there but come middle of JAN I will leave those lights on over 12hours a day.. This should (By the end of the month) put 'em though some Equalization cycles and let me know if I need to regulate.
 
Check ebay out.  Purchased a double row of 5050's 5M in length offering 600 led's for $25.38.  Also purchased some extruded angled channel with a white diffuser to run all the way around the parameter of my RV.  Added a variable touch pad light switch.  Should light things up for sure.  If you are planning on running them as John suggested though, do not get the strips that are waterproof.  At least the set that I received are a lot thicker than standard led strip lights and thus would be more difficult to cut and solder.  This has to be the future in lighting.
 
I've been buying rolls of these things and buck regulators on eBay for a couple of years.  I found that alternating rows of bright white and warm white creates an almost exact match to the existing tungsten lighting.  Anything else is either tool blue or too yellow and that makes the DW unhappy.

With the roll of SM5050s I've had pretty severe heat problems without voltage regulators so I always use them.  When they say 12v, they mean no more than 12v.  I run my interior lights at 10.31v and can leave them on 24/7 without any heat build up at all.  Feed an LED more voltage that it's designed for and it gets hot, as it gets hotter it draws more current, which makes it even hotter, which makes it draw more current.  It's called thermal runaway.  It's generally a bad thing and can burn the LEDS out, or worse.

I put some 24 LED arrays in a couple of fixtures and they seem to be doing fine without regulators.  Different manufacturer.
 
That sounds interesting (alternating Cool and Warm white)

By the way I hooked the 5cM strip (3 leds) up to the house power system last week, it has been on ever since, in theory this means it has been through several of the short equalization cycles the 9180+wizard does,, Still glowing bright.

I may well leave it there till one of the florcesent's goes dark, then I'll slide in the full meter.
 
Never thought about using one of each color.  Personally, I like the brighter white color without getting into the blue light.  I believe they state 4200K.  For some reason I seem to be able to see better because it is close to normal daylight color I guess. The better half liked the warmer color.  A strip of both sounds like it would have been a great compromise.  Maybe even a switch to control each light strand separately.  Too late now, but will have to remember that idea for future upgrades.
 
My reasoning was thus:

If you split daylight with a prism you'll see a full spectrum of colors.  If you do that with tungsten you'll see a fairly wide spectrum,  fluorescents will be narrower and LEDS will be almost all one band.  Our eyes are adapted for a fairly broad spectrum.

But most importantly, the DW likes it and has stopped complaining.  :eek:

Individual preferences are different of course.  Maybe that's why there are starting to be so many 'tunable' LED bulbs appearing on the market. 
 
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