SMD RGB Flex Strips

**plasmata** · 04-06-2010, 11:24 PM

I ran across some SMD RGB Flex Strips on Ebay that look pretty interesting. Its sold by the meter and comes with an IR remote/controller. The controller is useless for our purposes. They sell them in two versions: 30 and 60 LEDs per meter.

The seller also lists their contact information and is open to bulk purchases if anyone is interested in a coop. You can see the 30 LED here and the 60 LED here. The pictures seem to be the same so not totally representative. They look like the 60/M version to me. They can be cut every 3 LEDs but probably would have to be resealed. I haven't purchased any yet so I can't speak to the quality.

**dmoore** · 04-07-2010, 12:18 AM

It's cheaper ($30-50) on AliExpress.com if doing a bulk buy and you don't have to purchase the controller. I'm currently testing a variety of RGB "strip" right now - it's really nice stuff!

**RPM** · 04-07-2010, 01:28 AM

I bought a couple of these for testing some time ago and they aren't bad, but I found that the internal trace connections will break if you flex it too much and you will end up with dark sections of strip.
They run on 12vdc with a common + connection between the three colors.

Just my .02

**jphaus** · 04-12-2010, 08:33 AM

I bought some from IKEA knowing I could take them back if I didn't like them. They are not continuous -- they come with 4 1-foot strips. The built-in wired remote switches between 7 colors or you can have it automatically change between them. Search for "DIODER" on ikea.com.

**fasteddy** · 04-12-2010, 05:48 PM

The RGB strip is great, it allows you to do setups with out having light wash go back on the house as its 120 degrees light angle (still can be seen from 180 degrees). When doing RGB its important not to have too much light wash from other lights as this can effects the colours your trying to wash with, thats if your using wall washers.

There are 3 main types of strip light.

1: No protection - no good for our hobby
2: Resin coating - Gives good colour output but hard to work with when cutting and rejoining
3: Silicon Tubing - Easy to work with and cut, light can be seen at wider angles due to light dispersion on the tube (this is what the LOR CCRs use)

The RGB strip can be obtained for much less, on aliexpress you can get RGB SMD 5050 30LED/M Silicon tubing strip for $7.79/m in 5metre lengths at http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm...olesalers.html. They also offer 60 led/m. Using Escrow to pay should at least gives you some piece of mind when ordering from China. The price of shipping is also not too bad compared to others.

**dmoore** · 04-14-2010, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by fasteddy

The RGB strip can be obtained for much less, on aliexpress you can get RGB SMD 5050 30LED/M Silicon tubing strip for $7.79/m in 5metre lengths at http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm...olesalers.html. They also offer 60 led/m. Using Escrow to pay should at least gives you some piece of mind when ordering from China. The price of shipping is also not too bad compared to others.

I ordered about $150 worth of stuff from "Ray Wu's" store on AliExpress and didn't have any problem. Be aware that some of the LED lighting is common anode and some is common cathode.

Here is a video of some of the samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7qg32AYrQ4

**fasteddy** · 04-14-2010, 01:46 AM

Originally Posted by dmoore

I ordered about $150 worth of stuff from "Ray Wu's" store on AliExpress and didn't have any problem. Be aware that some of the LED lighting is common anode and some is common cathode.

Here is a video of some of the samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7qg32AYrQ4

Great review of the strip lights, I havent ordered anything yet from Ray but I have talked to him. I was unsure about the quality for the price but from what i can see it looks good, he also claims that they are UV protected, time will tell. The 12VDC power supplies are a good price as well. Is there anything else you can tell us about the quality and the brightness of the LEDs as the video cant really show that properly.

The 5050 means the dimesion of the LEDs 5050 = 50 x 50 and 3528 = 35 x 28

Did you specify with the 60 led/m that you wanted common annode?

**dmoore** · 04-14-2010, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by fasteddy

Great review of the strip lights, I havent ordered anything yet from Ray but I have talked to him. I was unsure about the quality for the price but from what i can see it looks good, he also claims that they are UV protected, time will tell. The 12VDC power supplies are a good price as well. Is there anything else you can tell us about the quality and the brightness of the LEDs as the video cant really show that properly.

The 5050 means the dimesion of the LEDs 5050 = 50 x 50 and 3528 = 35 x 28

Did you specify with the 60 led/m that you wanted common annode?

I'm currently running a 24x7 on/off/shimmer/twinkle routine for testing. I'm testing two types of "Strip" and two types of modules, such as the following:

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/7...D-RGB-LED.html

I think as RPM mentioned, the real issue is going to be in the durability of the strip. The modules, also with 5050 LED's is much more durable and they are spaced more like regular lights. Another alternative to the strip and the "bar" modules are these little pucks with 3, 5050 LEDs:

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/7...GB-color-.html

As to my general impression - the 5050 RGB LEDs are close enough together to create a well mixed white and the LEDs in general are very bright (I need to pull out the light meter to get a real reading). The 60 LED/meter are spaced so that they almost look like a single line of light from a distance, the
30 LED/meter can be made out as seperate LEDs, abeit closely spaced ones. I think for most people, the 30 LEDs/meter is reasonable. I personally think the strip looks best when used with a diffuser of some sort. I am going to be using these RGB strips/pucks to replace my 15ft arches, C9's that I had outlining the house and combined with the MegaMatrix to do a 15.6ftx4.6ft, 240 pixel scrolling display (these have 6"x6" pixels).

Once you have them, the next thought is - centeralized control or de-centralized. For some, such as the MegaMatrix, I am using centralized with the Tiger 120 channel DC controller from AussiePhil. For the outlines where there is some distance between the strips, I am using decentralized with these three channel DMX modules for ~$2 a channel:

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs...olesalers.html

I'm going to be running 12v power and the DMX signal on a single CAT5 cable, daisy chained from one to another.

**Entropy** · 04-14-2010, 04:23 PM

What are you using the 24V for?

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/7...-from-Ray.html

Edit: Also, those pixels he is selling look a lot like the first batch of Asian nodes MPH tested (prior to MPH having a manufacturer improve the waterproofing).

**plasmata** · 04-14-2010, 05:18 PM

Are you running the strips along the top of your arches? It doesn't seem like they're meant to bend like they'd have to if mounted along the side. If mounted along the top how bright will they be when viewed from the front?

EDIT
----
Never mind, I see these aren't the meter long strips.