2811 strips and voltage issues

[yzguy96]

I bought a bunch of 2811 strips from ray wu and there seems to be a quality issue? I seem to drop 2v at the end of a 5m strip? So I cant hook up two strips together cause the colors start to fade due to the voltage drop...anyone have this experience? I ended up powering each strip individually but I was hoping I could have powered more than one strip together.

 

[Kaden]

I assume you are talking about the 12v strip and yes, they do drop a lot of voltage, I inject power every 50 - 70 pixels.

 

[yzguy96]

Yes thanks for verifying... are there better ones out there?

 

[z_special]

Hey Yzguy, what you will have to do is inject power at the end of the strip to the new one. Please see a topic started by a great man ( just inflating his ego Here) but very smart

http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1840.msg15430.html#msg15430

 

[randallr]

With a 5m strip pulling 3+ amps, the current going through the tiny trace wire is going to result in a drop. I make sure that there's at least 48 watts available at every connection.

 

[lithgowlights]

Yes thanks for verifying... are there better ones out there?

Yes there are, but not at a price most of us DIY people are willing to pay. Better LED's can get the same output brightness at a lower current, meaning you can reduce the current to about half the normal 15-20 mA per colour we often get with the Chinese items. Changing the design so there is little or nothing to reduce the light output above the LED (i.e. the 5050 LED sticks through the waterproofing material on the strip) helps increase light output, allowing a further reduction in driving current