2811 strips and voltage issues

yzguy96

Full time elf
Joined
Sep 24, 2012
Messages
174
Location
Chicago
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

Pixels! I need more pixels!
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
724
Location
Gold Coast
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.
 

randallr

New elf
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
33
Location
Andrews, Texas
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

Dedicated elf
Joined
May 6, 2010
Messages
1,023
yzguy96 said:
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
 
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