WS2811 Ordinary vs bright versions?

[whatthej]

Hi all, I'm looking at the BTF Lighting store's WS2811 strips. They come in White Ordinary and White Bright; what's the difference and which one is the Ray Wu equivalent?

0.76AU $ 96% OFF|WS2811 RGB Led Strip Light 5050 SMD Addressable 30 48 60 96 144 LEDs External 1 IC Control 3 Leds Bright Normal Led Lights DC12V

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Thanks!

 

[OzAz]

One's brighter than the other? Honestly, I would not pay more to get brighter strip for a home Christmas lighting display, as it is I run mine at 30-40% brightness and it's plenty bright enough.

Those don't appear to have any pigtails attached, therefore they are not "Ray Wu" equivalent as such. Basically all LED strip is the same from all the thousands of vendors, but there's several different types of pigtails with xconnect and "ray wu (13.5mm)" being the most popular. Most of the popular vendors amongst the christmas lighting community (Ray Wu, ETOP-LED, Scott Led) now sell strip and pixels with any connector you want. eg: etop-led strip with connector options

 

[TerryK]

Looking at the product comparison of the link you posted, the difference is an increase of 700 - 1300 MCD (for ordinary) to 1500 - 2000 MCD (for ultra bright). That is somewhat of a 2X increase in millicandela. The eye sees light in a logarithmic fashion so if I have done the math correctly the ultra bright will appear to the eye as approximately 30% brighter.
I did not see any connectors mentioned but BTF Lighting sometimes uses the small 3 pin JST connectors on strips. Nothing to do with the light output but the copper on the ultra bright is thicker so the PC strip will be stiffer.

 

[djgra79]

Ask yourself WHY do you want/need them brighter?
As Oz suggested, many people have their displays set below 100% brightness, especially larger pixel count displays.
And consider when taking videos or photos of the display, many camera/phones struggle with high brightness LEDs they dont see colours, its just a wash of white.

 

[whatthej]

Gotcha thanks everyone! I'm just starting out so I was just enquiring the differences in case the 'bright' version was actually the normal and for a few bucks I was shortchanging myself to get an inferior product. I'll go with the normal versions!

 

[TerryK]

I think the 'normal' is a good choice.

I double-checked the web link. After scrolling wayyyy down it does look like the strip has the small 3 pin connectors. Not described very well in the listing. I have several BTF Lighting strips with the JST connector and the connectors are easy enough to be cut off and replaced. A bit of soldering and environmental protection involved however.

 

[whatthej]

Good to know that you've purchased from BTF and your first response was not to advise against it!

What's wrong with a JST connector? What did you replace them with?

 

[TANSA]

I still use JST connectors
Just don’t put more than 2 string of light through them or inject power at every start and end.

 

[TerryK]

What's wrong with a JST connector? What did you replace them with?

Nothing exactly wrong with JST connectors. Like any other device they have their correct application; great here, fair there, poor in others. They are not waterproof. Replacement? xConnect.

 

[whatthej]

Oooh! That looks great. I've seen those around but I thought it was an XLR connector used for music. Thanks guys, very informative!