Ws2812 5v vs 12v

JulianLights

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
78
Hi all

Recently joined this forum and making my first post. This will also be my first year using pixels on my house so am currently going through a very steep learning curve!

I am looking to outline the house, including gutter/fascia, roof line and windows. I am planning to use strip due to cost effectiveness and ease of use and am currently debating whether to go with either ws2811 or ws2812 strip (both with 30leds/m). I like the idea of ws2812 as each led is individually addressable, as opposed to the ws2811 where it is three leds per pixel. My first question is whether or not it would really matter as would people really be able to make out the difference?

The other question I have is that looking at ws2812 I am struggling to find the strip in 12v with 30 leds/m. All the 12v ones I have found come with 60 leds/m, with the 30 leds/m being 5v. Is there any particular reason for this?

I want to avoid 5v due to the issues with voltage drop.

Thanks for your help!

Julian
 

Jay.S

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 31, 2016
Messages
221
Location
Narangba
If you want 12V you are stuck with 3 LEDs per IC. WS2812b strip doesnt come in 12V. There is a technical reason for this that has to do with heat dispersion. Other people here probably have a better understanding of this, but basically it has to do with the fact that internally all LED takes 5V, so the 12V strips needs extra resistors to bring the voltage down causing a lot of extra heat. Nodes come in single LED per IC, in both 12 and 5V.
 

JulianLights

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
78
Thanks Jay.s that make sense.

Is it something where people can really tell the difference? I live in Australia in one of the new suburbs so my house is relatively close to the street, and my concern is that the 3 led/IC will not look as good as 1 led/IC. I’ve heard that at a certain distance it doesn’t really matter because people can’t make out the difference anyway but I’m wondering if in peoples personal experience it is noticeable?

Sorry again for the noob question and sorry if it has been answered somewhere else!

Thanks again.
 

Kitman

Full time elf
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
395
Location
Munno Para
You can get 12v 30 led/IC per meter strip, however, you might not find it as WS2811 or WS2812 it tends to be called 6803 (I think) which is compatible with the WS2811 standard. Typically the 12v version will be 3 LEDS per IC, as Jay.S suggested it has to do with dropping the voltage from 12v to the 3v that the LED's actually run on and not having to use as many components which keeps the cost down, if you are using it for an outline you wouldn't notice if it's not individually controlled since you might be running a chase or something similar over the strip.

Really it is a personal preference, it might be worth ordering a few different strips or trying to get hold of some different types from the good folks on here (even if just some offcuts) so you can see how it looks for yourself.
 

JulianLights

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
78
Thanks for the extra info Kitman. Yeah I think I will order a couple of strips and play around with them to see what they are like.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
Global moderator
Generous elf
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Messages
2,161
Location
Cranbourne West

JulianLights

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
78
Thanks Graham, nice display! That is pretty much along the same lines of how I want my display to look.

Thanks for the other video too, very useful

It’s a steep learning curve but I’m slowly getting my head around it all!
 
Top