The 2019 Chevrolet Volt comes in three color combinations and two seat trim materials, including Light Ash Gray with Dark Ash and Jet Black with Blue Porcelain. The 2016 Chevrolet Volt has several interior options, including LT – Dark Ash Cloth, LT – Jet Black Cloth, and LT – Dark Ash. The 2019 Volt offers a power driver’s seat, an interesting leather seating pattern, and a new jet black/porcelain interior.
The 2017 Volt comes standard with cloth upholstery and offers options like leather upholstery, heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel, heated sideview mirrors, and an optional tan interior. The 2018 Chevrolet Volt is available in three interior color combinations and two seat trim materials, including Jet Black.
Darker colored gen 1 Volts de-emphasize the thick black stripe under the side windows, which some people dislike. Black wires are hot wires that run to the electrical outlet from the switch, while red wires are common in a 240-volt outlet or when a wall switch controls.
The VoltShelf and BoltShelf come in black, graphite, smoke gray, and beige colors. The tan/black interior is less sporty but more elegant than the red/black interior. Painters don’t have to wear white, as most older traditional colors were one shade or another of white. Black leather interior looks more luxurious, easier to keep clean, and modern than tan interior.
There were only two tan interior shades: the darker “saddle tan” and the lighter “prairie tan”. 1998 seems like a good time for the 1998 Chevrolet Volt.
📹 What Do Electrical Wire Colors Mean? | Mr. Electric
Houses and businesses have a lot of wires that come in a variety of colors. Mr. Electric®, a Neighborly company, explains what …
What color is 240-volt wiring?
In the Romex system, red and black wires are used for 240-volt circuits, while white is used for the neutral wire and bare copper for the ground wire. In the United States, blue is incorporated as the third hot leg for 120/208/240-volt three-phase circuits.
What colour is 110v?
Yellow connectors are utilized for the assembly of construction site apparatus and power tools, whereas blue connectors are employed for the connection to European domestic voltages (220-240V). Red connectors are utilized for three-phase applications, whereas 100-130V is frequently employed as the North American domestic voltage.
What color is volt?
The electric green-yellow color, designated “Volt,” is utilized by Nike in a multitude of athletic products, in a manner analogous to the use of “Electric Lime” and “Chartreuse.” An exemplar of Nike’s footwear products featuring the Volt color is presented. Community content is available under a CC-BY-SA license.
What color is 208 volts?
The Canadian Electric Code governs Canadian wiring, with protective ground green or green with yellow stripe, neutral white, hot single phase wires black, and red for active wires. Three-phase lines are red, black, and blue. In Canada, the CEC governs Canadian wiring, with protective ground green or green with yellow stripe, neutral white, and hot single phase wires black and red for active wires. DC power installations, like solar power and computer data centers, use color coding following AC standards, as listed in the IEC color standard.
What color is 12v?
The automotive industry wiring standard is red = positive (+), black = negative (-), and RV industry 12 volt wiring standard is black = positive (+), white = negative (-). In the RV chassis, there are also black/white/green 120 volt AC “house” wiring (a third wiring standard). To troubleshoot this issue, try connecting the light’s red (+) wire to the RV’s black (12 volt +) wire and then connecting the light’s black (-) wire and the RV’s two white (12 volt -) wires all together.
The RV 12-volt “-” white wire is a common negative wire for RV fixtures that don’t have a negative (12 volt “-“) connection to the automotive metal frame (the automotive system’s common “-” supply). If you have a DC voltmeter or a 12-volt automotive bulb, you can try this wiring combination out on a meter or bulb before hooking up the LED light.
The potential to confuse DC and AC wiring of the same color is why boat industry wiring standards have been transitioning to DC “+” being red wire and DC “-” being yellow wire in most applications. The light is polarity sensitive, with red being positive and black being negative. Check the polarity of your existing wiring, as black is positive and white is negative.
In conclusion, the issue with the light fitting in an RV can be resolved by checking the polarity of the existing wiring and ensuring that the light is polarity sensitive.
What color wire is 480 volts?
The Canadian Electric Code governs Canadian wiring, with protective ground green or green with yellow stripe, neutral white, hot single phase wires black, and red for active wires. Three-phase lines are red, black, and blue. In Canada, the CEC governs Canadian wiring, with protective ground green or green with yellow stripe, neutral white, and hot single phase wires black and red for active wires. DC power installations, like solar power and computer data centers, use color coding following AC standards, as listed in the IEC color standard.
What are the colors for 480 volts?
The 277/480V electrical configuration is a three-phase configuration consisting of three hots, a neutral, and a ground. The colors of electrical wires and cables are primarily for safety, representing the voltage they carry throughout the circuit. These colors are standardized by tradesmen to better understand the type of circuit they are working on, making the world a safer place for electricians and future technicians. However, it is important to use a voltage multimeter to determine the exact number of volts running through a circuit, as this is not always possible without a voltage multimeter.
In summary, the color of electrical wires and cables is primarily for safety, but it is essential to use a voltage multimeter to accurately determine the number of volts running through a circuit.
What color is 24v?
Most US locations would fit a cabinet with red 24VDC, while the most common color is blue 24VDC and Blue White grounded 0V. Automotive wiring is red/black, industrial wiring has a rainbow of colors, and campers use black (-) and white (+). Our facility has standardized on NFPA79 and UL508A wiring practices. Proximity switch manufacturers use brown and blue for DC power, but it can be “warm brown and cold blue” or “sky high blue and earth brown”.
What colors are 240-volt?
In the Romex system, red and black wires are used for 240-volt circuits, while white is used for the neutral wire and bare copper for the ground wire. In the United States, blue is incorporated as the third hot leg for 120/208/240-volt three-phase circuits.
What are the colors of 230 volt wiring?
A single-phase connection has dual black or red live wiring and blue neutral wiring, with a 230V voltage difference. A three-phase system connects three or four wires to an electrical service panel, featuring three live wires in black, red, brown, or grey colors and a separate blue wire. There is typically a 400V separation between the two live wires. It’s crucial not to confuse the natural blue and green/yellow earth connection.
What color is 120V?
In a 120V electrical circuit, three wires are used for three functions: hot wire (red or black), neutral wire (blue or white), and ground wire (green or green with a yellow stripe). The color codes for these wires have specific meanings and serve as a visual guide to make it easier to work with them. Hot wires are red or black, while neutral wires are blue or white. Grounding wires are green wires with or without a yellow stripe. Understanding these colors makes electrical tasks easier to perform.
📹 Watch this before buying LEDs
Don’t buy or install LED strips without watching this video! There are so many things you need to know and look out for including …
I was just looking for some LED strips for a project I’m going to be doing and this article was exactly in time! I’ve learned quite alot from my own research on LED Strips and its amazing that this article compiles them all for a quick and convenient reference whenever needed. Although I’ve to say, this article also covered some of the things that I didn’t know and also cleared out some of the doubts I had.
Something to note about the whiteness of LEDs. The reason why dedicated white LEDs make a better white than RGB LEDs is because LEDs by default emit a very narrow range of wavelengths of light, so a red LED emits a very pure red, blue LED emits very pure blue, and green LED emits a very pure green. This can trick your eyes because the photoreceptors in your eyes mainly come in three types that respond most strongly to those three colors and your brain translates the colors by how much each different type of photoreceptor is responding to it. But when it comes to bouncing light off of items (which is how we see those items) a material that bounces purple light is not necessarily going to bounce red and blue light terribly well, so if illuminated under an RGB imitation of white light, that purple item will appear a lot closer to black than it actually is. White LEDs get around this by using a coating (I believe of phosphorus) that absorbs the energy of the very narrow band light of the LED and re-emits it as full-spectrum white light. So if you want to use your LEDs to illuminate something without ruining the apparent colors of any non red, green, or blue items in that area, you need dedicated white LEDs. If you want to do that while also having the option to add color to the light, you need RGBW
The issue with the silicone coating, is they tend to Yellow and grow cloudy over a few years, ruining the color accuracy and overall brightness. All soft silicones are prone to oxidation after being cured. If you KNOW your strip is going to stay dry, it might be better for longevity to get the IP 30 ones.
Be careful when using more than one power supply when powering the same strip. The positive of one supply should never have a path to the positive on another supply. Keep a common ground and data line though the strip but have the positive be separated. For example, if using two power supplies, one at the beginning and one at the end, half way though the strip you can cut out one of the positive copper pads at a cut point. Much more information and good examples available when you google multiple power supply power injection as well. Be safe.
For the sticky tapes to mount the LEDs, I have been using VHB(Very High Bond) tapes for all my LED projects. Specifically from 3M. I have tried both the clear version and the black one, both works wonders. I have LED in the back of my truck and mounted LEDs to the roof of my canopy for 2 years now, it only fell saggy once over the whole 5m length, and it was 44 degrees in the dead of summer, so ill cut it some slack. If you find the sticky tape that comes with the LED underwhelming, give VHB a shot. Just remember to peel off the existing sticky tape first, because often times the VHB will firmly grab on to the original sticky tape, but the original sticky tape fails to grab onto the LED.
For tip #7, a bigger supply at the start really isn’t going to help you much if the color is shifting from the start to the end of the strip. Especially with cheaper strips, the resistance in the strip itself starts to dominate and no amount of extra power supply current can help you with that. Power injection or migrating to a higher voltage are the only way out of that pitfall.
Love it, thank you for sharing with us all! I’ve got several projects where I want to incorporate LEDs, but have been extremely hesitant about getting into them because I don’t feel like I know enough about it to do it well, and they’re expensive enough that I don’t want to have to “waste” some on starter projects. This helps a lot!
Very helpful article. Covered a lot of questions I had in one spot including estimating the number of LEDs powered by the various voltages, making a bit more sense of the soup of LED types and numbers, and hints at a few things including controllers, the little fiddly connector bits, power injection, and even gave me an idea for some picture lighting! I’m running a 65 foot total length from a single point and think I can do with 24v 30 lights per meter easily….feeding the two ends of the loop. Also I think your diffused tracks gave me an idea to add a tap off the main to some custom picture lights I can fabricate out of oak. Gonna go basic controller for now, but maybe I’ll fiddle with a Pi and program later.
This might be one of your best articles ever. The information is laid out so well and it really covers everything. One remaining question I have is integration with. dIY controller such as this with smart home. I hate hue: but they are so good. However I can’t use hue for a project like your bookshelf. I also have Govee outside and some other random crappy bulbs. I use Homebridge to bridge them all into Apple HomeKit; but for a custom bookshelf or table, I still have to figure out which controller to use or if I should just go the Arduino route. (I am a programmer).
My interest is a white strip that fits around the lid and around the top interior of a Pelican 1615 AIR case with a DIY TrekPak and DIY Lid Organizer that can be remotely turned off or on preferably with a power supply that uses AA batteries. Your article gives me some good ideas. At least where to start. Thanks for sharing.
My preference for LED lighting is something that can be connected through a 5volt or 12 volt connector on a computer motherboard. As for the animations, I have been trying to find a way to replicate the lighting in an ASUS ROG G20CB desktop so that the lighting will change color according to the music playing on it.
I got a 16ft RGB strip on Shein for $20. it has zero hot spots and looks great but the wall AC plug is a bit light and cheap but the lights on 20% its still bright and the plug is cool and so far after 6 months they still work like new. I dont see this model anymore…. I would assume mine is near the 144 per meter after seeing your comparison.
Very clear explanation. Thank you very much. I need as much as bright LED outside possible to simulate the sun (my window is in a basement and pretty useless for light). But I am renting and have no power outside. So I am considering passing the wire in the seal of the window. Is 24v the best and the thinest?
QUESTION? I plan to install IP67 rated white LED strips on the underside of my patio deck handrail… total distance = 72′ (22m) … there needs to be a splice every 8′ (2.5m) to account for a 4″ handrail post where a pigtail will pass thru the post to the next LED strip… how best can I splice IP67 LED strip lights? Great VLOG… watched it several times… invaluable prior to installing an LED system!
You can have combined IARGB and IAW in one package, but you have to work for it. Same voltage for both strips, preferably 24v, same amps as well. Preferably 8.5a. If one can find the same brand for both, one is liable for a lottery win. Then you cut the IAW into the single LED cut and adhere them between the LEDs for the IARGB, over some quality Kapton tape. After that, connect all the + and – lines, from the IARGB to the IAW, using enameled wire that’s meant for headphones. Use twizzers for that. I was not precious about this, i didn’t even use a regulated iron, just the common variety, 220v one setting type (including a dirty tip from a previous work, because i couldn’t be bothered to clean it) IE: a neat person will work this easily, at any level of competency above complete novice. Final step, make sure all the LEDs work, adhere the mutant LED to an aluminium strip, and then use high quality clear tape to wrap the whole thing at a 45 degree, 4 mm overlap. It should be thin, clear quality brand tape. Anything else will cause problems later. I used both 3M and Scotch brand tape on different jobs, no issues with either. Once you’re done, this can be either glued in place with double face tape OR if you can find a wide enough strip of aluminium, on the sides of the assembly, with drilled holes, one can use screws (mechanical is best). Oldest assembly of this nature i’ve done is now… 4 or 5 years old, and i’ve not received any complaints. Mine’s a bit newer, 2 years on the dime (got all the bits just before the pandemic) and it’s hooked to the TV through an Arduino for ambient light.
Also! An important piece of advice from someone who wasted a huge amount of time on an LED project because of this mistake: Pay attention to the direction of the arrows on the LED strip. Data MUST flow in that direction. Even if you solder all the ends of the LEDS correctly, if data isn’t going in the correct direction, your lights will not work correctly.
You should see the power supplies and heat management strategies used in architectural LED lighting! I’m currently sitting at just a hair over 100′ of 24V, 240LED/m dual-row strip lighting across 7 10A power supplies, and I expect about triple that amount by the time I’m done with renovations. 24V setups have a lot of advantages in larger installations, chief amongst which is that the power supplies can be “tuned” downward a bit in their output voltage, allowing both the power supplies and the LEDs to run significantly cooler. Heat management becomes a really big issue when you’re talking about 120w per 5m span; even 2″ width of 1/8″ aluminum in flat-stock or u-channel variants can be too little if you don’t have a lot of breathing room!
the cheap rgb strips i got off amazon seemed to have worked alright for the year and a half i used it to light my bedroom, but the power brick that came with it broke after that time. I opened it to see if its something i can replace and what broke was the 2 large cheap capacitors that is used to step down the power, they completely popped so didn’t bother but i might repurpose it for something later. Got a variable power brick from canadian tire to power the controller instead and worked well since. I might replace the rbg leds for pure white strips at some point since all i use on them is the white and the dimmer, but kinda lazy to do so.
you can run 12 or 24 volt leds off ardunio 😉 just connect the grounds together and use seperate the positive, with data line you’ll be good to go. i use 12 volt with arduino esp32 been running for years. your benefit at a longer distance is that 5v will quickly drop voltage over long range lets say 300 leds later higher voltage will run much much longer distance
I love this article!! I want to build my own LED light strip in my closet using contact sensors and eventually create a real time bus arrival dashboard using LED strips. At least with your article, I got over my fear of wasting money on LED strips. I have a better idea of what to do. Very thorough! I’ll be recommending your article to anyone who’s thinking about starting led project.
Of course, I don’t know if you’re inclined to respond to specific questions, but I have a “Christmas Village” with C-Bulb lighting that I’d like to replace with led lights in each building. I’d REALLY love to find a way to light the street lights, but that can certainly wait. Ideally, I’d like to make the lighting inside the buildings flicker like fire or lantern light, if that makes sense. Any suggestions?
I recently got into the govee universe, I just bought and installed their big Christmas set with the 100ft permanent outdoor led puckset on my roofline, their Christmas tree led lights, led curtain set, and outdoor lights how box. Now I want to govee everything! Or at least smart led everything, and I’ve been wanting to get rid of the carpet on my stairs to second floor and create some smart light led stair treads, similar to your floating shelves but with govee m1 rgb smart led lightset. Have you ever used these m1 led smart strips? Are they any good, or usable in a project like this?
IP65 is okay directly in the rain, as it resists low pressure water, and small amounts of water ingress won’t harm it. IP67 can actually be submerged up to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. In practice, ip67 can actually be submerged deeper for longer, but that is all that is guaranteed with that rating. Also, you can run just as many lights on 5V as you can with 24V, as long as you have the same wattage, and inject 5v farther down the line. You can send more wattage down a small wire with higher voltage, but you can supply the same wattage to led strips, as long as you tap into the power supply more often.
Hey Brad I’m a total Newbie to this stuff. I have figured out I need 176 feet of strip lighting. It will be in the ground (Concrete with rocks to diffuse the lights. I have built a gazebo and want lights in the base of it. I need it to last and color change is good too. I need a continuous 176 foot strip. What do I need?
Great article and very informative. I’m looking into my first LED project so this was very helpful. I do have a question that either you didn’t cover, or I missed. I’m wanting to mount the strips under the soffit and gables of my house for exterior lighting effects using the “smart LEDS” and IP67 rated. How would I create an “extension or jumper” from one strip to another and NOT have lights on that section. So basically a blank jumper. Also, this will be much longer than the 16.4 ft. I’m estimating 200+ feet. With that being said, should this be done using multiple sources and controllers or can everything be joined together?
I drive 5M of 60LED/m strip on 5V just fine, word of notice, it might be best to split it up in segments having several 5V cables to each segment. AND use a fast-fuse for each just in case.. Since a strong PSU would see a shortcircuit as normal and just continue to feed the amps into the fire. Im speaking out of experience 😉
Let me add a few things. IP68 strips. Its the same tube as the IP67 but the tube is solid. They are truly waterproof. All strips are not made the same. There are different levels of copper content which helps with thermal management and voltage drop. LED chips are not created equal. color rendering and longevity is usually the trade off. Cheap LED chips and low copper content is what you find on all the cheap strips. We use our strips on boats and some have been in a saltwater environment for many years but they’re not cheap internet strips.
Any links to higher volt strips. I need to go a few feet longer than 16 and I don’t want to mess with loose wires. I want everything to be plug and play. Or will I be fine with 5volt strips over cabinets going about 23 feet on your favorite strip? I’m guessing I won’t be leaving it on the brightest settings but not sure.
I don’t know if it’s important, but I’ve heard that while dropping the voltage does dim dumb LEDs, it’s not ideal. It’s better to use a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimmer, which is what smart LEDs do internally to have varying levels of each color. If using a voltage drop dimmer, at some point the LEDs will just not come on, even though it seems there’s still a range of “dimness” that should be available.
Super appreciate the article, but there are a LOT of typos/errors in your closed captions! Please take a second look at them 💙 It is a shame to have such a informative article brought down by confusing mistakes in captions. Otherwise though this was super helpful; thank you for the comprehensive article!!
I’ve been struggling to figure out how to go about a project of mine. I want to line the inside of a bunch of empty photo frames with leds so each one glows on the inside. But I want to be able to control them all at once. So I’m thinking I need to make each frame individually and then wire them together. How do I figure out power and control options?
I’m wondering if we can control the power outage behavior? E.g. when the power goes off and then on again, most LED strips immediately turns on. Some remember last settings (color and brightness), some don’t. What I’m trying to understand here is if there is some setting to tell what the power outage recovery behavior should be. Phillips HUE have such. E.g. If the LED strip was off when power outage happened, I’d like it to be off when the power recovers. Do you think that’s possible?
I need to add that RGB Strips are not made to run fill white all the time. if you use an 5050 with RGB in one Chip and run white all the time 100% Full Power they will probably break more or less soon. its a heat problem based on the 3 LEDs sitting in that small chip near together. so not only the white is nicer on “pure white” strips just you will damage your RGB Strip running full white all the time.l You can compare it with a car enginge always driven high rotation per minute. Its just not build for that to have that constantly non stop.
What about the RBB and RGBW that companies use for say permanent home or Christmas light like Govee or Jellyfish etc. I am interested in installing these but where and what to buy? Looking to try to located where Jellyfish buys their lights they use. Please advise if you have any information on these type?
Tbh if you want LEDS that come in a kit for a good price that have a app with a ton of pre sets (150+) and you can make custom configs, Govee is the way to go.the have diffrent ones from 20-60$ (5m) Im really happy with my led strip and theve also got things for outside, gaming and stuff, everything is high quality and Ive got loads of stuff from them, you can controll all them from one app synced or single doesnt matter 🙂 Thanks for the vid tho
Thank you so much! 😭Im not much of a tech savy as much as im gamer savy lol–so even tho I was trying to do my own research it was difficultm but this was vary understandable! I didnt want much, just some soft ambience to shape into a shark shape on the wall and ighlight behind my bookshelf. I saw a article by a ani-tuber I watch who did a sposer article with Govee which is having an Evangalion collab, but that was way to expensive
For me personally, I think LED lights look best when you cant see them, so it doesn’t matter to me whether they’re smart or dumb. Especially because I’m going to place them behind my desk/monitor so it wont look as tacky if they’re the cheap ones. Edit: I also don’t have 10 bands to spend on special light rope 😅
Maaan! Really thank you so much! I am a math-dude and software-engineer…i have no fear coding my own controllers and application software around it but my practical “hardware”-skills of handling stuff that has to do with electricity are below zero so my ideas for going for it with LEDs have been sitting around for years (!!!) now because everything else seems daunting to me and information is vaaaaaaaast. Especially power supplies have been…urgh…for me. There are so many >.< Your article was an amazing help to actually make me feel more comfortable to go for it now as it kinda helped me to tick of a bunch of boxes that i had in my head for my "i need a, b, c"-list. Thank you a lot again!
This is very informative. I got probably a mid-grade RGB set up. It’s not bad, but found it awful for customization. The connectors never worked very well. What is your recommendation for outdoor lengthy strips of RGB lighting? Waterproof, 200-400 ft range. Nice controller and power supply? Would be nice if it’s relatively affordable and easy to work with customization.
When splicing the “smart leds” it’s important to know that the arrow on the strip must go the same direction from the controller. Essentially the data flows in the direction of the arrow. Those leds are smart because they are tiny ucontrollers. Without going to deep each led has its own address. It learns its address based on its location in the string. When data is sent into the string the first led looks at the data. Realizes it is first, grabs that data about the Rgb and sends the rest on. Next led also learns it is the second one and grabs its data. On and on. This means there is a data in and data out pin on each led and that is what the arrows indicate. One other thing. It’s really not a good idea to inject power from different sources. They need to be diode isolated if you do. I guess google that. If one source is anything but exactly the same voltage as the other, the higher voltage one will backfeed into the lower one to “charge” it. Probably why yours started to squeal. It not designed for this backflow and will probably fail at some point possibly even with fireworks. Just started perusal and am inspired buy your projects. Cheers!
No matter how rare it is that I want to use my white LEDs, when I want white light, I want quality white light. I will always buy RGBWW (warm white and daylight white) because I cheaped out on a strip I use primarily for accent lighting, and now I am stuck with garbage white, meanwhile my overhead LEDs provide quality white light across a wide range of color temps.
The absolute BEST article I’ve been able to understand about LEDs! Others just say “Watch out for how many LEDs per meter” without showing what that looks like or “This is a single LED and this is a strip” without really showing application. Fantastic vid, I finally understand something and thanks SO, so much for showing how each strip number looks under a diffuser. 🥹
I’m trying to do a project adding smart RGB’s in my vans overhead console. What would be a good option for this? 5v USB with a simple controller? I’m really struggling to find the info I need on this for some reason. Google just brings up kits for sale and home lighting things. I know you do mainly home things, but I was hoping you could give me a little insight on what I might need for this project before I start throwing money at it. I pretty much just want RGB’s with a solid on and color selection, a breath effect, and a slow rainbow chase effect, anything beyond that is just a bonus. I’d also like both sides (two separate strips) to do the same thing at the same time. So when the chase effect is active, both sides match.
Pumping 60 A into a LED Strip is a really bad idea. If you want to burn your house down, go for it, otherwise stick to the strips max amperage. 5 V with 60 will pump 300 W of heat into those tiny copper traces on the strip turning them into heaters very quickly. If you inject 60 A on a 24V strip your wattage goes up to a cozy 1440W, thats around the energy a electric kettle uses to boil water quickly. The rest of the article is correct. But for the love of god, DO NOT PUT 60 A into a LED Strip unless you really know what you are doing. Most 24V LED Strips require a passive cooling system (alu-u-channel is enough) to keep the LEDs cool. But thats for 2 – 5 A. If you up that by 10, you need to activly cool those LEDs.
I was disappointed that you petty much ignored the second controller option. The great majority of people aren’t going to be using small computers to program their strips. Plus I’d think many people, like me, want to Integrate their lights into the rest of their existing smart home ecosystem if they have one. Controllers that work with wifi,zigbee, or z- wave facilitate communication not only with Google Assistant or Alexa, but also Samsung Smartthings and partially- to the Hue ecosystem. I’d like to see a how-to for connecting these controllers to generic strips
Sorry sir, I believe you have misspoken. You can’t simply put more power (I’m assuming you mean amperage) at the beginning. You can use a larger power supply and inject at both ends with it but you can’t just put a 300 watt 5 psu on the front of your strip and expect it to have any meaningful impact. There are voltage drops involved in the tracks on the strip
@Fixthisbuildthat Awesome article! This answered a lot of my questions. I still have one more that I don’t really see anyone doing articles about and that is LED black lights, especially using diffusers. Some of the diffusers are “UV resistant” (which probably isn’t the best choice for black lights) but others don’t say anything regarding UV. LED black lights appear to only come in 30/m or 60/m but not 144/m. I think it would make a good article. Just sayin’ 😁
I’m trying to have LEDs go around my entire room (mounted on very top of walls) and I need 15m or 50ft of LEDs since that’s how long my walls are, but I’m COMPLETELY lost even after research. Could really use the help so if you have any pointers for me I’d really appreciate it. is it impossible to have a 60/m strip that is 15m long? since the highest voltage (24v) can power up to 480 LEDs only, what should I do about that? I do hate the look of the strong spotlights/dots.
Not only have I seen that “color depravation” when having too many lights for the power supply, the power supply gets VERY HOT, and I don’t like it when my electrical is too hot to touch 🔥. So when I pick a 3A supply I wont get hot. a 2A ive found will get hot even though the strips are lit properly. Both my power banks are 3A so they power then just fine
Just a thought, but you should do strips of analouge inputs, all connected with the protocol I2C. Each chip would have its own input, and enough memory to store up to 256 values, eg 256 chips in a strip. The bottle neck of most analog projects is reading the values fast enough and the connections required. A strip would allow each chip to process and store the digital value of the analog input. You would then read these values into an array, as fast as the I2C allows. As for why, the new Midi protocol allows for MPE, eg individual analog valves for at least 3 axis. Strips of analog chips would have so many other uses and free the processing resources of the main controller.
4-5 yrs ago I got a dumb kit from China to light up my collectables on the bookcase I built for them. It had no instructions but came with the strips, connections (wires, plug-ins, etc) and I also put a switch on them (5 shelves worth). It was fun figuring out how to get them all to work together when I used the switch. I love electronics so much! I’ve since got a few moducases for my more expensive collectables. Moducase is not cheap but they are well worth the money because if put together right there’s absolutely no dust, dirt or (if you have a husky) dog fur in them.
This was a great article! Would you consider expanding further: For example 2 years ago and recently a resurgence on tiktok cloud ceiling led strip projects are picking up again: a lot of common questions are “is this a fire risk” “how many leds/meter” etc! Either way Thanks for making helpful and useful source articles!
I have several devices based on RGBW. And one thing to note is that you DON’T get to mix white with RGB. You can dim the white, but if you want salmon, you gotta mix the R with G and B. And it’s usually only two cells at a time. So you don’t get to turn down the intensity of cyan. It’s going to be pure G and B with no R. At least those are the constraints of the controllers provided, be they IR hand remote, or bluetooth, or WiFi apps.
A project I plan to take on down the track is to create a modernised version of the old arch top Wurlitzer jukeboxes. Since the mouldings, lights and bubble tube fittings are so damn expensive to track down I plan to try and get the same effect as the back lit bubble tube with some diffused rgb lighting driven by an Arduino and a digital display where the disc changer would normally be run with either a raspberry pi, or maybe a cheap, low spec pc. That way I can run tunes from both my music collection on a hard drive, or access an online service like Spotify.
if someone can help me.. I’m an amateur but I want to make some unique ceiling lighting for which i need 22m of LED strip – I guess I need to buy 5x5m and merge them – if I understood, I need to buy 24v strips because more V means more led units? – in that case I need some powerful supply? if I’m correct, it has to be 24v, but with more watts? should I multiply the number of led lights with their wattage? like.. if it’s 60 led lights per 1 meter, it’s 60x22m=1320 led lights x 3w =3960w?! it’s 4kW?! I’m so bad at this, please someone help lol – ps. I need only white light
You can even mix 12v and 24v strips using a single controller by adding a led amplifier at the end of the 12v strip and powering the amplifier with a 24v power supply. Setup goes as follows, 12v power supply-controller-12v led strip-led amplifier with 24v supply-24v led strip. Total length of system is roughly 86ft. 2x 16ft 12v led strip 2x 32ft 24v led strip. And works even better if 12v side is a loop and 24v side is a loop by connecting beginning and end of the led strip together. I was ocd about the system being insync
Curse my dislike of numbers, I have now watched two articles regarding what to do and not do with voltage and my mind just completely blanks, lol. Instead, I turned on the LED puck lights that came with my TV stand, played with the settings, and finally realized that they can shift colors and I can dictate if that happens quickly or slowly, lol. They’re still really cheap lights, though, and don’t do much. I’m going to have to watch this article again and take notes 😅
I want to put in about 100′ (30M) of RBGW lights. I am going to use a Shelly controller with Apple HomeKit. I see the BTF WS2805 (DC24V) but is there a formula for sizing the power supply with a specific strip over a certain distance? Since this is going along the crown molding of a room I will have two 50′ lengths in each direction around the room.
Technically, MORE LEDs doesn’t always mean BETTER… Higher Quality LEDs give off more light at 100% than cheaper quality LEDs, according to tests done by a “premium/HQ” RGB brand(I forget the name), and seriously, after seeing the articles on the subject, comparing them to cheaper ones, I understood what they were saying… Picture this, 15/m on high quality LEDs, can output the SAME amount of light as 30/m on a low quality cheap LED set. It’s not a given, of course, but yeah, it’s something good to know… Now, when you buy LEDs the only other things to worry about are covered pretty well in this article, so, aside from figuring LED chip quality into the mix, this is a good guide for LEDs…
Good information, but biased and missing details that new people do not know about. Nothing to cover the case when choosing white LED’s, 1 color range or CCT? Two wire connections vs. 3 wire connections or more. Hooking them up to a dimmer switch requires a tunable driver. At some point its only possible to get a transformer and then a controller because the two white websites or RGBW2 websites need to be modulated individually at different levels. When buying any of these transformers and drivers online most of them are fake UL/ETC/FCC/ROHS rated or dont even list it so you can roll the dice. I would have hoped this tech was further along and it was easier to wire your own dumb system that doesnt need stupid wifi/remotes/miniCPU’s.
your article is overall alright, however you forgot to mention the most important factors about RGB LED Strips: there are actually FOUR types of RGB strips – the 1st type has each individual LED colour separate on the strip – these are the bottom of the barrel LED strips that are the cheapest and crappiest in basically any application because you can actually directly see which LEDs are on or off for whichever setting you set them, the distance between each LED is also usually very far which makes them even worse. the 2nd type is the SMD5050 type LED’s which have an “all in one die” design, the Red Green and Blue and sometimes also Cold White LED’s are all embedded in a single diode – these are the ones featured in your article. the 3rd type is using SMD5050 type LED’s like the 2nd type however here the RGB diode is separated from the white diode, and there are actually four variants of this type of strip – 1. RGB+W – in this strip there are two diodes which are the SMD5050 all in one RGB diode + a separate Cold White diode. 2. RGB+WW – in this strip there are two diodes which are the SMD5050 all in one RGB diode + a separate Warm White LED diode. 3. RGB+WW+CW – in this strip there are three diodes which are the SMD5050 all in one RGB diode + a separate Cold White LED diode + a separate Warm White LED diode. 4. RGB+CCT – this strip there are two diodes which are SMD5050 all in one RGB diode + a separate SMD5050 all in one diode which consists of a Cold white and Warm white LEDs. the 4th type are the relatively newer COB LED strips (been around since 2021), these are essentially a line of addressable LEDs in very high density (usually 408 LEDs per meter) and they are pre-coated with a silicone type diffuser.
I have one hangup about your explanation of power requirements…. Using a larger power supply at only one end of the strip will NOT prevent the color problems at the other end. This is especially true with the 5V pixels (WS2811/12B, etc). The issue is not about the power supply not providing enough, it has to do with voltage drop over distance. The copper traces on the strip have a pretty small cross section (equivalent to ~24AWG), and 5V doesn’t go very far through that regardless of how large the power supply is. You have to inject power at roughly 3m intervals (or with a 5m strip simply inject at both ends). You don’t even necessarily need multiple power supplies, you can just connect the single supply to both ends. Using a higher voltage strip means you only need power injection every 10 meters or so, but the same principles apply.
Hi, Your article is very helpful. I want to put LED lights on the left and right side of our fireplace. The type of website I want to use is a black corner style, and a white rounded diffuser. Have you had experience with this style of product? There are a few companies that sell this online, but I haven’t found any good pictures of the end product in action, so to speak, to make an educated decision. My husband isn’t sure if the corner style of website is what we should go for, he thinks the flat style would look better. The fireplace was just redone in a marble looking black tile. (PS it looks stunning) Would bright white be better than the warm white? Because I have never done a project with LED strip lights before, I am asking for expert advice, and very much appreciate your time. Angelika
I would NOT advise anyone powering LED strips from a computer! That’s a stupid way to go. The USB specification only specifies 500 mA of current. Some computers may source more or less, but if you burn out the chip in your motherboard, that’s an expensive fix. You’ll likely have to replace the whole motherboard.
you glossed over a really important spec for white LEDs which is CRI (good enough for most people) or TLCI (more important for filming). CRI stands for color rendering index, which represents how close to pure white light (sunlight) the LED gets, low cri lights usually lead to greener/magenta casts and poor interaction with skintones, which can make people look like they’re sick. Higher CRI is better and personally I wouldn’t even consider any strip that’s below 95 (max is 100), below 80 they’re basically trash.
Amazing information! Thank you so much. Subscribed! I have a question tho about what you said when the LED strip is blinking it means it’s drawing too much current: I have a strip that was blinking after about a 1 minute with a 12v 1A power supply, and after I hooked it up to a 12v 2A power supply it didn’t have a problem (no blinking). So my question is then, could the blinking also mean drawing too little current?
4:17 Sir the answer is Lifx. The Answer has always been Lifx. I have had Lifx Strips since 2017 and Lifx has always been the End All Be All Solution. Their problems not being lighting I never had an issue with because as a Long Time Windows & Android User, Having Buggy Software is just a thing of life. The reason you want everything in one is because at least for me, I don’t know about everyone else but outside of cool fancy colors and effects, I also need light to live by. That’s when standard White Lighting comes in so you can live regular life with that, and then on a dime just swap over to the fancy effects and colors. Living in this way for such a long time, it’s obvious this applies to Main Lighting. I still use Govee for accent lighting on things like Arcade 1up cabs, Behind Furniture. Stuff like that. For main Room Lighting I use Lifx, and I’m glad they are still around, and I would always advise anyone looking for a Strip for Main Lighting to get something that includes the various temperatures of White regardless of brand.
Great article, really sums it up! I got some LED devices connected to my PC but I’m new to LED strips and now I got a table that has a strip which sucks big time so I need to replace it. This article told me everything I needed to know to figure out what to purchase, however I’m still unsure about the power and control part but I assume some more reading will do the trick.
completely ignores RGBCCT, the pinnacle when it comes to home RGB RGB CCT is so special because the Cold Whiten and the Warm White have there own LED making it so you can make every possible white combination you want. 1 LED is usually at 6500 Kelvin while the other LED is at 2700 Kelvin or even lower to sometimes 2000 Kelvin. those LEDs are put on the same strip next to the RGB chip. some controllers are even so smart they can power on the RGB chip for added brightness when the requested light temperature is the same as all the LEDs can provide on 100%
I have a car port that is 10m deep. We park cars under it, but we also cook and relax under it. I want to run two led light strips the length of each side, so 10m one side, 10m the other side. I am using the WS2812B strips you linked to. Mostly, I will use a single color. Is a 12v 60w power supply enough for both sides (20m of strip) or will I need 2? Also, can I use only one controller so the strips are always doing the same thing? Thanks for any help
I’m a big fan of your YouTube website and have been perusal several of your articles on LED strips. I was wondering if you might be able to help me with a couple of questions. I’m trying to light two tray ceilings in my home. The ceilings have an outlet in the corner connected to a light switch, so the hard part is done already. However, I I’m trying to decide what LED strip to buy, along with which controller and power supply. Each ceiling is square/rectangle and about 53 linear ft in total. I’ve been looking at all the strip options but was considering the RGBW FCOB 24v lights from BTF Lighting. I’ve also been looking at LIFX, Govee and Phillips Hue. Any recommendations here? Price is a consideration but not the most important factor. Which option would you go with and why?
My RGB keyboard, Mouse, desktop fan, desktop RAM, Desktop Case etc are all smart RGB and are all expensive plus they also do have true white and yeah Idk what all colors are in them but haha expensive is the name of the RGB in my computer setup. Also the LED’s are Micro LED’s so they are way smaller and way tighter together with IP67 water proofing.
I want to power between 650-700 LEDs using 144 LEDs/m for a project. I’m brand new and have no idea what my best options are. I want to use the light from the LEDs in a display case for baseballs. But I want to use the LEDs not just as lighting but also as a led scrolling message board. I also want to be able to segregate areas with different colors in a grid style pattern. I know it’s possible but I’m clueless. HELP?
I’m planning on running an LED strip all along my walls where it meets the ceiling. Previously, I bought a cheap kit on amazon, it had 2, 25′ strips of LED’s that both attach to the same power supply and controller. Now this worked for a while but there are 2 things I would like to change about them, the Brightness, and the fact that several of the LED’s can’t show all of the colors. Is there any Bright 25/50′ RGBW strip, with 60-100 LED/m? Most strips I find go up to 16′, which wouldn’t be long enough, and while I could cut/connect some to make them longer, I want to make sure that they are full brightness from start to finish.
You forgot something…. 5v and 60amps !? U “crazy” !? You will melt the copper path… they are rated to 2amps nominal. That’s why there are standard lengths when you buy them. If you want to go longer you need to increase the voltage rating so you won’t increase the amperage. That’s why the circuit breaker is designed as it is… so it protects your cables in the wall not your devices… well sort of. 🤦 who gave this guy the “license” to be a YouTuber !? YouTube you need to fix this… everyone can be a YouTuber these days. Guess YouTube doesn’t care about public safety, it’s all about the Benjamin’s.
So um, we’ve got kasa kl420 multizone strips, we used connectors and extension cable to go above the stove and through cabinets. Problem is upon trying to connect the rest of the strip after the extension only the first 3 leds light up.. Sometimes we can get a quick red flash. They were cut on the copper, clearly there’s power. I’m so confused. I like the Kasa brand, it has an app and nice button controller too for the wall. No need to learn DIY really. Maybe there’s a better brand that doesn’t crap out when trying to extend? (user friendly, it’s for someone not tech savvy). It would also need to work with SmartThings and Alexa.
First time trying to get beyond the basics of LED lighting here. If I were to install the BTF WS2812B Eco strip, can I forgo the controller and use my phone app like I do with my older Govee strip to customize segments or animations or would that be incompatible? Would I need to get a more advanced controller and program it myself?
Super helpful article, especially for the IP rating and voltage. Been looking for a year to put some on my balcony railing – warm white and dimmable. Returned the cheap ones from Amazon due to the spacing and being crazy dim when I plugged them in before even unrolling, so looking for a better quality one.
Nice educational tutorial, thank you for doing this… I do have a question, have you ever worked with LED sheets? I’m in the middle of a kitchen renovation and were installing translucent countertops and I’m trying to figure out the best way to light the underside of these countertops. I think LED sheetsare the way to go but I’m going to test out multiple options. Thank you!
So many on Amazon. And nothing on description. They never tell you width of strip lighting, is it 8mm or 10mm wide??? They never tell you what size so when you try to order L or T connectors on Amazon you’ll never know what size works with what LED strip? Very irritating. I just get the solder gun out, and solder wires on the LED strips. Screw spending untold money on quick connections that don’t work correctly or wrong fit, size.
Great information ! I need to replace the LEDs on my Motorhomes 2 Awnings. They are White controled by individual switches. Do you have a recommendation for which Strips to use to replace the installed LEDS, that stuck to the awning material, when the awning was rolled up, causing them to tear and pull loose when the awning was extended. I think I just want to replace them with White LEDs, which is what’s in place, but if you know of a reliable RGBW I might look at those as well. Lastly any recommendation on how to avoid this happening with the replacement LEDS ? Again, Thanks for the informative article .
RGBW really works well if you have the correct controller for them. The LED strips are not more prone to failure. It is more using cheap controllers will end with poor results. Use a decent controller and RGBW strips are reliable and you can do all the colours, as well as varying white balance, so you are not stuck with one shade of white. LED’s per meter is important, a reliable power supply and a decent controller. 30 LED’s per meter will give bad results in general lighting. YOu’d only use 30 LED per meter for ambient lighting. 60 LED per meter would be minimum if you want decent brightness.
Data Pin? In the Wire?? Doesn’t that make the wire a little stiff? There’s nothing wrong with RGBW or even RGBWW strips, as long as you don’t get the cheapest ones. The ‘problem’ with RGBW strips is that white is often run brighter and longer than the R, G, or B LEDs, so they will fail sooner. But their lifetime is no different than plain white LED strips. And, NO, you can’t just put a heftier power supply at the beginning. The resistance of the strip is set, you can’t change it, so the voltage will drop after a certain length. If you have about 50-100 LEDs, design it so you can supply power from both ends. If it’s longer than 100 LEDs, or if you run them at full brightness a lot, you’ll want to inject power every 50 LEDs or so.
What if you interfaced a P 36 jet propulsion space exploding lighting system with an electrical device operated by a digital signal which is controlled by the time duration the devices turned on or off? Would you not create an electro magnetic spectrometer Gamaray? How could you interfaced flux transition lion nomex diagnostics intersex? Do better. Great article 😂
Ugh it’s so hard finding quality RGB LEDs that can be powered by a power bank. I don’t own a car but I have an e-bike. I work at night and also love going on night rides for fun. I finally found some LED rope lights to put on the rims but like always, there’s pros and cons to every LED strip I can find. Edit: smart RGB
Hilarious how you wont inform why they aint good?? hmm review not that good on them..!! why?? and you got a lot going on with them, hmm so what??..? what does that even meen? You got more LEDs to fail with RGBW, so they aint good? 4:15 even if they fix that dilemma you so blatantly wanna elevate, hence a decent white, alongside a colored ablelity… Logic, would indicate, – you actually got less to fail, as you not relying on 3 diodes to run to give an impression of white but instead a dedicated white LED, suited & optimised for a given CCT tone, and you can then use the rest RGB for for their colors. if you dont know, then own it..your title, is hilarious with this side-stepping around facts and explanations.. hmm whatever – you wanted your clickbait title.. “watch me & coin me up on social media, before you buy something”
Hey there, just watched the article and the one thing I was hoping for is a way to show control of multiple light strips of different colors. And maybe you have that in another article? For example, if I incredibly patriotic and wanted to have a 4′ section of red LEDs, that then turns into 4′ of white, that then turns into 4′ of blue…I’m assuming i’d have to have 3 separate strips to get that done. Do you have anything that covers that? Thank you! Amazing articles!!
I was looking for a article on ideas to make RGB setups and got granted with a full tutorial on DIY lighting. I’m not a pro but know basic coding to mess around with LEDs, one could even sync of LEDs in your room/house to an arduino hub to control all at the same time. My only problem would be the powering
I want to do cove lighting and have wired my house with 4 wires per led strip. I want the smarter leds that can do chasing and so on. I came across some 6 wire led. What are they all about? Are they ever used for chasing? Did i short change myself by leaving 4 wires ? I know for the 2812 i only need 3 . Any suggestions.?
You can’t mix two different power supplies in parallel like that! If you really can’t use the same power supply just injecting power further downstream using low resistance wires, you WILL need to run one power supply in CV ( Constant Voltage) mode, and the other on in CC (Constant Current) mode – the one’s you showed in the article don’t have any of these options.