I heard 10.6, 12 and 24 volt rgb addressable strips exist.

I heard 10.6, 12 and 24 volt rgb addressable strips exist. Do you know any of them ?

Just go on Aliexpress or Ebay and search for “24V (or 12V) RGB LED strip” and you will find some. I dunno about 10.6V !?

yes but the results are only standard rgb strips. I’m searching for addressable ones like the lpd8806 with every led indipendent from the others

I used to work with 12v individually addressable pixels (TM1809) until one day it hit me that it was consuming more than 2x the power (12/5) to do the same work as a 5v strip. That sucks. The extra power didn’t translate to more light, but instead is dissipated as heat @ each pixel. There are other “more efficient” designs where 3leds are stacked in series using a 12v supply, BUT then 1 “pixel” is actually a group of 3leds. There are two advantages to 12 & 24v solutions as compared to 5v, 1) the system is less sensitive to voltage drop in the wiring (to a point) and 2) for a given power, higher voltage uses less current (P=V* I). As I pointed out, the crappy part is when the LED current stays the same, but the increase in voltage causes an increase in power requirements.

Having said all of this, I am very interested in keeping my eye on 12 & 24v solutions, BUT I have now learned to keep a good eye on power dissipation per meter AND if the pixels are individually controlled or controlled in groups.

We just installed white lights on a hotel yesterday and I used 24v lights to keep the supply & wiring current lower, but these were white lights only (not RGB addressable) and they were designed to stack 6 LEDs in series so the voltage was used to make light not to be dissipated as wasted heat. How can you do this with RGB addressable, but still allow individual addressing? Let me know!

Any counterpoint comments are very welcome.
Respect,
Steve French
http://www.voltvision.com

@Alessandro_Zippilli WorldSemi, the maker of the WS28xx chipset LEDs, make a 12v variant of their 5v strips.

You can buy directly from their website.

Here: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/5m-led-digital-strip-DC12V-input-WS2811IC-256-scale-10pcs-IC-and-30pcs-5050-SMD-RGB/701799_568458133.html

Notice how the product in the above link is 30LEDs/m, but only 10pixels/m. They treat a group of 3 LEDs as one pixel most likely because they are stacked, so the same current flows through all 3 leds in the stack…so when one turns on, all 3 turn on. The is the compromise to keep the power consumption and number of drivers lower. Let me know if I am misunderstanding this. Thx!

I don’t know. It says it is 30 LEDs per metre and the pic looks like 30/M strips I have seen

There certainly isn’t 10cm between LEDs in those pics

Oh, I see what you mean…

Hang on, will find a ‘regular’ 12v strip

It will have to wait till the AM

Every 12v strip that I have purchased, uses 3 LEDs per addressable pixel. So, a 30 LED/meter @ 12v = 10 pixels. These type of strip’s look great for up-lighting a wall or ceiling, because you don’t need to see the individual pixel. For applications where you need to see the pixel directly, I stick with 5v strips. @Steve_French Thanks for the info about power consumption concerns.

Thanks for the info Jon and Steve. I clearly never read the spec sheets closely enough before. Just as well I didn’t order some like I was going to - I would have been well pissed-off! :slight_smile: