LED strings - 12v or 5v - Which should you Buy and Why.

[@AndyDoesJapan]

Holy crap, this was so helpful! I went from "I have no idea" to "I know exactly what I'm getting" before the video was even over. Thanks alot!

[@DrZzs]

Awesome! Glad it helped!

[@butchford757]

Thanks for the refresher training. It has only been 35 years since my basic electronic training in the Navy. And like most things. Use it or lose it...

[@DrZzs]

Time to start using it constantly then in all your new Smart Home projects!

[@iamprawin]

Uujjn

[@davidferreira4518]

Damn.. It's rare for me to comment on something, but this video was just perfect. Simple and concise with really good visual examples. Take my like sir and thank you!

[@ashleighrowe2565]

Very cool, awesome video as always, but 2 points i would add: (Yes im a nit picking sod) most LED strings used currently are of 2 types, adressable and R/G/B channel ones. The adressable ones (more expensive, but prettier) dont change their colour based on voltage, but based on data being sent at a lower voltage from a controller The channel ones dont "change their colour based on the voltage" the same 2v to 4v forward voltage is there, but is being toggled fast (via Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM) to give the appearance of the colour being dimmer The reason lights appear to be red when given too low of a voltage is because red LEDs turn on at a lower voltage, so are the only ones to turn on, as the voltage isnt high enough to turn on the green or blue LEDs, but that isnt the same effect as the PWM from the R/G/B channels from earlier Also, the other point: PC power supplies put out 3.3v not 3v, i know thats picky as all hell, but its a commonly misspoken thing in the tech communities, and ive had people in the past ask me about a psu they thought was faulty because they had been told it was meant to put out 3v not 3.3v

[@DrZzs]

Haha. I'm happy to be nit picked by such a knowledgeable sod! You are welcome to correct my deficient knowledge anytime! Thanks!

[@terry6520]

Ashleigh - This video and your comment were both excellent. I just got two power supplies today (for two 5m 5050 rgb strips that I had), and when I hooked them up, I got exactly what you described - just red. The cause must be that I have 12v strips but 5v power supplies. Thank you for taking the time to put that out there.

[@GS-qe3pt]

Most complete video on youtube about this subject. Thank you very much!

[@nicklauscraig9157]

I used the 12v lights for my house which was about 80ft. It was a pain for me to run that extra set of wires. If I had to do it over I would have gone with 24v lights and probably have been okay without power injection for this length. I used a 12v to 5v voltage regulator from amazon to use the same power supply with my setup to power the wemos board. Keep up the great work on your videos!!

[@DrZzs]

Thanks!

[@2Ustfu]

Thanks Justin for another very informative video. I am thinking of running crown lights around the perimeter of my living room ceiling. The perimeter runs about 20 meters total, and I was about to buy some 5V power sources with 4 boosters. But having a single 12v power and stringing 20 meters of LEDs would make a neater presentation. I am glad I saw this video before I began this project. Saved me a lot of time.

[@DrZzs]

Excellent! Mission accomplished!

[@TokyoAkiHara]

Thanks for the video!! This was so clear and simple to understand! I'm looking into buying a lot of LED strips to literally ''lit'' my room into a RGB wonderland and to me, 12V would have been brighter than 5V. Well considering the higher number. But now I understand what the difference is and I can make easier decisions!

[@DrZzs]

Great! Mission accomplished!

[@tomkar013]

Super helpful!! had no idea that the old pc sitting in my cupboard could solve all of my powering issues!

[@DrZzs]

When all the other parts of an old PC are outdated and useless, the power supply is still worth keeping. I've gone to the Thrift store and bought old junk PC's for $10 just to get the power supply.

[@tomkar013]

DrZzs yeah that’s a good idea, I think I might do that.

[@essenceofveles]

This is was so helpful. I wish I could give two thumbs up.

[@YutsiAion]

I'm sorry I am a noob here, I have ws2812b 5 meters led strip, and I use a 12v instead of 5v adaptor/power supply and then the led strips turned off/dead.. How should I do? is the led strip cannot be used again or I should buy a proper adaptor then the leds will turn on again?

[@DrZzs]

If you connected 12v to 5v strips and they turned off, they are most likely dead. I've done the same thing. It is possible that some of them are not burnt out, but you have to go through each one individually and test them. You'll probably have to just buy a new strip. And double check the voltage on the PS and the strips match :)

[@YutsiAion]

@@DrZzs Did you mean that I must cut the led one by one and test it through the 5v adaptor? the last time I tried to turn it on with a 5v adaptor, the leds blink several times then dead. I think I should go with 5v with 20a adapter, how about that?

[@muralibommanna7789]

Lovely video .Nice explanation with live demo.Wanted to do 200 feet led strip light for a hall and was thinking about 5 volts.Increase in voltage doesnot change brightness , the second lesson.Such a great help.Thanks for the nice Job DrZzs.

[@DrZzs]

Glad to help! These are lessons I learned and figured others could use too.

[@MrTenwisemen]

im so glad i find your video guide this is a big help for me for my project because i honestly not a techy nor good in electrical but when it comes with your clear explanation i find it simple. thank you 💖💖💖 from Philippines im your new Subscriber now. 😉👌

[@icefire5555]

To add to your point about 5v being able to directly power your micro controller. You could get a voltage step down board for a dollar or two and drop the 12v to 5v very efficiently. Also because of how you calculate Wattage. Volts*Amps=Watts. And wires melt at higher Amperages. For any longer protect you should use Higher voltage. If you push 5v through a wire, the longer it goes the harder the amperage is on the wire. Too many amps and the wire will blow like a fuse. (which comes with the risk of fires). But because the LEDs run at the same power, 12v offers almost 3x the wattage down the wire at the same amperage. (This is why telephone poles have thousands of volts on them) But I came here to see how many LEDs could make it in a 12v string and I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed the video, Thumbs up from me!

[@DrZzs]

Great info! Thanks!

[@3dFirefly]

EASY SOLUTION for 12v. I installed 12v WS2811 tube LED on a my house (ranch) meaning I had 4 (5 meter) strings, I connected the 5v Arduino nano to it simply by adding a DC-DC stepdown voltage regulator to LED string itself (at end where addressable input starts), I connected one 12v power supply in middle (between string 2 & 3)

[@das_radiergummi]

Well, 12V power suply can be used to power both, the strip and Controller by adding the stepdown/ buck converter in-between the supply and controller...

[@das_radiergummi]

... which should be set to 5V or some has already a fixed voltage of 5V, The converters cost not much

[@nawfel9971]

Thanks you so much for the video!! ivz planed to do a cosplay project and hesistate between 5v and 12v to have brighter led decoration on my armor and you just made me understand things !

[@ilducedimas]

Your video answers so many of questions I've had for a long time. Thanks a lot !

[@ronaldchand588]

I am a newbie in this. Correct me if Iam wrong. It makes sense that the brightness of the 5v and 12v pixels are same. If you inject power properly, I also understand the you will be able to run 2.4 times more pixels using 5v PSU than a 12vPSU as long as the power supply have the same output in terms of watts. E.g. A 300 watt 5v PSU can run 1000 pixels with multiple power injections however, a same 300 watt 12v PSU can run 416 pixels with lesser power injections. for argument sake say 0.06 amps per pixels. I am trying to make a best choice here. By the way, fantastic job with your videos..

[@jorgeferreira2009]

... and I believe that (still 3 years later) the 12v aren't truly individually addressable led, right? The 5v are but the 12v are only each 3 leds can be controlled.

[@billligon4005]

I'm putting these LED lights in a HO model railroad cars to light up the interiors. They run on 12v, so if I cut the length to about 1 foot solder 12v power to them from the track, will they work???

[@jamespowis5360]

You do not need a second power supply, all you need is a buck converter or a voltage regulator to drop voltage from 12 to 5 volts. However most LED strips require a matched signal so you would need a MOSFET to raise the signal from 3.3v to 12v (this is also recommended for 5v LEDs if your controller is outputting 3.3v anyway).

[@derekis1joedirt]

I just wire up the 5 volt strips in 4 series sets I figure the voltage drop on one strip is about 3 volts so 3x4=12 so they light at a decent brightness without any current protection

[@derekis1joedirt]

But this is a dirty way to do it with no controller and can damage your lights from over current

[@stevea8201]

Terrific, answered all of my questions perfectly!

[@luv14lyf]

So 24v is no brighter than 12v? When running the extra pair of wires, is that same pair used at the end of each string or is a separate pair needed for each string? So if 5 5v strings 5 separate pairs wires for power injection?

[@deadniell]

Can't believe i could learn A LOT in 6 minutes

[@gempio2634]

Hey hey... you can get buck converters from 12v to 5v to solve the issue of the power supply and be pretty much golden. They're dirt cheap, they don't separate ground most of the time and you wont have extra space taken by yet another power supply.

[@1997MHz]

Great explain on voltage drop :)

[@i3looi2]

Thank you for the explanation.. my concern was the distance. But seems my 3M will be covered by both solutions. Guess I'm going with the 12V since A) my controller can handle any range from 5v-24V and B) the 12V led strips are considerably cheaper.

[@wZerox]

can i just plug in a second power adapter at the end of my led strip ? because i have a 10m one and i cant reach to the end of the stripe with my cables from my power adapter

[@wZerox]

so i have 2x 5m led strips and i just connect them together in the middle

[@sanderdemeer3783]

Goodafternoon. I have a question. I have a string of Christmas lights which have about 100 led’s. I really want to connect this string to an adapter but I really have no idea which one i need to buy. Currently the cheap Chinese light string runs on 240 volts but I really want to change that because it isn’t particularly safe😂. I’m planning to remove the entire module so that I’m only left with the LED string and I want to connect this to a 12v power supply. I can’t find anywhere what ampere value I need for this. What do you recommend me to use for this amount of led’s? As you might’ve noticed I’m not really an expert when it comes to electricity😅. I really hope you can help me out. I’m looking forward hearing from you😃. Sander

[@LuckyGarageUSA]

Does voltage affect the heat output? will a 5v strip at max voltage be cooler than a 12v strip at full voltage?

[@atomicdetailsoc]

do you have a guide on how to use an old computer power supply for a controller? i have an old gateway in the garage and now i know what must be done LOL

[@DrZzs]

Something like this maybe? www.amazon.com/CHENBO-Benchtop-Computer-Breakout-Adapter/dp/B07S91NQL3?tag=drzzs0e-20

[@kennethcoletrajano1119]

Thank you for this! I was really in the dark on what these dv voltages differ from each other!

[@cimen9793]

If we use 5m Led/m 60 leds can we use 5v for for the right color from start to finish or still should we use 12v?

[@seekertosecrets]

I won't need much wire to power some small LED light diodes if I use a A23 Battery. However, that might be an issue if want to use some LED strips.

[@P_double_H]

There goes my dream of running 12v addressable led strips on my home's fascia.

[@sokka50]

Does the number of LEDs per meter matter? For example if I have 4-5m LED strips but with a high density of 144 LEDs/m. Would a 5V still work for that without extra feeding wires in between? I am an electrical noob, sorry :D

[@DeKiesel]

Do you have a recommendation for which wire to use when running an extra wire?

[@smithderek84]

How many strands of lights can be on one other?

[@edwardschmidt4963]

I have 5v led rgb light strips for my hallway setup from a motion detector. The thing is the lights take way too long to get to it's full brightness??? When they are fully bright the colors are the same.

[@titustide]

I'm getting 144ct/1 meter LED's and only need to light up 1 meter. Will I be okay with only 5volts if I want to light them up at 100% brightness?

[@kozavr]

What about 24V?

[@RetroGamer75]

I have brought BTF-100-5 5v-20 dedicated to dot matrix, question is this I have another power supply Alitove 5v 60A 300W , problem is this 3.3FT or 144LEDs/m two of those need more 27 LEDs it come out 172 LEDs. Do I need Another PS? Today I brought wrong size 8 gauge it wouldn’t fit in PS. I end up returning it to Amazon. What is gauges, what size for LEDs. my strip is 3 pin 12mm, I am confuse why I need black/red wire? If power come from the wall. Thanks I like this video my English isn’t great due to deafness.

[@jensschroder8214]

A 12 volt power supply and a 7805 regulator. It already existed in the 1980s and turns 12 volts into 5 volts. But it simply heats 7 volts away, so only connect a small load or use a heat sink. Today, however, there are also ready-made step-down circuits.

[@MrJohnCatz]

I am looking to run rgbw strips under my kitchen cabinets ~ 15’. and I also want them to dim and run from phone and Alexa. What would you recommend using, and would you make a video ASAP..

[@ingy23]

If it was me I would use SK6812 and I would prob use 30LEDs per meter with a aluminium heat spreader with diffuser. It might require power injection at both ends if its 1 long run as these only run at 5V. Then just control them with a D1 mini running wled and a 10amp power supply.

[@gunsncodes6665]

On 1:04 both power supplies have 20A. It means that the 12V supply have 12V*20A=240W and the 5V have only 5V*20A=100W. You can simply have more power with the same size of the power supply, same current and same diameter of the cables if you increase the voltage.

[@timnerenberg]

And you doesn't even need a second power supply. A simple step down converter would do it anyways, if you're using a Controller with 5V

[@andredornier]

So maybe you’re qualified to answer this question for me. If i go with the 12v would I require less amps to drive the same amount of leds vs 5v?

[@LAWhiteStarTV]

hey amigo with 5 volt power supply can i run a 1000 pixel with 9nly one power supply and also if the gauge of the pixel string is 16, can i use a 14 gauge to extend power?

[@DrZzs]

A good place to ask this question is with the Pixelheads on my Discord Channel: discord.gg/8gvF67h

[@billybolocks7563]

My wife just swaped a 5 volt transformer to a 12 volt transformer on our Christmas tree lights. Now the lights don't work. We swapped the transformers back as they were, lights still don't work. We tested both the 5 volt transformer on another 5 volt set of Christmas lights and the work. Is it possible that by previously connecting the 12 v transformer to the lights that we destroyed all our Christmas lights at once?

[@DrZzs]

Short answer, yes.

[@СашкаБелый-ч6м]

It is the best experiment and good information for save our money! But the question remains - What to use in case when we need something brighter then ws2811/ws2812? (and not expensive). I try to create DJ facade 2x1 meter with 40x20 diodes (800pcs), but 0.3W per LED - it is to small. In AliExpress written “WS2811 with 12v it is 60mA*12v=0.6W”, but now I know that it is not true. But what to use?

[@s0l1dsnak3]

I've also noticed that the 12v strings lump 3 pixels together per data block, so you can only change the colour in strings of 3

[@Fanaleds-software]

I've read that somewhere else as well. Is that true for all of them? Because I can't see a reason not to go for 12V for my christmas lighting vs 5v. But if they're not individually, 5v it will be :(

[@kanchisundhar]

Sir Namaste , adapter 5v ok but which ams match for ws2811s led strip sir.

[@unobianconero5751]

can we run a 6V smd led on 5V supply without capacitor or any other stuff? is it be lighted up? max brightness? will the current be more than on 6V supply and does is need a resistor to limit it from draining more extra amps?

[@michaelrainey-wiles7704]

I'll be connecting six 6.5' LED stripes. They are 5v strips. Will my power supply still only be 5v or would I need to up the power? Thanks!

[@robertmihai1552]

Hi. I really need you help. I have connected a 5-12 V RF remote with a 5 meter light strip (SMD 3825), powered by a 5V, 1.5A usb charger but the led strip remains on and the RF remote doesn't work. Am I doing something wrong ?

[@DrZzs]

Sorry, I don't know enough about the device you're using to be much help. What RF remote device are you using? Did it come in a set with the LEDs?

[@arthursidortschuk5835]

I gues it would be good to know that 12V lights get hotter than 5V because the Resistance of the Copper trace in flat LED strip is not enough to disapate the heat. Use 12V only if you have somthing that can take the heat away?! I feal like 5 Volt is always the answere for me.

[@G30-h5e]

I just bought a 1inch diameter circuit board with leds that's 12v, can I connect the red/black wires to a usb red/black wire and them work ?

[@YourLocalDominos]

If I'm trying to run four 5 volt LED strip strips (1,200 LEDs total) off a battery pack and I want this to run this for 3 hours on any color combination (addressable LEDs) what type of battery pack would you recommend? I'm using a simple in-line wireless RF controller. I would assume based on this video I would need to run additional power lines from the battery pack to each of the four different LED strips to maintain consistent power. any help would be great. If you know of a specific battery pack that's on Amazon that you can reference please include a link.

[@DrZzs]

That's a TON of LEDs to try and run off a battery. Here's the math: each LED will use an average of 20 milliamps, or 0.02 amps, so if you have 1200 leds, that's 1200 x 0.02 = 24 amps. Now to size the battery. A 24 amp-hour battery would last 1 hour. I don't even know if you can buy a 5v 24 amp-hour battery. Probably not from Amazon anyway. If you want to power that many LEDs, you might want to consider a generator instead of a battery. something like this would probably last about 2-3 hrs: amzn.to/2yZutpY You'd also need a DC-DC converter to drop the 24v output to 5v for your LEDs. If you want 3 hrs, you need somewhere around 72 amp-hours at 5v. You could also use 3 of these: amzn.to/2KB3hnS that would give you 3 hrs and you wouldn't need a DC-DC converter. Good luck!

[@kriss1313]

And 24 V :) I wonder if for 24v longer strips are possible withoute power ingection.. like 15m.

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

Ok .... so I buy a string of LED's .... for arguments sake it does not come with a power wart. Other than the instructions should inform me as to the power wart to purchase..... How do I "determine" what size "amperage" to get?

[@DrZzs]

Good question! My rule of thumb is 1amp per 50 LEDs. So a 150 LED sting would need at least a 3 amp PS. Here's a newer video that covers that topic and some others: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qonZpautgJidiM0

[@TheMFLAV]

Wouldn't it be helpful to inject the 12v system as well to keep it at maximum brightness? I'm defiantly doing this after this season.

[@mikewalcott]

Did you end up injecting. We are in the process of getting our lights up but still can’t decide between 5v or 12v. I will have more than 2000 lights.

[@Index-o1234]

Question.....I have a mobil progect I am working on it doesnt require more then 2 sets of 3ft of WS3812B Led lights. I ordered a 5V USB Controller WS2812 WS2812B LED Controller With Remote RF Wireless Control 3Pin USB 5V For WS2812 WS2812B LED Strip Driver to run of a portable battery bank of 5w 1.0A / 5V 1.8A.....My question is....will it work? Or is something missing? Im awaiting some of the parts to arrive but it's 3 months out so I thought I should ask someone whom really knows in the event I need to purchase anything else to make it work. I don't want to tap into the electronic device it is mounted to because of the dismanteling, soldering and possable fire hazard issues it may cause it is stored in a household and of course all those electronic products give off toxic smoke if it catches fire so I want to avoid that nitemare and just run everything off a battery bank. Any helpfull guildance would be appreciated. I am a firm believer in asking knowledge people whom know more then myself on subjects I am not familar with. Thank you

[@Cryptic78]

Thanks for the clarification. This helped!

[@Moon-xc7pj]

I don't know if you still answer any of these questions but i actually bought 10 m of 12v led strip and 2 m of 5v led strips, so i been wondering is the 5v strip going to explode or burned if i plug it with the 12v 10 m led strip?

[@kittytoy1480]

2:55 for everyone wondering about brightness and resistance

[@kifter4254]

Might be a dumb question, if I attach a 5v RGB strip to my motherboard RGB header which says 12V, will it fry anything?

[@baughhumbuglights8860]

You will most likely blow your RGB strip. You need to switch out to a 5V supply, or get what is called a 'buck converter' that drops your voltage from 12V down to 5V.

[@kifter4254]

J B oh

[@LeanBiff]

How long does the data go though? When do you need to use a signal repeater?

[@LivingWaterEternal]

Very well presented, straight forward presentation. Nicely done and informative, thank you.

[@DrZzs]

Thanks!

[@christopherrto]

Are 12v (WS2811/WS2815) or 5v (WS2812b/WS2813) brighter? Or are they the same? It seems like they're close, but concrete information is scant.

[@dale3645]

He says in this video that there is no difference in brightness (with the right power injection).

[@celestedavid4606]

But can u use 12v adapter to 5v led lights? Thanks

[@RakshithPrakash]

hell no

[@easwaran83]

I have successfully added my WIFI RGBW LED Strip to Home Assitant & It works great! Question Is it possible to get this LED Strip to syn with Music? Example: I play/ cast songs thru my google home can they sync & blink based on the music? Please let me know if this is possible? If possible how to achieve it in HA Thanks in advance.

[@DrZzs]

There is probably a way to sync with music. I’ve seen several examples. Some use expensive equipment some just tie the data line to the audio output. I’ve not tried any of them.

[@kylelind20]

this was a great video! super helpful as I just realized i ordered 5v lights and a 12v PSU! oops, thankfully i have some extra pc PSUs around that I now know will do the trick! thanks so much

[@DrZzs]

Thanks! ya, I'm sure you'll find a use for that 12v PS someday too!

[@mountain_dweller]

Excellent video! My question is about quality. All I'm wanting to do is to run about 15 ft of 5 volt warm white LEDs powered via a 5 volt USB from a 26000 mah power bank. Very simple situation. I'm just leery of buying whatever LEDs out of China from Amazon. I'm wondering if you know of a company that produces higher end LED strips of better quality. Thanks

[@eduardo_oliveira88]

Hey, could you help me? I bought a h500p mesh, a gigabyte aorus gaming 5 z370 and a masterliquid 240m lite. The thing is that my mother board has only 3 pin rgn connectors or a 5 pin rgb connectors, while the fans have 4 pin connectors. What can I do, to be able to control all the fans' colors using the rgn fusion (gigabyte Motherboard software)? I'm really lost here! Thanks for the video by the way!

[@WatchDragon]

I am having issues setting up home assistant and MQTT, Burh AUtomation's video uses an older version.

[@DrZzs]

Ya, not surprised. It's good and bad that so much development is being done on Home Assistant. There are a few options for getting Home Assistant up and running. A few months ago they came out with HASS.io I tried it, but I was having trouble with IP address changing, which messed up MQTT (and other things), so I went back to Hassbian. Installing with Hassbian isn't too hard. home-assistant.io/docs/installation/hassbian/installation/ Once you have Hassbian installed, update to the latest Home Assistant: home-assistant.io/docs/installation/hassbian/common-tasks/ Setting up Mosquito (MQTT Broker) should work as Ben's video describes. I believe he was using Hassbian at the time he made it. HASS.io has a different way of activating Mosquitto, and I had problems with it that I haven't figured out yet. HASS.io has nice features, and it the future of Home Assistant installs. Eventually I'll figure out how to transition from Hassbian to HASS.io, but I'm not there yet. When I do figure it out I'll probably make a video on how to do it. In the meantime, just use Hassbian. If you have specific problems let me know. I'll sure try to help if I can.

[@WatchDragon]

Now i am stuck on gettign Hassbian connected to Wifi, i made the .conf file, shanges SE to US, put in the SSID and password, boot up the pi, and.. nothing, i did wpa_cli -i wlan0 reconfigure it just says "ok" and sits there, it seems like i don't have any kind of connection, i cant ping anything.

[@DrZzs]

So you put the Hassbian image in an SD and started up the pi and don't see anything?

[@WatchDragon]

DrZzs everything boot up fine, it just seems like I can't get it to connect to my wifi network. When I first did this in noobs, I just connected with the GUI, all I have now is a command line

[@WatchDragon]

got it working on wifi!

[@michaelluigeehernaez9479]

May I ask would it be good to use 12v ledstring (16units) to a 12v motorcycle battery?

[@shaunZ96]

Hi I am trying to make the lights, sometimes sellers say bulbs are 3w sometimes they say its 24v, I don't know I am in AUS so 240v from power point. how do i ensure I don;t blow anything? how do i get an idea how bright it is going to be, i have a bulb that is 23w and 1610lumens that i want my festoon to be much lower. hence when they say the bulb they sell is 24v, I don't know how bright.

[@jjggbbjunk]

Sorry, this description is a bit confusing to me. I am in USA and I may be misunderstanding something. In general, most lightbulbs are designed to screw into a fixture connected to AC power directly. These will be 120VAC in USA and 240VAC most other places. If you have a 24V bulb, this is a 24 volt DC bulb that will not be compatible with AC power. If you have a vehicle or some kind of lower voltage display, the lights will run on some DC voltage. I had an old motor home that had 24VDC batteries, for example. So if you have a 24V bulb, you likely need 24VDC power from a DC power supply or a battery. It is just possible the bulb will handle 24VAC, in which case you need a step down transformer. Light is measured in Lumens, so the more lumens, the more light. Watts are a measure of power, and should correlate with Lumens reasonably closely, but not always. If you are running these strip lights, you will need a 12V or 5V DC power source, depending on model. I am not aware of any 24VDC LED strip lights, but maybe there are some automotive assemblies that use 24VDC.

[@tylerj19797]

If I have a controller box thats inline with the lights, on a 12v power. My 5v lights where getting hot. Is that because I'm putting 12v to 5v lights

[@billray1785]

I would say so

[@sharonwasag-unknownlocatio9394]

I'm new to this. I am trying to get a small strip of RGB new-pixels to run off of a 3V Microbit. I ordered new-pixels in the mail and received 12V ones. Will these work?

[@noahanderson2021]

Can I use a 12v amp to connect 2 5v strips?

[@jonathanholleman9987]

So you hook a second wire up to the same power supply, this won't draw extra power because it just powers the same lights just with much less voltage drop because it runs through a wire with less resistance, correct?

[@DrZzs]

Exactly!

[@jonathanholleman9987]

Great thank you, just needed to be sure because some other guy used 2 power supplies. lol

[@DrZzs]

I'm not sure what exactly would happen with that. I think technically it should be okay since all grounds should go to the same "ground". But for mine I just used the same ps and ran extra wires.

[@sagargaikwad8900]

I want led pixel series . Price please

[@jarren5cent]

Do you know if there's a way to power the 5 volt lights with a power bank? Is there enough amps? I'd only need 10-15 ft

[@DrZzs]

I'm sure it would work. It would just be a matter of how long it would last. If you have the same lights I'm using they are about 60mA per LED. Sounds like you only need one string (5m = 16ft) so that would be 50 leds, so 50x60 = 300mA. If you have a 3000mAh battery pack it would last about 10hrs. There will be some power draw from the control board as well. Only about as much as one more LED. Hope that helps!

[@jarren5cent]

@@DrZzs thanks for the reply! I appreciate your help!

[@werapat00]

50x60=3000mA ,maybe too much for power bank to handle.

[@GearGuy]

Great video, but what about amperage draw considerations? If you want to drive, say 15 LEDStrips (Complete strips with 300 LEDs per strip), that would entail alot more amperage at 5v than at 12v... At some point the amperage draw becomes a real major concern. And also, at some point even voltage boost runs get too long. So I guess to put it as a question: What would be the best/safest (and most cost effective) way to power 15 LED strips (with 300 LEDs in each strip)? (Example: Accent/ceiling lighting around the circumference of an entire floor of a large house) All I have gleened from what I have read is that 24v led strips would likely support the longest runs with the best/safest voltage/amperage combinations... but 5v LEDS]s have some real nice advantages (individual light control thru PWM) that I would like to be able to use (even if it would require multiple interconnected data drivers to be able to keep the refresh rate acceptable). Feel free to post a link if you know of a detailed solution, but I have yet to find anyone/anysite that addresses (anything even remotely close to) that type of problem with a more or less concrete solution. Not looking for the soluion to the data I/O, just to the power/wiring requirements.

[@DrZzs]

The dude who I think knows the most about higher voltage LEDs and good PWM control is Quindor - intermit.tech He has done his whole house in LED strips. If he doesn't have a video that covers what you're looking for you can probably contact him through email or on discord (www.discord.me/drzzs) - Quindor#4006 I haven't used any 24v LED strips. I've become a fan of the 12v version for most things, but I haven't tried putting 4500 LEDs all from one source. My guess is you'll want to use multiple power supplies along the route. You might even try the holiday led show forums, those guys deal with high numbers of LEDs like that. www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/forum.php I'm not sure the individually addressable LEDs are available in 24v. Hopefully I'm wrong about that. Sorry I don't have the exact answer for you.

[@kaylaterbush6754]

I'm not sure if you can help but I thought I would give it a try and ask! I bought one of those LED bathroom vanity mirrors (27"×36"), that come with a strip of LED lights around the entire edge. It also has a 12vDC driver, and a touchscreen power button to turn the LEDs off and on, all the while being hardwired into my homes electrical. You can see that there is power ran to the on and off touchscreen switch by the color that it turns. However, when I push the switch on, the LEDs stay extremely dim! At times they will flash on brightly a few times and then they go back to being very dim. Any clue as to what might be wrong? We've checked wire connections and everything seems to be intact. Faulty driver perhaps?

[@DrZzs]

sounds like something is faulty. Without know much about the LEDs it's hard to say what you could try. Can you test the voltage at the LEDs? I'd guess you probably can't without tearing apart the mirror. If you can find away to provide power from a different source that might tell you that the problem is inside whatever driver/controller they're using. If they get brighter sometimes then I would assume you could do something to make them brighter more often. I'd test the voltage as close to the LEDs as you can. Then try using a different power supply to provide some voltage a little higher than what you measured. See if that makes them brighter. If not it is possible that they just aren't made to be brighter.

[@johnnycarter6196]

DrZzs: Can you tel me if the power supply you said about is better then an actual socket adapter or usb connection to adapter? Really into get one 12v 5m RGB led strip to fit under cabinets into kitchen and i want to get the best options and the safest one. Can you please let me know?

[@DrZzs]

Any of those power supply styles would be fine. If you're using 12v lights you will need a 12v power supply (for the LEDs) and a 12v to 5v converter (for the nodeMCU). Size the 12v power supply based on how many LEDs you plan to run. At least 1 amp per 50 LEDs. If you're putting it under your cabinet you probably don't want one of the bare metal kind with a fan because it will be ugly and noisy. They are all safe, as long as they are able to provide sufficient amps. Hope that helps.

[@johnnycarter6196]

@@DrZzs Thanks for your reply. I have one 5v 5m 5050 rgb led strip with 30 leds/m, with usb connection and Rf colour changer controller/remote, so i want this strip to be hooked up to solar panel outside house, the one same as the outdoor led lights garden lights, or an solar power bank (powerbank is 5v and output1A or 2A) Will this work?

[@LuckyLuke-123]

Hi, has anyone an idea witch cable i could use to extend the data wire from the Wemos to the LED´s. I would like to install the wemos and the power supply in the attic. But i have a 1m distance. I try an cat6 kabel 2 Wires from them. But i got differend colours. best regards Jan

[@cityleader88]

J V ever figure this out.

[@michaelmohr7395]

Using 5V LED strips I am going pretty long like 80ft, understand I should have bought 12V+ to make it easier, do I need to inject every 5m? Can I skip? I have a 5v 60A power supply and can get good color through 3? I tried to inject at end of 3 into 4 and it makes the last strand no receive the data and the coloring is all jacked up. Appreciate your time and passion on this I bought through your links hope I helped to fund a little :) - Mike

[@riderinprogress]

what voltage and amp power supply would i need if im running 2 5m ws2812b (5v 90w) in series or parallel?

[@DrZzs]

at least 0.02 amp per LED. max 0.06 amps per LED. and ws2812b are always 5v. They have ws2813 and 2815 that are 12v but they are much more expensive.

[@PantherJagger]

This was great, but you did mention a part that is hard to comprehend about the 12V Leds. You said your controller "Arduino Mega" needs a separate 5V Power supply after the code in uploaded. So, you are saying Do Not use a feed from the 12V to power the Arduino through the Power Port this will be bad?

[@3dFirefly]

12v input to Arduino is too high, simple solution is add a DC-DC step down regulator , small PCB with an adjustable pot on it.

[@petersjohnj]

Dr. Z. I made a huge mistake! First off I opted for off the shelf Twinkly RGB+w lights rather than just doing my own build. 2) I accidentally cut through all 3 wires about halfway through my strand. I am going to solder the cut wires but the lights aren’t marked at all so I’m not sure which one is volt+, ground, or data. How can i test to make sure I don’t damage the lights more than I already have?

[@donnyf12]

I'm looking to add a 3 foot (1 meter) white led light strip that can be controlled using an esp8266. I'd like the light to be able to have variable dimming and on/off via MQTT. Can you tell me the easiest way to accomplish this? Will 5V led lights be bright? Can I use a cell phone charger to power both the ESP and the lights? I'm guessing I'll have to use a relay to power the strip as the esp can't source that much, right? Space is a concern as anything I do will be visible so I'm wanting to keep the parts small and to minimum. Any information on building this is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[@DrZzs]

I’ll do what I can :) First, how many LEDs will you have total? You should plan for about 20mA per LED, but check the specifics for the LEDs you’re using. I think you could run them right off a D1 mini. Then you could power it with a 5v ps and micro usb connector right into the D1 mini. I’d need to try it myself to see how dimming would work. I know TASMOTA has a dimming feature for LED strips. I think the intention was for rgb colored LEDs though, so it may not work for plain white. 5v lights should be just as bright as 12v lights since the LEDs usually run on 5v anyway. Let me experiment a little. In the meantime let me know if you run into trouble.

[@donnyf12]

DrZzs I'm not sure as I'm trying to figure out what strip to buy. I really appreciate your help. Do you think you could link something from Amazon? Do you have an affiliate link? I'm familiar with the esps but have never worked with these strips before

[@DrZzs]

I've used a lot of these for just white LED strips: amzn.to/2KDmgvz I haven't tried dimming them. Not sure how that would work. I'm sure there's a way, I just haven't done it.

[@aspergerhellasbn]

Can you help me abit? I am trying to calculate what amps will consume a led strip i have.it takes 5v supply and at specs says it consumes 0,5-2amps.i plugged a 12 v battery to check what will happen.the strip worked fine.i just do not know if the amps it consumed are less or more when plugging to a 12v or 5v power supply.pls give a min to answer

[@DrZzs]

whoa, you have lights that are made to work with 5v, but you plugged them in to 12v? And they didn't die? They should have died. but to answer your question, Amps = Volts/Resistance. In the case of a sting of LEDs the Resistance is constant (unless you add or remove LEDs or change the colors or brightness). So if R stays constant but Volts increases, then Amps will increase also. What burns up electrical circuits is too much current (Amps). That's why when you add more voltage than something is designed to use it will likely burn up and die. In the case of your LEDs, let's say the R=5 and the V=5, then A=V/R would be A=5/5 or A=1amp. Now if you increase the V to 12... but the R stays the same, you now have A=12/5 or A=2.4 . So, if a device says it runs on a specific voltage you should really only try to run it at that voltage. Hope that helps!

[@aspergerhellasbn]

@@DrZzs thanks for the answer yes i lighted the led strip and keep it at 12v for an hour.i was testing a battery capacity to check how much time will be on those leds.did not burn or anything its just consumed the battery pretty fast.as i said was a test.i do not recomend anyone doing this.i just wondered if increasing voltage increases the consumption of amps

[@americancitizen4259]

I am planning to run about 32 ft of led strip lights along both sides of the crown molding in my living room. Seems like the 12 volt would be better. The only issue I have is making sure I have a controller that works with the addressable LED strips. I have a vaulted ceiling so I should have light going across the entire ceiling. Do you have any input on the inline controllers that work with the Magic Home App?

[@DrZzs]

I'm not sure, but I would expect the Magic Home app only works with their controllers. So, you could buy strips that come with a controller, or you could use something like a D1mini or NodeMCU and then control the lights with something custom. If you really want that app, then you'll have to find out which controllers use that app. I don't know much about that specific app. I do custom firmware on D1mini boards to control my colored LEDs. Hope that helps at least a little.

[@americancitizen4259]

It helps a little, thanks a lot.

[@youvebeensubbedto8009]

Working on an Arduino light array-- extremely helpful video :)))

[@0106139]

Nice video! For my project I will need 200 LEDS with a wire length between pixels of 30cm. Will I get a significant a voltage drop if I connect 4 strings of 50 pixels parallel with 5v pixels? Or do I need 12v pixels? Thanks a lot

[@damien6k871]

What if I'm trying to run about 20 strips across my finished basement ceiling? I can't seem to find anyone that knows anything about it.

[@DrZzs]

Tell me more about what you're doing and I'll do what I can to help. You're using RGB strips? You must be turning it into a dance club or something :) Most likely, you'll want to run 12v LEDs. Depending on the number of LEDs/meter you may need to inject 12v along at the end of the runs too. Come to discord and we can discuss it more. www.discord.me/drzzs

[@kupua]

How can you do icicle lights?

[@denistremblay4713]

Wow simple short and to the point thank you so much :-)

[@zatoichiable]

So easy to understand... thanks