If you see the term 5050 LED on product pages that just refers to the size of the LED chip, not necessarily the type of LED or any of the other components that may be integrated into it.ДЄs for their power draw specifications, there are hundreds of forum posts linking to the LED datasheets and giving generalized rules for calculating current draw, but I couldnвЂ™t find much in the way of testing and comparison. Each segment can have 256 levels of brightness which results in 256 to the third power different colors that can be produced. These LED strips all work with the same basic idea: data is sent down a single wire where it is read by a microcontroller chip which produces pulse width modulated signal that controls the brightness of each channel of an LED chip that contains a red segment, a green segment and a blue segment. This chip is where each of these strips get their name and IвЂ™ll specifically be working with these 7 microcontroller types today. The last choice you need to make is the specific chip that will drive your individually addressable LEDS. Of course, if your project is indoors and you donвЂ™t need any waterproofing, that is available as well. If you require more waterproofing you can choose the IP67 version that come in a sealed silicone sleeve, but keep in mind they get to be a bit annoying if you need to cut the strips to length.

As I said before, the ones IвЂ™m testing are IP65 which means they are coated with a flexible clear silicone to keep water and dust out, but cannot be submerged in water, in my experience they are both splashproof and rainproof. Third youвЂ™ll need to choose what type of waterproofing you want for your project.

I tend to use the 30 LED per meter variety because it makes power requirements more manageable, but they come in a variety of densities all the way up to 144 LEDs in a single meter. Second will be the pixel density, or how many LEDs are in a single meter. First will be the color of the flexible PCB that they are mounted to, you can usually choose between black and white. When selecting your LED strip you will typically get to choose a few options. In order to keep my tests as standardized as possible each strip has the same LED density and waterproofing, specifically these are all 150 LEDs per 5 meters and IP65 silicon coated, but there are significantly more varieties to choose from. Lets start by getting a physical look at each strip type.

For easy viewing purposes IвЂ™ve linked a chart in the video description with the results of my tests and a quick reference sheet for choosing LED strip variety.Д«efore we get into it I want to give a huge thanks to BTF Lighting for providing me with one of each type of their LED strips to do my testing, theyвЂ™re a great vendor that IвЂ™ve used at least a dozen times and they have both an Amazon and Aliexpress store, check out the links down in the description to see their huge LED selection. The purpose of this video is to help you determine what variety of individually addressable LED will work best based on the parameters of your project. The actual answer is that there are many factors to consider and each application will likely have one type of strip that will be best suited for it. Today on the hookup IвЂ™m going to test all the most popular types of individually addressable LED strips, talk about their technical specifications, and help you figure out which one is best for your use case.ДЇirst of all, if youвЂ™re looking for the one вЂњbestвЂќ LED strip, I unfortunately canвЂ™t give you a single answer.

Outdoor smart pixel strips