We splurged and got the waterproof kind with white background color. There’s a 3M adhesive strip on the back which should stick to most smooth surfaces. Great for architectural lighting (under-counter or under-cabinet), decorating your bicycle or car, making lamps, etc. You’ll need a lot of power to light these up, we suggest our 12V 5A supply. To connect it to a power supply, pick up a 2.1mm female jack and wire it to the strip with some heat shrink. For portable use, we suggest a 8xAA battery holder
You can cut this stuff pretty easily with wire cutters, there are cut-lines every 5cm (3 LEDs each), and trim off the waterproof cover with a hobby knife. Solder to the 0.1″ copper pads and you’re good to go.
They come in 5 meter reels and are sold by the meter! If you buy 5m at a time, you’ll get full reels. If you buy less than 5m, you’ll get a single strip, but it will be a cut piece from a reel.
When purchasing a full reel, there will be two wires on either side you can connect directly to 12V. Be sure to try both ‘directions’ as the wire colors do not necessarily indicate which wire is the ground wire. It will not damage the strip if you connect it backwards so if it isn’t lighting, try the other way! When purchasing a smaller piece, if you have 4 pads labeled RGB connect the RGB pads together and tie those to ground and connect the 12V+ pad to 12VDC.
10.5mm (0.41″) wide, 3mm (0.12″) thick, 100mm (3.95″) long per segment
Clear waterproof molded IP67
3M adhesive strip on back
Maximum 12V @ 60mA draw per strip segment
Max 1.2 Amps per meter (all LEDs lit full brightness)
3 cool white LEDs per segment, 20 segments per meter
LED color temp: 6500k
No microcontroller or chip controller (‘analog’ only!)
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I am building my new kitchen and wanted to put LEDs under the cabinets, so these seem interesting — do you think they would put out enough light, say a single strip under each stretch of cabinet or might 2 be needed? The puck LEDs sold in the stores are quite expensive, but put out some good light.
The RGB might be the way to go though, get some mood going in the kitchen…
Can these be submerged in a pool since they are waterproof?
@chuckt, they’re waterproof but not designed to be underwater in a pool, outdoor use is more appropriate for this product.
I am building my new kitchen and wanted to put LEDs under the cabinets, so these seem interesting — do you think they would put out enough light, say a single strip under each stretch of cabinet or might 2 be needed? The puck LEDs sold in the stores are quite expensive, but put out some good light.
The RGB might be the way to go though, get some mood going in the kitchen…
@rtchoke, one strip should be enough, they’re pretty bright!