The strips come in a 1-meter reel with three 30cm long wires connected to a JST PH 3-pin plug. The other end is sealed. The wires are even nicely color-coded: black for ground, green for signal, red for 3-5VDC power. We use SK6812 LEDs on these strips so you don’t need an inline resistor and they work down to 3V logic+power.
NeoPixels are addressable LEDs. That means, there are 30 RGB LEDs per meter and the strip is a full meter long so you get 30 individually-controlled RGB LEDs! You can set the color of each LED’s red, green, and blue component with 8-bit PWM precision (so 24-bit color per pixel). The LEDs are controlled by shift-registers that are chained up down the strip so you can shorten the strip if you like by cutting it. Only 1 digital output pin is required to send data down. The PWM is built into each LED-chip so once you set the color you can stop talking to the strip, and it will continue to PWM all the LEDs for you
The strip is made of flexible PCB material, and comes in a weatherproof sheathing. You can cut this stuff pretty easily with wire cutters. Of course, you can also connect strips together to make them longer, just watch how much current you need! We have a 5V/2A supply that is able to drive this strip but chances are you will power these short strips direct from your microcontroller board. You must use a 3-5V DC power supply to power these strips, do not use higher than 6V or you can destroy the entire strip– yikes!
These LEDs use about 4.8 Watts max (~1 Amps @ 5V) per meter. The max rating is assuming all the LEDs are on full white, usually, the actual current for colorful design is less than 1/3 of the max current. A good power supply is key!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
