These LED strips are fun and glowy. There are 32 RGB LEDs per meter, and you can control each LED individually! Yes, that's right, this is the digitally-addressable type of LED strip. You can set the color of each LED's red, green and blue component with 7-bit PWM precision (so 21-bit color per pixel). The LEDs are controlled by shift-registers that are chained up down the strip so you can shorten or lengthen the strip. Only 2 digital output pins are required to send data down. The PWM is built into each 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 LPD8806 chip has built in 1.2 MHz high speed 7-bit PWM for each channel - that means it can do 21-bit color per LED (way more than the eye can easily discern). Once you set the brightness level for the LEDs, your microcontroller can go off and do other things, no need to continuously update it, or clock it.

The strip is made of flexible PCB material, and comes with a weatherproof sheathing. You can cut this stuff pretty easily with wire cutters, there are cut-lines every 2.5"/6.2cm (2 LEDs each). Solder to the 0.1" copper pads and you're good to go. 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 should be able to drive 1 or more meters (depending on use) and a 5V/10A supply that can drive 5 meters (or more, if you are not lighting up all the LEDs at once) You must use a 5V DC power supply to power these strips, do not use higher than 6V or you will destroy the entire strip

The 1m length is a single strip cut from a reel which will not have connectors on it.

To wire up the strip we suggest picking up some JST SM plug and receptacle cables. Please double check which side is the input and which is the output by looking at the strip itself for the pin labelling.

Technical Details

Technical specs:

LPD8803 - LPD8806 Datasheet
16.5mm (0.65") wide, 4mm (0.16") thick with casing on, 62.5mm (2.45") long per segment
1 meter length
32 LEDs per meter
Removable IP65 weatherproof casing
Maximum 5V @ 120mA draw per 2.5" strip segment (all LEDs on full brightness)
5VDC power requirement (do not exceed 6VDC) - no polarity protection
2 common-anode RGB LEDs per segment, individually controllable
LED wavelengths: 630nm/530nm/475nm

Downloads:

Arduino library for the LPD8806-based strip

We have a detailed tutorial showing wiring, power usage calculations, example code for usage, etc. Please check it out!