Due to the ease of installation, energy efficiency and low maintenance, LED strips have been widely used in furniture, automobiles, advertising, lighting, ships, bars and other industries. Especially when you need a dynamic lighting solution, LED strips are a good choice. LED strips have different colors, such as red, green, blue, RGB, etc.

They can be installed almost anywhere. It is very difficult to find another lighting solution that competes with LED strips.

Addressable LED strips raise the standard to a whole new level. It offers you more options and excellent lighting effects like running chases, flowing fades, meteor trails, and much more. You can even design your own lighting effects using the control system. The problem is that you need to know how to choose the right steerable LED strip.

If you don’t know how to choose the right steerable LED strip yet, don’t worry. Read on to find out everything you need to know about steerable LED strips.

What is addressable LED strip?

A single addressable LED strip also called digital LED strip, pixel LED strip, magic LED strip or dream color LED strip, is an LED strip with control integrated circuits that allow you to control individual LEDs or groups of LEDs. You can control a specific part of the LED strip, which is why it is called “addressable”.

What is the difference between addressable LED strip and regular analog LED strip?

Analog LED strips can allow you to have one color for the entire LED strip at a time. You can change the color anytime you want for the entire LED strip, but you can’t change the color only for parts of the LEDs.

Addressable LED strips allow you to have different colors for each LED section, creating different colors in different areas of a single LED strip.

How does addressable LED strip work?

Proper performance of an addressable LED strip is achieved by five main components working together. They include

Light emitting diodes (LEDs)

Integrated circuit chips (ICs)

FPCB (Flexible Printing Circuit Board)

power supply

Each group of LEDs has an integrated circuit chip, and this integrated circuit chip controls the color and brightness of this group of LEDs.

This is why you can control a specific group of LEDs individually. The controllers used to control addressable LED strips are also unique in that, unlike traditional RGB controllers, they generally have a data channel, and some have a clock channel. Traditional RGB controllers have R, G, B, and + pins that correspond to the RGB strips.

Hence, the workflow of addressable LED strip is as follows.

When the power is switched on, current passes through the LEDs, causing the LEDs to light up at their default settings.

To create an effect, you need to enter a command into the console to control the color and brightness change of a particular group of LEDs.

The controller then passes the appropriate signals to the IC chips on these LEDs, which execute the command to control the LED color change and brightness.

What are addressable LED strips used for?

Decoration Lighting
Addressable LED strips can be widely used in KTV, bars, gyms, etc.

Building Facade Lighting
Addressable LED strips can be used on the facades of high-rise buildings, bridges, etc.

Special Event Lighting
Addressable LED strips can be used for Christmas, concerts, etc.

Home Lighting
Addressable LED strips can be used to decorate the home environment and create a festive and warm feeling.

Addressable LED strip type?

Addressable LED strips are divided into two main categories, DMX512 addressable LED strip and SPI addressable LED strip.

DMX512 addressable LED strip

DMX512 stands for Digital Multiplexing 512. This means that 512 channels are controlled digitally through a single data cable. DMX1 is a digital communications network standard that is commonly used to control lighting and effects. It was originally intended to be a standard way to control stage lighting dimmers, which, prior to DMX512, had used various incompatible proprietary protocols.

DMX512 addressable LED strip is an LED strip that receives DMX512 signals directly, without DMX512 decoder, and changes the light color and brightness according to the signal.

SPI led sector addressable

Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a synchronous serial communication interface specification used for short-range communication, primarily in embedded systems. The interface was developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s and has become a de facto standard. Typical applications include Secure Digital cards and liquid crystal displays.

SPI addressable LED strip is an LED strip that receives SPI signals directly, and changes the light color and brightness according to the signal

DMX512 Vs. SPI

DMX512 is an internationally standard protocol, while SPI varies according to the manufacturer of each IC.

DMX512 Signal Protocol : Parallel and Synchronous Interface Signal Transmission Technology, Universal Signal Control Protocol for Digital Lighting Equipment
SPI : Serial (Synchronous Serial Interface Signal Transmission Technology)

DMX512 : more complex
SPI : easy to
connect

Compatibility
DMX512 : Good and standardized IC class/protocol, DMX512 is used for some luminaires
SPI : Relatively inferior, with different LC classes and slightly different protocols, basically no SPI luminaires

Reliability
DMX512 : Breakpoint transmission, parallel transmission of signals, with high reliability
SPI : Breakpoint transmission, no rolling transmission for two consecutive breakpoints

DMX512 Signal Interference Prevention : Good, with strong anti-interference ability in long-distance communication
SPI : Lower long-distance communication is subject to strong/strong magnetic disturbances

Total cost
DMX512 : High
SPI : Low

DMX512 Application : Large and extra-large indoor and outdoor advertising lighting and
SPI simultaneous light show control : Small spaces / Independent design / Supporting facilities

How to choose the right addressable LED strip?

While the principles of steerable LED strips are mostly the same, some key parameters affect the performance of the product. The criteria that are worth your time and attention are as follows:

Voltage

Addressable LED strips generally come in 5V, 12V, 24V. In general, the higher the voltage, the better. If you want to understand why this happens, the answer is voltage drop.

What is voltage drop?

Voltage drops cause LED strips to lose intensity as the strip becomes longer. The LEDs at the beginning of the strip (nearest power source) will light up brightly. While the LEDs at the end of the strip will have a dull appearance.

Why does voltage occur?

Any length of wire has a certain amount of electrical resistance. The longer the wire, the greater the resistance. Electrical resistance causes voltage drops and voltage drops cause your LEDs to dim.
Therefore, the LEDs at the end of the strip will always have a lower voltage than the LEDs at the beginning.
If you make the strip long enough, the voltage drop will become large enough to cause a noticeable difference in brightness.

Not all types of addressable LEDs have high voltage of 24V or 12V, however, we can solve the problem of voltage drop by connecting both ends of the LED strip to the power supply.

Energy consumption

The higher the power, the brighter. The amount of power consumption you choose depends on the level of brightness you need.

Color type

Addressable LED strip is available in a wide range of colours.

Single color: white, warm white, red, green, blue, yellow, pink, etc.

Double color: white + warm white, red + blue, etc.

RGB

RGB + white

RGB + warm white + white

Type of integrated circuit chips (ICs)

DMX512 is an international standard protocol. Different types of DMX512 ICs may have different performance, but the supported protocols are the same, which means the same DMX512 controller can control different types of DMX512 ICs. However, SPI is not an international standard protocol.

SPI ICs produced by different manufacturers support different protocols, which means that different SPI controllers may need to be used with different SPI controllers. Below I list the popular IC models in the market.

DMX512 controllable LED strip: UCS512, SM17512

SPI addressable IC is divided into built-in IC and external IC, or divided into resumed transmission with breakpoint and resumed transmission without breakpoint, or divided into clock channel and no clock channel.

SPI Addressable LED Strip Common IC Models: WS2812B, WS2813, WS2815B, SK6812, SK9822, APA102, CS2803, CS8812B SPI Addressable
LED Strip Common IC Models: WS2801, WS2811, WS2818, UCS1903 ,TM1814,TM1914,TM1812, CS8208, CS6816, CS6814, LPD8806

What is the brakpoint resume function of SPI steerable LED strip?

The breakpoint resume function means that when just one IC fails, the signal can still be passed to subsequent ICs.

SPI common IC models for addressable LED strip with breakpoint resume function: WS2813, WS2815B, CS2803, CS8812B, WS2818, TM1914, CS8208 SPI common IC models for addressable
LED strip without breakpoint resume function: WS2812B, SK6812, SK9822, APA102 ,WS2801 ,WS2811,UCS1903,TM1814,TM1812,CS6816,CS6814,LPD8806

Popular IC models with clock channel: SK9822, APA102, WS2801, LPD8806
Popular IC models without clock channel: WS2812B, WS2813, WS2815B, SK6812, CS2803, CS8812B, WS2811, WS2818, UCS1903, TM18 14, TM1914, TM1812, CS8208, CS6816, CS6814

LED intensity

LED density refers to the number of LEDs in one meter of addressable LED strips. The higher the LED intensity, the more uniform light, the higher brightness, and no light spots.

IP grade

IP Code or Ingress Protection Code is defined in IEC 60529 which classifies and classifies the degree of protection provided by mechanical enclosures and electrical enclosures against intrusion, dust, accidental contact and water. It is published in the European Union by CENELEC as EN 60529.

If you need to install addressable LED strips outdoors, you need to use IP65 or higher IP grade addressable LED strips. However, for installations submerged in water for short periods, IP67 or even IP68 will be safer.

How to connect an addressable LED strip?

Before controlling the DMX512 addressable LED strip, you need to use the “Address Writer” provided by the IC manufacturer to set the dmx512 address in the DMX512 IC. You only need to set the dmx512 address once, and the DMX512 IC will save the data, even if the power is turned off. Please check how to set dmx512 address video below:

But, the SPI addressable LED strip does not need to set the address before use.

SPI addressable LED strips will have different ports wire according to different functions, and their wiring diagrams will also be different.

Addressable LED strip without breakpoint resume function, only has data channel.

The addressable LED strip with resumable transfer function will have a data channel and a backup data channel.

The addressable LED strip with clock channel function has a data channel and a clock channel.

The data channel is generally represented by the letter D on the PCB, the backup data channel is represented by the letter B, and the clock channel is represented by the letter C.

SPI built-in addressable LED strip IC

SPI external addressable LED strip IC

With addressable LED strip for SPI IC clock channel

With break resume transfer function SPI IC addressable LED strip

DMX512 addressable led strip wiring diagram

SPI addressable LED strip with data channel wiring diagram only

SPI addressable LED strip with only a data channel and a clock channel

SPI addressable LED strip with a data-only channel and a break-resume channel

How to control addressable LED strip?

You can control the dmx512 steerable led strips through dmx512 controller or dmx512 master.

In the same way, you can control addressable LED strips through an SPI controller.

How to customize addressable LED strip for your lighting projects?

Step 1 : You should have a rough idea of ​​the lighting effect you need and then think deeply to determine your requirements. More is better. This will facilitate your communication with Chinese LED strip manufacturers.

Step2 : Contact some Chinese LED strip manufacturers, tell them what you need, and ideally come up with drawings showing the size of the place, where to install the LED strip and what kind of lighting effect you want. For lighting effects, I suggest you go to YouTube and find some existing examples and share them with the manufacturer, they know better what you need. In short, you want to provide as much detail as possible to the LED strip manufacturer.

Step3 : When the sales representative from the Chinese manufacturer gets your exact requirements, they will discuss with the electrical engineer and determine the number of LED strips required, as well as the number of LED controllers and the number of LED power supplies.

Step 4 : The sales representative will then discuss how to implement your lighting effect with the lighting designer or programmer, who is currently primarily based on the LedEdit or Madrix platforms. Considering that not many LED strip manufacturers in China can provide lighting design services, not to mention that only a few can program based on Madrix software. You may need some patience to finally find a Chinese LED manufacturer who can provide this programming service.

Step 5 : The sales representative will discuss more details with you and then quote the price. After confirming back and forth, you hand over the order to the Chinese LED strip manufacturer.

Step 6 : Once production is complete, the manufacturer sends you the entire shipment.

Step 7 : You will need to hire some experts or electricians to install the custom LED strips. Since everything is calculated based on the specific project location information, the China LED strip manufacturer usually designs and provides you with the wiring diagram for installation. Therefore, follow the instructions to complete the task.

Step 8 : Installation and commissioning of lighting. Please note that only a few LED strip manufacturers in China can provide this service by sending field engineers to your site to do the whole job.

Where to buy addressable LED strip?

Addressable LED strips are more complex than regular LED strips. That is why it is difficult to choose the right LED strip manufacturer. You can find the manufacturer of steerable LED strip in the following ways.