LEDs are becoming more and more popular for home lighting. They can be used in various forms. The connection scheme of the LED strip depends on its type and power. There are many options for connecting these lights to various power supplies.
Constructive types of LED strips
This is a general term used to describe various types of LED devices made in the form of flexible strips (ribbons). Depending on how you plan to use LEDs, you will need one or another type of their design. For example, in areas such as bathrooms, closed waterproof tapes are best. To mark the tracks in the dark, you can choose aluminum strips with LEDs. Flexible self-adhesive tapes can be used to simplify installation.
But we are no longer interested in their design, butwiring diagrams for LED strips, which are determined by their own wiring diagrams. They, in turn, depend on the number and number of types (colors) of LEDs in the tape
LED strip colors
They have a very wide range of glow colors. The most massive of them are called monochrome (English single color strip) and glow with one unchanging shade. They are cheap, affordable and generally easier to install.
Their second type is called RGB tapes. They can display any color obtained by mixing red (Red), green (Green) and blue (Blue), just as it is done in a color picture tube. In it, for each image element, three closely spaced areas of the screen with the three colors listed above are used. By adjusting the intensity of the glow of a particular area with a kinescope beam, the color of the image element is obtained corresponding to the one transmitted on the air.
RGB-tape is built on a similar principle. It can consist either of the so-called LED triads, which are three adjacent and parallel strips of red, green and blue LEDs, or of specially made combined triple strips enclosed in one housing.
These tapes have a small controller that allows you to control the LEDs of each color on an individual basis from the control panel, including remotely.
Monochrome LED strip device
Most simple are monochrome models. Two parallel printed copper bus tracks are laid along the length of the tape. One of them joins"plus" of the power supply, and the second - to the "minus". LEDs are installed between them, and they are all oriented in the same way: with the anodes to the “positive” bus, and the cathodes to the “negative” bus. On the case of each of them, from the side facing the negative bus (from the side of its cathode), one of the corners is cut off, and all of them are on the same side. This makes it easier to determine the polarity of the tape power rails.
In addition, along its entire length, there are groups of four contact pads on the tires, which have “+” and “─” signs, which serve the same purpose. Between pairs of sites in each such group, cut lines with a symbol in the form of scissors are applied perpendicular to the edges of the tape. Do-it-yourself LED strip connection often requires cutting it into pieces, which is done along these lines.
Connection of diodes in monochrome tapes
The nominal supply voltage of the tapes is either 12 V or 24 V. In the first case, all diodes are divided into triads connected in parallel between the power buses. That is, their number between adjacent groups of pads is a multiple of three. Each of their triads consists of three LEDs connected in series through current-limiting resistors (from one to three).
For a tape with a rated voltage of 24 V, instead of triads, a larger number of serial diodes is switched on between the buses - up to 10 pieces.
RGB ribbon device
Let's consider it on the example of a product with combined (three in one housing) LEDs. Such an electronic element has sixconclusions from opposite sides of its body, and all the anodes are brought out to one side, and the cathodes - to the opposite. All diodes face their anodes to one edge of the tape. On the opposite side of their housings (on the side of the cathodes, but it also happens vice versa, on the side of the anodes), as with monochrome LEDs, one of the corners is cut off to make it easier to determine the polarity.
Groups of eight pads are periodically located along the length of the tape, four symmetrically located on both sides of the cut lines, indicated by the conditional scissors icon. The RGB LED strip connection scheme often requires cutting it into pieces, which helps to implement the above lines.
Two extreme adjacent pads in each group are marked with a “+” sign, under which the nominal voltage values are affixed, and three other pairs of adjacent pads are marked with the letters “R”, “G”, “B”. All of them are located on the power rails of the same name. Thus, there are four such tires on the tape. In this case, three “letter” tires run in parallel along one of its edges, to which the anodes of the diodes are facing, and the “positive” bus runs along its opposite edge, to which their cathodes are facing.
Connection of diodes in RGB strips
If you position the tape in such a way that the contact pads on the "positive" bus are on top, then the anodes of the three internal diodes of each combined LED, located first to the left of the pads, will be brought to a common "positive" power bus. Further, when shifted to the right, all diodesof the same color are connected in series with the leftmost one, until the cathode of each of them is brought out to the right contact pad of the same name of this piece of tape. Current-limiting resistors are connected in series between adjacent devices.
Neighboring sites of the same color, located between two cutting lines, are directly connected to each other by segments of the corresponding tires. So the RGB LED strip wiring diagram allows you to apply voltage to it from either side.
General tips for installing LED strips
Never buy them without first knowing how you will install them. Do-it-yourself LED strip wiring can in some cases be as simple as plugging in a portable lamp into a power outlet. In others, it will have to cut, output and strip the connecting wires, install special connectors on them, or attach them to the output terminals of various power supplies.
For mounting, always consider the following factors beforehand:
• Required tape length/number.
• Power consumption and supply voltage.
• Location of LEDs on the tape.
• Its degree of flexibility.
• Does the planned LED strip wiring scheme need components such as connectors.
• Is there a need to program it.
LED strip power
Before buying any of them, you will need to decide on the allowable powerconsumption. The connection scheme of the LED strip largely depends on this parameter. First, you need to make sure your outlet can supply the energy needs of the LEDs. It's pretty easy to calculate.
Find out how much power your power supply can provide. For example, a typical mains outlet is rated at 15 A. At 220 V mains voltage, up to 3300 watts are output. It is recommended that you never load the source with more than 80% of its capacity, so do not connect more than 2640W. On the specification of the tape you want to buy, you need to find the power. Note that it is sometimes indicated on the drum - the unit shipped from the factory per unit length (feet or meter) or per LED. In the last two options, you need to calculate how many feet (meters) of tape or how many diodes will be used in your overall project, and multiply by the specified power. This will let you know if your LED strip wiring will be safe.
Another reason to pay attention to the power of LED strips is energy consumption. Even with the low power consumption of LEDs (compared to most other types of lighting fixtures), a total of several hundred will still add to your electricity bill.
Connecting an LED strip to a computer
This is a very common way to power LED strips, since a typical switching power supply (UPS) of a PC, as a rule, has one of the outputs for exactly 12 V, whichcorresponds to the nominal supply voltage of most monochrome models. Here it is important not to make a mistake when determining the permissible load on the UPS. Each of them has a label indicating the rated current for each output voltage. A typical UPS with a total power of 400 W at a voltage of 12 V allows a current of 16 A, which corresponds to 190 W. The specific power consumption of typical 12V LED strips ranges from 2.5 to 14.5 W/m.
Connecting the LED strip power supply
The option of connecting the LED strip to the PC UPS is still, so to speak, "non-standard", adapted. Currently, the market offers many different power supply devices connected to the mains, with an output of 12 and 24 V. Among them, there are both universal use blocks and specialized devices for powering LED strips. When choosing them, you must take into account the above recommendations for determining the permissible power consumption of the lighting load and matching its rated power to the power source.
How to control the glow of RGB tapes
Above, when considering the location of the diodes in these lighting devices, it was noted that they are connected in three parallel branches, in each of which LEDs of only one color are connected in series. Accordingly, connecting the controller to the LED strip means connecting each of these three branches to the supply voltage through its own transistor switch controlled by the controller chip.
BIt comes with a remote control included. It has an infrared emitting LED, and the controller unit has a receiving infrared sensor controlled by a special microcircuit.
The connection diagram of the LED strip controller involves connecting it to the mains through a power supply with a 24 V voltage output.
Often, RGB strips are sold as bundles with it and RGB controllers, with their input and output connectors matching each other, and a connecting cable is also included.
