LED Tape

[Nick LX]

I know this topic has been covered in the past but I was hoping for some more info of where to get this stuff. Google brings up a whole host of places but as the tapes all seem unbranded it's impossible to find out which stuff is good.

 

Looking for some bright LED tape which can be DMX controlled.

 

Cheers

[Wol]

Single colour tape? RGB tape? Pixel tape? Self adhesive? Solid? Flexible?

[Nick LX]

RGB Tape. Pixel tape isn't necessary but would consider it. Self adhesive preferable unless there's a similar solution (these will be permanent). Solid or flexible. Doesn't matter. But need to be able to cut them to size every 5cm or so.

[sleah]

Have a little looky here.

(Drop down menus to select the type you're after)

I bought 5m of the cool white 5050 strip for a.n.other purpose - lighting in my camper! Suprisingly bright.

They do RGB, dunno if it's the kind of thing you're looking for?

[gibbothegreat]

I've used Flexistrip from MGC very succesfully. Brochure can be found here: http://www.mgc-light...26-a0702aa791ae

[maeterlinck]

Pick you're price point. You can get tape from <£2/m up to >£15/m and it can be very similar stuff. Like wise for any control interface.

 

The cheaper end from eBay and Alibaba / Ali Express will be Epistar chips, and made to a price. Works fine but they will make savings where they can. Apparently similar products can have different output levels as well.

 

The more expensive stuff might well be Philips or Cree chips and be better designed, but with a premium. You will also get more support and warranties that will be useful to have. Regular and repeatable. In a few years time you will probably be able to get the same or similar product.

 

We use cheap stuff as consumable and for short run and more expensive for long term installs. But that is more for peace of mind telling a customer that we used the good stuff should it fail.

 

Hope that helps. In short, IMHO mostly it's pretty similar and it is the service on top you pay for.

 

For control, I think similar also holds true. I have got some great little boxes from China that work fine. I've also have products in mid and upper bands that are also great. If a Chinese cheapy goes wrong it goes in the bin, if a UK sourced part goes wrong I'll send it back (with in reason).

[musht]

Epistar is a good quality Taiwanese brand more usually found in premium tapes,Chinese have domestic product to fill the novelty and seasonal market at a lot less money. Philips don`t make small LED dice, Cree LED dice are packaged by people like Kingbright into LEDs. Rolling the copper that bit thinner and using bottom bin LEDs can always save a cent or two. It`s a bit of a jungle out there...

 

You won`t always get what you pay for, but using a supplier liable to honour their warranty can be helpful, if its temporary eye candy, buy on price.

 

Disclaimer; sell some of this type of stuff.

[bigclive]

I'd guess that MOST of the average tape has epistar LED dice. Ignore companies that name drop Cree and Nichia, I very much doubt the high end chips are used in this mass produced material.

 

Now about that "highly mass produced" bit. This stuff is REALLY popular these days and the suppliers have a very high throughput meaning that the manufacturers are getting decent recent-technology LEDs. You may find that the cheapo stuff on ebay can be MORE reliable than the old stock from the expensive suppliers.

 

I regard this material as a disposable item now. Use it, abuse it and replace it.

 

Note that all the stuff you need should be bought from one supplier at the same time to try to get decent colour matching for specific DMX/PWM levels. Also note that piecing new bits into an old run will show major intensity and colour variation.

 

I'm fine with product containing Epistar chips by the way (they make the bare LED dice used by LED manufacturers). Like any other mass produced product most of the bugs have been ironed out by nature of the sheer volume produced. You may well get some level of technical superiority from the more prestigious and rather expensive brands, but for anything other than the most critical applications it's not worth the extra expense.

 

Don't try contacting Epistar to buy bargain LEDs though. They really do just supply the bare chips that are then mounted on substrates and potted in resin by other manufacturers. You really need to be working on a factory level to use their product.

 

While writing the above post I noticed that the other force in LED chip manufacture (Huga) has actually been bought by Epistar. That probably means that the vast majority of LEDs in any product these days are from the Epistar factory. It's amusing to note that the prestigious names in LED technology all seem to have sued Epistar at some point as they rampaged all over what they perceived as their intellectual property. That's almost like an endorsement. :** laughs out loud **:

 

Another interesting thing to note is that when the cheap bare LEDs first became available on ebay many years ago there was a very high failure rate. These days even the cheapest packs of LEDs seem to offer good reliability.

[Nick LX]

Thanks bigclive. Very helpful.