How to install LED strip and power supply

LED strip, also known as led tape light, is one of the most popular linear decorative lighting fixtures for homes, shops, supermarkets, hotels, etc. Due to most of the LED strips' input voltage is 12V DC or 24V DC, they can't be directly connected to the 110V AC or 220V AC. So we need a power supply to transfer the high voltage AC to low voltage DC. Now let's see how to install LED strip and power supply.

Please note that the power must be cut off before installation to avoid the risk of electric shock.

1. Power supply wiring

Here is a typical power supply which inputs 100V to 220V AC and outputs 12V DC. As you can see from the picture below, the first and second interfaces are the high voltage input, and the third interface is the ground electrode. The first step is to connect the power cord to the input ends and tighten them with the screwdriver.

Install Power Supply

 2. LED strip wiring
In general, the red wire is the anode of the LED strip and the black wire is the cathode, which should be connected to V+ and V- of the output ends of power supply accordingly. The colors of the wires of the LED strip may be different from the different models or suppliers.

Install LED Light Strip

Power on, the LED strip will be lit up. If the LED strip does not work, it may be the wires are reversed, we can reverse two wires of the LED strip and try again.

Lit Up

Above is the simple installation and connection of the regular single-color LED strip light and power supply.

Shenzhen Mailederun Technology Co., Ltd. (MLDR®) is a professional LED strip lights manufacturer in China, supplying all kinds of LED strips and accessories.

LED lighting, the new growth point of plant factory

In Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, a large plant factory, which has been operating since 2014, covers an area of ​​about 5,000 square meters and produces four salad vegetables.

Katashi Kai, general manager of the factory's operations department, said that the biggest advantage of using LED grow lights is that they can guarantee stable production and supply throughout the year, independent of climate and environment. The cultivation management and hygiene control methods completely eliminate dust, insect pests, and foreign matter pollution, and can produce high quality and safe vegetables without using pesticides.

In the early days of its establishment, the factory used traditional fluorescent lamps as the light sources. But the fluorescent lamps have various problems. For example, the heat generated by fluorescent lamps can burn plant leaves, and the fluorescent light has a short decay period, and the fluorescent lamps have a risk of causing pollution of foreign matter. Kai said: "LED lights do not have such problems or risks. Therefore, we decided to replace the fluorescent lamps with LED plant grow lights, in the medium and long-term operation, the use of LED lighting can greatly reduce operating costs."

The LED lights were fully utilized in the factory in 2017. Compared to the previous, the electricity cost of the factory was reduced by about 40%, and the growth rate of vegetables was increased by 20% to 30%. Higher growth rates mean higher yields in the facility, lower production costs, and no change in the taste and nutrient content of the vegetables.

LED Strip Backlight for advertising fabric light boxes

Ultra-thin advertising light boxes

Backlight LED light strip is designed as the backlit light source for thin advertising light boxes with a thickness of 3 to 15cm. MLDR®, a China's lighting company, introduced the MFS3030 series of LED backlit strip in 2017. After years of development, there are a variety of specifications of MFS3030 backlit LED strip lights, such as input voltage (12V and 24V DC) and colors (cool white, white, warm white, red, green, blue, etc.).

Fabric ceiling

MFS3030 series LED strip lights are made of high thermal conductivity PCB, high bright SMD 3030 LED, and the high transparent lenses. Thanks to its ultra-wide beam angle of 175 degrees, the MFS3030 backlight strips are able to achieve better light efficiency than conventional LED strips in fewer numbers in ultra-thin light boxes. Without a doubt, the cost of the project will decrease as the number of LED strips is reduced. With the increasing demand for outdoor advertising light boxes, the IP65 waterproof LED strip backlight come into being.

Not only in the field of the backlit lightbox, but MFS3030 LED strip backlight is also used in the fabric ceilings, fake windows, signboards and so on.

What do the numbers of LED mean? such as 2835, 3528, 5630, 5050, and so on.

If you've ever bought or read about LED strip lights, you've probably been impressed by these numbers (models), 2835, 3825, 5630, 5050, etc. Actually, the meaning of these numbers is very simple.

Fundamentally, all of these numbers are the models of SMD (Surface Mounted Diode) LEDs, representing their sizes. Take SMD 2835 LED as an example, 2835 means its length and the width of the LED is 2.8mm and 3.5mm. SMD LED is a kind of semiconductor light source that directly mounted on the LED light strip, having characteristics of high brightness, low power consumption, and good workability.

Normally, the larger the sizes of the SMD LED, the higher the lumens and the better the heat dissipation. But, there also have exceptions. Let's compare the RU5050 LED strip and RU5630 LED strip these two LED flexible strip lights. Obviously, the RU5050's SMD 5050 LED light source is larger than the SMD 5630 LED of RU5630. However, in fact, the RU5630's brightness is higher than that of the RU5050, that is caused by the 5630's chip size is relatively bigger. But SMD 5050 LED has more excellent heat dissipation performance, which makes the LED light strip working more stable. Even the brightness of the same model of SMD LEDs may not be the same, which involves the materials, processes, and rated power.

You should know the meaning of these number of LED strip lights and their main differences by now. MLDR® is a professional LED light strip manufacturer in China, aiming to provide reliable LED lighting products to customers all over the world.

The difference between rope light vs strip light

In today's market, due to the product names haven't been standardized, the names of various LED light strips are a bit confusing. According to the input voltage, LED strip lights can be classified into high voltage LED strip lights and low voltage strip lights. Due to the high-volt LED strip are commonly sealed by protection tube, which makes it look like a rope so that LED Rope Light is its another well-known name. Therefore, in this post, we are actually talking about the difference between high and low voltage LED strip lights.

IP65 waterproof LED rope light

LED rope light i.e. high voltage LED light strip is a flexible LED light fixture directly driven by high voltage alternating current without the adaptor. The rope light is completely wrapped in the insulating sleeve, for its high working voltage is dangerous. Although it will result in the light strips' sizes increasing, it also improves their dust and water protection rating. In addition, the high voltage AC direct driving mode can save a lot of cost of power supplies, and let the LED strip can be connected longer length in series. In order to control the heat production, high voltage strips' power cannot be high as the low voltage strips, resulting in the relatively low brightness.

Low voltage LED strips are commonly driven by direct currents, such as 5V, 12V, 24V, etc, having really high safety and stability. The regular low-volt lights have no waterproof processing, their PCB direct expose in the air, which makes them have a good heat dissipation performance. Of course, they can also be manufactured to IP65, IP67, IP68 waterproof for outdoor use. Thanks to the excellent heat dissipating efficiency, low voltage LED strips can use higher power of SMD light sources and achieve higher brightness.

These are the main differences between the rope light and LED strip. MLDR ® is a LED lighting manufacturer, producing and selling all kinds of LED light strips.

How to improve the brightness difference of LED strips caused by voltage drop

A typical 12V LED light strip is basically formed by a plurality of light groups in which three SMD LED beads are connected in series. In an ideal situation, the voltage input to each group of LED beads should be 12V, but in actual use, the input voltage of the LED groups far from the power supply is less than 12V, resulting in their brightness is significantly lower than the LEDs that closer to the power supply. What caused this?

Voltage drop issue (from www.mldrled.com)

The main reason is that the copper foil circuit inside the LED strip has resistance. The power output from the power supply needs to go through a longer loop to reach the far-end light bar. As this distance increases, the power loss also increases, so the actual voltage input to the far end is not enough to fully drive the LED light. Similarly, if an improper wire is used in the circuit, the voltage drop will be aggravated.

It can be seen from the above that the root cause of the voltage drop phenomenon of the strip led light is the current loss in the circuit. Based on this principle, there are several ways to improve the problem.

1. Increase the thickness of the copper foil
The resistance of the conductor is related to the size of its cross-sectional area, so the use of thicker copper foil can reduce the resistance of the PCB and increase its ability to carry current. Although this method is effective, it will result in an increase in the cost and price of the lighting products.

2. Use a higher voltage LED light strips
In the case of the same power, the higher the voltage, the lower the current. Therefore, as the input voltage increases, the current in the strip circuit decreases accordingly, thereby reducing the current load of the PCB. This is why the maximum series length of the 24V strip is longer than 12V.

3. Install in parallel
We know that the longer the series length of the tape lights, the more obvious the voltage drop. Therefore, we can install a certain length of the strip in parallel to reduce the inconsistency of the first and last brightness caused by the series connection.

We are a China strip LED lights manufacturer dedicated to providing reliable and quality light strips to customers around the world.

Lumileds introduces the industry's highest brightness 3-in-1 RGB LED

Not long ago, Lumileds released the new MultiColor Module 0.5W from its LUXEON LED lighting range, a mid-power, color-changing RGB LED bead. The LED uses the 3535 PLCC6 package standard and integrates three semiconductor light-emitting chips, red, green and blue, capable of producing 1,000 McD of red light, 2300 McD of green light, and 500 McD of blue light at 20 mA operating current. Industry data shows that this is one of the brightest RGB LED beads on the market today.

Lumileds 3535 RGB LED

The detection mechanism tests the LED in a hydrogen sulfide environment, and the result shows that the LED successfully maintains the luminous flux and forward voltage stability of the internal chip under the test environment, and has great reliability. According to Jennifer Holland, LUXEON product line director, Lumileds' reliable design and packaging technology is the key to the stability of this product. The LED's independent waterproof rating can reach 8 levels, suitable for outdoor advertising screens and decorative lighting.