How To Get Started With RGB LED Strips That Can Be Programmed

 

 

LED strips are a great way to add a lot of light and color to a project in a fun and cost-effective way. You’ll learn about the many sorts of strips and how to connect them to an Intel Edison using an Arduino breakout board in this Instructable.

 

To begin, solder the wires to the light strip. If you don’t buy a full 5-meter roll of LED strips at once, you’ll get a larger quantity of strips that have been cut off and don’t have the leads attached. Soldering is straightforward; all you have to do is make sure the wires are connected to the correct side of the ribbon. At either end, there will be a set of four contacts, but the two contacts in the middle of one end will be labeled “DI” and “CI,” while the two contacts in the middle of the other end will be marked “DO” and “CO.” The “I” side (short for “In”) is the one you desire.

 

Because the connections are brittle at this point, I recommend using heat shrink tubing or electrical tape to reinforce and insulate them.

 

The LED strips should then be connected to the Arduino and the power source. The “DI” and “CI” (Data In and Clock In) wires are connected to the Arduino’s two digital pins, while the other two are connected to the power supply and power source, as well as the Arduino’s common ground. Check out Adafruit’s great tutorial for a more in-depth look at wiring addressable LED strips.

 

Finally, you’ll need to submit the program to Arduino via your computer so that it can execute it using the LEDs. You’ll need the Arduino IDE (along with the Arduino USB driver) and a library to control the chip on the LED strip for this. This library is accessible for the individual strip I purchased.

 

I won’t go into detail about how Arduino works or how to utilize it because that will be covered in a subsequent guide. For the time being, I’d just like to point you that you can program the Arduino by writing a simple C program that specifies which LEDs should light up and when. It’s still being coded, so don’t be alarmed if that makes you nervous; nonetheless, controlling the LEDs is as simple as programming in C, and you can learn everything you need to know in just a few hours.

 

I added two buttons to the Arduino for my project and built a simple software that cycles through three modes (stationary light, slow “bounce,” and carnival mode) and various different color selections with the second button. I got some ordinary 3M double-sided mounting tape and applied it to the Arduino and LED strips to mount the backlight to the TV. I put the whole thing to the back of the TV, and now any movie or carnival can generate lovely mood lighting.

COB LED STRIP

What is COB LED Strip and Benefit of COB

COB (Chip on board) LED Ribbon is a leading-edge technology that features small LEDs mounted directly onto a flexible circuit conducting strip (PCB). A single line of phosphor runs along the whole length and provides dot-free continuous illumination. COB LED Ribbon has a CRI of >90, which shows more realistic colors and gives a more natural illumination feel. COB comes in either warm or natural white and is available in both IP20 (for Indoor use) or IP66, which is suitable for use outdoors or in bathrooms. 

COB LED STRIP

 

 

BENEFITS OF COB

– Integrated components improve durability

– High-density LED provides dot-free continuous illumination

– Chips mounted directly onboard provide 180° beam angle

 

Color of COB LED Strip

This COB tape also comes in either warm white (3000K), daylight (4000K), or cool white (6000K). Warm white offers a yellowish hue which provides a cozier feel to space and is typically best for use in the living area or the bedroom.

Cool white (6000K), on the other hand, is a cooler, brighter white. It is generally used in kitchens or bathrooms and works synergistically with a modern home.

Daylight (4000K) sits right in the middle of this spectrum. It is rather similar to natural daylight and produces a bright white light, while still remaining relatively warm. This makes daylight very versatile and usable in a range of projects.

Cut and Connect

This tape can be cut at 4.5cm intervals and we’ll be more than happy to do all the handy work for you. Here at MSH, we offer a free cutting and soldering service which will provide you with bespoke made-to-measure tape.

Your first 3 cuts will be free of charge and we will provide your tape with their own cable attached allowing you to install drivers where applicable.

All tape is priced per meter, and our strip lights team will be able to provide you with a custom quote if you have a particular project in mind.

Please note that all IP67 and IP68 tape comes in lengths of up to 5m max, and will not fit in any of our aluminum profiles.

IP65 tape comes in maximum lengths of up to 25m and will be soldered tape to tape every 5m for any lengths over 5m. Although 25m lengths are available in this way, there is no guarantee that it can be run continuously due to power drop. Please get in touch with us if you require further information about this.

IP20 tape may or may not come from soldered tape to tape, as this depends on how it arrives.

 

COB led strip light applications

New LED-Strip without any visible LEDs! The COB LED-Strips emit a continuous, homogeneous line of light. 

This brings great advantages to a huge number of applications:

  • perfect uniform light, even in very flat LED profiles
  • continuous, narrow LED band for accent- or orientation lighting
  • perfectly even in indirect light application with very short distances

the price is for one roll of 5 meters!

  • flexible LED strip with COB technology
  • voltage: 24V/12V
  • with 3M adhesive tape on the backside for easy mounting
  • IP20 not water protected

How to install the COB LED strip light? (step by step)

COB LED Strip

 

led strip lights home depot

2021 China’s urban lighting industry problems and development prospects forecast analysis

As more and more areas step into the process of China’s urbanization development, the development of the industry, and the evolution of people’s needs, urban lighting gradually complete the upgrade from functional lighting to artistic landscape lighting to better serve urban residents and business activities.

Data show that the size of China’s LED lighting market output value grew from 259.6 billion yuan in 2015 to 415.5 billion yuan in 2018, with an average annual compound growth rate of 16.97%, a growth rate higher than the global average. It is expected that by 2021, the output value of China’s LED lighting market is expected to reach RMB 590 billion, and is still expected to be able to maintain a compound annual growth rate of more than 12% from 2019-2021.

Urban lighting industry development dilemma

1. Intensified competition in the industry

With the continuous promotion of smart cities, as well as the upgrading of cultural tourism night tour economy, the penetration of different industries will gradually deepen, and lighting engineering enterprises will also face competition from enterprises in other industries such as smart cities and cultural tourism in related businesses.

At the same time, with the continuous development of mobile, Internet of things, big data and cloud computing and other technologies, holding big data and huge traffic resources of Internet companies, in recent years also frequently seek to urban lighting industry cross-border development. With the continued development of the urban lighting industry, a number of lighting engineering enterprises have landed in the multi-level capital market, after opening the capital market financing channels, and gradually developed into the head of the lighting engineering field, the above-mentioned enterprises through the power of capital to receive more large-scale projects, making the industry more competitive.

2, the lack of high-end technology and management personnel to limit the development of the industry

City lighting industry due to the many areas involved, the process of training talent compared to other industries to be more lengthy. At present, there are more people working in the industry, but there is still a lack of high-end technical personnel. On the one hand, the planning and design of the link need to be combined with the geographical environment, cultural differences, so in the process of design solutions on the ground, the need for a large number of professional and technical personnel can deepen the design. On the other hand, most of the enterprises in the industry have backward management methods and lack modern management consciousness, and many of them do not have long-term development goals and are easily driven by short-term interests. The lack of technical and management professionals in the industry and the rapid development of the industry does not match the status quo, making it difficult for domestic enterprises to make long-term breakthroughs in technology development, management, and other aspects.

Urban lighting industry development prospects

1, social development and policy to promote the favorable factors

In recent years, the country has developed the “13th Five-Year” urban green lighting planning outline, “13th Five-Year” national strategic emerging industries development plan, “13th Five-Year” energy saving and emission reduction Comprehensive Work Program”, “Thirteen Five” period of cultural industry development plan”, “Thirteen Five” energy saving and environmental protection industry development plan” and other policy documents to clearly encourage and support the development of urban lighting industry. In order to implement the national development strategy, provinces and cities have strengthened the urban lighting management and financial support. 2020 May 22, “2020 State Council Work Report” proposed to focus on supporting the “two new a heavy” (new infrastructure construction, new urbanization construction, transportation, water conservancy, and other major projects) construction. This has brought about the policy guidance represented by “new infrastructure”. The introduction of various national policies has provided good policy guidance and support for the industry, which has played a positive role in promoting the stable, healthy, and orderly development of the industry.

2、Favorable factors of urbanization development and upgrading

In China’s urbanization cycle, China’s urbanization rate has reached 60.60% in 2019, but compared with the world’s developed countries, China’s current urbanization rate is still at a low level, is expected to be the next ten years of China’s urban market scale of steady growth, which will become the market basis for the sustainable development of the urban lighting industry.

3, spiritual pursuit and quality improvement of favorable factors

People’s pursuit of the city and the building night scene is no longer just ornamental but also hope that the cultural and artistic level of the urban landscape to bring spiritual enjoyment. Lighting and culture, technology, and other elements combined to create interactive lighting devices, lighting music miniatures, large-scale live interpretation of the light show, to create innovative, connotative urban lighting space that can meet the growing spiritual pursuit of people so that people in the night scene to experience the full range of urban space light environment.

4, smart city development of favorable factors

In recent years, with the development of the Internet of things, big data, mobile communication technology, the development of smart cities in breadth and depth are constantly breaking through. The smart lighting system can not only improve the level of control of urban lighting, energy-saving, and consumption reduction goals but also can integrate video monitoring, environmental monitoring, disaster warning, and many other functions, to provide technical support for the city’s information and intelligence management. On the basis of the overall lighting IOT of the city, richer sensing facilities, energy-saving lighting, video monitoring, help alarm, public broadcasting, electronic screen information release, wireless WIFI, environmental monitoring, intelligent charging pile, and other objects are incorporated into the sensing network to provide more basic data support for the smart city and expand more wisdom services.

Exports continue to soar in November 2020! Cumulative export value has exceeded last year’s full year

In November 2020, China’s lighting industry exports amounted to US$5.863 billion, a new high for a single month in 2020, with a year-on-year growth of 40.44%, achieving double-digit growth for six consecutive months since June.

Among them, the LED lighting products exports amounted to $4.168 billion, up 45.33% year-on-year, since May has been seven consecutive months to achieve positive growth, not only the highest export value for a single month in 2020, but also recorded the largest year-on-year increase in a single month. Among them, lighting and accessories products growth is very bright.

Month by month, exports in January before the arrival of the epidemic situation is basically stable; February is the most serious period of the domestic epidemic, production and supply chain suffered great resistance, highlighted by orders but difficult to deliver, so the data fell to the bottom; March after the domestic epidemic tends to stabilize the enterprises have resumed work and production to improve the situation, the overall lighting exports rebounded momentum is obvious; April-May production and supply chain to further recovery, and the backlog of orders into the implementation of release. And the backlog of orders entered the implementation of the release period, so the decline narrowed; next, with the spread of the epidemic overseas, the rapid recovery from the epidemic in China’s factories to further highlight the production and supply chain advantages, greatly compensated for the global supply gap caused by the epidemic, June to August for three consecutive months to achieve double-digit growth; and with the transfer of substitution effect continues to amplify, the share of Chinese manufacturing in global exports As the substitution effect continues to amplify, the share of China-made exports in global exports has further increased, with exports in the past three months from September to November achieving significant growth of over 40%.

From January to November 2020, China’s lighting industry-wide cumulative exports amounted to $46.238 billion, an increase of 11.99% year-on-year, already exceeding the 2019 annual figure of $45.438 billion.

Among them, the cumulative exports of LED lighting products from January to November amounted to 31.128 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of up to 12.83%, also surpassing the 30.157 billion U.S. dollars for the whole year of last year.

According to the General Administration of Customs data show that in November, China’s exports of trade in goods in RMB 1.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.9%, the growth rate hit a new high of nearly 20 months since March last year; $268.1 billion in U.S. dollars, an increase of 21.1%, the highest growth rate of nearly 33 months since February 2018. 1-November, China’s cumulative exports of trade in goods From January to November, China’s total exports of goods trade amounted to 16.1 trillion yuan, up 3.7% year-on-year, with positive growth for four consecutive months; in dollar terms, it was 2.31 trillion U.S. dollars, up 2.5% year-on-year. China’s foreign exports have achieved six consecutive months of positive growth, while the trade surplus reached $75.42 billion, the highest since the data began to be compiled in January 1981. And our lighting industry exports have been ahead of the broader market for five consecutive months since July.

In November, lighting exports not only continued the good growth momentum since the second half of the year and set a new record high for total exports in a single month. Overseas epidemic is still severe and accompanied by many countries rebound, so scientific research, medical lamps, ultraviolet lamps and other and plant lighting products such as epidemic prevention and house economy-related concepts of product exports to maintain growth; North America, Asia-Pacific and other markets gradually recovered, foreign demand margins have been further improved, the relevant new orders are relatively stable; China’s exports to other countries, “alternative transfer effect ” continues to amplify, the share in the global export market has been further consolidated and enhanced.

2020 has been the past eleven months, the cumulative exports of the lighting industry has exceeded the whole of last year, and made nearly 12% growth; the current lighting exports can be described as supply and demand, based on this, and combined with the relevant export enterprises in hand orders to judge, the total annual exports exceeded 50 billion U.S. dollars will be just around the corner, which will also be China’s lighting exports of the highest ever greatly improved.

Exports record high at the same time, but also to pay attention to the real difficulties faced by export enterprises in the near future, especially since the fourth quarter. Including.

1, price issues.

Price competition still continues and intense, profit margins are further compressed. Especially LED light source products, the above chart can be seen especially since the second half of the year, its average export price in accelerating decline. And combined with the rise in the price of fluorescent products in 2020, the two have even appeared between the average price of exports inverted.

It shows that some enterprises face the challenge of the epidemic and industry competition, taking the cost of sacrificing profits to seize market share or just to retain the hope of life.

2. Exchange rate issues.

Exchange rate fluctuations, the U.S. dollar against the yuan has fallen sharply from the previous once broken 7 to 6.5 a line, the profit of export enterprises hit very big.

3, Supply chain issues.

Soaring international commodity prices coupled with the manufacturing industry to China gathered, resulting in copper laminates, aluminum substrates, IC chips, MOS tubes, passive components and other raw materials components significantly increased prices and accompanied by a shortage of goods. The production and profits of the relevant export enterprises have generated greater pressure.

4, Logistics issues.

Also by the epidemic led to further expansion of global demand for Chinese products, the shipping industry since the fourth quarter, the phenomenon of price explosion cabin shortage of cabinets is more common, the product can be made but can not be shipped out to become another problem faced by export enterprises in the near future.

5, Energy issues.

Recently, due to La Niña phenomenon caused by this winter’s abnormal cold and manufacturing recovery boom factors, the southern part of the provinces such as Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang due to electricity tension or to complete the energy-saving indicators, resulting in power outages and power restrictions, the production capacity of some lighting manufacturing enterprises have caused a certain impact.

Summarize:

Lighting exports in 2020 under the ravages of the epidemic still achieved promising data, rare and valuable, on the one hand, you need to pay attention to the difficulties encountered, on the other hand, to plan and prepare for next year.

Looking ahead to 2021 lighting exports, one is the sustainability of the high increase and transfer of substitution effect of products related to epidemic prevention and house economy remains to be observed; secondly, the lighting industry chain still has spillover risks, and the global industry chain may evolve from simply pursuing high efficiency and cost performance to putting supply chain security as an important consideration in the post-epidemic era.

Various uncertainties in the future overlapping factors lead to difficulties in business decision-making and planning, the current global epidemic threat has not been removed, whether people or goods to restore the global flow, it is still a long and difficult thing. It can be said that “the majestic road is really like iron, and now step forward from the beginning to cross”.

Guoxing to expand Mini LED production capacity, Apple will release Mini LED version of iPad, LG will use Mini LED backlight

01 Guoxing: Mini LED is gradually breaking the price bottleneck and speeding up the commercialization of the product

Recently, Guoxing Optoelectronics said in institutional research, the company’s product domestic and international orders demand by the epidemic is a phase of decline, the industry exports to domestic sales ratio increased. The company actively seized the limited market share during the epidemic, strategically adjusted the market positioning of some core products, and lowered the prices of some core products to meet the domestic product market demand, and the price and gross margin of domestic business decreased.

In recent years, the development of LED small-pitch display technology has opened up new opportunities for LED indoor applications. the launch of Mini LED has further met the demand for high-definition displays for high-end rental, TV, cinema screens, and small and medium-sized conference panels. As a leading RGB display packaging company, RGB display, especially small pitch, and Mini LED packaging, is the key development segment of the company at present.

In terms of product technology, Guoxing Mini LED has started batch shipments in the first half of 2019 and has successively launched a number of products such as IMD-M09T, IMD-M07, IMD-M05, etc. In December 2019, a dedicated Mini LED manufacturing department was established, and the production process technology has become more and more mature and widely recognized by customers. In terms of the product price, RGB launched cost-effective IMD0.9 standard version products in November this year, gradually breaking the relevant price bottleneck to meet broader market demand and accelerate the commercialization of IMD products.

In terms of capacity layout, from the current order situation of Guoxing’s Mini LED products, the product boom is good, but the capacity of this piece does not account for a high percentage. Therefore, the company plans to further enhance the scale of Mini LED production capacity in the first half of 2021. In addition, with the gradual implementation of the company’s 1.9 billion yuan new base expansion project, Guoxing’s overall production capacity scale is also expected to usher in a greater upgrade.

Regarding the expansion plan, Guoxing said that the first phase of the company’s one billion yuan expansion project has been completed in 2019, and all of them will be put into production and released in the first quarter of 2020, and the company expects to gradually release the second phase of 500 million yuan expansion capacity in the first and second quarters of 2021; meanwhile, the company plans to invest no more than 1.9 billion yuan in the construction of the Jili Industrial Park project, which is mainly used for building R&D and production sites, advanced LED packaging and application production lines, and the production of LEDs. The project will focus on the production of RGB small pitch, Mini LED and TOP LED products, which can be applied to the ultra-high definition, new intelligent display, smart home, optical communication, Internet of Things, etc. The total construction period of the project is 3-5 years, and the company plans to complete the construction of the project plant within two years, which is expected to be opened in 2021 to achieve a larger scale capacity growth.

02
Apple will release a mini LED version of the iPad in March

According to the latest reports from foreign media, Apple is already preparing for the spring launch in March this year, and the protagonist is the new iPad Pro, which has been exposed many times before.

The report mentions that Apple’s new iPad Pro is expected to be released in March this year, and if the stock availability is not too sufficient, then Apple is to consider a certain extension because they are still facing a lot of products production supply, not demand situation, such as the iPhone 12Pro series.

Sources have revealed that Apple is exploring the use of 10,000 LEDs Mini LED display, each below 200 microns. Because there are more LEDs and more dimming zones, Mini LED displays can provide deeper or darker blacks, higher brightness, richer colors, and greater contrast.

03
LG is also expected to use Mini LED backlighting in LCD TVs

As a well-known OLED TV manufacturer in the industry, LG is about to announce its new TVs for 2021. Interestingly, with Samsung, TCL, and other manufacturers, LG is also expected to use Mini LED backlighting in LCD 8K/4K TVs, so that the image quality of LCD TVs ushered in a qualitative leap.

Currently on the market claims to have supported the “full array of local dimming function” of high-end LCD TVs, usually involving hundreds of LED backlight can be fine-tuned according to the dark scene to black and contrast.

But LG’s MiniLED backlight solution can be more detailed and dense on top of that. By introducing up to 30,000,000 Mini LEDs and 2,500 local dimming zones, it is able to deliver incredible peak brightness and a contrast ratio of 1 million:1.

Compared to the company’s previous LCD products, the new QNED LCD panel delivers a higher contrast ratio, HDR dynamic range, higher color accuracy, and a high refresh rate of 120Hz like all of LG 2020’s flagship products.

Epistar to continue localization services with a new image from 2021

Epistar to continue localization services with a new image from 2021

Since its establishment in 1996, Epistar EPISTAR has been actively exploring and deeply cultivating the mainland market. As a leading LED upstream chip technology company, we are committed to sharing LED technology and promoting LED application development. From the development of red, yellow, and blue monochromatic light to the era of white light with blue light and phosphor, Epistar has been making continuous efforts to uphold its professionalism and progressive development, pushing the industry technology forward until the outbreak and advancement of Mini/Microtechnology, and practicing its mission of “realizing the infinite possibilities of LED applications”. In 2009, we benefited from the growth of the mainland market.

In 2009, benefiting from the booming development of the mainland market and in order to create a good customer-supplier relationship, Epistar established Epistar’s localized quality service team to provide quality products and efficient solutions to mainland customers. Thanks to the positive feedback and strong support from our customers, we have been able to create a win-win situation by working closely with them. Today, Epistar is in a key position to drive the commercialization of LED technology applications. In an environment where global humanity is facing and breaking through the epidemic crisis, in order to continue to realize the infinite possibilities of LED applications while being prepared to meet all challenges, Epistar strives to continue to thrive in an unprecedented manner in the post-epidemic era with our customers and industry colleagues through the integration of resources.

(hereinafter referred to as “JKK”) will take over from Epistar’s PSC as the only official sales channel for Epistar in mainland China from January 1, 2021, to work together to provide better quality products and efficient services to our customers and continue to “realize the infinite possibilities of LED applications” with a new image.