Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

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gandon
 
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:38 pm

Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by gandon »

Hi There,

I just wanted to double check that the Neo Pixel RGB LED 60 LED Strip are perfectly fine to cut between each LED. Essentially, I want to keep the strip but have a greater/varied distance between each LED so planned to just cut them and solder wires of a specific length to re-attach them.

I wanted to just clarify before purchasing as I am on a limited budget and trying to avoid errors.

Thanks!

kipconner
 
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:51 pm

Re: Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by kipconner »

Seconded! I'm looking to build the drum kit LED set and need to cut the extraneous length off the strips.

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pburgess
 
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Re: Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by pburgess »

Yes. Such is the magic of NeoPixels...they can be cut to any length, on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

They can be reattached with extra wire between them, within reason (perhaps a couple feet, tops). For really long runs, keep in mind the resistance along all this wire...you may want to have periodic power taps to make sure everything's running at full brightness.

gandon
 
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by gandon »

@pburgess - thanks so much for the reply, just the clarification I was looking for. You actually brought up something interesting, there may be a couple of times where the distance could exceed 2ft. I thought I had read somewhere that wire length doesn't matter but I guess you would say it does...I would really appreciate if you could give some basic advice on how these power taps work/how do I use them and where could I find them?

I tried searching on sparkfun and adafruit and couldn't find anything.

thanks again

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pburgess
 
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Re: Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by pburgess »

You may well be able to put longer gaps between them, there's just no established Canonical Upper Reliable Limit in the datasheet or such. Some folks have done much longer runs, but I don't know how much of that is attributable to luck vs. by design, so I'm using conservative numbers here. Factors such as wire gauge come into play (thinner = more resistance, thicker = more capacitance). This might benefit from some experimentation to see what works for your situation.

By "wire taps," I just mean connecting additional wires back to the power supply periodically along the strip. When you have a really long strip powered from just one end, the voltage tends to droop toward the far end and this affects the brightness and color. But not always; again, many variables such as length of strip and gauge of wire. It might be sufficient to connect power at the middle of the strip (rather than one end or the other)...again, this is situation-specific and warrants some experimentation...no need to complexify things if the voltage drop turns out to be a non-issue.

gandon
 
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: Cutting Neo Pixel RGB 60 LED Strip - 1M

Post by gandon »

Ohh okay got it. Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate and it was just the kind of advice I was looking for

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