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What are flexible led strip lights?

 

Flexible led strip lights VS rigid led strip lights

 


Led strip lights can be divided into two categories, flexible led strip lights and rigid led strip lights. Most led light strips on the market are flexible strips, but there is also a place for rigid led strips. 

Everything you need to know before buying led strip lights:

What are led strip lights?

Are led strip lights safe?

Is it worth getting led strip lights? 

 


What are flexible led strip lights?

We said before that led strip light is a strip-sharped printed circuit board with other electronic parts. And when connected an led strip light to a power supply, the electricity is converted into light energy, and the light emitting diodes will glow. 

Flexible led strip lights are that printed circuit board is flexible, which gives the possibility of bending. The flexible strip light is to weld the LED patch on the flexible circuit board, and the back side is installed in the form of adhesive on the occasion where it is needed. 

According to the different application occasions and the requirements of environmental illumination, the surface treatment can be divided into glue filling, waterproof treatment and non-waterproof treatment. The thickness of the flexible light strip is only the thickness of a coin and does not take up space. And it can be installed even in narrow spaces

Flexible strip lights have more abundant use scenes, outdoor building outline lighting, shopping mall atmosphere lighting, bridge lighting design, park lighting design, etc.

Flexible led strip lights can be divided into high-voltage strip lights and low-voltage strip lights according to different voltages.

High voltage light strips use 110V-220V voltage, and these 2 voltages can cover the basic requirements of all voltages (85V-265V), while the voltage of low-voltage light strips can be 5V, 12V, 24V, 36V, and 48V. 

High-voltage led strips are normally 50 meters or 100 meters a roll. The most common low-voltage light strips is a roll of 5 meters/16.4 feet. If the low-voltage light strip is too long, there will be a voltage drop.

*Single color/ RGB led strip light FSLSR-IP20-5050X300

 

What is voltage drop?

There will be loss during the voltage transportation of led strip lights. The longer the light strip, the greater the voltage loss. If you use a 10 meters 12V led strip light, the voltage at the beginning is 12V, and the voltage at the end may only be 8V.

Voltage drop means that the brightness of the light strip will also drop. The brightness changes from the white light at the beginning to yellow gradually, and finally turns to red light until the light disappears.

When there is a voltage drop, a good way is to use two power supplies. Connect one power supply at the beginning of the light strip and add another power supply at the end, so that there will be no voltage drop. And you can enjoy the happiness brought by the lights to your heart's content.

 


What are rigid led strip lights?

Different from the flexibility of the flexible strip lights, the rigid light strip printed circuit board is hard. The LED chip lamp beads are mounted on a hard circuit board to form a light strip called a rigid strip light.

The rigid led strip lights cannot be bent at will, which will cause the LED chip lamp bead to break and make it unusable. However, rigid led strip light is easier to fix, and it is more convenient to process and install. 

The rigid strip light is based on the flexible strip light in order to better solve the heat dissipation problem, and the SMD LED is welded on the aluminum substrate, so that the LED can get good heat dissipation treatment under long-term working conditions. 

Different from the multi-voltage of flexible led strip lights, the voltage of the rigid light strips is generally 12V or 24V. And the length we commonly see is 0.5 or 1 meter.

The 0.5 meter rigid strip can be connected to 7 at the same time, and one meter can be connected to 3. When you connect multiple rigid led strip lights, it is recommended that you use the power supply separately to prevent voltage drop.

The color of rigid light strips is not as rich as that of flexible light strips. Its single color have warm white, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. RGB is its color changing strips.

LED rigid light strips are mainly used in places such as LED advertising light boxes and booth counters. And it is not suitable for irregular places and that is where the rigid strip lights is restricted.

*Rigid led strip light WS2812C-RGB-5050X300W5

 


What happens if you bend LED strip lights?

The result of bending an led strip light depends on which led strip you are bending.

If you bend a rigid strip light, this is not allowed. Because rigid led strips can not be bent, it will damage the printed circuit board, and cause the light strip to not be used normally. The rigid led strip lights can only be installed on a flat surface.

So, when you have bending needs, please choose flexible light strips, which can help you solve the bending needs very well.

 


What is the difference between flexible led strips and rigid led strips?

On the surface, the biggest difference between flexible and rigid light strips lies in their flexibility.

Below we will list the difference between flexible and rigid strip lights to help you better understand them. You can also find out what light strip you want based on the listed knowledge.

Led strips Length Voltage LED color Waterproof grade Density (LEDs/m)
Flexible led strip lights

• High voltage 50 / 100 meters

• Low voltage 5 meters

• 110V / 220V

• 5V / 12V / 24V / 36V / 48V

• Single colortunable white color

• RGB /RGBW /RGBCCT

Addressable dream color

IP20/ 65/ 67/ 68 30/ 48/ 60/ 72/ 90/ 96/ 120/ 144
Rigid led strip lights 0.5 meter / 1meter 12V / 24V

• Warm white, white, red, green, yellow, blue

• RGB

IP20/ 65/ 68 60 /72/ 144

To know the LED light color: 

Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Addressable LED Strip

The Color Difference Between Warm White 2700K, 3000K, Natural White 4000K, 6000K Pure White and 7000K Cool White

What are led neon lights?

How to make led neon lights?

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