For addressable LED strip lights, it is essential to choose the right IC chip. Today we will talk about several LED IC chips, they are all powered by DC5V low voltage, what features do they have, and which one is suitable for your project? Keep reading.
- Considerations for Using DC5V Addressable LED Strip Lights
- WS2812B
- WS2813
- WS2801
- LPD8806
- APA102 vs APA107 vs HD107s vs HD108
- SK9822
Considerations for Using DC5V Addressable LED Strip Lights
More Obvious Voltage Drop
Compared to 12V addressable led strip lights and 24V addressable led strip lights, the maximum running length of 5V addressable led strip lights is the shortest. Due to the more obvious led voltage drop, addressable 5v led strip lights are more used in smart home appliances, smart devices, and other small projects.
More Power Injection
When using a 5V addressable led strip with more than 150 LEDs or more than 2.5m-length, it must inject power at both ends to ensure that each LED light color and brightness keep the same.
WS2812B
WS2812B led strip lights are the most affordable addressable 5V led strip. WS2812B IC is built in the 5050SMD LED, the whole led strip presents an RGB color-changing light effect with each LED that can be individually addressable, which can be used in Adafruit, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi projects.
The WS2812B led strip has three pins, one for positive, one for negative, and one for signal transmission. The arrow represents the direction of the digital signal transmission. If the signal is terminated, that is, an LED is damaged during the transmission process, the LEDs behind the broken LED will not be lit.
WS2813
The WS2813 chip is built in the 5050 SMD LED, driven by dual signals, which belongs to the breakpoint resume transmission. In the 5V WS2813 led strip, one IC controls one LED light, and each LED light can be cut. Unlike the WS2812B led strip, the damage of one LED on the WS2813 led strip does not affect the use of other LEDs, unless two consecutive LEDs are damaged.
However, the WS2813 RGBIC LED strip has a very noticeable voltage drop resulting in poor color consistency. It means that you need to add an extra led power supply in the start yellowing area to solve the color inconsistency problem.
WS2801
The WS2801 IC chip has one more clock pin, with excellent 8-bit color per channel, 2.5 kHz PWM refresh frequency and 1Mbps data rate. The WS2801 IC is built into the LED or externally placed on the addressable LED strip. Each WS2801 IC controls a single LED, WS2801 supports both constant voltage and constant current drive modes, suitable for low-cost and cascadable LED decorative lighting systems.
LPD8806
LPD8806 is also a 2-wire interface that can manage 20Mbps and high PWM rates. Each LPD8806 IC controls 2 LEDs. Each channel has only 7 bits instead of 8, so it can only handle 1/8 of the colors.
APA102 vs APA107/HD107s vs HD108
APA102 IC chip, HD107 IC chip (APA107 upgraded version), and HD108 all use the same 4-wire protocol (+, -, signal, clock). And they are available with addressable white light led strip lights.
APA102 led strip with the best color mixing ability, belongs to the brightest led strip lights.
HD107S led strip with built-in sleep function, no electric consumption under no work condition, very good for battery-powered application.
HD108 has the fastest data transmission rate, and less voltage drop than APA102. One 5m/16.4ft HD108 led strip can be powered by one end with pure color and no color difference.
| LED IC Chip | PWM Frequency | Data Rate |
| APA102 | 20 kHz | 20 Mbps |
| APA107 | 9 kHz | 30 Mbps |
| HD107s | 26+ kHz (the upgrade of APA107) | 40 Mbps |
| HD108 | 27 kHz (the fastest) | 40 Mbps |
SK9822
SK9822 is similar to APA102, 4.7KHZ PWM refresh rate, and 15MHZ transmission rate. Each LED on the SK9822 led strip can be controlled individually, and there is one more clock pin in the SK9822 LED chip, meaning the microcontroller can reach its full potential with faster data transfer rates than the WS2812B.
It should be noted that the WS2812B is usually powered at one end, which is enough to run 5m LED pixel lights. But in the SK9822 LED strip, it is recommended to inject power every two and a half meters to maintain color accuracy.
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