Led lighting help

    Hello all!!


    I've been doing ALOT of reading about led lighting, I've also determined that it really isn't as simple as it sounds, with forward voltage and thermal meltdown ect.... so I'm asking all of my fellow slingers for some help. I will have a max of 4 or 5 16'5" strips, 3 for under the ss and some random accent lighting and 1 strip for cabin. I'm going to remove what body parts as need be removed for a professional install. With all that said what items will i need to do a proper rgb 5050 install? "Not tools but actual led equipment" I would like to have separate control exterior and interior lighting. I've always installed leds on all my bikes just by a simple switch and hooking to the battery, but that was a one color strip and it didn't matter if it lasted very long or how much voltage they drew because of how easy it was to change them, with the sling I'd like to not have to take it apart more than needed. I have aux fuse box and factory style switches already "please don't ask what brand lol I'm a amazon and ebay guy, I try to support our venders but I'm a slinger on a budget" oh and while your reading this how did yall route all your wiring? Thanks for any and all advise in advance.

    Lol I'm kinda hoping he chimes in :) I'm no stranger to electrical systems but I'm only familiar with testing and repairing existing systems. If this was installing a turbo or rebuilding the tranny or trouble shooting data lines I'd have no problem :)

    I skimmed through the post and what your wanting to know is going to be hard to tell you based on the fact that we don't know what kind of LED controller your going to use. Most led controllers can drive up to 3 channels up to 4 amps per channel.


    Each segment of 3 LEDs draws approximately 20 milliAmperes from a 12V supply, per string of LEDs. So for each segment, there is a maximum 20mA draw from the red LEDs, 20mA draw from the green and 20mA from the blue. If you have the LED strip on full white (all LEDs lit) that would be 60mA per segment.


    To find the total maximum current draw per meter, we would multiply 60mA x 10 (ten segments per meter for the 30/LED per meter strip) = 0.6 Amps per meter OR 60mA x 20 (twenty segments per meter for the 60/LED per meter strip) = 1.2 Amps per meter. Again, that's assuming you would have all the LEDs on at once and that you are powering it from 12V. If you're going to be PWM-fading between colors, maybe 1/2 of that is what you'll be drawing. Still, you do need to have a fairly strong controller to light up all those LEDs up!


    Come back to this post to get updates because Ill add pictures and more info throughout the day... I dont want to create more post below this one because its kinda hard to piece all the info together.


    So..... Now that we know the max draw on a 16' (actual 5 meter) set of LED lights running at full brightness is 5 x 1.2 Amps = 6 AMPS. Now divide that by 3....... Why? Because each chip has 3 individual channels (as mentioned above) that create the red green and blue color. So each channel is 2 Amps on a 16' length of light.


    So lets look at some pictures I found on the web.......







    In the picture where I show you the controller it appears it can handle up to 6 amps per channel. So technically this controller could put out 18amps...


    So if we know a 16' roll of 5050 can potentially pull up to 2 amps per channel you could run 3 16' rolls of 5050 on it.


    I just found another site on the web that had both common sizes of LED lights and their applicable current draw. They even added a little extra to the formulafor overhead.


    Calculation Examples:
    Example 1: A 5m roll of SMD3528 (0.08w) with 60LED/m would be: (5m x 60 x 0.08) / 12 = 2amps +10% = 2.2Amps.
    Example 2: A 5m roll of SMD5050 with 60LED/m would be: (5m x 60 x 0.24) / 12 = 6amps +10% = 6.6Amps.

    I dont have any recommendations on a controller. They are all about the same..... Since your not buying the LED lights pre configured as a kit I would just look on amazon and ebay for a LED controller . Make sure it is strong enough to do what you want and make sure it is either bluetooth or wifi.


    Not much to worry about. They are all cheap... And in my case I just ordered 3 or 4 different ones and tried them all. I ended up building my own controller out of several others.

    Quote from rabtech

    I dont have any recommendations on a controller. They are all about the same..... Since your not buying the LED lights pre configured as a kit I would just look on amazon and ebay for a LED controller . Make sure it is strong enough to do what you want and make sure it is either bluetooth or wifi.


    Not much to worry about. They are all cheap... And in my case I just ordered 3 or 4 different ones and tried them all. I ended up building my own controller out of several others.

    SHOWOFF!!! :00008172:

    I might not be right but I can sure sound like it

    It really depends on what you want feature wise and your budget.
    You can get a basic remote, out a smartphone integrated one that just turns on/off and changes color, or, you can get one that does multiple zones, music integration, custom patterns and even brake light integration that turns them all red when you hit the brakes.
    What are you wanting it to do?

    Quote from rabtech

    I dont have any recommendations on a controller. They are all about the same..... Since your not buying the LED lights pre configured as a kit I would just look on amazon and ebay for a LED controller . Make sure it is strong enough to do what you want and make sure it is either bluetooth or wifi.


    Not much to worry about. They are all cheap... And in my case I just ordered 3 or 4 different ones and tried them all. I ended up building my own controller out of several others.


    Hey Rabtech!


    I bought a bunch of LEDs from LEDs of Texas, prewired, plug n play, with a 3 zone Morimoto XBT controller. Everything is ready to be put on.


    My lighting guy who is great, totally anal, does everything correctly the first time, can't get to it until August. I'm not waiting that long. So I am going to attempt this myself (except for the wheels).


    The package includes:


    3 wheel lights that require the wheels to be taken off (I'll leave that for someone who can take them off) (zone 1)
    2 upper eyebrow strips (not the turn signal type) (zone 1)
    2 lower splitter strips (not the turn signal type) (zone1)
    2 long underbody strips mounted in aluminum frames (zone 2)
    1 short underbody strip for "bumper" tube (zone 2)
    4 LED speakers (added myself) (zone 2)
    4 halos (zone 3)
    2 roll bar strips (zone 3)


    I added in a 5-way splitter to zone 2 to accommodate the 4 LED speakers.


    Any advice?


    THANKS!!

    Quote from MiM

    @studiopeg, If you don't mind, what did that package cost? Thanks!

    Quote from MiM

    @studiopeg, If you don't mind, what did that package cost? Thanks!


    A ridiculous amount. Had I done my homework I could have gotten it for quite a bit less through my light guy who always buys from joeflorida.com (standup outfit!).


    Anyway it was $1,500. But at least it was all plug and play - I would have had to do a lot of soldering and measuring otherwise.

    Ok, I'm going to revive this thread for a minute. @rabtech I picked up my RGBW LED strips (5050 5m). I am running 2 controllers that show output as 4amps/ channel @ 5 channels. I won't be using the 5th channel and I will be using approx. 10m of LEDs. Now that I have it all, I am having an absolute brain fart on determining what I need to fuse these circuits at. I will be running each controller on an individual circuit. Thoughts?

    Semper Fi


    "Will Work for MODs!"