3V LED Strip lights???

Maschinen Krueger · Post by **Maschinen Krueger** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:26 am

Is there such a thing as an LED strip light that runs off 3V instead of 12V?

If not, what about 9V?

Thanks,
BK

veedubb67 · Post by **veedubb67** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 3:39 pm

I know these work at 9V.

http://tinyurl.com/paragrafix

These work at 6V.

http://www.modelersbrand.com/

Rob
Iwata Padawan

Maschinen Krueger · Post by **Maschinen Krueger** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:27 pm

Thanks.

daz · Post by **daz** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:23 am

Thanks for the links too, I was after some too.

xfoxx · Post by **xfoxx** » Sun May 26, 2013 9:53 pm

The LEDs always working in DC12V or DC24V,so if you use DC3V,it can't light,if DC9V,the LED strip will not bright as DC12V,so you'd better use DC12V.

alanwangwang · Post by **alanwangwang** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:52 pm

WS2813 led strip working is 5V , but you also can run them ON 3V

veedubb67 · Post by **veedubb67** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:29 am

alanwangwang wrote:WS2813 led strip working is 5V , but you also can run them ON 3V

Unfortunately, they're RGB LEDs not single color (i.e. White).

Rob
Iwata Padawan

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:13 pm

You'll need about 5V or more to get a white LED to light.

It's a physics thing. The voltage drop across an LED depends on the wavelength (which determines the color). Red LEDs will usually light at ~1.9 V or so. Blue ones need about 3V or more; greens are in between. But, since you also have to have resistors in series with the LED to limit the current or risk the LED failing (I've heard they can "pop" like popcorn, and as I like having 2 eyes, I've never tried to make that happen) you'll need another volt or two for good measure.

A "white" LED consists of very closely spaced red, blue, and green components (other mixes are possible) but will need at least the voltage of a blue LED to light up (so figure 4V-5V minimum, allowing for the resistor). I've had good success with 6V-9V. The higher the voltage of your power source, the bigger the resistor you'll need to control the current. A 220 ohm resistor might be fine for your red LED on two AA batteries in series, but you might need a 1000+ ohm resistor for that same LED to be the same brightness at 9 volts.

Ant · Post by **Ant** » Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:47 am

jgoldader wrote:A "white" LED consists of very closely spaced red, blue, and green components

That's true of white light from an RGB LED, but a white only LED is actually just a blue LED shining on a yellow phosphor coating which produces the white light when excited. Different phosphors are used to get cool white and warm white.

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Thu Aug 04, 2016 12:28 pm

Ant wrote:
jgoldader wrote:A "white" LED consists of very closely spaced red, blue, and green components
That's true of white light from an RGB LED, but a white only LED is actually just a blue LED shining on a yellow phosphor coating which produces the white light when excited. Different phosphors are used to get cool white and warm white.

Corrected (extended??) then. But you'd still need the same voltage, because of the blue LED. I suspected there were phosphors in the recent generation of LEDs used for normal household lighting, because I have some that fade over a second or so when turned off, rather than abruptly going dark.