I’m looking for opinions on what LED strips I should use. Not looking for budget cheap, looking for something that will last and work well outside for a long time.
Needs:
10mm wide
Green LED color (not wanting RGB/WLED headaches)
Bright
Long Lasting
I have used all kinds of cheap LEDs for projects around the house. When it comes to outdoor they never seem to last more than 6 months. So really hoping to find something good here that I wont have to worry about. He has a lot of big money customers and he himself is a huge stickler for detail so I really want this to come out right and look good for a long time.
Obviously avoid anything Ebay/Aliexpress. They’re often remarkably garbage.
I’d start by looking at places that supply architectural/commercial lighting, ideally to professional customers like electricians/shopfitters etc. For instance we have companies here like Task Lighting that supply electrical wholesalers or electricians directly, which is where I’d start. Then we have companies like Lighting Direct which have stores and aim more towards consumers but do also supply electricians etc. but somewhat more on the middle-tier part of the market.
If you’re looking at places that you can buy LED strip from directly, at least look for places that have detailed information about how to use the strips, especially with respect to thermal considerations.
Another good sign can be having a very large variety of ways that the products can be configured in terms of channels, diffusers, etc. That can be a good sign that they’re supplying a market that’s more focused on getting the ‘right thing’, rather than the cheapest, race-to-the-bottom option.
I’d also suggest considering how to weatherproof the LEDs yourself. Even a careful coating or two of clear acrylic can make a huge difference, long term.
Those look good. The fact they claim UL listed is a great sign. They’re also relatively realistic in terms of claimed lumens per watt and watts per meter.
The point about UV protection is good, too, even with products that claim UV resistance. Similarly, with IP rated products anything you can do to protect them from water/condensation will extend their lifespan.
Another thing I’d suggest is to plan to check the operating temperature of the LEDs once they’ve been running for a bit. A lot of LED strip, especially if it’s intended to be higher performance, tends to be terrible at keeping itself cool which will cause it to dim or elements to fail over time. They really should be stuck to something as a heat-sink, if possible, so perhaps you could integrate a sheet of aluminium somewhere to mount them to or similar.
If they’re resistively ballasted types like the one linked (i.e. not ones with a separate controller) then if you power them from an adjustable power supply, you can dial the output power up and down quite easily. Alternatively you can also put something like a power resistor or diode in series to bring the power down a bit. This will dim the strips but have the elements running cooler so they last longer. If it seems like it’s running too hot (maybe 80 C or above on the elements when you’re testing them inside) then it might be worth running twice as much strip but at half the power. You could also just use them with a dimmer/controller, too, of course.
Not really the same situation but for the industrial lighting units that I’ve designed, I typically try to include as many LEDs as I can, running them at 1/2 to 2/3rds rated current, using an aluminium substrate PCB to get the heat out of them and then having them be mounted using conductive adhesive into a metal enclosure with fins on the back, etc. Overkill, but the goal is peak reliability and consistency over time because they’re part of a safety system.
So far everything I have looked at has been IP65 rated. I hadn’t thought much about the UV since they will be behind the letters but thats not a bad idea either. On the large letters I have 20mm from the edge to the standoff, the ATV + SXS I have 10mm. Was only able to go 6mm on the EST. 2016. Not sure yet if that part will get lights or not. I think it will be fine for that part to not be lit.
Im not dead set on them being single color, but I really don’t want to have to deal with data to them.
Also was thinking about going 24v if possible as well. Not sure if its that much better here or not. There will be tons of cuts and wires between each letter. So ample opportunity for power injection all over the place. I guess thats another consideration I should have mentioned as well, They need to be able to be trimmed easily.
What about attachment? Will the double sided tape be enough or should I look at some other type of adhesive to help? Dont want to have leds falling off in 6 months either LOL.
These seem like they are still available and not a horrible price. They all seem expensive when you are used to buying from Amazon/Aliexpress LOL
Probably depends more on how much LED you’re after and how far you’ll be running it. Anything more than a few meters/10’ of strip or with a big run back to where you’ll be powering from and I’d be considering 24V. If you can’t find good 24V options then 12V is fine as long as you distribute it well and have a good plan for the power supply. Even if you don’t cut the tapes, you can still add extra power conductors in series with the tapes themselves.
Probably depends on the climate, how the strips are protected and what they’re being stuck to. A decent quality LED strip will likely use proper name-brand adhesive (not the knock-off 3M that all the cheap strips claim) that should stick well enough. If you can keep it somewhat dry that’ll help, but also the key thing is surface prep. A smoothly finished surface that’s cleaned well will help a lot there. The thing is, if the tape loses adhesion then there’s a decent chance it’ll overheat in spots anyway, but you could always add ties to keep it in place. As far as I’ve ever seen, almost all the commercial strip-lighting is just using the adhesive but into an aluminium channel and then with a diffuser cap over the top and it seems to last well enough. The aluminium extrusion helps because you can give it a good thorough cleaning with acetone, which you might not be able to with other materials…
That’s a point that I made in another thread about buck/boost converters. It takes a serious amount of deliberate mental effort to re-orient yourself once you’re used to AliExpress pricing. The key thing to remember is that it’s not an equivalent product. You’re not paying more for the same thing, you’re paying more to actually get what you’ve ordered. When you’re buying from AliExpress you’re paying a cheaper price to get something that’s vaguely shaped like the thing you want but with zero quality control, dramatically inflated specifications and zero recourse if something doesn’t work right etc. I think we all know that, of course, but it does need to be very deliberately held front-of-mind to avoid falling into the ‘but it’s so much cheaper…’ trap.
I just ran through my cad again. To fully back light everything but the black letters/numbers on top is 12.5m of LEDs. So that doesn’t seem too bad at all.
Im not sure how long of a run I will have yet. Going to go by and look at it when I get back in town in a couple weeks
Power will be well distributed on the back of the sign and plan to power it with a meanwell power supply that is larger than what I need by a minimum of 20% Looking at the specs of the lights @vicious1 posted. 2.9w per foot at 12v. 12.5 meters is around 42 ft so thats only 126 watts total. That doesnt seem like much at all lol. So even a 200w meanwell power supply should be overkill.
Florida. 100% humidity, HOT, Tons of rain/thunderstorms.
Will be a CNC cut PVC board that it will be sticking to the side of. Hopefully cleaned well with some IPA before hand will be enough to help it stick well. If not Ill have to come up with some kind of plan to help it out.
Yeah, that should be all good. Sometimes power supplies don’t like starting into large loads so no harm in having extra head-room. Alternatively, using an LED driver shouldn’t have that issue.
Blech.
At 10W/m it’s probably no issue to use the strip that way. Typically, I’d aim to have it backed onto something conductive like an aluminium plate or into an extrusion to provide a bit of extra heatsinking, but then I’m dealing with probably 3-4x more power per square metre so I’m probably being a bit overly conservative. Running the strip and checking the temperature is the real answer.
You might want to check out what people in the Holiday Lighting hobby are doing and could possibly recommend some lighting.
While I do have a Christmas show, I do not have the heat and humidity issues you do.
This forum is Very Helpfull.
