How to cut, connect & power LED Strip Lighting

Hello and welcome to this LED Supplies instructional video on how to cut,

connect

and

power

the LED

strip

. We'll start by looking at how to cut the LED

strip

to achieve the length you need. To cut the strip, you simply need a sharp pair of scissors. Before cutting your LED strip, it is important to understand a number of key aspects related to this product. The strip can only be cut at the points that are marked. These breakpoints are clearly shown by a line crossing the strip, as you can see here. Cutting distance for LED strip varies.

In the samples we have here you can see that the cutting distance is 100mm for LED strips of 30 LEDs per meter, 50mm for strips of 60 LEDs per meter, 25mm for strips of 120 LEDs per meter and 15mm for strips of 240 LEDs per meter. meter" Once you have found the cut line marked on the LED strip, simply use the scissors to cut directly along the line as shown here. It is important to note that the LED strip should ONLY be cut in the specified marks. Cutting the strip in the wrong place will result in some of the LEDs in the cutting area not working.

In this example, you can see that the strip has been cut incorrectly. here you can see that the LED that has been cut correctly is fully functional. The strip in this example is a warm white LED strip from our selection of single color LED

lighting

strips, although the same rules apply when cutting. our range of color changing RGB strips. Now let's see how a

connect

ion to the LED strip can be made. We supply our LED strip in 1 meter lengths or in full 5 meter coils. For each length of LED strip you order, it will be pre-installed with a 2.1mm input connector, as shown here.

This input cable is part number C4229 in case you wish to order additional units. If you need to cut the strip you will need to take steps yourself to

power

it as cutting the strip will of course remove the pre-installed C4229 input connector. There are two ways to make additional connections to the strip when you will no longer need to use the pre-installed input jack. You can use a clip connector or make soldered joints. First we will look at the clip connectors. These connectors come in a variety of sizes to match standard 8mm and 10mm tape widths, as shown here, and no tools are required to attach them.

Each full 5 meter reel of our LED strip is supplied with 5 of the appropriate clip connectors. These types of connectors are not suitable for using our ultra high brightness strip series due to their high output power." "To use these connectors, please place the connector up to the LED strip and make sure the RED wire is aligned with the + mark on the strip and that the BLACK wire is aligned with the -- mark on the strip". To attach the connector, gently pull back the black locking bar, insert the ribbon into the slot until it is fully positioned, and Make sure the copper connection points are inside the connector body." "To complete the connection, push the small black clip back into its locked position applying equal force on both sides until it meets the body of the connector, this will lock the tape into position" "Gently pull on the strip to reveal that it is locked in place and that a good connection has been made.

As you can see, the LED strip now has 2 wires connected to it. You can use an LED driver that has screw terminals as input and output connectors to add power to the strip as we show here. Alternatively, these clip connectors can be used in conjunction with our part number C4349 to facilitate quick powering using a standard power supply which we will demonstrate now. You can see that the order code C4349 is marked with + and -- on its housing to indicate which cables should be connected all the way around. The LED strip is also marked + and --, so make sure the wire connected to + on the LED strip is connected to + on the C4349 and do the same for the -- wire.

Locate the wires on the screw terminals as shown and tighten the screw terminals. Then, to power the LED strip, simply connect the power supply connector to the C4349. Now we will briefly see how to solder the LED strip. Soldering is our recommended method as it provides a more secure connection. Here we are soldering our order code C4229, the small 2.1mm input wire, onto a single color LED strip. As before, you can now power it up quickly using a standard power supply. All of our non-waterproof LED strips featured in this video come with an adhesive tape as shown here.

This backing can be peeled off and then the LED strip can be stuck to a clean, flat and suitable surface. Wood, metal, and plastic surfaces are generally fine. For a quality finish, you may want to consider our range of aluminum extrusion for LED strips; Here is a selection of them. The aluminum extrusion helps protect the strip, helps diffuse the light, and also helps the product run cool and have a long life. See the Aluminum Extrusion section on our website for more details. Now we will see how to power the LED strip. It is important that you do not fit too many LED strips as a single linear length or the high current entering the strip can cause damage.

We suggest that for a 4.8W per meter strip a maximum distance of 10 meters be powered, and for a 9.6W per meter strip a maximum of 10 meters if powered. If you need to power more than this, then the LED strip should be connected in parallel to the power supply to avoid damage. When selecting a power supply, we suggest leaving 20% ​​free space. By this, we mean that if your LED strip requires 48W, 20% added to 48W is 57.6W, so the next largest power supply would be our 60W power supply. It is okay to use a power source that can provide more than necessary.

You should never use a power supply with the same rating as your power strip requires or less. To calculate how much power in Watts you need. Simply multiply the watts per meter of the strip by the length of the strip you are powering. So if you are powering 5 meters of 4.8 watts per meter strip, simply multiply 5 meters by 4.8 W per meter which will give you 24 watts. Then adding 20% ​​headroom to 24 watts gives 28.8 watts, so a 30 or 40 watt power supply would be perfect. Even a 60 watt or 90 watt power supply is acceptable as your LED strip will only get the power it needs from the power supply.

Here we have a selection of our most popular power supplies. The SW4010E is a 12 VDC 1 amp power supply, so it can provide 12 watts SW3114- A is 12 VDC 2 amps, so it can provide 24 watts SW4500 is 12 VDC 3.5 amps, so so 42W Sw3783A is 12V DC 5 amps so it can deliver 60 watts SW4333 is 12V DC 7.5 amps so 90 watts max. This concludes this video on how to cut, connect and power the LED strip. We hope you found it useful. Check out our website for other videos in the series.