The scheme of connecting the LED tape. Connecting the LED ribbon with your own hands

LEDs (English LED) are becoming more popular for home lighting. They can be used in various forms. The connection scheme for the LED strip depends on its type and power. There are many options for connecting these lighting devices to various power supplies.

Constructive types of LED ribbons

This is a general term used to describe various types of LED devices made in the form of flexible bands (tapes). Depending on how you plan to use the LEDs, you will need one or the other kind of their design. For example, in indoor areas such as bathrooms, closed waterproof tapes are best used. To indicate in the dark paths, you can choose aluminum strips with LEDs. To simplify installation, flexible self-adhesive tapes can be used.

But we are no longer interested in their design, but in the connection schemes for LED LED strips, which are determined by their own electrical circuits. They, in turn, depend on the number and number of kinds (colors) of LEDs in the tape

LED ribbon colors

They have a very wide range of glow colors. The most massive of them are called monochrome (English singl color strip) and shine with one unchangeable shade. They are cheap, affordable and generally easier to install.

The second type is called RGB tapes. They can display any color obtained by mixing red (Red), Green (Green) and Blue (Blue), similar to how it is done in a color picture tube. In it for each element of the image, three closely spaced parts of the screen with the three colors listed above are used. By adjusting the beam of a kinescope, the intensity of the glow of a given area, the color of the image element corresponding to the broadcast is obtained.

RGB-tape is built on a similar principle. It can consist of either so-called LED triads consisting of three bands of red, green and blue LEDs arranged in parallel and in parallel, or of specially manufactured combined triple strips enclosed in one housing.

These tapes have a small controller that allows you to control the LEDs of each color on an individual basis from the control panel, including remotely.

The device of monochrome LED-tapes

The most simple are the monochrome models. Two parallel printed copper bus-tracks are laid along the length of the tape. One of them joins the "plus" power supply, and the second - to the "minus". Between them are installed LEDs, and they are all oriented in the same way: the anodes to - "plus", and cathodes - to the "negative" bus. On the body of each of them, from the side facing the minus bus (from the side of its cathode), one of the corners is cut off, and all of them on the same side. This makes it easier to determine the polarity of the feed bars of the tape.

In addition, along its entire length on the tires there are groups of four contact pads, which have icons "+" and "─", which serves the same purpose. Between the pairs of pads in each such group, lines of the cut with a conventional badge in the form of scissors are perpendicular to the edges of the tape. Connecting an LED tape with your own hands often requires cutting it into pieces, which is done on these lines.

Connection of diodes in monochrome tapes

The nominal supply voltage of the tapes is either 12 V or 24 V. In the first case, all the diodes are divided into parallel triads connected between supply rails. That is, their number between adjacent groups of contact pads is a multiple of three. Each of their triads is three in series connected through current-limiting resistors (one to three) of the LED.

For a tape with a nominal voltage of 24 V instead of a triad between the buses, a larger number of successive diodes is switched on - up to 10 pieces.

RGB tape device

Consider it with the example of a product with combined (three in one case) LEDs. Such an electronic element has six terminals on opposite sides of its body, all the anodes being withdrawn to one side and cathodes to the opposite side. All diodes are turned by their anodes to one edge of the tape. On the opposite side of their bodies (on the side of the cathodes, but also on the contrary, on the side of the anodes), as in monochrome LEDs, one of the corners is cut to facilitate determination of polarity.

Groups of eight contact pads are periodically located along the length of the tape, symmetrically at four located on both sides of the cut lines, indicated by a conventional scissors badge. The connection scheme of RGB LED strip often requires cutting it into pieces, which helps to implement the above lines.

Two extreme adjacent areas in each group are marked with the "+" symbols, under which the nominal voltage values are indicated, and the other three pairs of adjacent sites are denoted by the letters "R", "G", "B". All of them are located on the same type of power buses. So, there are four such tires on the tape. In this case, three "liter" tires run parallel along one of its edges, to which the anodes of the diodes are turned, and the "plus" bus is along its opposite edge, to which their cathodes are facing.

Diode connection in RGB tapes

If the ribbon is positioned in such a way that the contact pads on the "plus" bus are on top, the anodes of the three internal diodes of each combined LED located first to the left of the sites will be brought to the common "plus" power rail. Then, when shifted to the right, all the diodes of the same color are connected in series with the far left, until the cathode of each of them is put on the same right contact pad of the given piece of tape. Between adjacent devices, current limiting resistors are connected in series.

The adjacent areas of the same color, located between the two cutting lines, are connected directly to each other by the segments of the respective tires. So the connection scheme of RGB LED strip allows you to apply voltage to it from either side.

General tips for installing LED ribbons

Never buy them without first specifying how you will conduct the installation. Connecting the LED strip with your own hands can in some cases be as simple as turning the portable light into an outlet. In others, it will have to be cut off, removed and stripped of the connecting wires, installed on them special connector-connectors or connected to the output terminals of various power supplies.

For installation, always consider the following factors in advance:

• Required tape length / number.

• Power consumption and supply voltage.

• Location of the LEDs on the tape.

• The degree of its flexibility.

• Do you need a planned circuit for connecting the LED strip in components such as connectors.

• Is it necessary to program it?

Power LED ribbons

Before buying any of them, you will need to determine the permissible power consumption. The connection scheme for the LED strip depends largely on this parameter. First, you need to make sure that your outlet can provide the power needs of the LEDs. It's pretty simple to calculate.

Find out how much power your power supply can provide. For example, a typical mains outlet is rated at 15 A. At 220 V, the mains voltage goes up to 3300 watts. It is recommended that you never load a source more than 80% of its power, so do not connect more than 2640 watts. On the specification tape, you want to buy, you need to find power. Note that it is sometimes indicated on the drum - the unit of supply from the plant per unit length (foot or meter) or on the LED. In the last two options, you need to calculate how many feet (meters) of tape or how many diodes will be used in your overall design, and multiply by the specified capacity. This will let you know whether your circuit will connect the LED tape safely.

Another reason to pay attention to the power of LED-tapes is the power consumption. Even with low power consumption of LEDs (compared to most other types of lighting equipment), their total number of several hundred will still increase your electricity bills.

Connecting the LED tape to the computer

This is a very common way of supplying LED strips, since a typical switching power supply (UPS) PC typically has one of the 12V voltage outputs, which corresponds to the nominal supply voltage of most monochrome models. Here it is important not to make a mistake when determining the permissible load on the UPS. On each of them there is a plate with the indication of the rated current for each output voltage. A typical UPS with a total output of 400 watts with a voltage of 12 V allows a current of 16 A, which corresponds to 190 watts. The specific power consumption of typical LED-tapes at 12 V is in the range from 2.5 to 14.5 W / m.

Connecting the power supply of the LED strip

The option of connecting the LED ribbon to the PC UPS is still, so to speak, "supernumerary", adapted. Currently, the market offers many different power supplies that are connected to the mains, with 12 and 24 V output. Among them there are both universal-use units and specialized devices for powering LED strips. When choosing them, you need to take into account the above recommendations for determining the permissible power consumption of the lighting load and the correspondence of its nominal power to the power source.

How to control the luminescence of RGB tapes

Above, when considering the arrangement of diodes in these lighting devices, it was noted that they are connected in three parallel branches, in each of which the LEDs of one color are sequentially switched on. Accordingly, and the connection of the controller to the LED strip means the connection to the supply voltage of each of these three branches via its transistor switch controlled by the controller chip. In the kit comes a remote control. It has an infrared light emitting diode, and on the controller unit - an infrared sensor, controlled by a special microcircuit.

The connection scheme of the LED ribbon controller assumes that it is connected to the power supply network through a power supply unit with a voltage output of 24 V. Often, RGB tapes are sold bundled with it and RGB-controllers, with their input and output connectors matching each other, and a connecting cable is also attached.