LED flexible lighting strips to illumnate a layout?

Though I'm surely not the first to think about this, I though a thread on the subject would be worth while.

I needed lighting under my layout for wiring and I got tired of using a florescent trouble light to do the job. I thought about fluorescent tubes, but ruled those out as did with CCFL's due to size, heat, and the number that would be needed for even lighting. The only other choice is LED's, but the typical enclosure or the LED "bulb" gets me back to the above (without the heat issue). Then there is the cost.

Some preliminary details are needed. The most common SMD's (Surface Mount Device) used for these strips are the 3528 and the 5050. A comparison between the two is here;
The Comparison Between SMD 3528 and SMD 5050 LED Strip Lights : LEDLIGHTSWORLD.COM
What is the difference between 3528 LEDs and 5050 LEDs |SMD 5050 SMD 3528

The issue of color temperature is here which is a huge issue with LED's;
LED Specs - Understanding the Color White - Lighting Solutions | DigiKey Technology Zone

There is also light output in lumen's which is not always listed. Something I consider the most important spec other than temperature;
http://www.colorkinetics.com/support/whitepapers/Evaluating_Light_Output.pdf

To make matters worse, there is a issue of "binning" due to the inconsistancy of mass production of LED's;
Decoding LED Bin Labels - Lighting Solutions | DigiKey Technology Zone

Now, if I haven't scared you away or confused the hell out of you, read on.
I knew of these "strips", but never looked into them. Doing some preliminary searches brought me to everyones favorite eBay. Searching there brings up dozens of sellers, mostly from Hong Kong that I didn't want to deal with. Checking "US only" removes most of those, but still leaves some since they are now just stating they ship to the US to get around the "US only".
Try this search. It reduces the count down to 530 sellers;
led flexible LED lighting strips | eBay

For those of you that don't like eBay, here is a link for a Amazon search (fine tuning may be necessary);
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ps&field-keywords=led+flexible+strip+lighting

 

I received my order yesterday from NJ (in spite of Sandy) and was surprised at the size (or lack of) of the reels. You can't tell from any of the photos since no reference was shown next to them. The "reel" that was used was a 8mm movie reel (if you can believe that). Something I haven't seen one in 20 or so years.
They came in static resistant pouches, though diode & resistors don't really have static issues, but nothing wrong with that.

Now the details of the specific LED's.
I choose the smaller 3528 over the 5050 since this was going under the layout, not above, only as a 'work light'. I wasn't sure if these were going to be bright enough since I didn't want the brighter "bluish' white' strings, I chose the "warm white 2700-3000k. I can always add a 2nd string if these aren't enough.
I have to say, there is no way I would remotely consider the "clear white" color, as many of these sellers call the typical bluish LED. These are blue enough. Viewing from the side produces a much warmer color. Viewing from straight on, they have a slightly bluish tint.
The plywood was painted white, so were the 'L' girder framework. Shelve depth is less than three feet. There is better reflection of light as opposed to non painted ply helping the situation.

After confirming both strings worked and they did, the 1st test was current draw since I didn't believe the specs posted. With 300 3528 LED's, the 5 meter (16') string drew ONE AMP at 12 vdc. I used an adjustable bench PS with volt & amp metering. AC current will depend of the efficiency of the PS you use. Outdated "bricks" (transformers) will be more than switching supplies. I didn't have a 2 amp switching supply available, but had a 3.3 amp which I will use giving me the ability to add another string if needed.

I also tested the dimming ability. These LED's fired around 7.5v (very dim, not really usable) and seem to achieve maximum brightness between 12 and 13vdc.

I noticed these 5 meter strings are actual comprised of a number of separate 20" sections that have ten sets of these "3 packs" that are soldered together. That was a surprise.
Measuring the temperature (after being lit for 15-20 minutes) in a ambient room temperature of 65 degrees and found these to run around 75 degrees. Just warm.


Attached are photos of:
the shipping reel next to a $5 bill for size comparison,
reel label,
single '3 pack' closeup,
solder joints,
color comparison between these and a circular florescent tube work light (taken in manual mode in the 'incandescent' color temperature setting with sheets of white paper below).

 

After studying the links I provided in the OP, the issues of bins & binning through quality control, the maxing of the yields of these LED's, also the fact these so called warm white LED's are not necessary that "warm" in actual appearance and lastly the limited, narrow visual spectrum brings up questions. When it comes to reproducing colors on your layout, assuming you will use these for above lighting (unlike my use), I would suggest trying at least two RGB strips with a warm white strip in between to 'fill in' the void of a single color LED.

Of course this is a suggestion I'm thinking about trying. Adding the three primary colors together produces white. Separate red, blue & green LED's are very vivid by themselves. It would then reason the resulting combined output would be a better white.

 

I have a friend who uses those "rope lights" for his staging yard lighting. It's pretty effective. He goes to the dollar stores and buys them as well as the strands of 'white' Xmas or holiday lights. He told me the ones he has have replacement bulbs, but most of the ones he sees do not have them. Guess for a dollar you can't expect much.

2slim

 

Unless your walls and ceiling are already painted blue.

2slim;
I thought about both, but dismissed them.
Any of the "rope lights' I have seen are just incandescent miniature lamps inside a vinyl tube. They are somewhat cheap, output is not high and they seem to lean towards yellow, opposite of the so called "clear or bright white" (which are bluish). Also, I feel they are just too 'hoaky', looking, surely not suited for your model railroad that you spent so much time and money on.
Also the same goes for Xmas strings lights. Those are always the much more common (and cheaper) bluish whites (6,000-7,000k) LED's. Besides, those are much harder to position and secure to a surface.


There is at least one "controller" available for combo RGB strips to vary the color and brightness of the strip. This could open up new possibilities to simulate dawn, dusk etc. depending on how well it worked.

Just to show how "nutso" one can go with RGB strips, they have individually addressable LED strips available, where each LED cluster can be changed from it's neighbor;
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2540

 

One point I should of made eariler;
I ruled out Xmas tree light strings and those awful looking "rope lights". I spent too much time and money on my layout to degrade to to that level!

Here are pics of the strips temporary mounted to the 'L' girders under the layout. These have adhesive on the back that actually might hold for the long term, but I will probably apply clear (or white) acrylic caulk as a additional measure.
I needed around 27', so I either cut one of these or overlap where they meet in the middle, starting the ends of each strip from the ends of the table. I believe the actual length is more than 16", but haven't measured yet.
One strip is decent, not bright, but workable. With both strips in use, output is more than enough telling me a 5050 strip as opposed to this 3528 would of been the better choice.

If you focus on the top of each pic, the single strip really isn't that bad, ignoring the carpeted wall that sucks up light, making it look much darker. Finally, the "warm white" is very pleasing. I wouldn't want the common so called "clear or true white".

Though, I surely didn't need "waterproof", I find this encapsulated strip a huge advantage over a bare flexible circuit board with LED's & resistors exposed to getting hit and damaged. I'm not sure about mounting as I'm concerned if either strip fails and needs replacement for whatever reason. I was planning on applying acrylic caulk to supplement the adhesive strip, but I'm not sure now. using pieces of 24 gauge wire does hold these in place, but needs refinement.

 

Doing additional research, I came across these sites with information regarding lumens output & types of strips. The majority of these strips use either the 3825 or the 5050 LED SMD as already stated. Either one of those can be either a 30 LED/meter or a 60 LED/meter strip.
Adding to the mix are 120/meter & 240/meter 3825 strips.

Before I go into luminous output, go here for the different encasements available, making them waterproof and "tool" proof for exposed areas;
http://www.ledstrips8.com/wholesale/super-bright-12v-flexible-waterproof-led-lighting-strips/

First, go here and click on each type of strip and look at the lumens (lm/m) and the Efficiency (lm/W) columns to see the difference between the types of LED's used;
http://www.kingway-led.com/products/Flexible-LED-strips-14-1.html

Using the "warm white" color, lumens per meter output varies from a low of 165 lm/m to a high of 1680 lm/m which is over a 10:1 spread. The site is the manufacture, not a outlet, no prices are available. Since these companies use the same chips from one company to another, I would like to assume lumen output would be similar (other than possibly color consistency).
All the combinations have the same efficiency (66 lm/W) except the 5630! That has a efficiency of 76 lm/W! A oddity is listed with the 60 LED's/m strip of only 53 lm/W. I don't know if that is a typo or not.

But, there is an additional chip of interest for even greater output; the Samsung 5630. Though more expensive, considering the output, it is cheaper per lumen. Most of the listings for this 5630 only have it as the typical 'cool' white (bluish color).

Going in the opposite direction, there is a 335 LED. Being smaller, output is only 150-200 lm/m. If space is a concern for other applications, this could be a solution;
http://www.lya-ledlights.com/html_products/SMD335-30LEDs-led-strip-light-36.html

If that still isn't bright enough, there are 24v versions of this with another 1,000 lm/meter output;
http://www.rayen-led.com/samsung-led-strips/129-samsung-5630-led-flexible-strip.html

There is no two ways about it. I'm sold on this concept. Cost is the main issue, so shopping around is essential. Prices I have seen have ranged from $13 to a high of around $230 for a standard five meter reel. That is $1.25 to $14.40 a foot.
With the two strings I bought, both are ok so far, but that isn't long term testing. The power supply I'm going to use is a switching type with enough overhead. I have a string of 5050's 30 LED's/m ordered to compare since I will just double up the original pair of 3528's and fill in the rest of the length with this 5050 for a brighter coverage. I suppose if I didn't do the 'double up' test, I would of settled for a single string, but I figured for an additional $18 more, the 5050 string was worth it.

 

5050 strip

I ordered a 5050 version of these strips. I finally arrived.

I failed to notice the one I ordered was only a 30LED/meter. This strip was $18 delivered which I though was a good buy. The 3528 was $14 delivered. The 3528 strips I had are 60LED's/meter.
Anyway, here are the tests I did between the two types.

Differences from the 3528;
1. Wider strip,
2. Four conductor bus as opposed to two conductor (4 solder connections between each section),
3. Tri-color SMD's with separate red, green & blue LED's within,
4. Individual resistors (150 ohm) for each SMD instead of one per "3 pack".

You now have the option to run all three or any combination with additional circuitry, one of those optional controllers or something of your design by simply using different resistors or some type of rheostat design to vary the resistance (voltage) to each color to change the color temperature.

I retested current and then tested light output using a light meter set to a Lux scale measured three feet from each strip laying on the floor (easier to do it that way). I made numerous tests. (Due to the 3 amp limitation of my bench supply, I couldn't test voltage greater than 15.5 for the 5050 strip.)

5050 voltage & current:
12.0v - 1.6A - 35 lux
13.8v - 2.5A - 47 lux
15.5v - 3.2A - 55 lux

3528 voltage & current;
12.0v - 1.0A - 31 lux
13.8v - 1.5A - 44 lux
15.5v - 2.0A - 53 lux
18.0v - 2.8A - 65 lux

I would not recommend running much above 13.8 volts. I only tried 18 volts to see what the difference was. I measured temperatures over 100 degrees after less than 10 minutes.

 

finished product

Though disappointed with my 'goof', I wound up using the 3825 strips the entire perimeter of the layout (with about four feet left over which I cut) and using the 5050 strip along the long portion. I also decided to switch the strips separately so I can have just the 3825's (smaller) strips lit as a ambiance lighting filling in below the table, not to work on, but only for show. Then switching in the parallel 5050 if I need to work for additional lighting.

I drilled holes through the 'L girders to route the strips without cutting and soldering jumpers between each. I (unfortunately) used a old tube of silicone caulk to provide additional holding power since there is no way that adhesive strip would hold on painted wood. It might do for glass, Plexiglas or polished steel, but not pine that was only primed. That was a mistake since the caulk apparently was past it's useful state in the tube. It seems to be holding, but I already found a few spots that have separated with the last strip I positioned. The caulk already started to set-up.

Below are pics of with and without the strips. The pics were taken in full manual mode so you can compare the light levels.

 

I started to work under the layout doing wiring and these surely beat the temporary lighting that I was trying to use.

 

LED lighting are directly mounted on the surface of the PCB board which provide low voltage lights.

But no doubt these LED provide super quality Brightness and lighting.

 

These Lighting are very useful in number of ways.




Fire Hose Reels

 

i use 3528 type led strips, 600led/5m.

4 strips are bundled like this : 1 yellow white, 1 blueish white, 1 yellow white, 1 blueish white. blueish and yellow each have their own dimmer. there are two of the 4-lane lights in my trainroom

 

Resurrecting a older thread, returning from a three year hiatus, I have found seven '3 packs' have died. They are scattered around 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the strips which cover most of the layout. Most are the 5050's.
Taking a closer look some are not completely out. Each of these surface mount LED's appear to have three individual elements. You can see this in three of these attachments.

Worse, half of these appeared to have died in the past 2 days (around 4 hours of on time) after sitting for three years I'm wondering if 12v is too high .

These can't really be serviced, surely I have no intention of removing the strips or even trying to cut out the 'bad' sections unless a greater number of these die out. Typical Chinese QC.

 

I use strips like that to light up my computer desk. I have them attached to the underside of a shelf overhead, with a dimmer (made for this application). It runs off a 12V 2A wall wart. Warm white, and it gives a nice, even illumination over my desk.

I also converted a fluorescent lamp that mounts under a kitchen cabinet when I saw that the ballast was giving up the ghost. Ripped out the innards, put a 12 volt DC power supply in the space for the ballast, and put a 16 inch strip of LEDs where the tube used to be. It gives a stronger light than the fluorescent, and comes on instantly when I hit the switch.

I love these things.

 

Nice idea for the two fluorescent magnifier extension lamps I have when I use of the spare tubes I have for them and/or the ballasts go south which will probably happen sooner. The current crop of LED magnifier lamps have bad track records for reliability and suffer form low light output judging by all the comments over at Amazon.

 

It didn't happen all at once. There were three that were out when I fired them up many months ag. Four more went in the past week. I checked my feed voltage and it is 11.9v which is in spec from a decent switching PS.
There are three new 'chips' I have discovered with greater output. I don't know if the reliability is any better or if I just got some bad strips three years ago.

This explains the difference between the two I have and a 2x brighter model;
http://www.flexfireleds.com/pages/Comparison-between-3528-LEDs-and-5050-LEDs.html

 

I'm pretty sure it's not the voltage that's killing them . I have a reef tank and use LED's for lighting it . There are a lot of cheap LED systems out there , mostly from China . All evidence that I've seen is that they will work great for a while , but then the LED's fail . I think it has to do with the cheap LED bulbs that they are using . Now a good LED system should last years and used high quality LED's and drivers . I don't know where to look , but I bet that if you can find some high quality LED strips you will have the problem solved .