Hello and welcome to this LED supplies instructional
video on how to cut, connect and power LED Strip. We'll start by looking at how to cut LED strip
down to achieve the length you need To cut the strip you simply need a pair of
sharp scissors Before cutting the LED strip it's important
to understand a number of key aspects relating to this product. The strip can only be cut at the points that
are marked. These cut points are clearly shown by a line
across the strip as you can see here The cutting distance for LED strip varies. In the samples we have here you can see the
cut distance is 100mm for LED strips with 30 LED's per metre, 50mm for strip with 60
LED's per metre, 25mm for strips with 120 LED's per metre and 15mm for strips with 240
LED's per metre" Once you have found the cut line marked on
the LED strip simply use the scissors to cut directly along the line as demonstrated here
Its important to note that LED Strip must ONLY be cut at the specified marks. Cutting the strip in the wrong place will
result in some of the LED's in the cut area not working
In this example, you can see that the strip has been cut incorrectly. There are two LED's not lit. Whilst here you can the one that has been
cut correctly is fully functional. The LED strip in this example is warm white
LED strip from our selection of single colour LED strip lighting, although the same rules
apply when cutting our range of colour changing RGB strips
Now let's now move on to how a connection can be made to the LED Strip. We supply our LED strip in lengths of 1 Metre
or on full 5 Metre reels. For every length of LED strip you order, it
will be pre-fitted with a 2.1mm input socket as shown here. This input cable is part number C4229 should
you wish to order additional units. If need to cut down the strip, you will need
to take steps yourself to be able to power it as of course cutting the strip down will
remove the pre-fitted C4229 input socket There are two ways to make additional connections
to the strip when you no longer have the pre-fitted input socket to make use of. You can either use a clip on connector or
make soldered joints. We will look at the clip on connectors first
These connectors come in a range of sizes to match standard tape widths of 8mm and 10mm
as shown here, and no tools are required to fit them
Each full 5 metre reel of our LED strip is supplied with 5 of the appropriate clip on
connectors. These types of connectors are not suitable
for use our Ultra High Brightness series of strip due to its high power output." "To use these connectors offer the connector
up to the LED strip and ensure that 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 fit the connector, gently pull back the black locking bar, Insert the tape into the
slot until it is fully located and ensure that the copper connection points are within
the body of the connector". "To complete the connection push back the
little black clip into its locked position by applying equal force to both sides until
it meets the body of the connector, this will lock the tape into position"
"Gently pulling on the strip will show that it is locked into 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 which has screw
terminals as input and output connectors to add power to the strip as we show here. Alternatively, these clip on 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 order code C4349 is marked with + and -- on its casing to indicate which
way round the wires should be connected. The LED strip is also marked with a + and
-- so make sure that the wire connected to + on the LED strip is connected to + on the
C4349 and do the same for the -- wire. Locate the wires in the screw terminals as
demonstrated and tighten up the screw terminals. Then to power the LED strip simply plug the
connector from the power supply into the C4349 We will now briefly look at soldering onto
LED strip. Soldering is our recommended method as it
provides a more secure connection. Here we are soldering our order code C4229,
the little 2.1mm input socket cable, onto a length of single colour LED strip. As before you can now quickly power it up
using a standard power supply. All of our non-waterproof LED strip featured
in this video comes with a sticky tape backing as shown here. This backing can be peeled off and the LED
strip can then be stuck down to an appropriate flat clean surface. Wood, metal & plastic surfaces are generally
fine. For a quality finish you may like to consider
our range of Aluminium extrusion for LED strip, a selection of this is shown here. The Aluminium extrusion helps to protect the
strip, helps to diffuse the light and also assists with the cool running and long life
of the product. Please see the Aluminium extrusion section
on our web site for more details We'll now look at powering LED strip. It's important that you don't run too much
LED strip as a single linear length or the high current being drawn into the strip can
cause damage. We suggest that for 4.8W per metre strip,
a maximum run of 10 metres is powered, and for 9.6W per metre strip a maximum of 10 metres
if powered. If you do need to power more than this, then
the LED strip should be wired in parallel to the PSU to avoid any damage. When selecting a power supply, we suggest
allowing 20% headroom. By this, we mean 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. Its OK to use a power supply that can provide
more than is required. By you should never use a power supply that
is rated the same as your strip requires or less. To calculate how much power in Watts you need. Simply multiply the Watts per metre of the
strip by the length of strip you are powering. So if you are powering 5 metres of 4.8 Watts
per metre strip just multiply 5 metres by 4.8W per metre giving you 24 Watts. Then adding the 20% headroom onto 24 watts
gives you 28.8 Watts, so a power supply rated at 30 Watts or 40 Watts would be perfect. Even a 60 Watt or 90W power supply is acceptable
as your LED strip will only draw the power it needs from the PSU Here we have a selection of our most popular
power supplies The SW4010E is
a 12vdc 1 amp PSU so can provide 12 Watts SW3114-A is 12vdc 2 amps so can provide 24
Watts SW4500 is 12vdc 3.5 amps, so 42W
Sw3783A is 12vdc 5 amp so can offer 60 watts SW4333 is 12vdc 7.5 amps so 90 Watts max That concludes this video on cutting, connecting
and powering LED strip. We hope you have found it useful. Please refer to our web site for other videos
in the series
What is the difference between an LED driver and a regular power supply? Googling this doesn't provide any easy answers
Great post, thank you!