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[on:]

Just wondering if anyone has tried these yet, the price is pretty good:
http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-EVER-Flexible-Waterproof-Ultimate/dp/B0085UPUI4/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1356720628&sr=8-10&keywords=rgb+led+strip

$25 for 5 meters, vs $25 for 1 meter at adafruit:
http://adafruit.com/products/346

The adafruit one uses the larger 5060 LEDs, instead of the 5050 ones, and are water-resistant.

Has anyone tried these? Are they controlled the same way as the Adafruit ones?
http://learn.adafruit.com/rgb-led-strips

[Reply #1 on:]

The Adafruit strips have 60 LEDs per meter, the other only has 30....

[Reply #2 on:]

Most strips are seem to be 30 per meter, the 60 per meter are new to adafruit (this week), and they discussed them on the latest ask an engineer (last weekend). The 60 per are pretty neat as they have the chip inside the LED to save space on the strip, to put more LEDs! I think they have some limitation, but I cant remember what it is (like auto latching).

If the best price is the most important thing, then you probably wont ever want to buy something from adafruit, stick to ebay and amazon. Adafruit does do a lot of educational stuff, so its nice to support them, but you will pay a little bit more.

[Reply #3 on:]

The Adafruit strips have 60 LEDs per meter, the other only has 30....

I gave the wrong link:
http://www.amazon.com/Non-Waterproof-5050-SMD-Strip-Light/dp/B006LW2NJM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1356723919&sr=8-5&keywords=rgb+led+strip

The ones in my first post actually were "waterproof".

I think I found the catch, one of the reviews states that you can only change between the 16 preset colors. They aren't truly "RGB". Unless thats a limitation of the controller, and not the strip itself.

I do like to support both Adafruit and Sparkfun, but I am a poor, broke, college student. After Christmas I tend to be even more broke than usual.

[Reply #4 on:]

I think that with the Adafruit strips you can control each individual LED whereas the Amazon strips you just have 1 red, 1 green and 1 blue channel. All LEDs have the same colour.

The Adafruit strips are quite difficult to control if I am remembering correctly what was said on one of the Adafruit videos.

Martyn.

[Reply #5 on:]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyz_RZdvdTA&t=56m0s
Precision timing output, but watch, and she explains a bunch of issues with those, and that they are awesome.

The other strip looks like you could make it whatever color you want, but it will be the whole strip. It looks like you will need like 10amps to run 60/meter.

[Reply #6 on:]

From that amazon ad, one of the reviews said this:
"One glitch: the only available colors (16) are the presets. Sadly, you can't adjust individual RGB values for custom colors. "

[Reply #7 on:]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyz_RZdvdTA&t=56m0s
Precision timing output, but watch, and she explains a bunch of issues with those, and that they are awesome.

The other strip looks like you could make it whatever color you want, but it will be the whole strip. It looks like you will need like 10amps to run 60/meter.

I'm looking at the simple analog Adafruit RGB strips, not their serial controlled ones. Although those do look sweet.

I'm making an airsoft target range. I plan on using the RGB strips to make a "crosshair" shape behind the target. If the shape is red, the player should shoot, if the shape is green, the player should not shoot. Having the extra colors is nice, but I don't really need to control each LED individually.

I was hoping that someone might have already tried these, and could offer some experience up with them. They look the same as the Adafruit ones. Each strip has a +12 wire, a G wire, a R wire, and a B wire.