Hi Im a bit of a newbie at all this but im looking for some advise. My main aim is to run a 50 meter long led strip at the bottom of a swimming pool. I was hoping to use the arduino to control the led strip so that it lights 16 LED's (8 along the strip (2 side by side))at a time going from one end of the strip to the other in a set amount of time that i specify.
I was looking at 1 set of 2 leds(side by side) every 4 cm. That a total of 2500 leds in the strip
The programming of the arduino i reckon i could do. But its the sheer ammount of leds and the controlling of them that im struggling with. As i said at any one time only about 16 leds will be lit at any one time. Does anybody have any ideas how i could control these. I dont think i need to worry about voltage drop as not enough will be lit at the same time to worry about it.
Ok, so you need digitally controlled underwater/submersible strips.
Start googling, see what's available.
Not sure you will find double LED strips, so you need 2 side by side.
Also not sure if every 4cm is standard, you'll have to read the strip specs & see what's offered.
The norm is 3 LEDs every 5cm, so you could do 18 at a time, 6 sections at 30cm, pulling approx 120ma if normal single colour LEDs.
166 outputs for one strip! 12v 20A per strip too.
None of the cheaper strips would work unless you ran them in a waterproof enclosure.
Thats surely gonna draw some mad current? Think youll be wanting relays with those too as that kind of current wont go through the arduino safely. Or am I talking crap?
If only 16 are on at a time then theres no problem with current, if they all were to go on id be alot, a strip i had that was 5m was 1.5 a so times 10 is 15 amps