LED Light strip voltage drop

[mistertwister87]

I bought 2 - 16.5' waterproof LED light strips from Amazon and installed them in my boat. They are wired to a switch on my console dash. At the end of the first run (where the wires are) I checked my voltage and it is 10.4 volts. I tried to wire up another 16.5' to the end of the first run and the first few LEDs are very dim, hardly visible and the rest of the run will not night up. I checked the second run, just wired directly to a battery and they light up just fine. Am I getting that much voltage drop that I cannot wire these two together? Do I need to run a separate set of wires just for this second run? Can I just wire them both together at the switch? So many questions and I am getting frustrated.


Thanks!

 

[bruceb58]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

Run a separate set of wires to the second set.

 

[swire]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

The diagrams that I've seen basically show adding a voltage amplifier unit after every strip. I have 1 1/3 strips running on the outside of each side of my boat. There is a noticable difference between the brightness at the back of the boat where the power wires are and the front of the boat. I've also heard of people dual feeding the LED lights. Meaning on you connect wires to both the front and end of the strip, feeding it power from both ends. Otherwise just run a seperate wire for each set of lights.

 

[CaptainKickback]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

Running one strip off the end of the other is wiring them in series and they all share the 12V available. All devices, and even the wire itself, cause some voltage drop. Your strips contain many devices (the LEDs wired internally in parallel in sets of 3s).

If you run the strips on separate wires, they would be wired in parallel, and each strip would have its own 12V.

Make sure the wire to the switch is big enough that you don't have a significant voltage drop in that wire.

Sea ya...

 

[bruceb58]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

The diagrams that I've seen basically show adding a voltage amplifier unit after every strip.

These so called amplifiers still need a seperate 12V run to them. They are just relaying the RGB control signal.

If you are just running single color white LEDs you just run seperate wires.

 

[mistertwister87]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

Thanks guys I am going to just run a second set of wires. Any idea how big of a switch I will need? I just temporarily ran a second set to the switch and it got hot, like really hot.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

What type of LED strip did you buy? For example, the 5050 300 LED strips are 6A per 16.5' so 2 of those is 12A so you need a good sized switch.

 

[mistertwister87]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

These are the ones I bought...

HitLights
Hitlights 300 LEDs Waterproof Red Flexible Ribbon LED Strip, 16.4 Ft or 5 Meters, 3528SMD Type, 12 Volt, 24 Watt


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006IWQMHO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

 

[bruceb58]

Re: LED Light strip voltage drop

Those are only 2A with 4A total for 2 strips.

What kind of switch are you using?