What is better than intelligent RGB LEDs? Smart RGB + white LEDs! These NeoPixels now have 4 LEDs (red, green, blue and white) for excellent lighting effects. These LED strips are fun and bright, and you can control each LED individually!

This is the 144 LED/m RGBW strip with a transparent housing and a Black Flex printed circuit board!

The NeoPixel is split, one half is the RGB you know and love, the other half is a white LED with yellow phosphorus. When turned off, it looks like an egg yolk. When turned on, they are incredibly bright and can be controlled with 8 PWM bits per channel (8 x 4 channels = 32 color bits in total). Ideal to add a lot of colored + white dots to your project!

NeoPixel LEDs use the 800 KHz protocol, so specific timing is required. On NeoPixels, the PWM frequency is 400 Hz, which works well but is noticeable if the LED is moving. In comparison, DotStars have a PWM rate of 20 KHz, so even when moving the LED, you won't see the pixelation, the mixture is very smooth. (we recommend DotStars if you can use them)

NeoPixels are LEDs of size 5050 with a microcontroller integrated in the LED. You can adjust the brightness and color of each R/G/B/B/B/W/W with a PWM accuracy of 8 bits (i.e. 32 color bits per pixel). The LEDs are controlled by shift registers that are chained along the strip so that you can shorten or lengthen the strip. Only one digital output pin is required to send the data. The PWM is integrated into each LED chip so that once you have adjusted the color, you can stop talking to the strip and it will continue to PWM all the LEDs for you.

The tape is made of a flexible printed circuit board material and is delivered with a weatherproof coating. You can cut this kind of thing quite easily with wire cutters, there are cutting lines every 0.65"/1.7cm (1 LED each). Solder the 0.1" copper pellets and you are ready to go. Of course, you can also connect the strips together to extend them, just look at how much power you need! A 5V/2A power supply should be able to supply 1 meter (depending on use) and a 5V/10A power supply can supply up to 4 meters (depending on use) You must use a 5V DC power supply to supply these bands, do not use more than 6V or you can destroy the entire band.

We have a tutorial showing wiring, power consumption calculations, sample usage codes, etc. for NeoPixel Please check! Please note that you will need a NeoPixel library with RGBW support that is not always available. If you try to control them with a simple NeoPixel'RGB' library, you will get very strange results. Our Adafruit NeoPixel library supports RGBW but if you use something else, be aware that it may require hacking.

They are supplied in 1 meter strips with a 2 or 3 pin JST SM connector at each end and separate power/earth wires. These tapes are sold by the meter! There is a junction in the middle of the strip and the LEDs are not perfectly spaced at this point - it is just a compromise with the ability of the flexible printed circuit board manufacturer and the density.

To wire these strips, we suggest that you take a 2.1 mm DC jack plug to wire so that you can connect a wall adapter to power it. For data pins + grounding, you can take the 2-pin JST kit and transform it into a quick connection.

Technical details

    LED per meter: 144 LEDs/m
    Length of the belt: 1m
    Belt width (with waterproofing): ~14.5mm / ~0.57".
    Tape thickness (with waterproofing): ~4.2mm / 0.16".
    Removable waterproof housing IP65
    Maximum 5V @ 80mA per LED (all LEDs in full brightness)
    5VDC power supply (do not exceed 6VDC) - no polarity protection
    1 integrated RGB LED per segment, individually controllable
    Neutral white color temperature: ~4000-4500K

Documentation

Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide