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Notify me when its in stockFirstly, higher density means much higher power usage over a certain distance - up to 18 Watts per meter (~3.5 Amps @ 5V) instead of a maximum of 9.6 Watts (~2 Amps @ 5V). The maximum rating assumes all LEDs are at full white, actual current draw is usually around 1/3 to 1/2 of maximum for colorful designs. A good power supply, like our 5V 10A supply, is crucial!
Secondly, to get this high density, the controller chip is integrated into the LED. This is a little more expensive, but it means there's only one wire to control the LEDs, which makes it faster. The protocol used is very very timing-specific and can only be controlled by microcontrollers with highly repeatable 100nS timing. We have example code for using with the Arduino Uno/Mega microcontroller at 8MHz and 16MHz, and with a little effort you can use with Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, or any other microcontroller/processor with 2 MHz+ SPi, but it will not work with netduino, Basic Stamp, NETduino, or any other interpreted/virtual machine microprocessor.
Thirdly, just because you have all those pixels, doesn't mean you have RAM for them - the entire strip must be buffered in memory, and we've found many Arduino UNO projects only have about 1500 bytes of RAM available after all the extras are included. That's enough for about 500 LED pixels. If you want to control the entire strip and have other libraries included, use a Mega.
These LED strips are even more fun and glowy. There are 60 RGB LEDs per meter, and you can control each LED individually! Yes, that's right, this is the digitally-addressable type of LED strip. You can set the color/brightness of each LED to 24-bit color (8 bits each red green and blue). Each LED acts like a shift register, reading incoming color data on the input pins, and then shifting the previous color data out on the output pin. By sending a long string of data, you can control an infinite number of LEDs, just tack on more or cut off unwanted LEDs at the end. The PWM is built into each LED-chip so once you set the color you can stop talking to the strip and it will continue to PWM all the LEDs for you.
The strip is made of flexible PCB material, and comes with a weatherproof sheathing. You can cut this stuff pretty easily with wire cutters, there are cut-lines every 0.65"/1.7cm (1 LED each). Solder to the 0.1" copper pads and you're good to go. This strip is best used with a 5V power supply. You can use 6VDC too, but slightly reduce the brightness of the red LEDs (its hard to notice) and 5V is the "classic" voltage. On full white, draw 3.5A so you must use a good 5V supply.
Comes in a 4 meter long reel with a 2 or 3-pin JST SM connector on each end and separated power/ground wires. If you buy 4 meters at a time, you'll get full reels. If you buy less than 4m, you'll get a single strip, but it will be a cut piece from a reel which may or may not have a connector on it. If the piece comes from the end of the reel, the connector may be on the output end of the strip.
You can order the Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip - White 60 LEDs 1m from SAMM Market at a competitive price with same-day shipping and fast delivery.
