Note: This tutorial is to control the 12V non-addressable RGB LED strips. If you are using an addressable LED strip (i.e. WS2812 or APA102), you will need to use a different power supply and a micrcontroller to control the LEDs.
Add color to your projects with the non-addressable LED strips! These are perfect if you want to add uniform lighting for your props, car, fish tank, or perhaps under cabinet lighting in your home.
Gone are the days that you have to worry about silicone water proofing splitting and breaking on you! These are sealed non-ad…
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Required Materials
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. The partial wishlist on the left is for a basic connection with an Arduino. It does not include the potentiometer and buttons. The full wishlist on the right is for the full circuit for additional functionality. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Partial Wishlist for Non-Addressable RGB LED Strip Hookup Guide
To make the most out of your LED strip, you will need a microcontroller. The easiest would be to use the RedBoard Qwiic but you can use any Arduino microcontroller as long as it has a minimum of three PWM pins.
USB 2.0 type A to Micro-B 5-pin. This is a new, smaller connector for USB devices. Micro-B connectors are about half the heig…
$5.50
Power Supply
To power your LEDs, you will need a 12V power supply. The amount of current needed depends on the length and density of the LED strip. Below are a few options if you are powering the LEDs from a wall outlet in an installation. You could also use a 9V power supply. It may not be as bright but your LED strip will not be as hot.
The ATX power connector breaks out the standard 4-pin computer peripheral port for you 12V & 5V devices from one wall adapter…
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Wires and Connectors
The stranded wires from the non-addressable do not have a connector. For prototyping you could use alligator clips with male headers. However, it would be easier to use a polarized connector like the ones from the 4-wire pigtail connector to easily connect and disconnect from your controller.
These 4-pin JST-SM pigtail connectors mate perfectly with LED strips and other applications that require only two lines and a…
$1.60
Transistors
If you are using a microcontroller to control the strip, you will need transistors to control each channel. For small lengths, you could use NPN transistors. For longer lengths, you could use n-channel mosfets. Just make sure to get the associated resistors depending on your transistor.
This is a simple 4-pack of momentary, multicolor buttons, great for all sorts of projects! Unlike previous iterations of mult…
$1.75
Tools
You will need a soldering iron, solder, and general soldering accessories. You may also need some wire strippers if you are cutting and reusing parts of the strip.
These are your basic, run-of-the-mill wire strippers from Techni-Tool with a comfortable grip making them an affordable optio…
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Suggested Reading
If you aren’t familiar with the following concepts, we recommend checking out these tutorials before continuing. If you are looking to customize the control by programming a microcontroller, we recommend looking at the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Arduino.
The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.1.2 and v4.1.