Overdriving 5050 LED strips

bhvm

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Jan 24, 2009
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Hello Friends, I was thinking to build a nice dimmable Photography/ Videography Light source using a palette of 5050 (or 5670) LED light strips. I will be pasting these on a copper or aluminum plate/heatsink so extra heat won't be an issue.

The standard 5050 LED has 3 chips, having 60mA typical current and gives roughly 20 lumens output at 12v DC.
I am wondering how they would do when pushed at 15 or 15.5v DC. I see lots of these are used in cars where alternators go till 14.4v DC and they do work well short term.
I would like to know if anyone has any overdriving data on them.
 

FRITZHID

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These LEDs have fairly poor thermal transfer so right off the bat they're prone to short life and ANY overdriving will drastically shorten their life span.
As far as the installs on cars, the majority of those light setups have controllers between the automotive power supply and LEDs which run the LEDs at their rated power or lower using PWM.
 

Str8stroke

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YMMV: I have some in my kitchen running on a 14 plus volt and I think 2 amp supply. The strips are the el cheapos from Banggood. Been almost 3 years now. One strip stays on 24/7. No problems yet (other than the cheap sticky tape no longer holding). Yes, they get warm, but not hot.
 
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bhvm

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Thanks guys,
I guess I will just go ahed and report back in a few months.
 

Knema.com

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Hello Friends, I was thinking to build a nice dimmable Photography/ Videography Light source using a palette of 5050 (or 5670) LED light strips. I will be pasting these on a copper or aluminum plate/heatsink so extra heat won't be an issue.

The standard 5050 LED has 3 chips, having 60mA typical current and gives roughly 20 lumens output at 12v DC.
I am wondering how they would do when pushed at 15 or 15.5v DC. I see lots of these are used in cars where alternators go till 14.4v DC and they do work well short term.
I would like to know if anyone has any overdriving data on them.

This is going to depend on the particular make and model of LEDs that are being used. The LED will have a current range that it can run at. As long as you don't surpass this rage you should be okay. Do you know the exact LED being used?
 

Ken_McE

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The standard 5050 LED has 3 chips, having 60mA typical current and gives roughly 20 lumens output at 12v DC.... I am wondering how they would do when pushed at 15 or 15.5v DC.

The current is the critical thing, not the voltage. If you go much past 60 mA, I would expect them to instaflash.


please keep us updated I would love to do the same thing!

You would get more reliable results by using longer strips and under driving them a little.
 
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snakebite

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Mar 17, 2001
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as mentioned double them up and underdrive them.
most of these strips are lousy.
every aspect of them is poor.
cheap leds overdriven die fast.
even worse when heat builds up.
 
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