# How to ID Type of LED Strip Lights



## rabbithutch (Jun 1, 2018)

Noob here, so be gentle.:duh2:

Some time ago I purchased some LED strip lights on special offer on the Internet. I have several reels. Most of the footage is warm white indoor with one reel of weatherproof that came as a set with power supply. The others are just reels of LED light strip.

I need to determine what power supplies to use when I install them, but I don't have any identification on the packaging that tells me what they are. Looking at the strips, all I see is 12V DC. There is no indication of watts per meter; so I can't calculate the amperage they will draw in order to size the power supply transformer.

Can anyone tell me how to identify the type of LED strip I have (5050, 3824, or whatever)?

I know it was a dumb rookie mistake to dive in without a better understanding of what I was doing. I intend to put them under cabinets to light counter tops and will probably put a dimmer in some of the circuits. Mostly I'm just trying to learn the ins and outs of using LEDs.


----------



## Bullzeyebill (Jun 1, 2018)

Thread moved to appropriate forum. Please read Administrative Announcements forum re New Members.*

Bill
*


----------



## nanakuli (Jun 5, 2018)

Unfortunately there's no way to determine power draw of an LED strip just by determining the LED type. That's because for constant voltage designs, power draw is determined by the LED forward voltages and resistor selections. Put another way, not all 5050 LEDs will draw 60 mA - some can draw more than 1A.

Your best bet would be to cut a short segment and determine the power draw of that segment, then extrapolate. You can use a benchtop power supply in constant voltage, or if you don't have one, a Kill-A-Watt meter (but this will be less accurate due to efficiency losses in the power supply). Depending on the quality of the copper, you might see some voltage drop, and therefore lower power draw per foot, for longer runs.

If you really want to determine the type of LED strip (for whatever reason) you can always measure the dimensions using a caliper. The 4-digit numbers refer to the LED package dimensions in tenths of millimeters (i.e. 2835 = 2.8 mm x 3.5 mm).


----------

