APA102 (DotStar) LED-Strip 144 LED/Meter, 1 Meter

These APA102 (DotStar) LED strips are a great upgrade for people who have loved and used NeoPixel strips for a few years but want something even better. These LEDs use generic 2-wire SPI, so you can push data much faster than with the NeoPixel 800 KHz protocol and there's no specific timing required. They also have much higher PWM refresh rates, so  you can do Persistence-of-Vision (POV) and have less flickering, particularly at low brightness levels.

Like NeoPixels, APA102 LEDs are 5050-sized LEDs with an embedded microcontroller inside the LED. You can set the color/brightness of each LED to 24-bit color (8 bits each red green and blue). 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

However, unlike NeoPixels, these LEDs have 2 wires (input and output) for sending data - one clock pin and one data pin. That means you need two pins, because the clock and data is seperated, you can use any processor speed or type to control these strips, and you don't have to worry about being careful with the timing. Hardware SPI support is handy but not required. This makes them excellent for use with any microcontroller or microprocessor, including Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Propeller, SparkCore, and any 'raw' microcontrollers/microprocessors. It's very easy to port the library, and you can send data to the pixels at up to 32MHz clock rate!

Another nice thing is their high PWM rate. You only have to set the 24-bit color data for each pixel LED once, and then the LED+built-in-chip will handle the PWMing of the red, green and blue. APA102s have a 20 KHz PWM rate, so even when moving the strip around, you won't see the pixelation, the color blending is very smooth.

This is the 144 LED-per-meter version of our APA102 strips, on white flex PCB, which a length of 1 meter

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 between every LED. Solder to the 0.1" copper pads and you're good to go. Of course, you can also connect strips together to make them longer, just watch how much current you need! You must use a 5V DC power supply to power these strips, do not use higher than 6V or you can destroy the entire strip

These strips come with a 4-pin JST SM connector on each end. These strips are sold by the meter! If you buy 2 meters at a time, you'll get two separate strips with two connectors each.

Details:

• Width (with weatherstripping): 14mm / 0.55"
• Width (w/o weatherstripping): 12.7mm / 0.5"
• Thickness (with weatherstripping):  4mm / 0.16"
• 144 LEDs per meter
• Pixel pitch: 7mm LEDs
• Operating temperature: -40°C - 40°C
• Storage temperature: -10°C - 50°C
• Light source: Epistar 5050 SMD LEDs
• LED Brightness: Red ~600mcd, Green ~500mcd, Blue ~150mcd
• Beam angle: ~160°
• Max current draw per RGB LED: ~60mA (20mA max per Red, Green & Blue LED)

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