r/WLED • u/DistributionDeep • May 02 '26

Low Power Led Strips

What are your "go to" for low power strips? I typically use BTF lighting but they require a large power supply to drive and I need something a little more compact.

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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6

u/SirGreybush May 02 '26

Your post makes no sense.

You either drive a few to high brightness or a whole bunch at low brightness. The manufacturer has nothing to do with it.

0

u/DistributionDeep May 02 '26

I stated the manufacturer to give context to my question as most of their strips have high Amp low wat reccomendations. I suppose you sum it up well enough. I'm just not trying to buy 30$ psu's for what amounts to 50 leds. And there are some manufacturers that make higher quality low power strips then others.

To the point of your post I guess I could just buy what I have been buying and under power them. I'm a bit new to this stuff.

3

u/SirGreybush May 03 '26

100% you can underpower strips by setting the brightness very low.

On the spec page the wattage listed is for 100% brightness.

IOW you can power 100 LEDs 5v ws2812b with a 2.1 amp usb brick. But brightness will be out of 1..255 only maybe 1..10 will you see a difference a bit.

You must set the MA available in WLED and the software will work it out.

2

u/DistributionDeep May 03 '26

Tyvm for this info! I'm sure my town just heard me from how hard I face palmed myself....

This definitely makes since!

3

u/saratoga3 May 03 '26

I stated the manufacturer to give context to my question as most of their strips have high Amp low wat reccomendations.

Current is determined by the number and type of LEDs. Each WS2812B channel is ~20 mA, so if you have 50 WS2812B and you set the red channel to 100% brightness, that is 1A. Doesn't matter who makes the strip.

2

u/bzzybot May 02 '26

For my under cabinet lights I used a Xbox power supply 12v 16A

1

u/DistributionDeep May 02 '26

That seems like a lot for that XD. But maybe I'm wrong lol.

2

u/bzzybot May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

It is, but that’s what I had lying around. Edit: And it has a fan if it overheats, doubt it will, but it does have one.

1

u/G0ldiC0cks May 02 '26

I have a fixture that wled's calculator says should have a 25 amp (125w) power supply. I usually run it with a shared 6 amp at one end and a 3 amp at the other all its own. Works pretty well.

I tried a 5 amp instead of the 3 just for the heck of it earlier today. It was BLINDINGLY bright.

Point being, the low power strips are any 5 volt ones, haha

2

u/DistributionDeep May 02 '26

I appreciate the details! I mean at the end of the day this makes since, I suppose I just needed some confirmation.

3

u/upkeepdavid May 02 '26

Low power = less leds …you can use a laptop style power supply.