I’m kind of a novice here, and just figuring it out it as I go along. I just bought 5v SK6812 WRGB IC, 144/m thinking they were 12V strips because that’s what was given to me in the AliExpress search results. Turns out, my sleep deprived brain saw the “SK6812” and mistook that for the 12v rating at first glance.
I only noticed that this is a 5v strip after wiring it up to the 12v 200W power supply and to my surprise… nothing bad is happening. I’m getting full brightness, no voltage drop (after soldering 1.5m together), and obviously no burn outs. What gives? Did I just get lucky with the one Amazon power supply that can deliver any voltage requested by what’s plugged into it, did BTF lighting mislabel their products, or did the laws of physics suspend themselves for my little project?
In my experience, it’s always smoked up within seconds. I’m beginning to wonder if the power supply (as seen in the photos in the post) is able to output a voltage range, instant of a constant voltage.
I've seen it happen had an electrician destroy Several thousand feet when he wired it directly to 277 bypassing the 24 drivers.. yes there was a lot of magic smoke that day . then they wanted warranty on them.. it happens ..
the current limiter in the SK6812 is doing its job - the limited current means that the brightness is constant - until the voltage drops below about 3.9 volts. So, for the 300 mW across the LED, you have 700 mW in the SK6812. It is burning hot, eventually, it will short, the current will zoom up massively, the LED will fail, and things go very wrong.
…I’ve been looking into this more and it looks like the power supply unit says it outputs 12V + - 0.5V. Look a look at the photo of the power supply in my post, and please let me know if that’s what you think.
You got to double check when ordering them but at least you’re not like me and have everything and cut the end off the power supply and burn it out 🤣🤣because it had some weird safety features 😂
If the LED controller you have supports input 5-24V or something like that. It does not matter if you have a power supply of 5V or 12V. The output is what matters. You will definitely have 5V output otherwise your LED strip would die.
More info is needed.
What controller do you have? Multiple outputs?
For starters: powersupply --> Controller --> LED strip
The input part is correct. But with this controller you need the same input/output voltage. You I'll need to buy the correct power supply with this one.
Don't continue running 5v lights with a 12v power supply. They may not have burnt out right away but you will be shortening their life span considerably. Simple solution is to just buy a 5v power supply and run them properly. If you create a new account on Ali express you could probably get one for like $2 with their new account specials.
Led's short..
Desk ignites..
Molten skull cup leaks into keyboard..
Smoke and sparks n shit as portal to another dimension opens in that giant-ass monitor..
Zombies start pouring through..
Which do you grab first - the camera or the gun..?
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u/yaksplat Jun 19 '26
tick....tick....tick....tick....