![tm-fc](https://cdn.webshopapp.com/assets/blank.gif?2023-05-22)
How do digital LED Strips work?
How to control digital LED Strips
Digital LED Strips, also called Dream, Magic or addressable LED Strips, are LED Strips that are provided with ICs that can change the color per x number of LEDs. With most digital LED Strips this is per 1, per 3 or per 6 LEDs. With a normal, analog LED Strip, which does not have ICs, this is not possible. Therefore you can't use these LED Strips if you want the individual LEDs to change color!
All digital LED Strips that we sell are WS2811 or WS2811 compatible. In addition to the controllers that you find on our site, we can also supply special controllers such as LED Strip Studio 3 (LEC3). These controllers can be controlled via DMX / ART-NET and are suitable for (very) large projects with large quantities of digital LED Strip. In addition, these controllers have user-friendly software with which scenes can easily be set. The LEC3 can also work stand-alone. For more information about this controller, please contact us. We sell special digital LED Strip controllers that you can easily use with the digital LED Strip. However, it is also possible to use your own controller. You could use, for example, a microcontroller such as Arduino. There are handy libraries available for Arduino, such as Adafruit Neopixel, where the functions have already been created for you. This is perfect if you want to be able to start quickly! If you have a specific microcontroller for which no library exists, use the WS2811 specification to write a function that controls the IC. A (WS2811) digital LED Strip can be connected to any possible controller that can send serial data. The WS2811 IC uses the first 24 bits it receives to determine its own color, and forwards the remaining bits to the next IC, which again does the same. At the end of the series of bits, a "pause" is sent to the IC indicating that the data is going to be refreshed. If this pause is sent after, for example, 240 bits, 10 ICs will have been provided with "color", and no data will be received after the 10th IC. In this way the data signal can be adjusted to the length of the LED Strip to be controlled. For more info you can read the WS2811 documentation. You can also contact us for technical assistance.