Very Quick
"The controller lets you select from 20 stock colors (although pinks/peaches and white are tinted slightly blue), and lets you make 6 of your own colors; you push a DIY button once to select it, then push the Red/Green/Blue up/down keys until you see the color you like and that's it; it's saved as you change it, and it's saved in the controller itself, not the remote, so you can replace your remote and your colors will remain."
"The top two rows of this section is a group of red, green, & blue up & down arrows, these are like the brightness settings at the top however they are used only for setting scenes and there are 64 steps instead of 8 ranging from completely off to 100% bright."
"It comes with a wall connector but with an easy mod, you can change it to connect to a computer with some cutting and soldering of extra cables you may have or just buy a dc to molex connector connector (this concept took me forever to figure out)."
"Since I was planning to add a second string anyway, I have now received the 2nd purchase along with another power supply, remote and RGB controller."
"The second issue was that pinheader had transposed two of the wires (blue and green), which had to be fixed before soldering to the LED strips."
"This takes away from colors that require more than one LED to light up (for example, to make purple, the red and blue LEDs have to light up at the same time) because you can see both color LEDs lighting up."
"You have 4" of wire from the strip to a male connector that is not waterproof; this plugs into a non-waterproof female connector, which feeds from a non-waterproof IR controller, which is in turn plugged via a crappy, cheap connector to a total Chinese piece of shit (sorry) transformer to power the works."
SUPERNIGHTΠ16.4ft 5M Waterproof Flexible strip 300leds Color Changing RGB SMD5050 LED Light Strip Kit RGB 5M +44Key Remote+12V 5A Power Supply (Compare Deals from $24.88)
Quick
"The controller lets you select from 20 stock colors (although pinks/peaches and white are tinted slightly blue), and lets you make 6 of your own colors; you push a DIY button once to select it, then push the Red/Green/Blue up/down keys until you see the color you like and that's it; it's saved as you change it, and it's saved in the controller itself, not the remote, so you can replace your remote and your colors will remain... Also keep in mind "5050" is not a part number but only used to describe the size of the LED package, so 1 "5050" LED may not be as bright as another "5050" LED, they may consume different amounts of power and be made by different manufacturers, however, they will take up the same space... I can confirm this strip works with these plans, and when controlled with an arduino, there is no blue bias that the stock controller gives you; it's perfect, so the included controller is a little poor but still a great deal for including it with a remote and power supply for this price ($30)."
"As with all electronics I get I tested them before even unrolling the spool and I can say that's a good way to make the double-sided "3M" tape turn loose so you can put something better in it's place... These will only work if one of the solid color modes are active (not including a paused chase) There are eight brightness settings and either button must be pressed repeatedly to change the brightness more than one level... The top two rows of this section is a group of red, green, & blue up & down arrows, these are like the brightness settings at the top however they are used only for setting scenes and there are 64 steps instead of 8 ranging from completely off to 100% bright."
"It comes with a wall connector but with an easy mod, you can change it to connect to a computer with some cutting and soldering of extra cables you may have or just buy a dc to molex connector connector (this concept took me forever to figure out)... Something you don't really want to do anyway as it is pretty much overkill and will burn your retinas by directly looking at them... With WW, you can get natural white on every other led; a yellowish white; that also blends well with the other colors and gives you even more colors."
"Since I was planning to add a second string anyway, I have now received the 2nd purchase along with another power supply, remote and RGB controller... This set with the 300 LEDs has the capability to go super-bright, but the remote also provides the option of dimming it down a few levels... If the LEDs are pointed outward, they are pretty bright to look at directly, but would probably do a nice job of lighting up an area especially if the WHITE light is selected."
") The first issue I encountered (which, admittedly, is a supply issue), is that at the time of this review, there are no clip on connectors for these... They also have too much soldier and tend to get messy and short if you don't wick half of it away before applying your wires... The second issue was that pinheader had transposed two of the wires (blue and green), which had to be fixed before soldering to the LED strips."
"This could be because I moved them from one location to another, but at any rate all I needed to do was put some scotch tape across them, sticking them back to the wood that they were on... Within a few weeks of buying these and setting them up, I had at least a dozen people ask about them because they were visible through my window as they light up the entire room... This takes away from colors that require more than one LED to light up (for example, to make purple, the red and blue LEDs have to light up at the same time) because you can see both color LEDs lighting up."
"I read the other reviews, and figured I could get around the issues other people had with their purchase/installation... And with this strip,all you can do is cut it shorter and throw away what is left as you have literally 1/4" of wire to attempt to solder or attach a connector- even trained technicians would have trouble with this connection... You have 4" of wire from the strip to a male connector that is not waterproof; this plugs into a non-waterproof female connector, which feeds from a non-waterproof IR controller, which is in turn plugged via a crappy, cheap connector to a total Chinese piece of shit (sorry) transformer to power the works."
Less Quick
"I hot glued it under my kitchen cabinet with about 20 cents in hot glue, just had to peal the sticky tape off first which was annoying, they should not include the sticky tape in the first place; it is kind of pointless... Fortunately, they also let you make custom colors, so I just added red, green and blue equally until all my food looked correct and it's fine, although you CANNOT dim custom colors with the included controller, which slightly stinks. The controller lets you select from 20 stock colors (although pinks/peaches and white are tinted slightly blue), and lets you make 6 of your own colors; you push a DIY button once to select it, then push the Red/Green/Blue up/down keys until you see the color you like and that's it; it's saved as you change it, and it's saved in the controller itself, not the remote, so you can replace your remote and your colors will remain... The average I have seen is 100 lumens per watt for LED light, so in exchange for RGB colors and a controller, you are getting about 60 lumens per watt at the highest brightness setting... Also keep in mind "5050" is not a part number but only used to describe the size of the LED package, so 1 "5050" LED may not be as bright as another "5050" LED, they may consume different amounts of power and be made by different manufacturers, however, they will take up the same space... I can confirm this strip works with these plans, and when controlled with an arduino, there is no blue bias that the stock controller gives you; it's perfect, so the included controller is a little poor but still a great deal for including it with a remote and power supply for this price ($30). If you plan on just hooking up a 12v infrared sensor with a relay, you will be happy to know that the controller has been designed to display the last-selected color when turning on; so if you want bright white, you got it, if you want it to turn on dim, you got it, if you want a custom color, it will restore that too."
"After reading reviews I saw that people said that the supposed "3M" tape on the back was a knock-off and I can say that is probably true. As with all electronics I get I tested them before even unrolling the spool and I can say that's a good way to make the double-sided "3M" tape turn loose so you can put something better in it's place... Someone said in a review that if you ordered from eBestrade that the adapter would come with a European power cord, but I got it from that seller and it came with a US Cord. The remote works well up to about 12 feet from the controller box (as tested outside where there may have been some interference)... These will only work if one of the solid color modes are active (not including a paused chase) There are eight brightness settings and either button must be pressed repeatedly to change the brightness more than one level... The top two rows of this section is a group of red, green, & blue up & down arrows, these are like the brightness settings at the top however they are used only for setting scenes and there are 64 steps instead of 8 ranging from completely off to 100% bright... To set a scene, Press one of the DIY buttons and use the corresponding arrow buttons to change the lights to your desired color, and press the same DIY button again to save it."
"But after a few seconds of pressing buttons experimentally and experiencing it without knowing that it would go that fast.... Onto the Review: I was on a search for a long time to find long RGB led strips that I could use in my newly built computer... It comes with a wall connector but with an easy mod, you can change it to connect to a computer with some cutting and soldering of extra cables you may have or just buy a dc to molex connector connector (this concept took me forever to figure out)... Something you don't really want to do anyway as it is pretty much overkill and will burn your retinas by directly looking at them... In regards to the lighting, the lowest brightness setting will actually cause certain colors to not show correctly... With the regular RGB strip, it turns on all of the LEDs to get 'white', but it's more of a blueish color. With WW, you can get natural white on every other led; a yellowish white; that also blends well with the other colors and gives you even more colors."
"On Day 2 I found that the 'supposed' 3M tape that is attached to the LED's couldnt hold itself up much less the lights!... Since I was planning to add a second string anyway, I have now received the 2nd purchase along with another power supply, remote and RGB controller... I have both sets in my backyard stuck via double-sided tape (purchased separately) on the bottom of my vinyl siding... This set with the 300 LEDs has the capability to go super-bright, but the remote also provides the option of dimming it down a few levels... If the LEDs are pointed outward, they are pretty bright to look at directly, but would probably do a nice job of lighting up an area especially if the WHITE light is selected... However, I did notice a few colors where the second strand was a couple of shades off... I got 32 feet, plus extension for about the same price, and if it doesn't last, it's cheap enough to get more."
") The first issue I encountered (which, admittedly, is a supply issue), is that at the time of this review, there are no clip on connectors for these... They also have too much soldier and tend to get messy and short if you don't wick half of it away before applying your wires... The second issue was that pinheader had transposed two of the wires (blue and green), which had to be fixed before soldering to the LED strips... For me - I needed the control box further than 6 inches away from the LED strip, and at the time of install, there were no drop-in cables available. I cut the pinheader off, connected it to the 5-wire cable extension, and then soldered that cable to one of my LED strips... Another issue I noticed is that the power supply that comes with this is over-voltage... I've only had them functioning for a day, so I can't otherwise attest to long-term durability, or if that half volt difference is going to really cause an issue."
"I have had mine installed for about 6 months and have had no issues... This could be because I moved them from one location to another, but at any rate all I needed to do was put some scotch tape across them, sticking them back to the wood that they were on... Within a few weeks of buying these and setting them up, I had at least a dozen people ask about them because they were visible through my window as they light up the entire room. A few of those people have also purchased them and are just as happy with them as I am... As a side note, if you're debating between these 5050 RGBs and the 3528 RGBs, I would buy the 5050 RGB's 100 times out of 100... The 3528 RGBs only have one LED per cell, meaning the red, green, and blue cells are all spread out. This takes away from colors that require more than one LED to light up (for example, to make purple, the red and blue LEDs have to light up at the same time) because you can see both color LEDs lighting up."
"I read the other reviews, and figured I could get around the issues other people had with their purchase/installation. The adhesive tape works fine on a perfect surface- in my case I cleaned the top flat rail with alcohol and the and the strip adhered fine on this perfect flat, horizontal surface... The adhesive tape will never work and is totally useless on anything other than a flat, clean, straight line install. And with this strip,all you can do is cut it shorter and throw away what is left as you have literally 1/4" of wire to attempt to solder or attach a connector- even trained technicians would have trouble with this connection... You have 4" of wire from the strip to a male connector that is not waterproof; this plugs into a non-waterproof female connector, which feeds from a non-waterproof IR controller, which is in turn plugged via a crappy, cheap connector to a total Chinese piece of shit (sorry) transformer to power the works. Guess what, it is not waterproof either and mine stopped working once I was through installing the lights... The total lack of instruction on the remote use is really annoying and shows the true ignorance of the Chinese Company that sells this product."
