One of the major challenges when carrying out large LED strip installations is voltage drop along the LED strip, resulting in uneven brightness. Extra-long constant current LED strips solve this problem in a simple way, achieving consistent brightness along the entire LED strip.
Extra-Long Constant Current LED Strips
By connecting them to a power supply at only one end, extra-long constant current LED strips provide uniform brightness along the entire length of the LED strip. At LCE, we offer reels of extra-long constant current LED strips that can reach:
Differences in wiring
Normally, 24 V DC constant voltage LED strips can only be up to 5 meters long per power input. In these cases, to avoid voltage drop, the following wiring solution is usually applied during installation:
Extra-long constant current LED strips solve this issue with simple wiring, resulting in savings in installation time and costs:
How is uneven brightness caused by voltage drop avoided?
First of all, it is necessary to understand what causes voltage drop.
When current flows through the printed circuit board, which has resistance, this resistance consumes part of the voltage, converting electrical energy into thermal energy. For this reason, the farther the energy travels and the farther away the power supply is, the lower the voltage. As a result, in a constant current LED strip, LED brightness decreases as voltage decreases, leading to uneven lighting.
Voltage drop = I × R (the voltage drop is called IR drop)
P = I × voltage drop × R (P is the power converted from electrical energy into thermal energy)
In extra-long constant current LED strips, IC components are incorporated into the circuit. In this way, the extra-long constant current LED strip ensures voltage regulation within a constant range, resulting in uniform and consistent brightness.
Power Supply for Extra-Long Constant Current LED Strips
As we can see, extra-long constant current LED strips differ in several aspects from conventional constant current LED strips. By adding an IC to the PCB, constant and uniform lighting is achieved over a longer LED strip. To achieve optimal performance, the extra-long constant current LED strip must be connected to a constant voltage power supply.
If you wish to dim this LED strip, please note that most extra-long constant current LED strips support dimming with 0–10 V, DALI, and TRIAC power supplies that output PWM signals or PWM controllers, with a PWM frequency ≤ 2 kHz.
Types of Extra-Long Constant Current LED Strips
LCE offers two types of extra-long constant current LED strips:
- External IC extra-long constant current LED strip: The external IC constant current LED strip allows easy current adjustment, but the IC size is relatively large, resulting in lower LED density and a wider strip compared to the built-in IC version.
- Built-in IC extra-long constant current LED strip: In this LED strip, the IC is very small and integrated into the LED bead, so it does not occupy PCB space. This allows for very high LED density (up to 300 LEDs/m) and a very narrow width (down to 5 mm). On the other hand, built-in IC constant current LED strips offer only a few fixed current options and do not support current adjustment.
Contact us and request pricing for the LED strips together with the driver to obtain a complete solution.
