# Best price on LED "strip" lights?



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

OK, all I'm asking is where to find the best price on LED strip lighting, you know the small surface mount LEDs on a flexible (and adhesive) strip. 

Usually about 3 LEDs in 2 inches, 12 volts, and you can cut it every 2 or 3 inches.

Warm white, about 2700 to 3100 Kelvin...

Oh, I'm going to buy 30-40 feet of it, so that's why price is important...

Not really enthused about ordering from China directly (had a friend get burned before)

One of the best prices I have found is here: ($50 for 5 meters)

*http://www.wholesale-leds.com/light...1-2-1.aspx*


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

My son says he bought a roll from this place:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320968641475

$10 for 5 meters of "WHITE" (but I can't find the temperature of the light). Free shipping.

And he says he got them in about a week.

I bought a pack of Four 10-inch strips for $30, came with the power supply and some short cables with molded-on connectors at Menards on a whim... shoulda resisted that impulse! I think I would have been better off getting the $10 roll, a spool of wire and a cheap wall-wart.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

3,560K
Warm White LED Strip Light


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Hi Greg,

I just bought 3 sets of LED strip from these guys, warm white color, they were very nice and were shipped realy fast and I received them in about a week.
For $8.48 for 5 meters they are very hard to beat.

Ron 

Warm White LED 5M strip


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Semp, they have an ebay store, and they also have the warm white... thanks! (have to check the US rate conversion) 

Thanks Todd, but that is $1.55 for 50 mm, or $155 for 5 meters or so... 15 times higher... good company but the prices are so so... 

Regards, Greg


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 08 Mar 2013 11:55 AM 
Semp, they have an ebay store, and they also have the warm white... thanks! (have to check the US rate conversion) 

Thanks Todd, but that is $1.55 for 50 mm, or $155 for 5 meters or so... 15 times higher... good company but the prices are so so... 

Regards, Greg 



I didn't do the math. I just saw that was what you were interested in. Need to save costs? Here's your solution, but more work.


Here's 5' for $10 and can be emersed in water, but not a "strip" per say.

Warm White LED string

Or make your own at $0.12 each.

Warm White Strip LEDs without the Strip.


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## Vinny D (Jan 25, 2013)

Greg from the looks of it the LED lights you have in your first post seem decent. 
I actually sell lighting and switchgear for a electrical distributor, LED is the hot item in lighting everywhere and the pricing fluctuates as much as the quality does! 
The LED flex tape sources we purchase from are about 5x as much money as what you have posted, but we have to buy/sell what is specified/approved on jobs. 

The only thing I would suggest is buy more then what you think you may need (allow for failure also) because in 6-months all of the product that is available now will be discontinued and replaced with new stuff. We know sooner get new product releases from mfg's and by the time we receive it into stock it has already been phased out and replaced!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Vinny, you don't know me very well yet, but I'll just tell you that I'm sort of the "king of spares".... looking at making an order for between 200 and 500 bucks worth... that's why price has become important, need 20-30 meters just for myself, and going to order for a couple friends too... Going to outfit all my passenger cars... 

If you were in my home "shop", and you needed some hardware or wire or components, 99% chance we would not have to go to home depot or radio shack... 

And you are completely right about the product changing, anything from China seems to change characteristics at a whim! 

But the good news is that this stuff is getting so common, it's almost become generic, so basic dimensions are becoming standardized... it's just the Kelvin that seems to vary all over the map. 

Regards, Greg


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## Vinny D (Jan 25, 2013)

That should look nice inside of the cars, I would probably lean more towards the 27k color. 
Definitly stay away from the 41 & 50k colors out there, very bright/white/bluish....and hurts the eyes when looking at it, mine anyways!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Ron! I bought the 6 remaining sets of those! 

Greg


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Well I tried


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You did great, thanks!


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Oh ok I thought you went with Dave, but it says Ron now , lol.

You might also be interested is these connectors, great price for 50 dual ended solder less connectors.
I use them to connect two strips when running a full string in a car is way to bright, and also if you cut them in half you have 2 power lead connectors.

They were also very nice people and shipped them really quickly, less than a week to Delaware.

Ron

LED Connectors


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes... remember that I've known Dave Bodnar for 10 years or so... so I slip up in my excitement some times ha ha! 

I'll be soldering everything to keep wires short and not show, but I'll keep the link for people who can use them. 

Regards, Greg


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Are you on using track power?

I switched all my heavyweights to ball bearings, and removed the wiring when I took out the bushings.


I usually only run my trains during the day so was thinking of using battery power from a 9 volt.
I found a bunch of battery packs with an on/off switch for just over a buck.

Ron


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Here is one of the 7 heavy weights I did with the lighting that Greg showed in this thread. I also have the BB installed in all the cars. Later RJD


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Looks great RJ, now hook it up to a 9v and let me know how long they last ,









Ron


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I run DCC Ron, and will use track power instead of fooling with batteries... with 3 leds per 2 inches and at 9 volts no way I'm supporting duracell, or cutting holes in my cars for battery hatches, etc. I've got 10 amps at 24 volts everywhere.... 

On my HW's will probably do the same as RJ, the standard upgrade for Aristo. On the USAT streamliners, I will probably do the same... 

Greg


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

Greg, Call me on Monday as I have a roll I can make you a good deal on.


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## Michael W (Oct 10, 2012)

Www.Dhgate.com/wholesale/led+light+roll.html 
Hope i typed this correct... But it is wholesale so you buy a fair bit but it seems cheap.... 
Hope this helps 
Michael


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## Michael W (Oct 10, 2012)

Www.Dhgate.com/wholesale/led+light+roll.html 
Hope i typed this correct... But it is wholesale so you buy a fair bit but it seems cheap.... 
Hope this helps 
Michael Ohh btw as i wanted to do this myself how many caps do i need for flicker free driving and do i need a bridge rectifier for it? ( no thread hijacking intended)


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron: I had originally planned on doing battery but found out it did not take much to convert so they would operate on DCC. Now I don't have to buy batteries.







I even bought all the connectors to link the cars together and then put the batty in the baggage car. Later RJD


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Hmm, I'm trying to figure out in my head how long you could expect from a 9V battery on a strip of these lights. I know that a 9V will run a couple of LEDs for a long time. I know that Greg wont go to a battery solution but there are those of us who would...so 

I know that a 9V running a couple of LEDs will last an entire operating season. And this can be subject to use. The math says: expect about 20mA draw from your LEDs. I think that the current draw will remain around the same no matter how many LEDs you connect in series. (Its been a while since my Circuits class in College, but I beleive thats what the laws of electrical circuits say). The 9V battery will provide ~565 mAh (Alkline) ~1200 mAh (Lithium). So... 565 mAh/ 20 mA = 28.25 hours (Alkaline) or 1200 mAh / 20 mA = 60 hours (Lithium). 

I believe that is what you can expect from a battery application of Greg's lights.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

No, the current is 20 ma PER 2" section (3 leds).... so 24" in a passenger car is 12 volts and 12 sections, so you would be drawing 12 * 20 ma, or 240 ma, about 1/4 amp per car... 

Energizer quotes about 610 milliamp hours on a 9v battery, so you should get about* 2.5 hours of run time*. So in my case with 10 passenger cars, each run would eat up about $20 .... if I was to go battery I would use rechargeable batteries... 

Your other calculations should likewise be reduced by a factor of 12.... 

Also, these times are based on running completely dead, so you should factor your calculations to not drain them dead unless you are using nicads.. you NEVER run a lithium dead if you want some reasonable life from them. 

Regards, Greg


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I knew there was a flaw in my logic.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Basic tenet of electronics/physics "you don't get something for nothing"... and "if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't" 

;-) 

Greg


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## xiva (Jun 13, 2013)

hi,greg,theLED strip light always working in DC12V,so if you let them working in DC9V,may be not bright as working in DC12V.....


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes, they are still plenty bright at 9 volts, in fact they are too bright at 12.... 

Get some and see for yourself, I think you will agree. 

Greg


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## Tom Parkins (Jan 2, 2008)

I had delayed doing this for years, but turns out it is exceptionally easy. A 9v battery a switch and a few wires. Done.Very easy project. Haven't done enough night running to test the battery lifetime. 





This is a car has the stock Aristo LEDs and a 9v battery. Also very easy.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Clearly bright enough! 

Have you ever measured how many hours of run time you get? 

Greg


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

Rechargeable 9v are no where near that 600 mah rating, more like 200-250. In general, 9v are not satisfactory for this kind of work, they cost too much and have less capacity. Better to use 6v and build from AA, or even small 6 v sealed gel cel or similar. I once built a battery lighted train with small 6 v cycle type battery in baggage car and the lights worked for a year of intermittent running a few evening per month or week. this was in the day before white led, but i used dim yellow led . 3 per car as I recall. 
Jonathan 
www.rctrains.com


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## blazersport (Apr 10, 2008)

I buy all my LED's from here:

http://www.besthongkong.com/automot...300-smd-led-ribbon-5-meter-or-16-4-ft-12-volt









[/list]




Flexible Lighting Strip 300 3528 SMD LED Ribbon 5 Meteters $15.95


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I did not see any mention of a rechargeable 9v battery, so I figured I would ask. Also some are 7.2v and some are 8.4... often not listed on the battery, and the mah is also rarely listed. 

But I figured I would ask before I assumed anything. If I remember right, the Aristo car is not wired optimally for a fixed voltage either. 

Greg


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## Jethro J. (Apr 4, 2012)

Posted By blazersport on 13 Jun 2013 09:37 AM 
I buy all my LED's from here:

http://www.besthongkong.com/automot...300-smd-led-ribbon-5-meter-or-16-4-ft-12-volt









[/list]




Flexible Lighting Strip 300 3528 SMD LED Ribbon 5 Meteters $15.95

If you go to Ebay, These lights can be had for around $7.00 and you can get them in warm whites.
J.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Blazersport: if you read the thread, Ron Bodnar gave a link and I bought from his reference. And it's half the price you got... I bought 6 rolls. Greg Posted By BodsRailRoad on 08 Mar 2013 11:55 AM 
Hi Greg,

I just bought 3 sets of LED strip from these guys, warm white color, they were very nice and were shipped realy fast and I received them in about a week.
For $8.48 for 5 meters they are very hard to beat.

Ron 

Warm White LED 5M strip


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## nomanni (May 26, 2015)

I've purchased LEDs from the following websites without any trouble whatsoever. No hesitation in ordering from any of them again. http://www.pbcheap.com/led-light-flashlights


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