27 July 2021
Company News
When it comes to LED strip lighting, the sheer volume in the variety would be more confusing than helpful.
Not all LED strips or strands are created equal, especially the led pixel tapes and led pixel strands are bigger sheer volume because of the bulk qty IC chips to choose. So your best option is to find the perfect solution for your lighting requirements will be dependent on your particular use case.
While there is a wide variety of IC pixel types that include more than 50 kinds of IC pixel protocol, we’ll be focusing particularly on FOUR very distinct protocols, which are listed below:
SK6812 OVERVIEW
Sometimes referred to as neopixels, this integrated light source usually comes in a variety of colours alongside a driver that is concealed inside a 5050 sized (5.0mm x 5.0mm) RGB or RGBW LED package ( also offer 3535, 4020, 2427, 2020, 1515 package). This pixel type is single DATA and is popular for its simple design. It doesn’t need a clock line and boasts an impressive small form-factor and so is easily mountable on a flexible PCB strip, like our SK6812 seriese RGB/RGBW pixel led tapes from 30-144 pixels.
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The SK6812 operates on a 1200Hz PWM frequency rate. Although this rate provides persistence of vision for the human eye, it will not translate well to cameras. When shooting with a 24fps camera, the minimum PWM rate of the pixels you’re filming should be about 720Hz, so this pixel type will not be adequate for cameras.
There is another LED named SK6805 series, compared to the SK6812, only difference it current ouput that SK6805 is 5mA current out.
SK6812 REFRESH RATES
Refresh rates depend on several factors in your pixel control system. One of these factors is whether the pixels are data only or clocked.
Normally Clocked pixel types can allow for higher and adjustable data speeds like SK9822,WS2801, which may affect your overall refresh rate.
As the SK6812 pixel type is data-only, its data speeds and the overall refresh rate will not benefit from a clocked data transmission.
Whether or not this is a concern for you depends on your specific use case. If you’re creating a lighting display of fast and dynamic lights, and you need a large number of pixels connected in series, then this pixel type may result in a low overall refresh rate.
Despite this, the SK6812 is the most popular LED driver, particularly for systems with a low pixel count, due to its simplicity and multitude of applications. It is widely manufactured and readily available.
If you’re after a simple solution on a budget, this is the system for you.
GS8208 OVERVIEW
This GS8208 offers six pins per chip, rather than four like SK6812,WS2812b. One pin is to allow for back-up in the data line, and another is to allow for a higher voltage ( 12V ) to drive the LEDs.
The first main feature of this GS8208 pixel type is the redundancy data line. Although only one data line is used to connect the LED strip to the Pixel controller, the first pixel creates an identical second data line as a redundancy. The benefit of this is that if a pixel fails, or there is a break in the data line at any point beyond pixel 1, the backup data line can be used by the pixels to receive the same data. If another pixel fails, the backup data line still provides that redundancy. In fact, the entire strip should never fail from a break in the data unless 2 adjacent pixels fail.
GS8208 UP CLOSE
Secondly, GS8208 runs off 12V instead of 5V, regulating the voltage down internally. While this does mean that each LED runs at a slightly more elevated temperature than if it were receiving a 5V input directly, the benefit of this in terms of overhead is obvious when wanting to power longer chains of pixels.
Lastly, GS8208 offers a higher PWM rate than SK6812, increasing it from 1.20KHz to 8.0KHz. This makes it suitable for filming with a 260fps or lower camera. The refresh rate of this pixel is still quite low compared to clocked pixel chips so it’s not suitable for all applications.
If data redundancy and standard film quality is a need in your lighting system, then GS8208 is for you.
Above two IC chips are mainly for the individually address RGB/RGBW led solutions. If above these two addressable RGB/RGBW led strips are not suitable for the installation environment or other requirements of your projects , then please do not keen to choose this integrated pixel RGB/RGBW led solutions.
TM512AC OVERVIEW
TM512AC is a differential protocol to drive IC pixel chips. This TM512ACoffer double data type, A,B signal. This IC chip have doulble data signal, but it is not the redundancy data line. Another calling way, TTL 485 signal.
The TM512AC offers a higher PWM rate that is 2.0KHZ allows for filming the pixels with around 100fps appromately. But its refresh rate of this pixel is still not too high compared to UCS512C4 that is 3.6KZ or Hi512 D4 series which has 16.0KHZ.
BUT, the TM512AC have a fixed gama correction curve of 2.2 that is super higher than the UCS512C4 which is only gama curve of 1.0 .
DMX signal is in parallel that avoid pixels failed to affect the whole pixel led strips working. If your budget is not limited, you could consider on this TM512AC DMX512 seris led products.
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE TEAM AT ART LED
If you’re still unsure about the best addressable LED lighting solution for your next project, get in touch with the team at Art LED Lighting. Not only are we keen to find out more about your lighting needs, but we’ll help you select the right RGB or RGBW led pixel controller for your ambitions and light up your designs.