White LED light strip. That twinkles. Does this exist?
October 17, 2024 7:24 AM Subscribe
I need a dense, bright warm-white LED light strip that comes with twinkle patterns, like the ones commonly found in LED light strings. Ideally USB plug or otherwise connectable to a 12V or 5V battery pack. Does this exist without some sort of elaborate Arduino diy?
I'd like to avoid multicolor strips, since brightness is a priority, and color-changing strips appear to run much less LED-dense than the white ones (plus a lot more expensive). Amazon has like two sketchy listings that claim to do this, but they have lukewarm brightness ratings, are short (~10ft; I'd love 15+), and run on a dinky 3V battery pack. I can understand why there'd be a very limited market for this kind of thing, but with all the bright white strips out there, plus all the twinkle-pattern strings, there must be some reputable product that combines those concepts... right?
Alternatively, if there's some kind of cheap module I could insert inline to create a gentle flicker or twinkle in a steady-on LED strip, that would also work. I've only seen rapid strobe-effect controllers so far, though.
Level of commitment is "amateur holiday project." I'm willing to spend up to ~$50 total and to DIY to the point of maybe some basic soldering, but pro-level prices and elaborate coding are out.
Thanks in advance!
I'd like to avoid multicolor strips, since brightness is a priority, and color-changing strips appear to run much less LED-dense than the white ones (plus a lot more expensive). Amazon has like two sketchy listings that claim to do this, but they have lukewarm brightness ratings, are short (~10ft; I'd love 15+), and run on a dinky 3V battery pack. I can understand why there'd be a very limited market for this kind of thing, but with all the bright white strips out there, plus all the twinkle-pattern strings, there must be some reputable product that combines those concepts... right?
Alternatively, if there's some kind of cheap module I could insert inline to create a gentle flicker or twinkle in a steady-on LED strip, that would also work. I've only seen rapid strobe-effect controllers so far, though.
Level of commitment is "amateur holiday project." I'm willing to spend up to ~$50 total and to DIY to the point of maybe some basic soldering, but pro-level prices and elaborate coding are out.
Thanks in advance!
actually, upon reflection, what specifically do you mean by twinkle? maybe they don’t do that.
posted by seemoorglass at 8:03 AM on October 17
posted by seemoorglass at 8:03 AM on October 17
Response by poster: OMG, that's amazing! I was looking at those and had ruled them out specifically because I didn't see the function on the remote.
It's for an ember effect where the lights will be embedded in something else, so I just need the light to change slightly on a ~1-second-ish timescale, either all bulbs slightly dimming at once or different sections/ bulbs dimming alternately. Flashing all on-off would be less helpful but I could probably make it work by rigging a supplementary steady-on strip alongside.
posted by Bardolph at 8:15 AM on October 17
It's for an ember effect where the lights will be embedded in something else, so I just need the light to change slightly on a ~1-second-ish timescale, either all bulbs slightly dimming at once or different sections/ bulbs dimming alternately. Flashing all on-off would be less helpful but I could probably make it work by rigging a supplementary steady-on strip alongside.
posted by Bardolph at 8:15 AM on October 17
I own a set similar to seemoorglass’s (probably the same manufacturer, but mine was sold in Mexico). You can have the entire strip flash on and off, but never individual lights out of sync.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:15 AM on October 17
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:15 AM on October 17
The entire system is controlled by a remote, and I don’t think there’s a way to dim and undim the light on a timer. There are several settings for flash speed however.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:19 AM on October 17
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:19 AM on October 17
check out what the alarm icon does.
There is one other intermittent setting, slow fade in, slow fade out, I can send a video of that too if you want but doesn’t sound like that’s the droid you’re looking for.
posted by seemoorglass at 8:20 AM on October 17
There is one other intermittent setting, slow fade in, slow fade out, I can send a video of that too if you want but doesn’t sound like that’s the droid you’re looking for.
posted by seemoorglass at 8:20 AM on October 17
Response by poster: As long as there are settings for flash speed, I think I can fudge it by layering with another strip. @seemoorglass, can I ask if the one you linked has the speed setting Tell Me No Lies described?
posted by Bardolph at 8:24 AM on October 17
posted by Bardolph at 8:24 AM on October 17
No unfortunately, on mine, there is no speed setting option.
posted by seemoorglass at 8:38 AM on October 17
posted by seemoorglass at 8:38 AM on October 17
Well I’ve never tried to order from Amazon Mexico from the U.S., although I do the reverse regularly.
Here’s the product link.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:18 AM on October 17
Here’s the product link.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:18 AM on October 17
As you can see from the picture of the remote, it was manufactured for an English speaking audience.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:19 AM on October 17
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:19 AM on October 17
Ah, it appears that you can buy the remote with an inline controller and possibly control any set of LEDs with it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:39 AM on October 17
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:39 AM on October 17
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LED light strip, warm white, multiple modes including twinkle (it's for inexplicable reasons got an alarm bell icon on the remote), they are 30 feet long, and they plug into any USB adaptor. absolutely no programming required.
they are not as warm as I was hoping, but slightly on the warmer end of neutral, and definitely avoid that horrible cold/blue LED standard.
posted by seemoorglass at 7:52 AM on October 17