Cheap Abco Tech®Waterproof 150 Color Changing SMD5050 LED Lighting Strip

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List Price: $149.00
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i actually didn't buy this version of the product, but the 2-pack version without the controller/power supply kit because i needed LEDs for custom installation around my bedroom totalling over 80ft.

the reason that i'm reviewing this kit, though, is that ABCO has the most consistently good LED strips i've found. i bought separate controllers from them also and i would steer clear of their RF controller as it seems to interfere with everything else that's RF, probably using a very common channel and once disrupted, there's no way to reset the programming so it no longer responds. their IR versions are all great, and for once, i've found an RGB controller that's wired CORRECTLY. i've never had an ABCO strip or controller display a color contrary to the color i'm trying to get. what's especially nice is that their controller has diy buttons that you can press once to program what any color you want by increasing/decreasing the R/G/B values as shown by the colored arrow indicators.

when an LED controller is wired incorrectly, you would experience problems that echo many negative reviews of various brands of LED strip products found on this site. for example:

if red and green are reversed, hitting a button to make purple will instead produce aqua, with the aqua color producing purple

if red and blue are reversed, hitting a button to make cyan will now produce yellow, with the yellow button producing cyan

if blue and green are reversed, hitting the yellow button will now produce purple, with the purple button producing yellow.

it's simple RGB color theory. incorrect wiring of any or all of the three colors and your entire spectrum is messed up. while for many (like me), this isn't a huge problem as it's relatively simply to cut open the LED strip and realign the wires to the correct contact on the controller. but for many others that don't know how to, or want to "damage" their strip by labotomizing it, they're stuck with the 4-pin male/female connectors that these strips typically come in and have to live with randomly pressing buttons on their controllers to "hopefully" get the color they want. also, it's important that whether or not you care about the colors being messed up, that you test the "white" that your strip offers. no matter how incorrectly the colors were wired, white should ALWAYS make white. if your white is making an obvious shade of a visible tint (it could look faintly blu-ish, due to the nature of the colors mixing together, as red is the least visible to the human eye and blue/green will overpower the white), say, bright orange or purple, then you have two choices. either

pack up the light and send it back for a refund, because it's not just wired wrong, one or more of the colors have dead wires that cannot carry a current.

or you can try to locate where the "white" turns into a visible tint of color, and truncate at that location to make your own connector. if you don't know how, don't bother. it's messy and typically involves soldering.

either way, i've used strips from LEDwholeseller before as well as TaoTronics, two other more popular brands here on amazon. ABCO is by far the most consistent strip, and they also seem to be brighter in general to the other two. i compared an ABCO to an LEDwholeseller strip side by side and the ABCO one is seriously nearly 50% brighter, at least to me.

one caveat that you should watch out for is that no matter the brand, these strips ARE DELICATE. they are flexible, NOT "twist-and-bendable." they do give a little, but because these are designed to be easy to connect together, every 3 feet you will find 4 metal contact points that are pre-solders for an easy connection (just touch the solders together and slide the iron over, voila, they're fused together in under a second). the problem is that these are also the weakspots, as the strips are joined together by these solders. this means if you tug on the strip a little too hard, or forcibly fold/twist it around corners, these solders may either break or come loose, which compromises the circuit and possibly will put your light out. it's nto a huge deal, as you can easily trim away the rubber coating and re-solder them yourself if you know how. once again, if you don't...you're SOL.

anyway, before i digress even further, i must apologize for this ridiculously long review but i wanted to say that i've used up 7~ reels of ABCO leds alone, and they're the only supplier i've bought more than one from. i'll put up pictures sometime later...possibly.

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I put these lights on a boat and was stunned at how bright they are! A few installation notes that might save you some trouble:

1. It looked like the connector on the light string and the connector on the LED controller were both male. And they were. But in actuality they are both female connectors with a male/male converter piece already inserted. Just pull off the male connectors on one of these and no problem...

You can't make a 90 degree turn. In fact most turns will be difficult. So you'll have to cut, peel the back circuitry off of the waterproof protector. Then either use wires with solder or buy special connectors like these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006VZKSNC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00 (which is what I did).

2. The boat has a standard 12v battery in a battery minder that has an automobile style connector. So I cut off the end of the wire that goes from the power supply to the LED controller box, spliced this onto it http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016LG0CY/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00. Then I could hook the LED controller straight to the battery.

3. I had a few connection issues so I had to reseat and clean the contacts of all the splices. Use the remote to make sure that the red, green and blue all work. Don't forget to test each color.

4. I used some outdoor-rated waterproof electrical tape around all the splices.

I only installed yesterday, but last night the boat was super bright. There are lots of slow and fast all the way to manic light settings.

Love them!

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Have ordered several sets of these through Abco, they have been consistently responsive, and always make sure I got what I needed when I needed it.

Honest reviews on Abco Tech®Waterproof 150 Color Changing SMD5050 LED Lighting Strip

I bought this set of lights to go above our kitchen cabinets and they worked great! I was so happy that I purchased a second set. About 2 weeks later though, we smelled a electrical burning smell. Ran around the house trying to find the source, finally noticing that 1 set of lights were off. Found the LED controller on the top of the cabinet partially charred and melted (YIKES!). Debating whether to keep the second set around or not but certainly don't feel comfortable leaving the house with it on or leaving it on overnight.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Abco Tech®Waterproof 150 Color Changing SMD5050 LED Lighting Strip

The lights are so cool ... we get a lot of compliments from our neighbors. I plan to keep the lights up in my windows year round.

The led lights are so easy to install, They are bright and the colors are so nice. I love we can keep them on one color or have the color constantly changing.