LED strip is widely used in almost all industries where high-quality lighting is required with low electricity consumption. Also, it is often used for the manufacture of advertising stands and for tuning elements. In most cases, such a tape is simply bought in specialized stores, but for specific purposes and as a cost-saving LED strip is made by yourself.
Home-made LED strip can be made in accordance with individual requirements and taking into account the specific characteristics of the place of application. In this case, you can set a certain distance between the LEDs and select their color, which in most cases matters.
Moisture-proof LED strip with its own hands is made using three volt LEDs that are mounted on strips of PCB, plastic or any other material - it can have certain properties. For example, you can take a strip of getinax about 0.5 meters long and 1 cm wide. When using this material, a flexible LED strip is obtained, endowed with the ability to remember the shape given to it. A strip of colored plastic, which will serve as a light filter, can be glued to a getinax tape.
In this strip, it is necessary to make holes with a diameter of 0.5 cm to install the LEDs. In this case, the distance between the holes should be chosen at your own discretion and depending on the need. Usually, in such a strip 0.5 meters long, the placement of sixteen LEDs is considered optimal, since it is in this design that you can get the most clear lighting and a beautiful visual effect.
When making an LED strip with your own hands, it is necessary to accurately calculate the resistance of the entire LED circuit. When using sixteen LEDs with a voltage of 3 volts, they should be connected in a chain of four each. Thus, four separate electrical circuits of four LEDs are obtained, which are all connected in parallel. This LED strip is designed for a network voltage of 12 volts.
After connecting all the LEDs and placing them in the holes on the strip, the LED strip, made by yourself, must pass the test. It is necessary to connect electricity and make sure that all diodes are working. If everything was done correctly, then no problems should arise.
In fact, everything is ready, but we just need a waterproof LED strip, and this device can fail if moisture gets into it. Therefore, it is necessary to take a heat shrink tube or hose made of transparent materials and put it on the finished tape. Then, with the help of a building hair dryer, the pipe should be heated until it tightly covers the entire strip. It is worth noting that before using the hairdryer, you must make sure that the contacts to which the power will be connected are outside the pipe.
After shrinkage with a hairdryer, the ends of the pipe can be sealed, leaving the wires for connection outside. After that, the moisture-proof LED strip is ready for use.