New here..retail business

[Alfredo]

I have a retail business that needs rgb led flexible strips on the border of their windows. I need to them to shine outward and be seen by the outdoor customers. I'm looking for the indoor kind of lights. I completely new to putting these up and don't know exactly what i need like length, how to make it look like a square, how much watts, etc. I left a picture of the measurements and also how I want the lights to look like(can be seen in red lines). Let me know what you think. Id like this to be affordable and semi-easy to set up, someone else was going to do it for me but is rather save the money and do it myself, because money is tight and I need to advertise my store.

Thanks for your help!

[Alfredo]

My number is 2094813406...hopefully I posted this in the current forum

[adafruit_support_mike]

Technically this goes in the "Glowy Things" forum, but no harm done..

You have two basic options for low-cost RGB LED strips: the analog kind, where you can adjust the color, but all the LEDs will be the same color, or the addressable kind where you can set the color of each LED individually. We have both, and we sell them by the meter.

The analog LED strips are here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/285 They're out of stock right now but we get new product as fast as we can.

The digital LED strips are here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1376 They cost slightly more, but we have them right now if that's important to you.

As far as supplying power and making them light up goes, each page has a tab labled 'Tutorials' which links to a detailed walkthrough on setting things up and making with the blinky.

[Alfredo]

Technically this goes in the "Glowy Things" forum, but no harm done..

You have two basic options for low-cost RGB LED strips: the analog kind, where you can adjust the color, but all the LEDs will be the same color, or the addressable kind where you can set the color of each LED individually. We have both, and we sell them by the meter.

The analog LED strips are here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/285 They're out of stock right now but we get new product as fast as we can.

The digital LED strips are here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1376 They cost slightly more, but we have them right now if that's important to you.

As far as supplying power and making them light up goes, each page has a tab labled 'Tutorials' which links to a detailed walkthrough on setting things up and making with the blinky.

Thanks for the reply. I saw the tutorial and it seems its not dumb proof with soldering and codes needing to be done. I'm very new to this. I understand I can by the strips, but I don't know what I will need as far as accessories. How do I make four different window sections change simultaneously? How much power do i need if i just want to plug it into a normal power outlet? How do I get them to make a 90 degree angle? If you look at my measurements in the picture provided. I just want to know what to buy exactly. Again something dumb proof that doesn't require much "soldering" for example. Is this the only way to get technical support by the way? Like is there a number I can call?

[tldr]

looks like you'll need 4m for each of the small windows and 14m for the large window. you'll have a few left over to decorate the cash register, but they'll be little pieces.

the leds draw about 2a per 30 leds, when displaying white. less for other colors.

if you want everything to be the same color, get the analog strips. if you want color chases, get the digital strips.

pc atx power supplies are great for this stuff. there's a standby 5v supply for your controller and a 12v rail that's great for analog strips and 5v that's dandy for the digital strips. sparkfun and dangerous prototypes have adapters for atx supplies, or you can just perform a little surgery on an atx extension cable. otherwise adafruit has this 5v 10a switching supply and this 12v 5a model.

probably something arduinoish per window would be a good idea, but you could probably get away with sharing one between the two windows to the right of the door. you'll need three n-channel mosfets, (maybe more), per controller.

an ir sensor per arduino would give the ability to control the whole thing without coming out from behind the counter.

programming these things is actually pretty trivial, with the libraries that are available.

[Alfredo]

looks like you'll need 4m for each of the small windows and 14m for the large window. you'll have a few left over to decorate the cash register, but they'll be little pieces.

the leds draw about 2a per 30 leds, when displaying white. less for other colors.

if you want everything to be the same color, get the analog strips. if you want color chases, get the digital strips.

pc atx power supplies are great for this stuff. there's a standby 5v supply for your controller and a 12v rail that's great for analog strips and 5v that's dandy for the digital strips. sparkfun and dangerous prototypes have adapters for atx supplies, or you can just perform a little surgery on an atx extension cable. otherwise adafruit has this 5v 10a switching supply and this 12v 5a model.

probably something arduinoish per window would be a good idea, but you could probably get away with sharing one between the two windows to the right of the door. you'll need three n-channel mosfets, (maybe more), per controller.

an ir sensor per arduino would give the ability to control the whole thing without coming out from behind the counter.

programming these things is actually pretty trivial, with the libraries that are available.

Thanks for your help. I think this site is for more professionals. This is definitely not second hand knowledge to me.

[tldr]

I think this site is for more professionals.

well, yeah. i've been delivering mail for the last twenty-five years. i reckon that makes me a professional of some sort.

the secret here is that this stuff is not rocket science. i got into it because i wanted to build an alarm clock that would understand my rotating days off and how federal holidays affect my schedule and that i wouldn't have to remember to set every night.

i suggest that you get an arduino, a meter of digital leds, a 5v 2a power supply and work through the tutorial.

if you get one of the new strips with 60 leds per meter, only use the first 32. an rgb led is actually three leds each of which draw about 20 milliamps of current. (32 * 3) leds * .02 amps is going to be 1.92 amps, which is right at the limits of the power supply.

play around with it. ask questions here in the forums. you'll be amazed at what you can do. (and occasionally annoyed at what you can't.)

[Alfredo]

I think this site is for more professionals.

well, yeah. i've been delivering mail for the last twenty-five years. i reckon that makes me a professional of some sort.

the secret here is that this stuff is not rocket science. i got into it because i wanted to build an alarm clock that would understand my rotating days off and how federal holidays affect my schedule and that i wouldn't have to remember to set every night.

i suggest that you get an arduino, a meter of digital leds, a 5v 2a power supply and work through the tutorial.

if you get one of the new strips with 60 leds per meter, only use the first 32. an rgb led is actually three leds each of which draw about 20 milliamps of current. (32 * 3) leds * .02 amps is going to be 1.92 amps, which is right at the limits of the power supply.

play around with it. ask questions here in the forums. you'll be amazed at what you can do. (and occasionally annoyed at what you can't.)

It seems there's a lot of technical stuff like "soldering" things together. Is this really that easy to put together? Can you let me know what items I will need by seein the picture I left above? Here's a video I found of what I want my (4) different windows to look like and for them to function simultaneously. Any other resources I can fin would be great help!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=wKZ6U-X7 ... KZ6U-X74LE

[tldr]

ok. those are analog strips.

you can connect them without soldering using these.

you can control them wirelessly with one of these.

you can power quite a few of them with one of these.

these can be used to connect the stubs in the connector kits to the controllers.

no soldering. no programming. a single transmitter will be able to control the strips in all the windows.

[Alfredo]

ok. those are analog strips.

you can connect them without soldering using these.

you can control them wirelessly with one of these.

you can power quite a few of them with one of these.

these can be used to connect the stubs in the connector kits to the controllers.

no soldering. no programming. a single transmitter will be able to control the strips in all the windows.

Thanks so much what you wrote down was exactly what I needed somebody to do since I don't know what goes with what. Couple more questions..I calculated I will be using between 80 ft and 105ft (depending how much the total cost will be) to light all my window borders, so is the one amp and power outlet enough to hold all that power and what can I do about it? Second question, since one of my windows is farther than the others, do they sell "extension" wire to connect the strip that's a couple feet away from another strip?

Thanks again

[tldr]

I calculated I will be using between 80 ft and 105ft (depending how much the total cost will be) to light all my window borders, so is the one amp and power outlet enough to hold all that power and what can I do about it?

according to the page for the 60 led/m strip, the 12v 5a supply should be sufficient to power 5m.

according to the page for the controller its maximum output is 4 amps per channel. that means you'd need one controller per window, each with a power supply capable of supplying 12 amps. i linked a 30 amp supply from amazon before, but you might feel safer with something ul approved like this one that supplies 12v at 12.5a from jameco, (located in belmont, a not too horrible drive from your area code). one transmitter would suffice for all four windows, and you'd have three to stash in a drawer for when the first one walks away. you'll need one power supply per controller.

you may need two controllers for the large window.

[Alfredo]

I calculated I will be using between 80 ft and 105ft (depending how much the total cost will be) to light all my window borders, so is the one amp and power outlet enough to hold all that power and what can I do about it?

according to the page for the 60 led/m strip, the 12v 5a supply should be sufficient to power 5m.

according to the page for the controller its maximum output is 4 amps per channel. that means you'd need one controller per window, each with a power supply capable of supplying 12 amps. i linked a 30 amp supply from amazon before, but you might feel safer with something ul approved like this one that supplies 12v at 12.5a from jameco, (located in belmont, a not too horrible drive from your area code). one transmitter would suffice for all four windows, and you'd have three to stash in a drawer for when the first one walks away. you'll need one power supply per controller.

you may need two controllers for the large window.

Wow...this is beyond helpful. Thank you so much for explaining in detail sir! I have a feeling this might get me hooked and make me want to use these lights on other projects!

Cheers!