An incredible value, June 21, 2013

The sticky tape says 3M but like everyone else is saying, it’s worthless and is a knock-off. It sticks for about 5 minutes then falls down and never goes back up more than a few seconds.

Not a big issue… I hot glued it under my kitchen cabinet with about 20 cents in hot glue, just had to peal the sticky tape off first which was annoying, they should not include the sticky tape in the first place; it is kind of pointless. I used a 60 watt hot glue gun in direct contact with the strip and there were no burn marks or discoloration or any warping even though the strip got really hot from the glue.

I submerged it in about a foot of water in my kitchen sink (connector too; but be careful, it’s hard to get it to snap water-tight) and bent and twisted it and it continued to work, it’s coated in a semi-soft gel, and looks like it was poured on hot at the factory and cooled in a great bond. Twisting and bending does not crack or modify the gel, and heating up the strip with the hot glue produced no cracks or seams, it keeps tightly and completely bonded to the strip. This thing is 100% water proof.

The “White” button color is actually tinted blue, you don’t notice it at first but when cooking, it makes fruit oranges look red, and you can’t rely on the color of meat, breading, etc. in the default “white” light. I bought more than one and they were both like this; I assume they think blueish light looks more “white” (it does make white cloth look whiter) and configured it that way. Fortunately, they also let you make custom colors, so I just added red, green and blue equally until all my food looked correct and it’s fine, although you CANNOT dim custom colors with the included controller, which slightly stinks.

The controller lets you select from 20 stock colors (although pinks/peaches and white are tinted slightly blue), and lets you make 6 of your own colors; you push a DIY button once to select it, then push the Red/Green/Blue up/down keys until you see the color you like and that’s it; it’s saved as you change it, and it’s saved in the controller itself, not the remote, so you can replace your remote and your colors will remain.

It also lets you cycle through 6 different blinking/fading patterns, and lets you adjust the speed of any pattern by pushing “slow” or “fast” multiple times to get different timings (can cycle colors as fast as about 30/second and as slow as about 1 every 2 seconds).

It also lets you dim or brighten any of the stock 20 colors, but not custom colors. Dimmest setting is a night light, around 25 lumens and using around 3 watts of power or 8 lumens/watt with the included adapter, brightest setting produces about 2100 real lumens (I used a lux meter) and consumed 35 watts (I used a watt meter), or 60 lumens/watt.

The average I have seen is 100 lumens per watt for LED light, so in exchange for RGB colors and a controller, you are getting about 60 lumens per watt at the highest brightness setting. I am guessing the power adapter is pretty poor, as it heats up quite a bit and looses efficiency at bright settings.

Also keep in mind “5050” is not a part number but only used to describe the size of the LED package, so 1 “5050” LED may not be as bright as another “5050” LED, they may consume different amounts of power and be made by different manufacturers, however, they will take up the same space.

This is perfect for under cabinets; 1 strip will give you 140 lumens per linear foot, although a lighting expert will tell you that you should have about 200 per linear foot, so doubling back at 7.5 feet will brighten up that area twice as much and put you over the recommendation of 200 by giving you 280. Some people online wanted as much as 400 per foot, but in my opinion, your metal objects like knives, toasters and forks will reflect the light into your eyes and bother you in real-world usage above 300 lumens per foot.

Most under-cabinet lighting is designed to be in the 170-230 lumens per foot range if installed as recommended, so using a single strip puts you slightly outside that range.

This strip uses less electricity than florescent and is completely instant; you press the button and immediately the lights go on, and the controller and remote allow for some great color combinations.

The strip is controlled with 4 wires; Red, Green, Blue and Ground. There are plans online to hook these things up to an arduino with a motion sensor for kitchen cabinets. I can confirm this strip works with these plans, and when controlled with an arduino, there is no blue bias that the stock controller gives you; it’s perfect, so the included controller is a little poor but still a great deal for including it with a remote and power supply for this price ().

If you plan on just hooking up a 12v infrared sensor with a relay, you will be happy to know that the…

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Control Box electronics cheaply constructed and remote manual, July 31, 2013

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Decent product but avoid Abco Deals or eBestrade, July 9, 2013

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