Voltage Drop

The voltage drop in LED strips causes the section near the power supply to be brighter than the end, resulting in brightness inconsistency.

To avoid this, connect multiple LED strips to the power supply in parallel or use ultra-long constant current LED strips.

Another common solution is power injection. This involves adding additional wires at different points of the LED strip and connecting them to the main power source to ensure consistent brightness. End-to-end, midpoint, and parallel injection are the most popular methods.

Parallel Connection

The most common way to avoid voltage drop problems is to connect multiple LED strips in parallel to a power supply, controller, or amplifier.

Another way is to connect both ends of the LED  strip to the same power source, controller, or amplifier.

Be sure NOT to connect multiple strips in series to a power supply, controller, or amplifier.

PWM Amplifier

All LED controllers output a PWM signal. If an LED controller does not output enough power, a PWM amplifier can increase the PWM power, thus allowing the LED controller to drive a sufficient number of LED strips.

How to Wire Single Color LED Strip Lights

The single color or mono  LED strip light is the simplest. It only has two wires and can only emit light of a specific color.

Wiring Single Color LED Strip Lights With Non-Dimmable LED Drivers

The most common is a single-color LED strip connected to a non-dimmable power source with no controller.

Please note that the power of the total LED strip lights should not exceed 80% of the power supply power, which is the principle of 80% of the power supply power.

Wiring Single Color LED Strip Lights With Dimmable LED Drivers

To adjust the brightness of a single-color LED strip, you need to connect it with a dimmable power supply. The most common dimming methods are 0-10V, Triac, and DALI.

0-10V Dimmable LED Driver Connection Diagram

TRIAC Dimmable LED Driver Connection Diagram

DALI Dimmable LED Driver Connection Diagram

Wiring Single Color LED Strip Lights With LED Controllers

In addition, the single-color LED strip light can also be connected to a controller to adjust the brightness.

Without PWM Amplifier

When you connect a small number of LED strips with an LED controller, an LED amplifier is not necessary.

With PWM Amplifier

For large lighting projects, many LED strips are required. LED amplifiers are needed when many LED strips are connected to the controller.

Wiring Single Color LED Strip Lights With DMX512 Decoder

How to Wire Tunable White LED Strip Lights

Tunable white LED strip light, also called CCT adjustable LED strip light, usually has three wires and two different color temperature LEDs. You can adjust the brightness of these two different CCT LEDs to change the mixed CCT.

Wiring Tunable White LED Strip Lights With Dimmable LED Drivers

In most cases, dimmable power supplies can only be used to adjust the brightness of single-color LED strips.

However, DALI adds the DT8 protocol to support tunable white, RGB, RGBW, and RGBCCT LED strip lights.

DALI DT8 Tunable White LED Driver

Wiring Tunable White LED Strip Lights With LED Controllers

Only a tunable white LED controller is required for a small number of adjustable color temperature LED strips. If the number is large, then a PWM amplifier is needed.

Without PWM Amplifier

With PWM Amplifier

Wiring Tunable White LED Strip Lights With DMX512 Decoder

Generally, there is no dedicated DMX512 decoder (2 channels output) for adjustable color temperature LED strips.

But we can use the 3-channel or 4-channel output DMX512 decoder to control the adjustable color temperature LED strip.

Two Wires Tunable White LED Strip Lights

There is also a 2-wire adjustable color temperature LED strip.

There is also a 2-wire adjustable color temperature LED strip. The 2-wire color temperature LED strip can be made narrower for some narrow places.

2-wire tunable LED strip requires the unique tunable white LED controller.

Two Wires Dim To Warm LED Strip Lights

Dim to Warm LED strip lights are designed to mimic the behavior of incandescent lighting, where the color temperature becomes warmer as the light is dimmed. This type of LED strip typically has two wires and adjusts its color temperature automatically as the brightness is lowered.

Dim to Warm vs. Tunable White LED Strip

Color Temperature Range	Automatically warms when dimmed (e.g., 3000K to 1800K)	Manually adjustable between two set CCTs (e.g., 2700K to 6000K)
Control	Simple dimming control with standard dimmers	Requires a controller for adjusting CCT
Wiring	Two wires	Typically three wires
Application	Ideal for creating cozy, warm atmospheres	Suitable for dynamic lighting environments needing different CCTs

Switch ON/OFF Tunable White LED Strip Lights

Switch ON/OFF Tunable White LED strip lights adjust color temperature by simply toggling a wall switch. This method requires no controllers or receivers, making it easy to operate. The strip offers three color temperatures, changing with each switch cycle, and returns to warm white (2700K) after being off for more than 6 seconds.

Note: The wall switch must be between the LED power supply input wire and the high voltage AC main wire.

How to Wire RGB LED Strip Lights

RGB LED strip has four wires, which are common anode, R, G, and B.

RGB LED strips are mainly used with LED controllers but can also be used with DALI DT8 dimmable drivers.

Wiring RGB LED Strip Lights With Dimmable LED Drivers

DALI DT8 RGB LED Driver

Wiring RGB LED Strip Lights With LED Controllers

Without PWM Amplifier

With PWM Amplifier

Wiring RGB LED Strip Lights With DMX512 Decoder

How to Wire RGBW LED Strip Lights

An RGBW LED strip light has four color channels: Red, Green, Blue, and White. This allows for the creation of both vibrant colors and pure white light, offering more versatility than a standard RGB strip.

Wiring RGBW LED Strip Lights With Dimmable LED Drivers

DALI DT8 RGBW LED Driver

Wiring RGBW LED Strip Lights With LED Controllers

Without PWM Amplifier

With PWM Amplifier

Wiring RGBW LED Strip Lights With DMX512 Decoder

How to Wire RGBCCT LED Strip Lights

Wiring RGBCCT LED Strip Lights With Dimmable LED Drivers

An RGBCCT LED strip light includes Red, Green, Blue, and dual White channels (Cool White and Warm White). This allows for a full spectrum of colors along with adjustable color temperature, providing both vibrant colors and customizable white lighting.

DALI DT8 RGBCCT LED Driver

Wiring RGBCCT LED Strip Lights With LED Controllers

Without PWM Amplifier

With PWM Amplifier

Wiring RGBCCT LED Strip Lights With DMX512 Decoder

How to Wire Addressable LED Strip Lights

Individual addressable led strip, also called digital led strip, pixel led strip, magic led strip, or dream color led strip, is a led strip with control ICs that allow you to control individual LEDs or groups of LEDs. You can control a specific part of the led strip, which is why it is called ‘addressable’. 

How to Wire SPI Addressable LED Strip Lights

The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a synchronous serial communication interface specification used for short-distance communication, primarily in embedded systems. The interface was developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s and has become a de facto standard. Typical applications include Secure Digital cards and liquid crystal displays.

The SPI addressable led strip is an LED strip that receives SPI signals directly, and changes the color and brightness of the light according to the signal.

SPI Addressable LED Strip Lights With Data Channel Only

SPI Addressable LED Strip Lights With Data and Clock Channels

SPI Addressable LED Strip Lights With Data and Backup Data Channels

How to Wire DMX512 Addressable LED Strip Lights

The DMX512 addressable led strip is an LED strip that receives DMX512 signals directly, without a DMX512 decoder, and changes the color and brightness of the light according to the signal.

Before using the DMX512 addressable LED strip, you need to set the DMX512 address to the LED strip, and this operation only needs to be done once.