I just purchased the LZW45 LED strip and bought some extra LED strips to max it out at the 16’ limit. (Note: that limit really should be listed on the product page)
When I turn on the unit it starts at 99 brightness and then begins to drop to 80. Given I’m at the 16’ specified max I would assume it would operate at full brightness. Am I missing something?
When I disconnect a strip or more the dimming still happens, but stops at a higher value.
I was playing around with the color and temperature settings and found that it directly affected what value it dropped to. If I set the temperature to be 2700 it falls to 80%. If I have it set to 6500 it fell to 95.
This is an educated guess, but I think the controller is limiting the output to its capacity, resulting in diminished brightness in certain conditions. You are only working with 24 Watts, which for a 16’ run isn’t all that substantial.
As you change the color temperature or vary the color, the power requirements will change. For the whites, it’s a function of the chip(s) used to create the desired Kelvin. For colors using the RGB chip, it’s a function of the color selected, as the number of LEDs used to produce the color on the RGB chip will vary.
As a general rule with LEDs, whites will always draw the most power.
So would that mean the controller is faulty?
Since it’s max spec is 16 feet you would think that would have some conservatism built in.
If it’s not able to run 16 feet at full brightness at all color settings then I would say its max spec’d length is lower than 16 feet.
Yeah, uh, no. I don’t know the thinking behind the power supply choice. Maybe there will be a 3A power supply down the road. That’s doable with a wall wart.
That controller could have been coded so that max brightness on a 16’ run would reflect a 100% output. The LEDs would be a little less bright on the white that pulls the max wattage and you’d never know it. You’d probably all excited that you get 100% on a 16’ run! But instead, I’m guessing, they allowed the controller to put out 100% so that you gain that advantage.
Are your LEDs not bright enough or is it just that it bothers you that the controller can’t get to 100% with some whites that have a high draw? There have been a lot of posts here about these strips and AFAIK, no one has ever said they’re not bright enough. In fact, I’d hazard guess that the Inovelli strips produce more illumination than many of the other LED strips on the market.
I think it just stems from the lights are brighter when they first activate and reach 100%, but then begin to dim until they reach some level the controller holds them at. So my first reaction is that it’s capable of being brighter, at least temporarily, but the controller won’t remain at that level.
I’m in the same boat here. I’ve added sections to get to 16 feet and I see the same behavior as @Recon1776. They are not bright enough at 80% and I feel they might be if they could remain at 100%. So does anyone know if this is designed behavior, i.e. 80% is the best I can do at 16 feet, or is there something I’m missing. If the behavior is as designed, they will have to be returned unfortunately as I look for another solution.