the 1809 is on the flex strips, and i think the rigid strips. each chips runs 3 rgb leds.
the 1804 is on the plastic rectangles, metal squares, and smart strings nodes.
even though the rectangles, and squares have 3 rgb led's on them, the chip controls them all the same, so if you turn red on, all three light up red, etc.
With the nodes that are in this thread, they "should" behave like a smart string node. but because it's a different design, the colors could be off (the color order might not be, red first, followed by green, then blue) or it might have a color issue (like some have talked about the unofficial 4 rgb led metal squares having a slight red tint) the nodes themselves are not that technically complicated, so that is why i said they "should" behave, but no one will know until after someone tried them out. So for whoever decides to try them, be prepared for them to not work, and if they do, then that's just a bonus. Ray did mention that everything with the 1804,1809, or 1812 chips do work with his tester. But that just means that they turn on, not to the quality once they are on.