Quick question on cable

[dgreen]

Hey all, I have a newbie question.
I am planning on using smart strings in this year’s display and was lucky enough to get in on the group buy.
Now it is time to order the lights so I looked on the wiki and found the smart string nodes to be the ones I want to use.
My only question, why is there a 3 conductor cable and connectors listed under accessories?
Don’t we need a 4 conductor?
Thanks

[njKeever]

Nope, 3 conductor. All the nodes are listed as Red, Green, Blue.

[Rainlover]

You only need 3 connectors - Power, Ground and Data
Enjoy.

John

[hicksjo]

You may be thinking 4 conductor like common positive and one negative per color r,g,b as would be the case with dumb rgb lights coming from an mr16 for example ... But remember smart strings have an ic in each node that is interpreting data for the r,g,b "channels" ... That is one conductor (blue), then you have positive dc (red) and negative dc (green) ... Thus 3 conductors

[dgreen]

Got it
Thanks

[Steve Gase]

if you order wire for future use, I'd suggest 4-conductor.  that will allow you to use this for smart string now and dumb strings later. 

(of course you may be someone that orders only what you need for now... )

[taybrynn]

Why would anyone want to go from smart to dumb?   

Ok, I know why ... but whats the cost difference for a dumb string vs. a smart string?

Can the dumb string be any variety, or only certain chipsets?

[chrisatpsu]

there are many ways to run dumb strings for now. I'd wait to see the release of the soon to be out "dumb string controller" first, before making decisions on hardware to run them. For some of us, it will save the "oh, i should have waited just x amount of time."

But in general any DC dimmer will control a "dumb string" as long as it...

A.) can control the voltage of the string. (most are 12v, but there are some out there that are 5v, or 24v)
B.) is compatible with the side of the led that can individually control the colors
     1. common anode - has a common positive, so in order to change the red, green, or blue, you need a controller that controls the negative side.
     2. common cathode- has a common negative, so in order to change the red, green, or blue, you need a controller that controls the positive side.
     3. pass through - rare, but do esist, these have no common connector, and can be controlled on either the positive or negative side.
C.) can control the current of the device. (example, a lot of the lower power controllers might not run a full 5m dumb strip)


back to the OP, if you purchase 4 conductor cable, you can peel off a conductor for use with smart strings, but then have cable around to handle the 4 conductor needs of most dumb strings.