20mm Clear Digital RGB LED Pixels (Strand of 20) - LPD6803

RGB Pixels are digitally-controllable lights you can set to any color, or animate. Each RGB LED and controller chip is molded into a 'dot' of silicone. The dots are waterproof and rugged. There are four flanges molded in so that you can 'push' them into a 20mm drill hole in any material up to 2mm/0.08" thick. They're typically used to make outdoor signs. Compared to our '12mm' dots, these are clear-coated and brighter.

The pixels are connected by a 4-conductor cable. Red is +5V, Blue is Ground, Yellow is Data and Green is Clock. Data is shifted down from one pixel to the next so that you can easily cut the strand or attach more onto the end.

Each dot is digitally controlled, with an internal 5-bit PWM LED driver (15-bit color for 32,768 different shades). The pixels must be clocked by a microcontroller, we have an example code linked below that works on an Arduino, it should be simple to adapt it to any other microcontroller.

The pixels use 5050 surface mount RGB LEDs, with brightness of about 1600 mcd total brightness. However the beam spread is 120 degrees which means that the light is spread out more (less intense) than a narrow beam 1600 mcd LED.

• 20mm diameter (0.75") 16.5mm deep (0.65")
• 64mm / 2.5" apart on the strand
• 20 pieces per strand
• 15 bit color
• 5V power, 90mA maximum per pixel (LED on full white)
• 2-pin SPI protocol
• LPD6803 Datasheet for the chip inside each pixel
• Brightness: Red = 8 Lumens/300 mcd, Green = 16 Lumens/1000 mcd, Blue = 4.5 Lumens/300 mcd

Sold by the strand, each strand has 20 pixels in series! You can solder multiple strands in a row, as many as you wish, just watch for how much current they want. We have a 5V/2A supply that should be able to drive 2 or more strands.

You can drive these with an Arduino using any two microcontroller digital pins, check this library which also has example code to demonstrate the strands and be sure to read our very detailed tutorial on usage!