{"id":358,"date":"2019-03-28T21:59:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T21:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/?p=358"},"modified":"2020-09-18T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T18:15:00","slug":"led-rolls-of-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"LED Rolls of Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These things are amazing, easy to use, and really cheap.\u00a0 There are now LED specialty shops all over the place (including two in Progreso on C.78 near the beach), and they&#8217;re sold at the big places like Niplito and (for more money) at Home Depot.\u00a0 Easy to buy online too from places like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masluz.mx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Masluz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A typical package has 5 meters of LED&#8217;s rolled up on a reel.\u00a0 (Remember audio tapes and 8mm film?\u00a0 It&#8217;s a reel like that.)\u00a0 One end will have a connector on it, and you plug that into the power supply.\u00a0 Plug the supply into an outlet and the whole strip lights up.<\/p>\n<p>There are also LED strips made up of red green and blue (RGB) LEDs.\u00a0 These will come with a controller that connects in between the strip and the power supply, as well as a little remote control the size of a credit card.\u00a0 These strips let you change the colors, dim them, and even start them animating with constant color changes.<\/p>\n<p><em>And what can you do with these things?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you have a recessed area at the top of a wall, unroll a strip for beautiful indirect lighting.<\/li>\n<li>Stick a strip under a shelf for even lighting along the entire length.<\/li>\n<li>Light an entire china cabinet by running strips vertically down the sides.<\/li>\n<li>If you buy a strip rated for use outdoors, string it along anything to light the area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>MOUNTING THE STRIP:<\/strong>\u00a0 The flexible LED strips come with an adhesive strip along its entire length; you take off the backing and press it in place.\u00a0 That&#8217;s great provided your surface is perfectly smooth, and perfectly clean.\u00a0 I find that strip does not work well, but there are lots of little clips (made for purposes like holding wire to a wall) that can be used to hold it up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CUTTING THE STRIP:<\/strong>\u00a0 LED strips cut easily with sharp scissors or wirecutters.\u00a0 BUT you must be careful to cut the trip at the right place!\u00a0 You will see the little square LEDs, and between them will be pairs of small copper foil surfaces.\u00a0 Cut the strip right across that copper foil, so you leave a bit on each of your cut ends.\u00a0 If you do this, you&#8217;ll be able later to solder thin wires to them and use the part you cut off for something else.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ADDED SEPT 2020:<\/strong>\u00a0 I had to replace a strip this summer, and the new ones came without a remotecontrol.\u00a0 These operate thru Wifi or Bluetooth from your phone, tablet or home assistant (e.g., Alexa).\u00a0 The app, called Tuyasmart, lets me adjust the colors and brightness and also set timed events (turn on every evening at 7PM, off at 10:15PM, etc.).\u00a0 A very nice addition, although if it loses its wifi connection I have to go up a ladder to reset it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These things are amazing, easy to use, and really cheap.\u00a0 There are now LED specialty shops all over the place (including two in Progreso on C.78 near the beach), and they&#8217;re sold at the big places like Niplito and (for more money) at Home Depot.\u00a0 Easy to buy online too from places like Masluz. A &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/?p=358\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;LED Rolls of Lights&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-works-at-the-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casasierradelsol.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}