Purple LED strip, pink LED strip, blood orange LED strip, turquoise LED strip, goose green LED strip – but where from?

Manufacturers of single-color LED strips generally produce only the three primary colors: red, green, and blue, with some also making yellow. Pink is quite rare, and purple is even rarer. However, some people need orange or turquoise LED strips.
The answer to this is to buy an RGB LED strip and mix the desired shade yourself. Some people do not want a remote-controlled system; they just want the light to always be orange when they turn it on. For them, it seems unnecessary to buy a system capable of displaying all the colors of the rainbow, performing lighting effects, and dimming the lights when they only need one color. Why buy it if these features will never be used?

There are two solutions, but both require either an RGB LED strip or two different colored LED strips stuck next to each other.

The simplest solution, with strong compromise

If we don’t connect one of the three primary colors of an RGB LED strip, we get a mixed color without any control.

• If the blue and red are on, we get purple.
• If the red and green are on, we should get lemon yellow, but instead, we get goose green because the green is generally brighter than the red on most LED strips. Some manufacturers try to solve this problem by soldering smaller resistors to the red LEDs than to the green ones on the LED strip, which can be noticed by the higher power consumption of the red compared to the green. However, this only enhances the yellowish tone in the green, and we don’t get lemon yellow.
• If the blue and green are on, we get turquoise.
• If all three colors are on, we get some kind of cool white. Since red is the weakest, depending on whether blue or green is stronger on the LED strip, this cool white can be considered ice white, i.e., light bluish or turquoise white if green is stronger.

These mixed colors cannot be predetermined precisely because they depend on the relative strength of the three primary colors on the given strip. This can vary by brand and even by production series.

As of March 2021, the power distribution of the three colors in the six types of LED strips in the webshop’s stock is as follows, but this can change anytime in the future:

From the above diagram, it can be seen that almost all RGB LED strip manufacturers try to prefer the power of the red color. Nevertheless, when used with green without dimming, we can only achieve a goose green shade instead of yellow.

Quality solution, without compromise

If you want to mix a single precise shade from the rainbow, you also need a dimmer for the single-color LED strip.
The dimmer should be connected between the input of one strip color and the power supply.

• If you want to mix lemon yellow, orange, or blood orange, connect the red directly to the power supply and the green through the dimmer. This way, you can significantly reduce the brightness of the green with the dimmer, mixing just enough to turn the red, for example, into blood orange.
• Pink or purple? If you want a pink tone, connect the red directly to the power supply and the blue through the dimmer. If you want purple, do the opposite: connect the blue directly to the power supply and the red through the dimmer.
• Some say turquoise blue, others say turquoise green. If you want turquoise green, connect the green directly and the blue through the dimmer. To achieve turquoise blue, do the opposite.
• If you want a cooler white (ice white) with a turquoise green tone, connect the red and green directly and the blue through the dimmer. If you want a turquoise blue tone, connect the green through the dimmer.
• Following the same logic, lilac white or yellowish white can also be created. However, for yellowish white, it is much more practical to choose a warm white LED strip.

In the last two paragraphs, when all three primary colors are used, it is called color washing, also known as saturation.

The above diagram illustrates mixing the pink tone from an RGB LED strip.

Once you have mixed the desired color with the dimmer, you can hide the dimmer, just as you hide the power supply. You can forget about it; from now on, when you turn on the light, it will always shine in this color. Obviously, this is a simple system with a fixed brightness, so you can install a traditional switch in front of the power supply. If you want to adjust the brightness or change colors with a remote control, this method is not suitable. You need to remove the dimmer from the system and connect an RGB controller.

This dimmer is available HERE in the webshop.

Of course, to mix two colors, you don’t need an RGB LED strip; for purple or pink, a single-color blue and red strip will suffice, and you can stick them next to each other. However, be aware that since the light does not come from a single chip, the two separate colors will still be visible near the strip.