# Determining the length of the cable connecting to the LED tape

# Calculator

LED Tape calculator
meters
Selected Tape: Tape-60-RGBW
The Power requirement for this LED tape is 14.40 Watts per meter.
Total power required for this ligthing load is 43.20 Watts.

You will need 1 DRV-SRPC-2108-24-200CVF.
You will need 1 roll of Tape-60-RGBW.
You will only need to install 1 home run.
Each run will use 14 gauge Speaker Cable (Copper) with 5 Conductors.
The maximum length of the home run is 85.45 meters.

# Cable length requirements

Maximum Cable Length at 24 volts

W(VA) / AMPS 14 AWG 16 AWG 18 AWG 20 AWG
5W / 0.21 A 2265 ft. 1432 ft. 898 ft. 560 ft.
10W / 0.42 A 1132 ft. 712 ft. 449 ft. 280 ft.
30W / 1.25 A 380 ft. 239 ft. 151 ft. 94 ft.
50W / 2.08 A 229 ft. 144 ft. 91 ft. 57 ft.
80W / 3.33 A 143 ft. 90 ft. 57 ft. 35 ft.
100W / 4.17 A 114 ft. 72 ft. 45 ft. 28 ft.
120W / 5.00 A 95 ft. 59 ft. 37 ft. 24 ft.
140W / 5.38 A 88 ft. 55 ft. 35 ft. 22 ft.
160W / 6.66 A 72 ft. 45 ft. 28 ft. 18 ft.

Note

This table was calculated for Copper with a maximum of 10% voltage drop.

# Explanation

It is extremely important to use the appropriate 24VDC power supply and appropriate wire gauge. The number of conductors equals the number of different LED colors on your lighting product and Voltage (V+). In other words, a RGBW LED Tape needs 5 conductor wires, four for the LEDs and one for the voltage. A RGB LED Tape needs 4 conductor wires, three for the color LEDs and one for the voltage.

Depending on the voltage available, the power (watts) available, and the gauge of wire used, there will be a maximum cable length that will have to be respected between the beginning of the LED tape and the DMX driver powering it.

For example: Let's say you have 10 feet of TAPE-60-RGBW powered by a SRPC2108 :

10 feet x 4.32 watts/foot = 43.2 watts

We need at least 43.2 watts to power our LED tape.

And knowing that the SRPC2108 supplies 200 watts :

200 watts x 80% = 160 watts

160 watts > 43.2 watts

So the SRPC2108 has enough power output to drive the 10 feet of LED tape.

And let's say you are installing a 14 gauge wire (14 AWG) between the LED tape and DMX driver. (Do not exceed a 10% voltage drop.)

Using the chart below, we can see that a 14 gauge wire supporting 50 Watts can go as far as 229 feet. Therefore a 14 AWG, that needs to support a 43.2 Watts load can do :

(with interpolation : y = y1 + (x - x1)*(y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)  )

380 ft + (43.2 W - 30 W)*(229 ft - 380 ft) / (50 W - 30 W) = 280.34 ft

Therefore, to power 10 feet of TAPE-60-RGBW with a 14 gauge cable, the cable's maximum length is 280 feet.

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