Addressable LED strips are light strips that have unique chips that allow you to control individual LEDs or groups of them. This extra provision to control a specific part of the strip is why they are referred to as ‘addressable’. It allows you to create different effects on different parts of the LED strip all at once or in intervals. It is ideal for depicting animations and similar dynamic displays.

The working of an addressable LED strip is a concerted effort of different parts. They include:

Integrated circuit chips

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)

A power source

A controller

Each LED has a dedicated integrated circuit chip. This is what makes it possible for you to control individual LEDs. The controllers used to manipulate them are also unique; they have data channels to relay commands and not just matching RGB pins like those of typical RGB LED strips.

With that in mind, the addressable LED strip thus works as follows:

When the power source is turned on, a direct current flows to the LEDs causing them to light on default settings.

To create an effect, you would input a command on the controller to address the particular LEDs you would like to control.

The controller then relays a corresponding signal to the integrated circuit chips on those LEDs.

The circuit chips execute the command instantly or store it for a timed execution if, for instance, you have entered a timed-interval lighting effect.

ARGB (Addressable RGB) is a lighting technology that is simply a more advanced version of RGB. While RGB lighting can only be set to display a single color across its LED’s, ARGB gives you control over each individual LED. Impressive color cycling, flashing, sound syncing, and more can be done with ARGB.

For example, an RGB lighting strip may have 100 individual LED lights, but all 100 of those lights will always show the same color at a given time. An ARGB lighting strip containing 100 individual LED’s could have 100 different colors showing at once