Does anyone have advice about what led light strips would work best when soldered into 3 wire?
Not extremely picky about color range of the leds only restriction is 100$ limit
I would use these LEDs for a light strip.
I would just suggest buying battery powered LED’s since they are legal to use. No need to put your V5 Brain at risk of any electronic mistakes 
A good alternative is a USB LED strip like the one above so you can power it with a small battery pack that is rechargable
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For anyone still wondering about the legality of external power sources for LEDs, they are legal as per R13 part e:
e. Internal power sources (e.g. for a small blinking light) are permitted, provided that no other rules are
violated and this source only provides power to the non-functional decoration (e.g. does not directly
or indirectly influence any functional portions of the Robot).
But also note that any non-functional decorations must not provide feedback to the robot, but can to the drivers, as per parts f and g:
f. Decorations which provide feedback to the Robot (e.g. by influencing legal sensors) would be considered “functional”, and are not permitted.
g. Decorations which provide visual feedback to Drive Team Members (e.g. decorative lighting) are
permitted, provided that they do not violate any other rules and serve no other function (e.g. structural support).
And they cannot mimic field elements and/or interfere with a team’s sensor usage, as per part d:
d. Decorations that visually mimic field elements, or could otherwise interfere with an opponent’s
Vision Sensor, are considered functional and are not permitted. This includes lights, such as the VEX
Flashlight. The Inspector and Head Referee will make the final decision on whether a given decoration or mechanism violates this rule.
So yes, as others have said before me, unless you are 100% confident in your soldering ability, I would buy lights with an external power source. But when picking out lights, make sure to abide by the rules stated above (and remember the head ref has the final say on rulings, so even though y’all might not think that your robot’s lights will not interfere with another team’s sensor usage, the head ref might think otherwise).
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Please note this is the VIQ category and these LEDs are not legal in VIQ.
@DRow could you please transfer this to the intended category? Thank you.
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