SK6813 VS GS8208

As we known, Integrated 12V RGB SMD LED, mainly are three version on market, WS2815 from Worldsemi, GS8208 from Genesis and SK6813 from Opsco. 

Many customers asked us why we don’t have WS2815 series products. Why you only produce the GS8208 or SK6813 series. If possible , you can find a post named GS8208 VS ws2815 in blog page that you may find the reason. 

In last posts, we discussed the GS8208 VS WS2815. As we noted , the features of SK6813 are very similar to GS8208. But they still have some differences. Today we mainly discussed the SK6813 VS GS8208. 

The SK6813 comes in two variants - 5V or 12V. The 12V variant SK6813 is a short name of SK6813-HV-09-6P (also called SK6813HV for "high voltage".) In the description that follows, we collectively refer to SK6813. 

Clarify the differences between GS8208 and SK6813. 

Firstly we should note the functions they both share:

• They are 3-channel LED chips integrated 5050 with redundant data line.
• Individually address to control by 12V driver with 8bits data.
• Their pins are exactly same that can be SMT in same PCB. 
• Their most notable features is named breakpoint-continues transmission with double data signal that could avoid RGB LEDs color influenced by the failure of one light in serial connection, at least reduces chance of entire strip failure.  

SK6813 LED is the evolutionary product from WS2813. It came out later than the GS8208 actually.

Observed under the microscope we can see, the SK6813 RGB led do not have the built-in design of resistance and capacitor which is same with the GS8208 RGB LED.  

As we checked the specs of the two leds, their pins are exactly same that we can say, they can be installed in same PCB. 

The differences in technical characteristics between SK6813 and GS8208:

1. GS8208 have higher PWM rate,8KHZ PWM rate allows for filming pixels with around 260fps that SK6813 is 1.2KHZ PWM rate allows for filming pixels with around 40fps.
2. GS8208 RGB LED have 12-bit built-in gamma scaling makes dimming curves more smooth that SK6813 do not have. So, GS8208 is better at mixing lower brightness colors.
3. Previous GS8208 LED version have test pattern inside when power on. The latest GS8208 RGB led version is no test demo inside already.
4. GS8208 is constant current that chips inside are wired internally in series. SK6813 is wired internally in parallel inside.
5. SK6813 is standard R-G-B order when emitting . GS8208 is G-B-R order when emitting.  

Summarize:

• The integrated RGB leds have been known to induce defects during manufacturing which cause the pixels to display erratic behavior for a brief moment after power up.

• But compared to the SK6813 and GS8208, While many of the features of SK6813 are adopted from WS2815, the design of SK6813 reduces the chance of these same defects during manufacturing, increases the chance of induce defects during assemble. However, this induce defects also proved to be the case.

We can say this quality level : GS8208 > SK6813 > WS2815

Above info, that’s why we choose the GS8208 LED to make 12V individually addressable RGB led strips from 30 to 144 pixels.

But if you really like the SK6813 version, 12V SK6813 is available to offer too. 

If you have more info for these LEDs, tell us freely.

Best regards from Art LED Team