On Mon, 5 Dec 2016 08:02:40 +0000, Tim Watts wrote:

Hmm. I looked at the separate driver chip for the addressable, the
WS2811. It does seem to show 1 LED = 5V supply and 3 in series = 12V, so
that would explain some of the addressable tapes that have 1 pixel=3LEDs
as the addressable element (being 12V tapes).

Nearly, each pixel has at least 3 LEDs, red, green and blue. In the 5
V system that is all there is per pixel. In the 12 V system there are
three LEDs in series per colour so 9 LEDs total. B-)

However the control box must have some suitable switching and be
microprocessor controlled so just hacking into that is probably
easier.

Prised it open, some chip that I can't find any reference for
controling W2E SOT23 MOSFETs for the switching.

--
Cheers
Dave.