I want to control several (undecided) cut strips of these led lights:here.

I want to be able to turn the LEDs on and off from the arduino, but I know that the voltage is too high to work with with the arduino and I don't want to fry my arduino. I've looked into relay modules, but I'm a software guy and I don't understand even the difference between voltage and amperage (I think I have the idea down, but I get the two mixed up sometimes). I also don't know how much voltage or amperage I should be giving each strip or how to control that. I have all my code set up to control my arduino with my simple C# form I've made, but I'm dumbfounded when it comes to hardware, can anyone help?

Also, I'm not well into money so I'd like to avoid spending money on some relays if possible.

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    arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/3535/… or learn.adafruit.com/rgb-led-strips?view=all . I short; use a 12v power supply and switch the strips on/off using a MOSFET. – Gerben Jan 2 '15 at 16:26
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    The bottom line here is you aren't quite ready to do this project. You need about a couple weeks of education and experimenting - not a big deal, get on that right away. I would suggest doing the example programs, learn to blink an LED, then learn to blink multiple LEDs. The ones that are important to you are "Blink" and "BlinkWithoutDelay" to learn programming standards (those are the Hello World of microcontrollers). Then, this example from AdaFruit where you learn to control a high-voltage device with a transistor - learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-arduino-lesson-13-dc-motors – Jasmine Jan 2 '15 at 17:15
  • And, the reason I say that is: money is important to you and you're going to fry parts if you don't address the issue of "don't know how much voltage or amperage I should be giving each strip or how to control that" - because that's basic to everything you will ever do, and without a clear understanding of it, you will end up spending extra money on this project. With some simple knowledge you'll be able to design and program this correctly. Personally, I think relays is the simplest way to do it - but there's at least three other methods I can think of. – Jasmine Jan 2 '15 at 17:19

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