After swearing at unreliable joints between LED strips, I thought there had to be a better way. And there is - sewing.
http://happyinmotion.com/?p=1459
Thanks so much for that. It looks very similar to what I found to work well with my 144/m: find some old passive components that I don’t need, cut the leads off, and use the leads to hold the strips together. Bend into a U shape, and insert from the back of the strip, bending the ends on top of the strip like you would soldering passives onto a circuit board. The smaller capacitor leads I found fit perfectly in that hole, making maximum thermal contact with the pads for an easy solder. Once the solder on the underside is done, clip the extra lead off the top of the strip with nippers. Feels rock solid. Thanks for your inspiration!
Hey Tom, that seems like even less work than sewing it. I’ll have to try that next time I have joints to make.
Our Engineers here at work always remind me a strong soldered joint requires a strong mechanical connection first. They would love the above ideas!
Nice tip. Being that you have single (scrap) pieces, could you remove the single LED and peel the white covering off. Would like to see the path of the copper connections to see if there’s a way around wasting the single LED…
That’s a great idea, except I have binned the scrap LEDs.
Oh well, next time.
I have a few single Ray Wu APA102 LEDs that I cut off a 144/m strip. If there’s something quick that I can help with I’d be happy to take a look. Or I could send them to you if you contact me offline and send me an SASE. I don’t really understand what sort of path would comprise a way around wasting an LED.
Just to clarify, I think it’s clear that the power lines are continuous all along the strip, but the signal lines pass through each LED chip, not past any LEDs through the strip.