Im looking to create 96 x 25led sections (for 24 strips/arms with 4 sections each), and am looking at connector options for connectting these. Im currently leaning towards some simple 3pin JST connectors. Anyone have any suggestions of other options or know of a good place to source them cheaply?
I’ve been looking for options for this for a long long time and the best/only one I’ve really found is JST connectors. Ray Wu sells mating pairs in bulk for relatively cheap:
Ya, i ended up getting a lot of 100 pairs here for a bit cheaper. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fast-shipping-100-Pair-3-Pin-Female-Male-JST-SM-Connectors-For-WS2812B-WS2811-LED-Strip/1670524931.html
though I’m thinking of maybe only using the female ends, and use 3 right angle header pins instead since they fit nicely in the ws2812 strips. 50% less wires to cut, strip, tin and solder.
There are holes pre-drilled in the pads, right? So this becomes a through-hole soldering job? Tell me how it goes. You do lose the sturdiness of the connection but that’s not an issue if it’s not going to be moving around (I have “wearable” in mind, but that may not be true for your case.)
I used a safety pin to make the holes slightly bigger… the header pins fit snugly and there’s plenty of the copper pad around which solder together nicely. It’s sturdy as is. I’ve got my 8x25 test matrix up on my wall now. I think a tab of hot glue over top would protect the end of the strip from bending. I’ll post pictures tonight.