Cool White 5630 LED Strip starts flashing/ cutting out after solder?
Hi,
I'm trying to make an LED studio light out of a 5630 5m led strip. I tested the strip before cutting and it works perfectly.
I've the strip into lenghts of 6 sections of 3 leds, placing them parallel. I'm soldering all the positive nodes to a wire on the left side and the negatives to a wire on the right. I'm testing it after soldering every section. It works perfectly until I reach the 12th section (out of 17), then it starts flickering and shutting off and on.
I'm really not sure what's going on?
The power source is a 12v 2a DC switching adapter, the same one I used before (and for other led projects)
Discussions
3 years ago
So the 4a adapter worked for about 20mins until it blew up. I found the info on the original strip its; 12v 50w 4a
I've cut the leds into 16 strips of 18leds + 1 strip of 12leds. They are soldered parallel onto 22awg wire
If the 5m strip is 4a/m, does that mean I need a 20a adapter?
Answer 3 years ago
Finding an ampere spec for LED strips is a snakepit with tons of competing and conflicting theoretical, WAG, and GOK values. There was a small consistency for sizing power supplies for 5630 x 60 strips at 2A per meter, regardless of meter length. I searched 5630 led strip specs and Datasheet for 5630 Flexible Strip so feel free to double check.
3 years ago
So, as per your suggestions; I found an old 12v 4a adapter in a drawer and it seems to work fine now. Still don't understand why it worked fine with 2a adapter before I cut/soldered them though?
Answer 3 years ago
Each wire added and each solder joint made increased the resistance. Your power source ran out of “oomph”.
Answer 3 years ago
+1
This guy could be using the wrong solder too !
3 years ago
When the lights are in a long strip there is actually a power drop as you move down the strip. It acts like they are wired in series. The lights at the end are not as bright as the lights at the beginning. if you take a second set of wires and attach them to the other end you will see the lights get brighter. When you apply the power to the ends of the strips that are cut up, they are now all wired in parallel to your power supply so each one will try and draw its full share of the power. So it will require more power than it will while it is one long strip.
You might want to think about using these instead. They are rigid strips on sheet aluminum.
https://www.instructables.com/id/A-Guide-for-Buying...
3 years ago
Thanks for the help! It's works exactly as I hoped now! I'll definitely be building another one and I'll do a full instructable on it !
3 years ago
Some where it will tell you how many amps/metre your strip needs. Take the total length of your strip in metres x that figure will tell you what supply you need.
3 years ago
My best guess is that your power supply is not powerful enough.
Once you reach the limit these little adapters shut off, check if the problem still exists and shut off again - it flickers.
3 years ago
You are taking too much power from the power supply, you need more current than it can supply