LED questions

So I have a bunch of the waterproof rgb LED strips all over the boat that I installed last spring. Toward the end of last season and over the winter I noticed that some lights went out, some colors went out, some of the strips don't work at all. It seems to be completely random. I'm going to replace them all but im just curious if anyone else has this problem? These came straight from china, did them guys that paid 3-4 times as much through ozium or superbrightled have these problems? It's not the solders, it seems to be internal to the strip itself. Just trying to figure it out, could it simply be a "get what you pay for" situation or this common with these things?
Thanks,
Aaron

Controller perhaps? I had a dead controller before due to moisture.

It's not the controller, some of the lights still work fine, others just randomly. I'm missing colors on some, some light won't work at all, it is different from strip to strip, and not one strip is working 100%. I don't mind fixing this once, but If I have to plan on doing this every year it's going to get old real quick. There is something like 28-30 total strips that need to be soldered.

That sucks. I like the superbrightleds

It sure does suck, soldering 28-30 strips is a pain in the a$$... I like superbrightleds too, I have bought sever things from them over the years, however the same (at least from what I can tell) strips are like $100+ compared to less than $20 from china/eBay... But I guess if all this eBay crap is only going to last a year and superbright will last long then it would be worth it. Anybody else have an opinion on this???

28 strips? I know the controllers I have aren't rated for that kind of current. Is it only one controller? And easy way to test is to take off a single strip that has issues and hook it up direct to a batter testing out each color.

I did that to make sure that wasn't the problem. And by 28 strips I mean they are cut down, each cup holder is a strip, each speaker, gunnels, built in coolers, compartments and so on. Roughly 2 5 meter strips total, and I made sure that the controller that I have was rated to handle it. Who knows maybe I just got a bad batch...
I had one full strip (5 meters) left over that has sat in a draw in my garage since the initial install and I went to check that and there were several clusters of 3 that were not working on certain colors. I would say about 90% was fine but the rest were either dead or missing a color. This was a strip that I hadn't touched. It was still in the anti-static bag.

I would say crappy strips.

I was going to say it might be a bad solder joint but it sounds like your strips suck. I have had great luck with the zitrades brand off amazon. $18-$21 for a string of 5050's.


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I got mine from oznium. They have plug together strips and have had zero go out after 3 seasons

Assuming you got the ones from china yeah soldering all the strips is a real pita... When one of the colors doesn't work it means that one of the soldered points came off or either your connection from the led or the controller came loose. Bypass the controller and try each individual color directly to the battery to see if that gets you anywhere. If they still are the same you can rule out the controller being the problem. Then just work your way to the leds. Most likely where you soldered. There's such a small space between them on the strips and if one of the wires touches the one beside it, it will mess up the color. I always get the ones on eBay from China 300 LEDs per strip rgb. I get them for about 10 bucks. My first couple of boats I would have many problems like you described constantly. But as did it more and more I got better at soldering and haven't had a problem. I think the majority if LEDs come from china anyways.


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Did your run your LEDs in plexiglass around the speakers and cupholders? Did you cut the plexiglass yourself?


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James, yes, I cut the plexi myself. Here's the thing, parts of the individual strips work and other do not. Say in one strip there are 21 led's, I'll have 15 of them that work and six that don't, not necessarily in a row (but always in clusters of 3). My initial thought was it's my soldering but when half the strip is working and other half is not then it tells me it's something internal to the strip. Hopefully all it is is bad strips, I have some new one coming that will hopfully be here today or tomorrow and I'll give it another go.

alindquist, Oh yeah I'd say that wouldn't be the solder points then... Def sounds to me like just bad strips. I've never had mine cut out in the middle of the strip only whole individual colors through the entire strip wouldn't work. I know they say they are waterproof, but I have never let mine get rained on or sat out side over night... Do you ever leave your boat out uncovered? Atleast you don't have to cut plexiglass again...Also which controller are you running?


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Originally Posted by ryanw209

I was going to say it might be a bad solder joint but it sounds like your strips suck. I have had great luck with the zitrades brand off amazon. $18-$21 for a string of 5050's.


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I've also had good luck with these.