Quasi-related topic but has anyone used these solderless snap on-style clip connectors with 3-pin WS2812b LED strips and had issues with killing the strip Data In signal?
I’ve worked with these strips for a lot of different projects but am trying the solderless connectors only recently however they have mysteriously killed a bunch of strip. I was expecting it to be the first pixel that was dead but nope, it killed the whole strip. In researching, I read somewhere on the Adafruit support forums that other folks are experiencing similar troubles with these solderless connectors, I have tried following recommended practices with a 1,000uf cap across supply power and ground as well as a 100k resistor between the first LED Data and Ground so I just wanted to throw this out to the community. Especially, what could cause an entire strip to die?
YES! I had to replace dozens of columns on a matrix once! I thought I would save time when laying it out by using those at first but I ended up having to scrap many of the strips or trimming off dead LEDs. I was in a time crunch and never really revisited what went wrong- but it worked fine before I used those and after when I individually soldered the working ones. I still have them around. Guess I’ll pitch them before I forget
There may be higher quality ones, but what I had were fussy and cost me way more time than soldering would take.
?maybe useful for prototype schlock-up?
My concern is, why the heck do they kill LEDs? That is what is most shocking to me. I have noted some slightly higher quality clip-to-cable-to-clip type have been faring better but some cheaper clip-to-angled-PCB-to-clip have been killing the data in. This was regardless of precautions mentioned above or keeping power off.
I’ve not had that particular issue James. On topic… has anyone had GOOD experiences with solderless connectors? I just measured the impedance at the Data pads before and after a working solderless jumper and it reads around 120 ohm, the same reading at a non-working jumper and the impedance is 1.8k, I am assuming this is too high impedance for sufficient data current to flow.
The principal in time saved with these solderless jumpers is invaluable so I am wondering if 4 wire chip sets, APA102 etc might be more tolerant of the data signal impedance.
@Audiolux_Devices
Hey!
If you’re getting 120 ohms today, you’ll probably have 2000 ohms a month from now. it’s just not good to use those connectors because there is no reliability.
besides 120 ohms on any connection is terrible. Anything over 10 ohms is unacceptable. You need to have a permanant connection like solder.
@Chris_Bendzel - Nope! We build interactive hardware/software solutions & custom installations that translate sound into light and vibration for a variety of industries…
OK, just looked at your web site.
Can’t you do a 1/4" stereo plug soldered to a strip. If you follow the rules with the capacitor and the resistor, the resistance on the 1/4" plug should be fine.
I’m not sure what kind of failure mode could kill a strip, but I am interested in learning about these solderless connectors. I am currently experimenting with the 4 wire version for APA102s. So far no problems, but not much run time yet. During installation I found that you need to trim the strip right to the edge of the solder pads, and then shave the side to let the end of the strip slide entirely under the plastic side rails and the contacts, and into the connector…there is a perceptible click when it seats properly. So far I have installed 8 and all work as advertised.
YES. I used these to make custom wire connectors for between strips. It was a TON easier to solder these to the strips than to do wires for all of them. Also I felt it better protected the wire from coming lose from movememnt.
I recently ordered a whole on of these instead as two these almost line up exactly in a perfect matrix for 30led/m strips.
(only a couple pennies more than the clips by themselves).
