So I have several sealed WS2801 strips. The kind that comes with a bonded clear seal over the strip, not the sleeve kind. These are all strips that were acquired at different times, and from different vendors. I’m seeing the same thing with all of them: the pads are starting to show discoloration, they’re turning very dark, near black (maybe the copper is just oxidizing and turning dark green to black, it’s hard to tell.) Has anyone else notice this?
In contrast, I have a few strips that are not coated, just the bare strip, and those pads are nice and shiny still. Which makes me wonder if the pads are reacting with whatever chemical is used for the clear seal …
Huh - not sure - the coated strips that I have like this have been abused for making belts for burning man, and so they’re discolored/marked up to hell and back, I can try to peel/clean them up a bit to see what’s going on with the pads. I’d like to think that you’re ok, though, at least until you want to cut at those points and re-solder, I wonder what you do with copper pads that have oxidized? I haven’t had to deal with that yet.
I pulled some cheapo 12v in white out led strips (non addressable) and their connectors were black under the “ip65” waterproofing. I used a screwdriver to scrape some of the black back to reveal the copper, which soldered to fine.
After awhile I’ll bet all of the copper pads will have the patina of the statue of liberty. The coating might be waterproof but I’d bet that plain old O2 and even O3 can get through without even trying hard.
More likely than actual oxidisation with O2/O3 in the air, is a simple chemical reaction between the flexible copper and a chemical in the waterproofing.
