So these are apa102c 's will they function soldered this way?
What way? Not enough information.
The picture shows it all. I have connected them directly in series. Soldered pad to pad with no strip. They will they run with a NLed ion.
No. Check the datasheet: http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/APA102.pdf Page 5 shows how to connect positive (+5 V) and ground rails.
@Christoph_Sold so if i disconnect all of the grounds from all of the VCCs and connect 5v and ground appropriately for each and insulate to avoid shorts it should be good yes? The rest appears correct?
Yes, @D_Rob . Just connect the pins as shown on page 5.
Depending on the number of LEDs, make sure the LEDs at the end of the chain get appropriate voltage.
Nope, that won’t work.
look at the datasheet http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/APA102.pdf
and you see, that you connected Vcc of the first LED to Gnd on the next LED. APA102 need 4 wires: Vcc, Gnd, Clock and Data.
You could use a strip board with 4 traces, let Data and Clock run through use the third trace for Gnd (cut trace after every connection) and solder wire connections from one Vcc to the next.
If you got enough space you could use 5 traces and solder wires fom Vcc to Gnd. Always cut traces to avoid shorts.
Very nice try @D_Rob , you have all the Data-Outs correctly connected to the Data-ins and all the Clock-outs correctly connected to the Clock-ins but as Cristoph pointed out you can’ have the GNDs connected to the other pixel’s 5V that way.
It will be kinda easy to unsolder the GND-5V bridges but how you will maintain that dense strip while connecting all the GNDs together and all the 5Vs together and make 100% sure they are NOT connected one to the other (That is critical!!) I really do not know.
But if you find a nice solution, please do come back here and post pictures of your result!
Hi again @D_Rob ,
Looking at the APA102 package, I see that you will have no choice but to completely undo that assembly. The pins touch each other when you bring them that close and you must separate the GND from the 5V.
I was pondering how I would do it if I wanted the densest possible strip and came up with this suggestion…
DONT DO IT !!!
Just get a 1 meter strip with 144 APA102 device for about $40.
I’ve got a strip of 144p/m APA102C’s and they work like a charm. See this one:
There’s a reason these chips are mounted with the ‘tunnel’ running through them.
Anything else is a wiring nightmare… I’ve just spent the better part of a week trying to package 4x APA102s into a tiny space on a PCB, and it ain’t easy…
I’ve posted my solution just check my recent posts