What is your opinion regarding reliability of certain LED types? Are some strips more reliable/resilient than others? All things equal, what would be your go-to if you had to choose a reliable LED strip?
12v? 5v? WS____? LPD8806? APA___? Supplier?
I ask because I plan to make something for a friend, and I would like to be confident that the pixels I use won’t fail before their natural end-of-life. My recent experience has led me to believe that the WS2812 pixels I used repeatedly failed b/c a) they were poor quality or b) my workmanship was poor quality. Are some LEDs more prone to fail than others?
I have some WS2812B based projects that have been running continuously for over 2 years. I’m starting to do some projects with APA102, but it’s too early for me to tell how long they’ll last.
Ive had no troubles with ws2812 from Ray Wu as well on aliexpress. I have cooked a few strips through wrong voltages and not paying attention but other than that no trouble yet touch wood
I have a ton of WS2801 strips that used over and over. There are quite a few strips with a rogue LED on them now where one of the RGB diodes does not light up. Not sure if this is the diode (unlikely) or a connection to that diode from all the flexing (likely). I recently had a WS2812 LED fail in my heart project that runs 8 hours a day for the last few years. All my LEDs I get through Scott LED which I believe is the same source as Ray Wu just a different reseller. Out of 350M, I probably have 5 5m reels that don’t light up after a certain LED, and probably another 15 that have a rogue LED. The fact that they have been setup and broken down dozens of times. Probably not too bad. At least they are cheaper now $44 5m APA102. They were $100 a reel when I bought them in 2011!
One thing that I’ve started doing with all my projects is making it so that I can easily swap strips of leds out. I no longer solder strips into the wiring, I’m using connectors, and I make things that are disassemblable so that I can get at and replace the leds. (Replacing a dead strip in Tree of Life or Flow would take me about a half an hour to do)
I’ve actually standardized on 4 pin connectors and just don’t use the CLK line when using WS2812’s. That way, the same connectors can be used on both WS2812’s and APA102’s:
Note that the URL and diagram says 3 pin, but they’re actually 4 pin, and with smaller gauge wiring. They still work like a charm and I’ve just ordered my 3rd batch of them.
If you look at the warranty OEM manufacturers give you see that LED strips with internal chip like WS2812 or APA102 are 2 years. Strips with external chips like LPD8806 (with less LEDs/m) are up to 5 years.
Reason is the thermal stress inside the LED. The APA102 are rated -40…+70C; but this is the chip temp and not ambient. They have an thermal conductive area and are using the strips for heat dissipation.
APA102 are better than APA102C
Rule of thumb: Try running the strips as cool as possible and make solid cable connections.
Do not use max_brightness = 255. With max_brightness = 200 you don’t really see a difference but are running 20% less current (and heat).
Use sealed strips when installed in areas with high humidity or humidity changes.
Try to give the strips air circulation
Try to put them on metal plates (Don’t make shortcuts if the backside has blank connecting points).
Avoid direkt sunlight
Make good wire connections, don’t let them hang dangling off the strip solder connection and use cable ties.
WS2812 hate when ground is temporarily disconnected and die right away. Reason is that the driving current is drawn not via the cable but via the internal chip.
I guess everybody of us has a few dead WS2812 laying around
Use silicone to seal the solder joints.
Use a good and stable power supply.
Use a big cap at every strip.
Try to find a power supply that is more on the 5.0V side than on the 5.6V side. (The chips have an internal voltage regulator that brings down the voltage to 4.5V. This adds to the heat inside the LED.
Still early days but the Infinity Mirrors I made with 4000+ WS2812B’s have been operating 12+ hours every day at full brightness for 4 months. No failed leds yet.
@Aaron_Liddiment what I see are your installations all very well buildt. ++++ for you! Get your own opinion about the brightness setting - at what level do you notice a difference?
Everything less than 255 will increase the LED life-span
I’ve no doubt that reducing brightness will increase the life but in the mirrors we needed the full brightness due to the dulling effects of the 2 way mirror and there location. Of course due to the patterns on the strips they probably only spend a fraction of a second with R, G &B at full. One thing for sure is that it provides an excellent burn test
