Carl S Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Can someone please post a picture of how you wired your RGB strips. Is there a connector or do you have to solder each one 4 times. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenL_MCSE Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 The strips and RGB bulbs I use;strips; black wire is common - meaning the + connector of your board. The red is red, green is green and blue is blue.RGB bulbs; white wire is common, red is red, green is green and blue is blue.All LOR and DMX boards I have seen are common annode which mean the positive is common, not the ground. So on a LOR DC board, put the single positive wire (assuming black) into any of the positive connectors. The simply plug red to channel 1, green to channel 2 and blue to channel 3.Keep in mind you need to power both sides of the DC board with the same power supply if you plan on having some channels from both sides of the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 KenL_MCSE wrote: The strips and RGB bulbs I use;strips; black wire is common - meaning the + connector of your board. The red is red, green is green and blue is blue.RGB bulbs; white wire is common, red is red, green is green and blue is blue.All LOR and DMX boards I have seen are common annode which mean the positive is common, not the ground. So on a LOR DC board, put the single positive wire (assuming black) into any of the positive connectors. Then simply plug red to channel 1 negative (-), green to channel 2 negative (-), and blue to channel 3 negative (-).Keep in mind you need to power both sides of the DC board with the same power supply if you plan on having some channels from both sides of the board.Added "negative (-)" for clarification.:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl S Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks, but what I would like to see is how it is soldered to the strip itself or is there a connector that you just push in place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 There is some connectors that you can just push into place, I think soldering would still be the answer myself. I did read some where about a 10 second rule when it comes to soldering these strips e.g. don't have the heat longer than 10 seconds on any connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Carl S wrote: Thanks, but what I would like to see is how it is soldered to the strip itself or is there a connector that you just push in place?There are connectors that I have not used. All my wire is soldered on. Notice on the strip it is marked +12v, R, G, B. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Paul Roberson wrote: Carl S wrote: Thanks, but what I would like to see is how it is soldered to the strip itself or is there a connector that you just push in place?There are connectors that I have not used. All my wire is soldered on. Notice on the strip it is marked +12v, R, G, B.Paul do you tin your wire before you solder on to the next connector? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 bdeditch wrote: Paul Roberson wrote: Carl S wrote: Thanks, but what I would like to see is how it is soldered to the strip itself or is there a connector that you just push in place?There are connectors that I have not used. All my wire is soldered on. Notice on the strip it is marked +12v, R, G, B.Paul do you tin your wire before you solder on to the next connector?Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl S Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks Paul great picture. 1 more question though, how did you get extra tubing to go over the wires? I have read where they are soldered then used hot glue to weatherproof them again.Thanks,Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Carl S wrote: Thanks Paul great picture. 1 more question though, how did you get extra tubing to go over the wires? I have read where they are soldered then used hot glue to weatherproof them again.Thanks,CarlThe RGB strips I have are weatherproof with silicone tubing. I simply pull back the silicone tubing and solder the wires on. Then let the tubing slip back over the RGB LED strip and put some silicone in the end and push the tubing cap on the end. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I also use these weatherproof connectors in my set up. One connector (female) I connect (and it stays connected) to the LOR DC card. The other connector (male) I solder to the LED strip, or the wire that is soldered to the strip.I also have these weatherproof connectors on the strips the go around my windows and such. There are 4 pieces of RGB LED strips around my windows. These connectors connect at each corner.4 pin cable I use.4 pin waterproof connectors I use. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl S Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks again Paul it is becoming clear to me know. I see Ray sells the end caps is that what you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks again Paul for the great information!Now the wire between the pigtail you solder to the strip and the one coming out of the DC board, just the standard 4 core RGB stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Paul Roberson wrote: I also use these weatherproof connectors in my set up.I use non-weatherproof, cheap, DIN plugs and sockets like this:Not only that, but I let them sit on the wet ground, under the mega tree.After 1 season, no problems!The strips I bought from Ray Wu had the lead wires already soldered to each end, and I used the entire 5 meter length, so I didn't do solder that myself. This year, however, I'm planning to put strips around the windows, so I will end up soldering them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl S Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Will these work instead of soldering ? Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 If any of you want to make a group order for some of these things I willing to go in on it. I really don't think I would need 360 feet on the 4 wire cable LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 @Steven. I didn't do a whole lot of soldering. I made a custom order with Ray. I had them put the ends I needed on the lengths I needed on most if them. When I get home I'll see if I can find my order.@Carl S. I don't know if those will work well or not. I have not used any of them. Are they suppose to be water proof? If not how would you seal them up?@bdeditch. You would be surprised. I ordered 2 rolls and have almost used it all. I'm glad I got as much as I did. I had to run more power input wires than I thought I would. On some where I was planning on powering from one corner and ended up having to run power to two places powering the same strip. If all your power input runs are short and you are powering less than 5meters of strip one power input should work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 bdeditch wrote:If any of you want to make a group order for some of these things I willing to go in on it. I really don't think I would need 360 feet on the 4 wire cable LOLWell I am waiting on my shipment of strips to arrive so I can play along with everybody else with these things.I am just starting out with regular "dumb" strips for now to get the hang of things and see how they look.I am planning on using Cat 5 cable for my runs for power and data from my CMB16D out to the strips unless I find that it won't handle it. I figure to just twist 2 cables of the Cat 5 together so that it will be 4 conductors and do it that way since I have rolls of Cat 5 laying around for house wiring. Unless someone can tell me that 2 conductors of Cat 5 twisted together will not handle a strip of RGB? If that is the case then maybe I will order a roll of the 4 conductor wire and have some extra to sell off.I do think that I am going to order a lot of the 4 pin weatherproof connectors though so that I can make some disconnects for the strips. I see that Ray has lots of 50 of them so I will probably order one of those, in which cse I may end up with quite a few extras till I decide which way I will go with the display.I just have to wait till I get my hot little hands (or old clunky mits in my case) on these strips so that I can see what it takes to work with them. I would imagine that I will solder the connections and either hot glue or possibly use potting compound on the connections to weatherproof them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I ordered that 9 channel Easy DMX Decoder from Ray to try out. I want to try find things that work and are easy to hook up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl S Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 I don't think they are waterproof. So I guess I am going to go with the solder (have to learn) and I think I will use the same method that we use for regular lights.Does Ray combine orders so that shipping is cheaper? or at least if I order 5 strips from him does he still charge the full amount for each piece for shipping? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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