Second ws2812b strip seemingly faulty out of nowhere

aplant92

Full time elf
Joined
Nov 24, 2016
Messages
146
Location
Melbourne
Hey all,

I've already replaced one 5m ws2812b strip this year on account of it 'flicking' random colors when not being sent any data (although it worked perfectly fine when being sent data). I've just gone out to have a look at the lights, and noticed a second strip is now doing the same thing - around 60 lights in, I was getting a good metre or 2 of the lights on the strip flickering random colors after turning off the FPP display test. Looking at the point on the strip where the lights start acting up, there's no obvious damage or issues that would be causing this sort of behavior, and there's no pressure in terms of clips or anything that could be interfering with the join.

Is there any easy way to diagnose what's going on here? Certainly with the first strip, I'd tested the controller, power, replaced pigtails and even added a null pixel in an attempt to diagnose the problem, but to no avail. Given this is the second string within a couple of weeks, I'm wondering if there's something going on here that I'm not aware of.

Could driving the strips at a voltage that's too high cause this (last I checked I was just over 5v, but not sure if power supplies can drift over time)?

If anyone has any ideas about what's going on here, I'd appreciate it!
 

BAZMick

Full time elf
Generous elf
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
484
I had 5x 5m strips (25m run) doing odd things. Checked voltage at power injection points and then did a resistance check across the whole run and found it was a bit high for what I would've liked. So I grab my can of CRC226 and sprayed it inside every plug, cleared out the excess with "air in a can" air duster and reconnected then waited 30 mins before switching on power again. Problem sorted.
 

aplant92

Full time elf
Joined
Nov 24, 2016
Messages
146
Location
Melbourne
I had 5x 5m strips (25m run) doing odd things. Checked voltage at power injection points and then did a resistance check across the whole run and found it was a bit high for what I would've liked. So I grab my can of CRC226 and sprayed it inside every plug, cleared out the excess with "air in a can" air duster and reconnected then waited 30 mins before switching on power again. Problem sorted.
Interesting! I'll give that a go - I feel like these strips in general are very touchy!
 
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