Some Pixels losing their red color

[fasteddy]

So you have 3 power supplies and the issue is spread across all power supplies, if that is the case then it looks like just bad quality which is a shame and very annoying, but 13 volts is a tad too high as a 5% deviation is the most i would have

 

[Nick Cosper]

You are correct, the failures are occurring in all of the strips, on different power supplies.


Honestly I can't imagine how it would be power at this point. I have seen regular failures with power and now 20+ failures and everything has been completely unplugged. I think if it were power I would start seeing some failures gradually upon reintroducing power, not a sudden 20+ fail. Why these would be going bad just sitting in the sun though? Who knows?

 

[ShellNZ]

As Eddy said, the problem may lie with your power supplies, which arent from Ray.

 

[Nick Cosper]

What should I do to figure out if it is the power supplies? Anything short of replacing?

 

[ShellNZ]

Are they ziptied to something? If so, zip-ties too tight?

 

[fasteddy]

What should I do to figure out if it is the power supplies? Anything short of replacing?

It wont be the power supplies if the issue is spread across all 3 unless there is an inherant design issue with these power supplies that is putting a large volatge spike into the lights when it is powered on and thats why you see so many failures, but im doubting this

Do you live in an area where there is a big fluctuation in daytime and night time temps as what may be happening is the solder joints are breaking due to the thermal stress.

Is the current issue still to do with the red LEDs only or is it now a complete failure.

 

[Nick Cosper]

I do live in an area where we have big temp fluctuations. I was having a problem with broken solder joints but it was due to me having cable ties to tight and not allowing for the contraction the strips needed. We see temps vary about 45 degrees Fahrenheit through a typical day.


The issue is still related to the red in the pixels primarily however I did notice one lost its green, still had red but no green. So currently 20 red fails 1 green.


Now if I had a solder break on one of the chips could I lose only red? Would the rest of the strip continue to work after the break?

 

[Nick Cosper]

Are they ziptied to something? If so, zip-ties too tight?

They are ziptied to 1/2" pvc. Originally I did have them too tight, but have since loosened everything and this problem still occurs. I was having regular solder breakage of splices but since I loosened everything I haven't had any.

 

[fasteddy]

This is more looking like bad LEDs because the issue is only really associated with the Red.

Take a look to see if its not a resistor that is having an issue for the red , try pressing around the section that has failed and see if you can get the red to come back on, if it does then you know its a solder issue

 

[David_AVD]

12.7mm (1/2") conduit seems way too small for tying pixel strip to. I use 25mm (~ 1") from memory.

I've also had failures in my 2 year old 2811 pixel strips on conduit. Almost always the red, but have had a green and a blue fail too.

The point of failure in mine seems to be either the LED itself or it's soldering, as applying pressure directly to the LED makes it come good. I haven't had a chance to try touching up he LED solder joints yet.

 

[Nick Cosper]

This is more looking like bad LEDs because the issue is only really associated with the Red.

Take a look to see if its not a resistor that is having an issue for the red , try pressing around the section that has failed and see if you can get the red to come back on, if it does then you know its a solder issue

I'll give that a shot tomorrow. I'm curious, if the resistor is whats failing is that something that I could just replace, rather than replacing the section of strip? Or does the bad resistor cause the chip to go bad?

 

[fasteddy]

I haven't had a chance to try touching up he LED solder joints yet.

I have tried this in the past and it does work well if its just a dodgy solder joint

 

[fasteddy]

This is more looking like bad LEDs because the issue is only really associated with the Red.

Take a look to see if its not a resistor that is having an issue for the red , try pressing around the section that has failed and see if you can get the red to come back on, if it does then you know its a solder issue

I'll give that a shot tomorrow. I'm curious, if the resistor is whats failing is that something that I could just replace, rather than replacing the section of strip? Or does the bad resistor cause the chip to go bad?

The resistor is not something that normally would go bad, it would be the soldering or the LED itself

 

[Nick Cosper]

Ok great. I hope is just soldering. Maybe it can't handle the intense sun during the day followed by frigid nights. Touching up some solder joint when they go bad seems way easier than replacing sections.... That is really the only thing that seems to make logical sense to me based upon these going bad while not in use. It does seem odd though that only the red solder joint would fail though :

 

[benzor84]

i thought holiday c just resold ray's gear anyway.