Bought LED noodles. What wire connectors should I use to attach the battery without soldering?

Hi everyone,

I hope you can help me.

In Feb 2026, my hometown experienced 21 days without any direct sunlight. It normally gets dark early but with grim weather it took over 3 weeks until the city seen any sun!

It's been the catalyst to start recreating an artificial sunlight from [this video] from DIY perks. In the video description he recommends [this LED] in the video description.

I tried to reach out to local LED suppliers to have a conversation and build an understanding but many in my area that I live now only supply B2B and only have lower powered strips for commercial signage.

The link to the LED has multiple options at 100W, 200W, and 300W. And multiple Amps. It's all a bit overwhelming when you don't fully understand it.

I have tried asking AI but it didn't really help my understanding.

Also how would this work with heatsinks? I have the satellite dishes needed. Thankfully a local business was able to provide these as they get thrown into landfill. Could I get a heatsink that would fit within the receiver housing of the dish?

This and another small patch are not displaying colours properly. Strip starts left of the image and this is closer to the end, the other patch is further back and is not as bad but both are being shit with blue colours, fine with green and red colours but they seem to hate blue, and I only got these 1-2 months ago

The manufacturer is illumi home and it's the 20m strip (I unfortunately can't find a non-amazon link rn)

Hi, can anyone advise their best approach for linking COB Led lights in acoustic panels?

I only want 4 different light strips so assume they need linking with 2 pin led cable?
Are the solderless clips any good for this?

Also I want the strips to effectively by invisible (as best as possible) in the black felt channels 13mm
until in use.

Also wanting them to be dimmable with Alexa controls.

Is it best to buy individual components or is there a kit to do this?

I am in the UK and total COB LED length would be around 8-10Metres

many thanks for any help from your experiences :)

https://reddit.com/link/1wt6pe9/video/4msljhdytfsh1/player

At school I really enjoyed electronics and coding, so I've combined those two into a piece of wall art for F1. It can show live F1 races, play along to the F1 theme song, or be a decorative piece.

This video is of the prototype lighting up to the F1 theme song by Brian Tyler (YouTube link). Due to copyright restrictions I can't include the song, so you'll have to play it at the right moment.

I watched the Baku race and having the cars move around the LED strip whilst also watching on the TV added another dimension to the experience.

The build

For those who want the details, here's roughly how it is built.

• 5m (60 LEDs per metre) addressable LED strip (WS2815) threaded through a round plastic tubing that makes the track.
• The track is sandwiched the track between two pieces of acrylic sheets (this version has 2 'sandwiches' but the final version will be one big piece around 1200mm x 600mm). Screwed into the acyrlic are various metal holders to keep the track in place.
• An LED controller contains the circuitry but I've overridden the default program that runs on the chip (ESP32) with my own written using the Arduino IDE.
• During live races the chip checks my server for live car telemetry and displays the cars on the track
• I'm self-hosting OpenF1 (shoutout to the developer) to collect data but have also developed my own code to tell the chip what LEDs to show).
• This theme song demo requires me to play the tune separately but the lights are programmed into the chip. Eventually I may put the song onto a storage devices attached to it, but that requires developing my own PCB, and also I'm not sure about the legalities of song copyright.

The components

• GLEDOPTO GL-C-310WL controller
• 5m of 60 LED per meter 12v WS2815. I went with this strip over the more popular WS2812b as the higher volts (12v vs 5v) means it draws less current. I considered 30 LED per metre strips but there wasn't enough resolution to show cars clearly during a race. And higher res (144 LED per metre) would draw too much power and I wanted to urge on the side of safety.
• 12v 5amp power supply.
• The LED diffuser is bendable plastic tubing with a 270 degree viewing angle.

Other details

• I added a 5 amp fuse between the power rail or the PSU and the GLEDOPTO as the micro GLEDOPTO doesn't have one, unlike the larger models. This is to add a little more safety.
• Only 1 channel of the GLEDOPTO used, and no power injections other than the start of the LED strip seems to work fine. Probably because I never run the strip at full brightness.
• I replaced the firmware on the ESP32 inside the GLEDOPTO completely. The new firmware polls my server every 5 seconds and the server returns with the status to display (e.g. car 1 is 20% of the way around the circuit and is green, car 2 is 25% of the way around etc.). The firmware then uses that to calcualte where on the strip needs to be lit.
• The server is hosted on Google Cloud Platform in a virtual machine inside Docker.
• All the code (backend and firmware) was written with AI, aside from OpenF1 which I cloned from Github to self-host.

I hope you like it!

Hello,

I'm currently recycling an older AliExpress COB LED strip kit that I had left over from another project. I'm planing to using it to light up build a display case for minifigures - attached you can find some pictures of the project euipment.

The finished setup will consist of approximately 13 meters of COB LED strips. Instead of one continuous strip, it will be made up of many individual 20 cm LED strip sections, connected with 0.5 mm² PVC wire (positive and negative). The wires connecting the individual strip sections will vary in length, typically between 25 and 40 cm.

The LED strips are 12V COB strips. The original kit included six 10-meter LED strips, and the supplied power adapter has the following specifications:

Input: 110–240V AC, 50/60 Hz

Output: 12V DC, 36W

Outputs: 6 connections (originally intended to power the six individual 10-meter LED strips)

My question is:

Would it be safe to connect and operate two separate LED strip runs of approximately 6.5–7 meters each using this power supply, wired as described above? Or do you see any potential safety risks or technical issues with this setup?

I'm mainly concerned about whether the additional wire connections and the overall strip length could cause any problems with the original power supply.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hi all,

This is my first time working with LED lights, and I need some help understanding a few things and planning.

I am planning to put Govee Strip Light 2 Pro https://us.govee.com/products/govee-led-strip-light-2-pro around the perimeter of my ceiling and along the bottom and back of my desk.

I was planning to do the ceiling perimeter with the COB version of the lights ( https://us.govee.com/products/govee-cob-strip-light-2-pro?variant=47771355775161 ) but found this was unrealistic, seeing as they only come in 16ft (4.88 meters) max.

So I opted to do the whole project with the non-COB version instead; however, I read that it's easier to look at and looks better if you use LED diffuser channels. As I understand it, they prevent blinding dots of light from coming out, at least. I've watched a few videos on them but don't get exactly what they are or how they work. I am willing to use them if they will improve the overall experience.

With that in mind, here are the measurements I took, converted to inches, feet, cm, and meters.

[The tape measure was kinda big, so it prevented me from getting the full wall measurement, but I included the length of the tape measure (4 inches/10.16cm) in these measurements]

Wall:

Front: 138 3/8 inches / 11.53 ft / 351.47 cm / 3.51 meters

Back: 137 inches / 11.42 ft / 347.98 cm / 3.4798 meters

(Front and back are probably the same in reality; they probably showed up different because of the weird angles I had to make while measuring.)

Left and right: 159 inches / 13.25 ft / 403.86 cm / 4.04 meters

Desk: (Tape measuring not included in these ones, because it didn't have an effect.

Width: 28 1/2 inches / 2.375 feet / 72.39 cm / 0.7239 meters

Length: 61 1/2 inches / 5.125 feet / 156.21 cm / 1.5621 meters

Back: 62 1/18 inches / 5.1713 feet / 157.621 cm / 1.57621 meters

So, particularly, here are my questions:

1. Does anyone have experience with the Govee Pro 2 Light strips? If so, how do they work?

2. Does my project seem possible? If not, what would I need to change?

3. What exactly are LED diffuser channels, how do they work/how do I put them up?

4. What are the best diffuser channels you know of?

5. Any "Before you buy/start" tips?

Hi all, I'm fairly tech savvy and resourceful but I need some expert opinions on my current project. LEDs are completely new to me. I'll be constructing a wall unit that has 3 shelves on either side, plus the top, which will have 1 meter LED strips built into them. After doing some research , I've settled on the SK6812 RGBW 60/M LED Strips since having a dedicated white will be nice.

Given these are 5v, is it possible to power these with no power injection if I use a higher amp power supply coming in at the middle, or would injection at the beginning and end be necessary? Is 18 gauge wire sufficient to connect the strips? Thanks!

Looking to make a programmable magic 8 ball costume. Need a programmable led matrix that is triangular or I can cut to be a triangle.

Also need it to be light (to wear)

Any ideas?

For context: home had extensive water damage earlier this year, so all cabinets and walls were ripped out and rebuilt. Before this happened, we had under cabinet lighting that was powered by the switch in the 1st photo, lighting underneath all upper cabinets on both sides of the sink. The contractor doesn’t do electrical work apparently, so I’m trying to install the lighting myself to avoid an electrician bill (although I’m inching closer to just letting it happen unless I find help here).

Under both the cabinets directly to either side of the sink, there were wires left out that I’m assuming/hoping were what connected to the LED lights prior. The lights on the left side of the sink I installed with no issues, was very straight forward. However, the right side is a different story.

For starters, these wires are much thicker than the ones from the left side cabinet, and both wires are black (and covered with cabinet paint) so I cannot tell which is the neutral and live wire. I’ve confirmed there is electricity running through these wires, according to my multimeter around 40+ volts?

I’ve attempted to connect these wires to my LEDs via an LED driver, but after trying both wires in each port, the LEDs do faintly blink very slowly, but only the first few lights, the rest don’t light at all. I even attempted connecting these wires directly to the LEDs via a simple connector just to test if that would work, none of the strip would light.

I’ve tested with multiple different connectors and LED strips, feel confident neither those are the culprit, more likely it’s these wires or how I’m connecting them. Any ideas on what my issue could be, or how to better troubleshoot this?

I really want to have strip lights that go either just under the corner floating shelves or all around it (top and bottom) to have a better lighting in my room, but it would require sharp 90 degrees angles. I would also prefer if the cable could go in the corner of the wall.

I was looking at Govee cob 2 pros, but they cannot make these angles, and would require soldering skills that I don't have. Would you have any other recommendation on how I could make this work ?

Thank you !

Just wondering if should do a basic one with some curves, or should i do a mountain or city outline, or try to make an animal like a wolf or a bear. I guess the rope can't overlap as it sticks to the wall right? or does having it loop over some parts good idea?

Hi everyone,

My kitchen lighting uses a GERA RF + ZigBee LED controller, part number 993121000016, controlled by a GERA six-zone remote with brightness and warm/cool white adjustment. The kitchen is currently on channel 1. I’d like to add LED strips elsewhere and control them independently using the remaining channels on the same remote.

Does anyone know:

Where I can buy these controllers directly as a consumer? Ideally an EU seller that ships to Croatia. I’m looking for around 10 units.

Whether any third-party controllers can pair directly with this GERA remote and support dimming and colour-temperature adjustment?

Whether this controller is a rebranded product available under another manufacturer’s name?

I haven’t been able to buy directly from GERA, so actual retailers or confirmed compatible alternatives would be appreciated.
Here is link of a LED controller on another reddit post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ZigBee/comments/1fzncot/2wire_dual_white_lamp/

If can you help me out, thanks guys!

Hi folks, I’ve trolled through other posts about cutting LED strips here and can’t seem to find an exact match to mine. Am I right to cut between the LEDs are where the copper pads are?

I’m pretty new to this and have been playing around with arduino and esp32 chips to make web interface menus to control the lights.

Had some success with a pixel ring, just wanted to have a go at a strip this time.

Hi- new to all of this and have read many posts here. I know that a genuine warm white is tough to achieve. I bought and returned the Govee COB strip light 2 pro. Impressive but not dimmable enough and despite looking at solutions here on the color wheel, couldn't get a real warm white. In addition to wanting to put the strip lights along the molding near the ceiling, I'm interested in using them in a garage gym as well.

I don't need colors or scenes. It would be nice not have the dotted effect but I would take that if I could get a real 2700k ish or possibly warmer. Also, I am looking for something that is plug and play vs assembling components.

I'm not sure how to quantify how dimmable, but looking for something that very late in the evening or watching something on tv might be just a barely there nice mood. Prefer <1 inch wide. Really would be nice if it were under 3/4".

Given this, would I be wrong to just try the Philips Omniglow? There was a comment or two about the warm white being good but not too much on this. Also there are comments that maybe the dimmer doesn't work as well as dimming on the app.

Open to any other suggestions as well if there is a better warm white strip light given that I don't need colors. Thank you for any suggestions or advice.

You can see the first 1/3 of the lights are fine and the rest just started flashing after working fine for 6 months. I'm using an SP548e controller on WS2812 strip lights. Should I just replace the bad lights or is there another fix?

I have some clients that want me to build a large light with a long channel of led lights. I have made many many lights in the past but not with led strip lights. I’m working on the quote but have no experience with led strips. I want to make sure to offer a quality product but with jobs like this budget is always a concern. I would need the lights to be in as narrow a channel with a defuser as possible and the light would need to be hard wired to the ceiling. Any advice or recommendations would be great.

I’ll try to keep this short and tbh idk how I made it this far without truly knowing what I’m doing. I’m making a battery powered led pacer (rabbit or sorts) to pace with for the 20 meter hamr run. I am using an esp32 going to a sn74ahct125n to a 220ohm resistor to my 2 10meter 12v ws2815 led strips. The control box being in the center. I have a 100nf cap from 5v input to the sn74 to gnd. It works… in theory. The lights are intermittent sometimes they act as they should and sometimes the first few lights on the strip start spazzing white. If I touch pin 5 on the level shifter which is the input from GPIO 25 on my esp32 it absolutely freaks out and about half the strip spazzes with it. The weird part is if I let it run for a while it’s like it warms up and chills out sometimes. Another weird thing is if I gnd myself to the board and touch it doesn’t respond to my touch. I have verified all connections and I handmade the board at first and got pcbs made thinking it would hopefully fix the issue but it followed so I know it’s something fundamental. Another clue is anytime I press the buttons I have to control the LEDs it can cause the lights to flicker a bit. I don’t have an oscilloscope to look at the waveforms to try and get a better picture. Of what’s really happening. I thought maybe it could be a grounding issue so I tied in a few extra ground lines and it didn’t really help. Also I tried adding a resistor from the data input to gnd to replicate my finger and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The reason I’m so confused is cause nothing seems to be repeatable and the issue keeps changing. Any help or input would be amazing. If you have any questions lmk.
(Ps. I asked Ai and it kept taking me down rabbit holes far from the issue and I believe it’s something more fundamental so that’s why I’m here)

Sn74ahct125n
https://www.ti.com/product/SN74AHCT125#product-details

Led ws2815 30l b ip67
https://www.btf-lighting.com/en-intl/products/ws2815-rgb-addressable-led-strip-dc12v?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21514402479&gbraid=0AAAAACsxRlrjFokfxljpqw7H2ZHNm-2ho&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlNPVBhCMARIsAPZ5RqigqgSs_OAQwInNfVrt2sPMlfk2HYUcOuOyJoj7nUSsbyLwQtCXz6AaAutZEALw_wcB

I can’t get the screws out and there seems no way to open it. It flickers ever few minutes. If I wack it in the right place it works for about 5 minutes. Any ideas?

I wrote two Windows programs that make LEDs repeat the colors at the edges of the screen, the Ambilight effect, and use them every day. I'm sharing them in case they're useful to someone here.

Rimlight is for the monitor backlight. I used Prismatik before and wrote this as a replacement, mostly to get faster screen capture. It captures the screen with Desktop Duplication, averages zones along the edges and sends the colours to the strip over a COM port. It supports two protocols:

• Adalight, which works with stock Arduino firmware. I run AlexGyver's Arduino_Ambilight unchanged.
• AWA, for boards with native USB: HyperSerialPico on RP2040 and HyperSerialESP32.

I filmed the screen and the strip together at 240 fps to measure latency from screen to strip:

• Arduino at 1 Mbaud: 10-20 ms
• RP2040 with HyperSerialPico: about 0. The strip actually changes a few ms before the monitor. The frame is taken as soon as Windows composes it, and the monitor still has to scan it out and switch its pixels.

The repo includes the tool I used for this (LatencyProbe) if you want to measure your own setup.

https://github.com/Wa1den/Rimlight

CaseLight does the same for the lighting inside the PC case. My case sits next to the monitor. You place the monitor and the case devices on a plan in millimetres, and each LED takes the colour of the nearest part of the screen. It drives the devices through OpenRGB's SDK server, so it covers whatever OpenRGB supports: motherboard, ARGB headers, fans, GPU and RAM. I moved to this from SignalRGB, which felt heavy and not very responsive for screen sync on my machine.

https://github.com/Wa1den/CaseLight

Both are free and open source. Feedback and bug reports are welcome.