Not all connectors are color-coded, and those that are aren't always color-coded the same way. Plug your connectors into each other before you solder to make sure each wire is going to the right place. Cross-wiring your power and ground connections is easy to do and will fry your microcontroller.
Be consistent with your male / female connector setup. Most LED strips (but not all) have a female connector on the IN end and a male connector on the OUT end so when I'm planning my connector layout I try to always follow this format. It's easy to remember: male OUT, female IN.
Feather Wiring: Male JST Connector
- Red / left wire to BAT
- Middle wire to pin 13
- Black / right wire to G
Your connector coloration may vary! Plug the connector into its mate before soldering to be sure the connections are lining up the way you want.
Cut your strips to length and count out how many pixels are in each strip. My 4' tracks have 69 pixels each.
Slide a piece of 1/2" clear heat shrink onto the end of the LED strip before you solder. This will help to seal up the strip and make it weatherproof for outdoor use.
Solder a female 3-pin connector to the front of the strip at the IN end (look for the tiny arrows and be sure they're pointing away from you), matching the connector orientation with the male connector you soldered to the Feather. It can be helpful to physically plug these into each other to be sure you've got it right.
Flip the strip over and solder a female 2-pin connector to the back + and - pads. This will allow us to power the strip without pulling all our power through the microcontroller.
This smaller 2-pin connector is only needed at the very beginning of your run, unless you have a very long run (300+ pixels). I soldered one onto every section of my modular track so I can use all the sections interchangeably, and I also have the ability to inject power every 4 feet as needed.
Solder the male side of your connector to the OUT end of the strip.
TEST your strips before going any further with sealing them up. They're easy to fix right now, and once they're waterproofed it's a bit trickier to tighten a loose solder joint.
If you're having trouble soldering to the tiny pads between LEDs, one way to make it easier is to sacrifice a pixel between strips. This way you can cut the strip and leave a full solder pad on each side, saving you some time and stress and making your connections considerably sturdier. I do this with most projects -- it may waste a small handful of lights but it makes my art more reliable, which is definitely worthwhile.
Power Connections
Insert the + and - wires from your 2-pin JST connector into the + and - holes of your screw terminal and tighten firmly. Again, it's easy to get this wrong and fry your project, so be sure to plug in the female end attached to the LED strip and check (and double check) that + is going to +5v and - is going to G.
Once you're certain, seal it up with heat shrink and hot glue to keep your connections tight.
If you're doing a long run of lights -- longer than around 300 pixels -- you can set yourself up for easy power-injection by adding two connectors to your screw terminal.
Power Injection Cable
For a long run of lights, you'll need an extra wire to bring power to the lights that are further down the line. Solder a female 2-pin connector to one end of a long run of 2-strand wire, and a male to the other end. Plug the female end into your splitter screw terminal and the other end can plug into any of the 2-pin female connectors in your run of strips.
It also works to use two male connectors, one on either end, and plug a section near the beginning in to a section near the end. This doesn't seem logical -- it's the same power, and the same amount of power just routed a different way, but it works because it bypasses all the resistance created by the LEDs.
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