Electronics Assembly
Use a tiny precision flat head screwdriver to carefully and gently open the ports on the screw terminal. These are pretty easy to break so be gentle. Look carefully at the openings as you turn the screws. When you see a square opening appear, stop turning.
Strip about 1/8" of wire from the 3 pebble pixel wires and insert carefully into the screw terminals. Gently tighten the screw until it's snug: about 5 turns -- it shouldn't turn freely, if it does, you've got the wire in the wrong part of the hole so pull it out and try again.
Which Wire is Which?
The power wire goes to +, the data IN wire to the numbered GPIO pin, and the ground wire to -. However, these strips are not marked in any way, which can make our life confusing. But there are a few ways to figure out which wire goes in which hole. Check out the Seed Pixels | Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide for some guidance.
Separate the wires and strip about 1/8" of shielding from each. Insert them into the corresponding holes and tighten down. Plug the Sparkle Motion controller in via the power jack or USB-c port and see if your lights come on.
Troubleshooting
No lights? Here are a few things to try:
- Check your wire connections. These screw terminals can be tricky to manage and they break pretty easily. Try trimming the wires again and re-inserting, if you think your connections might be the problem.
- Try reinstalling WLED.
- Be sure you're connecting to the "input" end of the net and not the "output" end. These strips are directional and will only work if you connect to "in".
- If your lights are showing unexpected colors, change the "color order" in WLED (LED Preferences, it's a dropdown in the setup for each strip)
- Be sure your power wire (with the copper coil inside) is plugged into +. Try switching the ground and data wires.
If you want to connect more than 3 strands, you can also use the solderable pins next to the screw terminal. Check the pinout diagram for more information.
Page last edited March 20, 2026
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