Help needed troubleshooting flickering

Issues
1

I have had a strip of 780 Ws2812b 5v running for 8 months. It is installed outside on my deck powered inside by a 60a PS.
Esp8266 with a logic level shifter.

The first LED burned out and all the lights went dark. I replaced the LED and all came back on with a problem.

After 280 lights, I have a 14’ gap where I am running data and a ground to the next set of strips. The data is not coming through correctly and the lights flicker from color to color at light 281 and beyond. I have replaced those strips and have the same problem. Voltage is around 4.85 at the start of lights 281 -380. I have now disconnected everything beyond 380 in case there was another issue down the line

Can the Last led at 280 be bad, sending a bad signal. Should I try removing it?

Looking for ideas. I loved this setup but can’t get it operational again.

2

Symptoms like loose ground.

3

Thanks for the idea. I’ll try resoldering the connection after led 280.

4

Didn’t work. Have you ever tried an f÷amp or null pixel . Thinking about trying this after light 280 to get better data signal

5

I would say it’s no harm to try. I think only signal amplifier will work. 14 feet is a pretty big distance.

6

Null pixel in the middle of the data run after led 280 did the trick. Not sure why it worked for 7 months without this but it did the trick.
Thanks!