How do you personally connect wires to your LED strips?

Hardware
1

I am curious. Do most of you solder directly to the strip? Or do you use and LED strip connector to make the connection without soldering?

2

Depends on the situation. I soldered directly to the strip when mounting them above a baseboard and I had to come through the drywall with the wires. I used the wires attached to the strip when mounting on my bed frame. Even when using the pre-mounted wires, I do not use the connector. I make the connection using self-solder heat shrink butt connectors.

3

@theScud …Dood. I need those in my life. lol
@shadowwizard , I don’t have the tips or skill to solder tiny strip dots, so i use strip-to-wire clamp connectors. If they would just make the data paths bidirectional, we could make use of the end connector that is left hanging on the last piece of every project.

4

I solder to the strip pads. I’ve tried using butt connectors and compression connectors to connect wires together but now solder those too.

Buying a small tipped heat controlled soldering iron helped a lot. I bought a UY CHAN TS80P 9V/12V Type C USB Programmable Pocket-size Portable Soldering Iron.

](https://www.amazon.com/UY-CHAN-Programmable-Pocket-size-Soldering/dp/B07G71CKC4)