Hi, My Wled 2811 stopped working properly overnight. There are no breaks in the solder joints. I reset to factory settings and flashed an old, working file. My PC shows all the LEDs, but it doesn’t work. Has anyone else had this problem?
do these leds have a backup line? if not, one dead led kills the rest of the strip.
so most likely a dead led, happens quite often. replace the strip or a section of it.
Check your segments?
I set up some strings for my parents and we had a hell of a time trying to work out what had gone wrong. Turned out some of the presets had segment settings, they swore they hadn’t done it but it happened somehow
I bought a used 200 foot string of lights (4 50 ft sections) turned out there were 2 of the sections had ends (10 - 25 LEDs) that did not work. After research and probing, I found that data line can break at an LED and cause the rest to fail. I found the failure at 2 LEDs, resoldered the connections and all the lights now work. Not saying that is what your issue is, just something to consider.
Dead pixels (and then dead strips) happen a LOT. Especially, or seemingly inversely proportionally to the difficulty of accessing/servicing them. Sigh.
I have around 10 larger LED installations (each hundreds to upwards of a thousand LEDs each) outside and I do feel like I have to “service” (aka repair) at least one every few months. Some have lasted years, but…
I’d absolutely pay extra for a company that made a more hardened LED strip for outdoor use. Until then, few things I have found that HELP (but are not guarantees)
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For outdoor strips, use the IP68 “flooded silicon” WS2815 strips. 12volts (not critical, but helpful for longer runs) and the inner tube is “flooded” (or potted) with silicon. The IP65 (silicon bead over the LEDs) and IP67 (silicone tube) can work if they are in very protected areas (especially IP65 - very, very protected areas - they corrode from the back of the strip if exposed to any regular weather)). But for harsh conditions, IP68.
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The WS2815 also have a backup data line that can get you by if/when one LED in a strip fails. And when you have long LED strips (several feet or more), one will almost certainly fail eventually (sigh). If you are lucky, they fail “off/dark” vs stuck on a single color (usually, an unignorable white).
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Be VERY careful with the strips. Don’t kink them, bend them sharp, step on them, etc. They may seem to be working after that, but I think you often wind up weakening the solder connections and that, plus exposure outside with thermal stress, often leads to early failure. Especially the IP68 strips feel/look tougher than they are. They aren’t. Treat them like delicate flowers.
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Insure all connections are thoroughly waterproofed. If you cut the strip, apply silicon to the cut end, even if you don’t think it’s needed (corrosion creep in from the smallest entry, including just by corroding copper traces exposed to the elements). If you solder wires on, flood the soldered area with silicone and let it set before installing. Any junction should be covered in marine grade heat shrink (has a water sealing adhesive that is activated by the heat). Try to avoid using hot-glue (it can work, but does not weather well when exposed to the elements, compared to silicone).
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Try to “burn in” strips for a few days before you install. Like most electronics, defective LEDs tend to fail early. I use one of the color cycling effects to run then at full power for a few days. Or run them as white (all colors) at like 80% brightness. Better to fail BEFORE you install them.
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They WILL still fail - prolly from a bad LED from the manufacturer, so have a plan to replace it as easily as you can. Don’t delude yourself that it’ll be “one and done” with connections or mounting.
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Try to go with a well known brand. It doesn’t guarantee things, but the odds of the strip surviving longer do seem to increase (BTF isn’t a bad place to start)
My next step is to try to starting finding stuff explicitly sold to exterior lighting companies as I expect they would not tolerate the levels of failures I see with commonly available LED strips and seeds. But they tend to be a lot more expensive, hard to get and are often “trailing edge” technologies.
Good luck! (you’ll need it ![]()
Gerry
“flooded silicon” WS2815 strips. 12volts
That is what I have, flooded silicone. 24 volt though. Had to dig out the silicone to resolder cold solder joints, then re-flooded the housing.
They have been running for weeks on a test. Making a custom board to mount under an elevated bed (like a bunk bed without the bottom bed) for my grand daughter. The lights and electronics seem to be doing good. Just making a jig to router the holes for the pucks in 1/4" plywood has been a stumbling block for a while.
