LED Troubleshooting Guide

LEDs not working:

1.) Check for incorrect wiring or reverse polarity.

Triple check to ensure the wires are connected to their corresponding connector or wire correctly: negative (black) to negative (black), etc. Black and brown wires are generally negative. If the wires are not color coded, check the writing on the wire for a positive (+), and negative (-) symbol.

2.) Improperly set, or loose wires.

If using a connector, the wire strand may not be making contact with the connection. Try stripping the wire sheath further back, or resetting the connection.

3.) Frayed and overlapping wires.

Be very careful to not let bare wires touch each other, especially when soldering two wires to a connection. A single strand of wire touching another bare wire will cause an electrical short, and potentially damage your LEDs or power supply. Heat shrink your wire connections when possible.

TIPS:

Use stranded wire.

Stranded wire provides better connections, reducing voltage drop and loss of power.

Ensure wire is clean.

Wire should be clean and straight. To ensure best connections, twist the wire or apply a small amount of solder to keep the ends from fraying.

LEDs are not as bright near end of run. Voltage drop wiring issues:

Larger LED installations including those using several wires going to multiple locations require LEDs to be wired in parallel to the controller or power supply (driver) to reduce voltage drop. A parallel connection will have each wire running independently back from each LED to the power source.

Home Run installation:

Have a single wire run from your power supply or controller, and splice the wire off to connect with each LED. Use a multimeter to verify there is no voltage drop.

Color changing LEDs not showing all colors:

Ensure that all 4 wire connections are clean, solid, and properly connected to the corresponding marker on the RGB controller.