To connect your LED strip lights, you have two options: either use a connector for simple attachment or solder the wires to the strip, which carries more current and produces a more reliable connection. Regardless of the technique you select, make sure to cut your light strip along the specified cut points to guarantee that your lights will function if necessary. The LED lights will be lit quickly if you use strip connectors or soldering equipment!
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Can Multiple Strip Lights Be Connected Together?
Since LED strip lights are sold in reels with dotted lines that can be used to cut the strips to the appropriate length, connecting two of them together is simple.
Then, there are two ways to join these strips together: Using connectors or soldering the copper contact pads on the strips.
You can remove the protective plastic layer from the LED strip using a sharp knife to reveal the circuit connection dots, which are ready for connecting leads or connectors.
Is It Safe To Connect Multiple Strip Lights?
Always choosing high-quality, certified products is a no-brainer in terms of safety. Since they use thin material that can’t withstand high currents and heats up quickly, cheap LED strips connected in series are known to be fire hazards.
Since LED strips are mounted on wooden or plastic surfaces, the heat can pose a serious fire risk.
Now that you’re using an authentic product, there are still a few safety precautions to take.
You must take into account the differences between the various types of LED strips you may have lying around before connecting them.
In comparison to a white LED strip, an RGB LED strip, for instance, consumes three times as much power.
Due to the fact that not all strip lights can use the same power source, not all strip lights can be connected together. A voltage match between the PSU and LED strip is required. There are three possible ratings.
If your LED strip requires 5 Volts DC (VDC), then your PSU also needs to be 5 VDC. The same holds true for LED strips that are 12V or 24V.
Along with safety, you should consider the least expensive way to power the connected strips.
It’s not the most energy-efficient method to connect LED strips into one line, loop it back to the beginning, and cover a rectangular ceiling with it.
The placement of a power source on one of the rectangular ceiling’s corners would be a wise choice. After that, join two LED strips collectively from the power source. The two strips meet at the opposite corner from the power supply and run along two of the four sides of the rectangle.
By doing this, you can avoid using two power supplies and stop voltage drop, which causes strip lights at the end of the chain to become dim due to voltage drop.
Now let’s dive into how to securely connect multiple LED strips. I will discuss the distinction between connection in series and parallel in more detail later.
How Do You Connect Several LED Strip Lights In A Series?
To accomplish this, first cut each LED strip light at the correct location, then remove about 1/4 inch of insulation from each wire. With a soldering iron, tin the stripped wires now and solder them back together. To finish, repeat the previous step by twisting or soldering the remaining wires together.
How Would You Turn Off LED Strip Lights?
There are numerous ways to accomplish that, but each one is dependent on how you wired them.
An end connector wire is typically already attached when purchasing LED strip lights. But if there isn’t a connector, how do you connect two different LED strips? Simple: all you have to do is solder the extra wire to the one that comes out of the LED strip lighting’s “starting” side. Cut off any extra wire after joining these two ends by soldering or twisting it.
Depending on the type of connector system your strip has, this is a very common way to do it. This method of tying wires from various strips together is very popular because it’s also one of the simplest for most people. Try it once more, but this time, let’s say you have a three-strip lighting system, with another set of LED strip lights.
Led Light Strips From Various Brands Can Be Connected Together?
In this example, we’ll use both affordable Chinese replica LED strip lights and 3M LED strip lights to demonstrate that you can.
Like before, remove 1/4 inch of insulation from each wire, then solder the copper that is exposed. You can now proceed by twisting or soldering the remaining wires together in the same manner as before. The exposed wires from both strips should be twisted or soldered together at this time as well; otherwise, you’ll have two different sets of LED strip lighting that are unsure of what to do with themselves! Likewise, for a strong connection, twist or solder the remaining wires together.
Connecting multiple LED strip lights safely:
Two very significant safety recommendations must be kept in mind when working with LED strip lights:
- Even if you believe you know what you’re doing when working with electricity, always proceed with caution!
- Verify that the wattage your LED strip lights are using can be handled by your power supply. For instance, if you have a 12-volt power supply and use 24-volt LED strip lights, that is too much draw and will eventually cause the power supply to blow.
Therefore, be safe and double-check your wiring before turning on the power.
Led Strip Connections Without Connectors: How To Do It?
LED strip connections can be made without a connector, as I’ve already mentioned.
Soldering joints is a possibility! To connect the voltage, red, green, and blue pins to the following wiring, use soldering irons.
Soldered connections can actually carry more efficiency through extensions and are mechanically more robust.
Therefore, if you are using excessive current, it is advised that you solder the connections.
In addition, some connector wires are not appropriate due to the high powered output of the strip if the LED is particularly bright.
Therefore, if your strip will be running a high current in particular, you might even prefer to solder if you have the knowledge and tools to do so.
After that, you can either use electrical tape to cover the joints or a heat shrink to protect them.
How Are Led Strip Lights Connected In Parallel?
While it’s a little trickier to connect LED strips in parallel than in series, doing so properly can have significant advantages. When you want to connect LED strip lights from different manufacturers or if one of your strips breaks and you need to add a new strip into the existing connection, you typically use this method.
For this illustration, we’ll be using LED strip lights from the 3M brand, and since they may not be already soldered together (depending on where you purchased them), we’ll have to do it ourselves. We’ll begin by soldering the appropriate wire ends together as follows:
Once that has been completed, remove approximately 1/4 inch of insulation from each wire, and then proceed as usual by soldering tin onto the exposed copper. Additionally, now would be a good time to twist or solder the exposed wires from both strips together; otherwise, you’ll have two different sets of LED strip lighting that is unsure of what to do with itself! And then, for a strong connection, twist or solder the remaining wires together as you did before.
How Many Led Strip Lights Can Be Attached To The Chain?
LED strip lights typically come on spools that are either 16 or 32 feet long. The chain should not exceed 50 feet in length if you are connecting more than one strip light. A series connection must be used if you need to connect LED strip lights that are longer than 50 feet. This will enable you to use a single power supply to power multiple strip lights.
Verify that the total wattage of all the strip lights when using a series connection does not go over the power supply’s maximum wattage rating.
Additionally, if you want to connect more than one strip light, you can do so in parallel. In this situation, make sure the positive and negative wires are connected in the proper order. Using a red wire for the positive side and a black wire for the negative side is the most typical way to do this.
The power supply you use must have more than one color output, so you must use a different color for each strip light. A connector with three or four different colors on it can be used for this. It’s crucial to use the proper type of connection when connecting LED strip lights. Series and parallel connections are the two primary types.
A Quick Guide To Connect Multiple Strip Lights
- Before beginning, turn off your strip lights.
- Make sure your measurements are accurate. It is said that you should “measure twice, cut once.””
- Choose a connector based on whether it needs to be straight or angled at a 90 degree angle.
- Cut the copper section along the marked cut line using regular craft scissors. Your strip light has this copper section spaced out at intervals of a few inches.
- There should be an equal amount of extra copper section for each strip of lighting. Your connector pins must function properly for this.
- Peel back any adhesive backing to enable a clean connection and have your small plastic gapless or jumper connection ready.
- Each segment of the strip light should be gently inserted into the connector piece.
- Snap the strip lights into place using the tiny clamps on the connector.
- Make sure the correct direction is facing out on both sides of the strip light. Voltage cannot flow unless the polarity is correct.
- Check to see if there is light coming from both sides of the connection by plugging in your strip lights.
- Check the polarity and, if necessary, reverse the strip light if there is no light on the new section.
Conclusion
It’s crucial to use the proper kind of connection when joining several LED strip lights together. Series and parallel connections are the two primary types. Different advantages and disadvantages apply to the two kinds of connections. This shouldn’t be a problem because you now know how to connect LED lights without a connector, so that’s another plus.
While a parallel connection is better for distributing different amounts of power to multiple LED strip lights that do not have an equal number of LEDs or watts per foot, a series connection is better for distributing equal amounts of power evenly to multiple LED strip lights.
