neopixels stopped upating

[widgetninja]

I have a neopixel strip of about 200 pixels. Power is injected at each end. They are installed outside on a sign, so exposed to weather. They are in the silicone sleeve, and I treated both ends with additional rtv silicone. After about 2 months they stopped updating. When power is applied some random ones will come on.

I brought the power supply/Arduino off the sign into my garage, and it works fine with another strip I have in the garage.

Thoughts on what I can do to troubleshoot the strip on the sign? I would hate to just replace a 200 pixel strip. I am using the 5a power supply you sell. I have a large capacitor on power, and resistor on data line as recommended.

thanks for your suggestions.

[Franklin97355]

When you run the strandtest program nothing happens? Inspect the strip for damage and if none is found try injecting the data signal into the second pixel to see if that works.

[widgetninja]

Ok, I got a chance to do some testing, and the powersupply/Arduino are fine. They work in my garage with the extra pixels I didn't use on the sign. I went up to work on the sign (hello new butane soldering iron!) and was going to inject power/signal into the second pixel as suggested. Now that its summer and there is no snow, I noticed a troubling indicator of the pixel strip on the sign. It looks like all the C1 capacitors got hot/overheated? They all have brown discoloring by the solder joints. I didn't proceed with soldering/testing as I wanted to inquire here for guidance/suggestions first.

10 x Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip - White 30 LED - 1m (WHITE) [ID:1376]
1 x Arduino Micro without Headers - 5V 16MHz ATmega32u4 - Assembled [ID:1315]
1 x 5V 10A switching power supply[ID:658]

These are the components in use. I have a resistor inline on the signal line as suggested. I also had a large DC (but old/recycled cap) on the power supply output as well.

Picture below. Thoughts on what may be | or may have gone wrong? Salvageable?

[adafruit_support_rick]

Is it my imagination, or does that first pixel look cracked? Can you bypass that one and connect your data lie to the next one? See if the strip starts working

[widgetninja]

Sorry I wasn't more clear, but the discolored C1's go all the way down the strip...

[adafruit2]

yep there is either some humidity trapped in the strips or a way for humid air to get in. often times 'outdoor electronics' get covered in conformal coat to avoid this!
http://www.humiseal.com/conformal-coating/

[widgetninja]

Ok. So if I were to read between the lines:

* this is somewhat normal in humid environments
* this is likely not an indication of 'overheated' components
* I should proceed bypassing LED #1 and see if rest work.

Thanks

[widgetninja]

OK. Progress, but no resounding success.

I moved the data line to the second pixel, and that did not light the strip up. I physically removed the first pixel, and then re-applied power. I then got the first 9 pixels to light up. Looked closer at number 10, and it seems to be cracked just like the first one was.

What could have caused this? I feel the whole strip-and-a-half are ruined as I can't replace a bunch of pixels (if 1 in 10 is broken, then that's 20 or so).

Close up of pixel.

https://BANNED.live.com/embed?cid=4D4 ... coXp0eL9So

[adafruit_support_rick]

Seems like it would take a lot to crack one of these. What kind of environment are they in? Do they get whipped around by wind? Lots of direct sunlight? Extreme cold? Something must be doing it...?

[widgetninja]

They are firmly attached to a stable surface with RTV Silicone, so there is no movement of the pixel string. They are in direct sunlight, and spent the winter outside in Minnesota. I just looked at a spec sheet for those pixels and they show operating temperature as -25c to 80c. In Minnesota it does indeed get colder than that. Is it logical to assume going from being off/cold to being on at full brightness would cause them to crack?

Anyone else experience similar issues?

[adafruit_support_rick]

Probably just the cold alone is enough to crack them.