Hi all,
I poked about in the forum, couldn't find anything directly comparable, so I hope someone here has some ideas.
I've got 8 strips of 60 pixel/meter at about 1 meter each under some exterior steps. Routed out a slot under the nosing of each step. Left them in the ip68 (as I recall) jacket, the fully encased jacket. Filled up the ends with the various recommended RTV sealant and other silicone. All on a Mega, with enough power to run them all. Not enough current to light them all up pure white, but enough to do what I ask of them.
I installed them around four years ago. They ran fine for about a year. Then they started developing faults. The last 6 pixels of one strip will go out. The last 9 of another. More than half of one strip will tweak out. But when I physically press the first offending pixel, they kick back into regular function.
I'm fairly certain that no moisture ever got inside the jacket. I was quite meticulous. They were installed in summer, handled with care, and ran fine for a good while.
I tried another Mega, different code, tested all the different individual colors. I ran the gamut of troubleshooting to make sure it isn't software.
Half of the 8 strips work fine. Half of the strips have faults that can be temporarily fixed by pushing on the pixels.
I haven't ran into this anywhere else. Since there is a fair bit of stuff holding those strips in place, I can't inspect inside the jacket, but I don't see any obvious fault.
Any ideas? Has something like this happened to anyone else before? I can replace the strips, but I'd like to know what is going on before I put in new LEDs.
Thanks!
Partial fault in Neopixel strips
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Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
- Franklin97355
- Posts: 23940
- Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:33 pm
Re: Partial fault in Neopixel strips
Since you can press on the pixel and it works that seems to be a loose connection. That can be caused by thermal cycling or shock.
- Ifandor
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2015 11:59 pm
Re: Partial fault in Neopixel strips
I think you may be right, franklin97355. (Those stairs are on my house.) We're still working on the problem. We hardwired most of the breadboard connections, and that seemed to fix it for a while, though we've had to run them at a higher power level than desired (otherwise they misbehave). Although the temperature fluctuations here in northern CA aren't terribly extreme, it's still gone below freezing a few times over past few years.
So, assuming it's due to repeated thermal shock, are there any suggested fixes out there other than installing a heating system?
(We're in the process of replacing a few of the 'bad' ones to see what happens.)
So, assuming it's due to repeated thermal shock, are there any suggested fixes out there other than installing a heating system?
(We're in the process of replacing a few of the 'bad' ones to see what happens.)
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.