LED strip lights are widely used in all kinds of lighting projects, such as commercial lighting, residential lighting, industrial lighting, etc. Due to it being easy to install and flexible to DIY, many homeowners loved it and decorating their house or celebrating festivals like Christmas to use led strips.
There are many options for LED strip lights, and they allow you to be as creative as you want with your lighting projects. During your installation, you can cut and connect the strips together to light larger spaces or some unusual corners, it is amazing, right? But how to connect and install it? Is it a challenging difficult task? Read on to learn more, you’ll solve it easily.
Can LED Strip Lights Be Joined Together?
For a newcomer, maybe you don’t know whether led strips can be connected or not. Here I’ll tell you definitely that you can connect a number of LED strips together.
Checking your strips, you’ll find that there are marking dotted lines for cutting it into the size needed. ( Usually marked by orange or brown dots or even a small picture of scissors.) You can find it’s easy and cut it correctly, then connect it together. Please note, the upper limit of connecting size is depending on the led strip’s output power and the power source.
How to Join It Together?
There are two ways to connect the strips together: soldering or using solderless connectors. Soldering is very reliable, but it takes a lot of time if you have many different connections to make. So the easiest way to connect two LED strips together is to use a connector, which helps your project go quickly.
What’s the Solderless LED Strip Light Connector?
Solderless led strip connectors also called solder-free connectors, which without soldering work to help achieve connections between strip and strip, strip and controller, strip and power supply, or other components.
They are designed to allow you to make solderless connections to LED strip lights. It works by sliding the connector over the led strip, making sure the metal tongs are in contact with the copper pads, closing the connector, then completing the electrical circuit.
How to Choose The Right LED Strip Connector?
As we know, the common led strip light has smd3528 and smd5050 model, including 8mm width PCB and 10mm width PCB, so when choosing the connector, please note the width must be fit well. Depending on your requirements, there are different kinds of connector types for your reference.
Strip to Strip Connector: This type of connector extends the strip light continuously with gapless end to end, which looks like it is just one long chain of strip lights.
Strip to Wire Connector: It means one end connects to the strip and the other end runs wires out to connect the power supply. Or one end connects a strip, the other end runs wires out to go across a distance( there is an obstacle needed to bypass) and then connects to the next piece of the strip light. For example, if you have the heating pipe in the room, a connector with wire will be a great option to bypass the obstacle, and then the other side can continue lighting with led strips.
Strip to Strip Jumper: This is used to extend two LED strips with an extra cable to use around corners or angles. With these bendable connectors, strip lights can be shaped to any pattern, turn angles to any degree. For example, in some of your projects, they might require the strips to go around a corner or an unusual shape, these jumper connector type with two clip pins on both ends and with cables in the middle, so you can use them to connect two led strips and with the extra cables to around corners or angles.
“L” “T” “十” Shape Connectors: They are widely used for various corners and strip crossings, such as below purposes that involves 90°angles:
Light any LCD screens on the back
Frame your vanity mirror with colors
Decorating cupboard, cabinet, shelves, etc
There is one thing you need to know the difference when connecting single color and RGB led strips, that’s because the number of pins is different for each type of LED strip light.
Single color led strip light has 2 pins, so the 2 pins connector is ok.
RGB led strips have 4 pins, please make sure to buy 4 pins connector.
RGBW strips have 5 pins, we need to choose the 5 pins connector.
How to Connect LED Strip Light With Solderless Connector?
Step one, measuring your space to see how many feet of led strip you need. Use a tape measure to measure the perimeter of the place you want to light up and write it down.
Step two, cutting the led strip. Referring to the measurements you took of your space, now measure the strip to find out where to cut and mark it. Please note that cutting the strip light must be along the designated lines ( marked with a small picture of scissors).
Step three, connecting with a solderless connector. Choose the correct connector which works with your led strips, then slide the strip into the connector gently, making sure the positive and negative wires correspond correctly. You have now connected and extended your led strip light, it will be lighted up when powered.
How Many LED Strip Lights Can I Connect Together In One Power Supply?
Actually, we don’t have standard answers to this question, but you can calculate the exact meters of strips, which always depends on the specifications of your devices.
- First step, you need to check the specification sheet of your led strips, then you will got the power consumption in watts per metre of your strip lights, usually the format is 9.6W/M.
- Second step, choosing a power supply, here we recommend you to use about 80% the rated load of the power supply. Let’s suppose the output power of your power supply is 60W, so you can use 48W from the power supply.
- Third step, calculate the length of strip light. If your led strip is 9.6w/m, so it is advised to power a maximum of 5 meters in one piece of 60W power supply( use 48 divide 9.6).
Please be aware, if your power supply isn’t enough or you’ve connected too many led strips, you will find the end of your led strip lights will become dimmer and dimmer, that’s known as voltage drop.
Tips and Troubleshooting
- The positive and negative of the led strip has to always match the negative and positive of the solderless connector. For RGB strips, the colored wires have to match the marked B, R, G, and 12 V dots.
- For 12V led strip lights power supply, if the length of led strip more than 5meters, the voltage will decrease. For 24V power supply, if the length more than 10meters, the voltage will decrease too.
- Please don’t use 12V led strip light with a 24V power supply, this will not working.
If you are so busy or you don’t want to connect the strip lights by yourself, it is ok, we can cut and solder your LED strip lights according to your requirements. What you only need to do is let us know the length you need when you place your order, and we’ll do the rest.
FAQ
Are led strip solderless connectors safe?
Yes, it is a safe way to connect led strips when you operate properly.
Is it safe to connect multiple strip lights?
Yes, if you buy good quality and certified products. And the voltage of the led strip and power supply keeps the same, all will go smoothly.
Are led light strip connectors universal?
No, the connectors are not universal. So before you buy it, please check the strip light datasheet to make sure whether compatible with your strip. ( please refer to the above” How to Choose The Right LED Strip Connector?”)
Can you connect Different Brand LED Light Strips Together?
You can connect different brand-led strips to each other, but not all strip lights can be connected together as they can’t work on the same power supply. Please note power supply and led strip voltage have to match. So we suggest connecting led strip lights which produced by the same company.
Can you connect 3 led strips together?
As a general rule, we recommend not to connect more than three complete strips end to end without adding an additional power supply.
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