Have I shorted my strips?

D

DukeFluke

Well-Known Member
Hey, long story short I've just finished build and hooked it up straight to the mains without the driver like a dickhead.
They turned on for a milisecond and then went out. Hooked up the driver and now they won't come on.

Have I fucked the strips?

Thanks
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Yeah, AC mains voltage to the diodes is something they won't survive. Now that said, you could have a scenario where the weakest link broke first and the rest survived so testing each strip may reveal some survivors but it's unlikely.
 
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DukeFluke

Well-Known Member
I know.... I had the driver hooked up to wagos to connect to a previous build, switched on... fine.
Then I made the next build and hooked up to the wago that was hooked up to the mains plug.... They were just left out to test the builds.That's how it happened... Sad times
 
M

Mak'er Grow

Well-Known Member
If you had them connected in series you may have blow 1 strip, but parallel they all may be gonners.
Find a small power supply that will allow you to run 1 strip at a time...what strips?
 
M

Mak'er Grow

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
That could be the case if the LED's on the strips are wired in series.
Click to expand...
Most strips are built with 8 parallel then series of those 8...so in this case more then likely its the first set of paralleled LEDs on the strip that got fried and the rest are usually fine.
Now to fix them is another story that involves heat guns etc and a very steady hand I've found...lol
@DukeFluke , could you post some pics of the strips up close?
I bet if you look carefully you'll see tiny black dots in the orange area of the bad LEDS...change those to new ones and the strips should work like normal.
 
D

DukeFluke

Well-Known Member
Well, I cut my losses on it and set the other one up.... That wouldn't turn on either.

I didn't have a fuse for the plug when I first hooked these up so stuck a 3 amp one in...

I changed the fuse to a 13a one and it came on. Hooked the first build up which I thought I'd blown and it came on :hug:

Lucky

Just out of curiosity, what amp fuse should I be using in these plugs and why?

And more to the point, why, when I ran the direct current straight to the strips, was it the fuse which blew first?

Cheers
 
M

Mak'er Grow

Well-Known Member
DukeFluke said:
Well, I cut my losses on it and set the other one up.... That wouldn't turn on either.

I didn't have a fuse for the plug when I first hooked these up so stuck a 3 amp one in...

I changed the fuse to a 13a one and it came on. Hooked the first build up which I thought I'd blown and it came on :hug:

Lucky

Just out of curiosity, what amp fuse should I be using in these plugs and why?

And more to the point, why, when I ran the direct current straight to the strips, was it the fuse which blew first?

Cheers
Click to expand...
A fuse is made to be "the weak link" in a circuit...so if the remaining parts try to use/pull more current then the fuse is rated for it blows.
In your case the 3 Amp fuse may have blown due to the lights requiring more then 3 Amps.
I'm not sure of the size needed without checking the draw of the light...usually its around the max for the strips combined.
 
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