I have a strip of pre-soldered single WS2812 led's mounted to the back of a halo ring in a headlight housing, i noticed that the led's in the driver side and passenger side headlight will light up and work properly under room temperature but once the sun starts hitting the lens i can see that the third led in the passenger side housing will lose data connection and make the rest of the led's go random in color. The driver side headlight is the first headlight in the data connection and works just fine even in the heat. I used BTF-Lighting LED's for both headlights but the passenger side is using LED's that are black and the driver side headlight is using white LED's. I am wondering if the issue is related to either a poor data connection under heat to the passenger headlight or if the LED's are getting heat soaked more because they are black instead of white. Any ideas would be appreciated.
The normal temperature range of commercial components is 0 to 70oC.
Can you measure this to see if you are going above this. If not the the LEDs are poor quality, as we so often find with cheap components sourced from the Far East.
You could try replacing the faulty LED or the one before it. You don’t know if the fault is with the data the LED is receiving if so then the one before where you see the fault is the cause, or the first LED that displays incorrectly is the faulty one.
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Expand<](LED's overheating easily - LEDs and Multiplexing - Arduino Forum)
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Expand<](LED's overheating easily - LEDs and Multiplexing - Arduino Forum)
rexshow:
I am wondering if the issue is related to either a poor data connection under heat to the passenger headlight or if the LED's are getting heat soaked more because they are black instead of white.
You are responsible for soldering the data connections!
Black would certainly absorb more heat. You are mounting in fittings which are designed to focus light - and heat. This works in reverse, focusing sunlight on your LEDs!
I am somewhat concerned about the random loops of wire draped around your picture. It is important that all wiring is kept together, ground and power, ground and data and ground, power and data where all three connect. There should never be any single wires going anywhere! And you may need to have heavier parallel power (with ground) cables feeding to intermediate points and the opposite end of the LED chain.
Paul__B:
[Expand<](LED's overheating easily - LEDs and Multiplexing - Arduino Forum)
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Expand<](LED's overheating easily - LEDs and Multiplexing - Arduino Forum)
You are responsible for soldering the data connections!Black would certainly absorb more heat. You are mounting in fittings which are designed to focus light - and heat. This works in reverse, focusing sunlight on your LEDs!
I am somewhat concerned about the random loops of wire draped around your picture. It is important that all wiring is kept together, ground and power, ground and data and ground, power and data where all three connect. There should never be any single wires going anywhere! And you may need to have heavier parallel power (with ground) cables feeding to intermediate points and the opposite end of the LED chain.
I am running 16 gauge wire from the co troller to the driver side headlight then i continue the 16 gauge wire from the driver side headlight to the passenger side, the length from the controller to the driver side headlight is approx 5 feet. All of the wires are bundled together and taped properly, the picture shown is before assembly. The driver side headlight seems fine but the passenger side does not work properly, even with the passenger side light out of the car and connected to the arduino with a short run of wire it does the same thing in the sun. All connections between the led’s and controller are all properly soldered with a capacitor in each headlight and a resistor before the first headlight. Would you think the only issue then is the black led’s in the passenger side headlight vs the white ones in the driver side? Is there any led seller you would recommend to sell good quality pre-soldered single led’s?
It seems to me that if the LEDs are being thoroughly cooked in a solar furnace, than that is the problem you need to fix. 
Paul__B:
It seems to me that if the LEDs are being thoroughly cooked in a solar furnace, than that is the problem you need to fix.
I will just have to disassemble the passenger side headlight and install white led's instead as they do not seem to be effected by heat soak, do they make some sort of heat sink or cover to help protect each of the individual led's in my project or no?
If white LEDs correct the problem, than that seems the best way to go.
Adding heatsinks to the back of the LEDs would be tedious, you have to keep the connections insulated so you cannot just strap on heatsinks - you would need a thermal conductive material; it would be very messy! 
I will just have to disassemble the passenger side headlight and install white led's instead as they do not seem to be effected by heat soak,
Well you can try but is sounds a long shot to me. It seems you have ignored my advice, given in reply#1 to measure the temperature.
If replacing the LED strip does do the trick, you won't know if it is a temperature issue, or simply a sub standard LED strip you have there.