but I was thinking of soldering the "L" and "+" shape connectors directly to the strip. The connectors and strips would be stuck to a backboard, with perhaps a tiny overlap so that the pads on the strip and connector are aligned. I would then only need to place a blob of solder to bridge each pair of pads.
Questions
anyone know if I can solder the pads like this?
can anyone tell me how the "+" shape connector is wired? Ideally, I should like the + and ground connectors to be connected to all 4 compass points, but the data connectors to be connected only East to North and West to South, making 2 separate data paths.
Maybe people who are making T and X shaped connectors don’t know how addressable LEDs work? Another possibility you only connect 2 strips and can cut away unused parts
If can't use the "+" shape connectors, it's not the end of the world. The "L" shape will do most of the connections I need and I can use stranded insulated wire for the rest. But those "L" shapes will make construction easier than using stranded wires for all of them. I will have 30 short strips to connect, most with 6 LEDs per strip and a couple of strips with a single led, so any time/labour saving tricks would help!
Ohmmeter and a bit of testing will show how the connections run. The + connector looks like two corners put together, with separate data/ground and a common V+, the LED strips would run from left to down and from right to up, with only V+ having a common connection, I don't see how it would be incompatible with addressable LEDs. The T connector looks like a corner piece with an additional stub on the side just for a terminating point of a strip (and a good place to feed V+ to the end of the strip).
Only if you already have one to test... I'm asking for advice before I commit to a purchase, which is what we normally advise others on the forum!
It could be that these PCB are 2 layer, and power, ground and data are each connected to all 3 or 4 sets of pads. As @killzone_kid pointed out, they may not have been designed with much knowledge or care when it comes to addressable LEDs. If I'm right, the result would be duplicated patterns down each branch, and the LEDs are no longer truly individually addressable. That might be ok for some uses, but not mine.
Yes, Imma bet you can solder those. I had something similar and cut the egdes back so the copper was at the edge, tinned them and got in and out with the heat w/o too much trouble. Just a bit of overlap, nothing I would fly to the Moon.
I also hooked two somewhat like the together end to end and used a small length of wire soldered on the two pads that meet. Maybe a bit sturdier, still not flying it to the Moon.
The cross thing does look like your description, just from looking at the picture. I not however the possibly inconvenient swapping of power and ground on your East and West compared to North and South.
