If anyone has any electronics experience and knowledge of how LED light strips work, I'd really appreciate some help testing some strips I have for shorts etc. I just ordered a controller and power brick and my mulitimter will be here tonight. Before I plug in the power and controller, I want to test the strips.
I've researched how the strips work as best I can, and this is what I came up with:
What I'm testing:
12V RGB 4 pin strip lights
Please correct where wrong:
Thanks.
I've researched how the strips work as best I can, and this is what I came up with:
What I'm testing:
12V RGB 4 pin strip lights
Please correct where wrong:
- If the system is 12V and 5 Amps, if you reverse the polarity, nothing happens bad, the lights just don't come on.
- The 12V black is positive and the RGB are cosidered negative, since the LEDS are all wired to the same 12V circuit.
- Given #2, I can test the amps by putting the multimeter inbetween the power source (12V wire) and the RGB wires?
- Testing continuity using the 12V wire will show a fault in any of the LEDs/wiring, whereas testing continuity on the RGB wires will only show a fault with the specific color of each LED, but a; LEDS of that color on the strip (so I could find a fault in the green, but not red )?
- What happens if you bridge the 12V wire with one of the RGB wires?
Thanks.