[ English ] WS2812 Flexstrip overheating by short circuit. Common error done by people 

Just coming back to this video since someone linked it again, thank you for making it! It in part was the inspiration to make my QuinLED-Dig-Uno boards and my newest QuinLED-Dig-Quad boards with a fuse on them. The Dig-Uno v1 without a fuse never came out and only when I got to v2 with a fuse on the board itself did I release it to the public. The Dig-Quad, meant for larger installations has 5 fuses on it to be able to do proper power injection wiring with fusing all on the board itself! 👍

Thank you for your useful advice. And your presention was direct and informative.

I did not expect that, very important to know. Thank you..

VERY VERY helpful for my led tubes project. Thanks!!

Thanks Thomas. Very helpful.

I dig that you used the thermal camera! You can get a clearer picture for thermal analysis if you turn off the visual camera overlay, I think it's called MSX on FLIR cameras.

Excellent information. Thanks.

This is a bloody useful video, thank you

Thank you, Thomas. You raise an important issue that many people do not consider. I'd like to add that fuses/breakers protect shorts on the transporting wire too, so should always be placed as close to the PSU as possible. They are most often sized for the wire, but can be derated to the end device's maximum current draw as you suggest in this video. If a wire feeds several strips a few meters away from the PSU, there should be a fuse close to the PSU sized for the feeder wire's gauge, and a fuseblock close to the strips with fuses sized for each strip. For example, you might use a 7.5A fuse at the PSU feeding a 18AWG (1.02mm) feeder wire hooked up to a remote fuseblock with a 1A or 2A fuse for each strip. The first fuse is just for the feeder wire, so the larger size (fuse and wire) minimizes voltage droop. If the fuseblock is right next to the PSU, you can usually skip the fuse on the short feeder wire as the risk of a short circuit on that that does not also trip the PSU's overload protection is minimal.

Glad I found this old video. VERY helpful info for safety with power supply and LED strips. I think I can get a DC power distribution box that has built in fuses. Should do the trick, right?

U are a very good english speaker 😵

Thomas, problem with your approach is that you need fuses for each branch, and that led strip power topologys can get complex. But, generally it's good. I have two other ideas that can can address the same problem. First is more complex, and it includes sensing power rail current and comparing it with the pre-calculated values based on LE diode states. Second approach is very simple . Hook up data out of the last LED in the strip to a watchdog timer implemented by a MCU or in hardware, and turn off the power supply remotely in case of a timeout. A broken LED or a short circuit can cause it.

Thank you!

I AM 12 years old and I have a led strip in my bedroom and I removed it and puted it back and it blasted and I thank fully throw it right the exact moment it blasted and I have a little mark on my thumb it happened today 19/may/2022 so be careful of led light stips

Sehr schönes Video, Thomas!

Thank you for sharing it! I'm working on a project involving lot of LEDs and I was lokking around for methods to protect them from burning the entire installation. Can fast or extra fast fuses do the job or maybe them will bourns just for the initial current spikes? Thank you so much

I need help reducing the heat of DOUBLE row white 5050 led strips. Even if I place power leads every 1m and put the double wide led strips on an aluminum channel after about 30 minutes the aluminum is approximately 120 degrees F. You can touch it for about 15 seconds and then it will start to hurt. IF I ran them at a lower voltage say 10V would that reduce the heat? so many of my customers have complained I have stopped using them I have bought these 20cm wide strips from many different resellers and they all have the same overheating issue. I think I might just have to use the single strip ones from now on?

Thank you. Can you take this to the next step by putting the inline fuse in place and doing the same test? I like watching current pop a fuse. Yeah, weird I know, but at least I admit that lol.

would fuses be a good idea with a 5 volt 1.5 amp power supply? The power supply is just a usb wall adapter. Surely that would be able to detect shorts right?

hard to believe such an important info is rarely even mentioned in any strip diy project, out of curiosity - if you have for example a strip calculated for 1A - what actual current get go through in case of a short?

Is it possible to burn out LEDs that are shorted downstream like you have it?

Ich hab ne Frage. Die Amper sollten ja über den ganzen Strip gleich sein, oder? Bedeutet man müsste alle LEDs * 60mA nehmen für die Fuse. Außerdem würde mich interessieren was du zur kabeldicke sagen würdest beim verbinden von mehreren Strips. Sollte ja je nach LED Zahl ja super dick sein (18AWG oder mehr), sonst verbrennen die Kabel.

if you do power injection do you need double the size of the power supply? For example, I'm using a 12V 7-meter/60led per meter ws2811 which is around 120-130 watts consumed if I inject the power source to the end do I need to get a large power supply.. like 300w?

THROWING IN DUSTBIN

In my project I used two 5 meter strips in series ( connected ++,--, Data data) and supply power every 2 meters. Will I face the same problem?

I'm not sure why you would short circuit in the first place... I mean what would you expect to happen?

Oh, now i see how i fried all the rgb lights from my brand new pc case...