How to cut/connect/power COB FOB led strip lights

watch on youtube: https://youtu.be/deXAvhICEcc

Original article from: https://www.yiford.com/how-to-cut-connect-power-cob-fob-led-strip-lights.html

1. How to cut light strips

To cut the COB strip, you only need a pair of scissors. Of course, use a ruler to measure the length you need before cutting it.

The PCB board of the light strip has clearly marked the places that can be cut, and it can be cut along these lines. The unit length of the cutting line of the LED light strip is different, which is determined by the circuit design inside the PCB. The small units before each group of cutting lines are connected in parallel, so they can still be used normally after cutting.

For the specific instructions for cutting and installation, you can refer to another article by YIFORD.

Cut at the designated mark, the led strips can be used normally, what will happen if it is not cut at the designated mark? For example, you will find that several lights at the end are not on. The way to solve this problem is to cut off the rest of the uncertain lights, remember to cut along the cutting line.

The following are the cutting unit lengths of some COB strips.

2. How to connect COB LED Strips

The standard packaging of COB light strips is 5 meters in a roll, and two-color parallel wires of No. 20 are connected at both ends, one red and one black. Of course, we can also provide a DC connector, both of which can be directly connected to the power supply.

For example, if it is wired, it is directly connected to the power supply with terminal. The led strips connected to the DC connector can be directly connected to the power supply that has a DC male connector.

How can I supply power to the light strips that have been cut without wires or DC input terminals?

There are two ways to solve it:

Use a soldering iron or use a crystal connector.

To use a soldering iron, you need to prepare tin wire and rosin, as well as certain skills, and I don't specifically introduce them here.

The easiest and fastest way is to use this transparent crystal connector, which is specially designed for COB led light strips. It is small and has high transparency without affecting the luminous effect.

This is atransparent crystal end connector. You will see that there are two symmetrically arranged metal pins, no need to distinguish between positive and negative. Prepare a 22Awg wire. Keep the connection between the wire and the light strip level.

The positive pole of the wire is opposite to the positive pole of the led strips. Insert the light strips and wire into the corresponding connector position of the connection terminal, insert the cob led strips end into the slot, and make sure that the copper sheet is just below the metal pin of the connector.

To complete the connection, use a tool to press the metal pin down until the surface So far. If you don't have a tool at hand, you can press it down with your nail shell, and you can see that the metal needle has been inserted into the copper sheet of the wire and light strip. Gently pull the cob led strips to check that it is locked in place and well connected.

As shown in the figure, the COB light led strips is now connected to 2 wires, and the test is OK.

For details, please click picture for watching the video:

If your power supply has a DC connector, how do you supply power to this strip of light? You can find other accessories on our website. 

Please note that the DC connector is divided into positive and negative poles. The positive terminal of the PCB is connected to the positive terminal of the DC connector, and the negative terminal of the PCB is connected to the negative terminal of the DC connector, so that the DC connector can work normally when it is connected to the DC connector of the power supply.

If the connection is reversed, there is no need to worry. The result is just that the cob led strips does not light up. Because of the cob led strips reverse current protection function, the power supplyand cob led strips will not be burned out.

With this crystal connector, we can use this connector where it is inconvenient to arrange the light strips to form a design scheme with a hollow in the middle and bright sides. At the same time, it can be bent into different shapes and can also connect multiple COBs Light strips.

2.2 How to seamlessly connect 2 COB light strips?

Let me show you another board-to-board crystal connector, which is no positive/negative. It is also very simple to use. Place the positive poles of the two light bars facing each other and insert them into the terminals. Use a tool to press the metal pin down until the surface is flat. The metal pins are inserted into the copper sheet of the PCB board to form a conductive bridge. After connecting to the power supply, you can see that the connection can also emit light without affecting the overall effect.

If you have this accessory, with a transparent crystal connector, you can also turn the board-to-board crystal connector into a board-to-wire connector.

The operation method is similar to the previous one. The positive pole of the COB board is opposite to the positive pole of the PCB board. Insert the two ends of the crystal connector respectively, and then press it down, the COB light bar is connected to the line and can be directly connected to the power supply.

The operation method can refer to the following 15-second video:

3. How to install COB led strips

There is adhesive on the back of the COB light strip, which can be pasted on the surface of the object after peeling off the adhesive. Metal, plate, plastic, etc. can be pasted.

The COB light strips itself emits uniformly without dark areas and spots. If you want better lighting effects and protect the led strips, you can consider using aluminum profiles. With aluminum profiles, you can make the light strip more uniform and help The heat dissipation and long life of the product.

Yiford has over 300 different aluminum profiles, here are some dimensional drawings for your reference. For more detailed information, please refer to the section of aluminum profiles on yiford website.

This aluminum profile is also useful for SMD light strips. From the comparison chart, we can see that after the aluminum profile is added, the light becomes more uniform, but the uniformity is still not as good as COB light strips.

4. How to configure the right power supply

When using a light strip, do not connect it too long, because a long light strip will cause the light strip to withstand too much current, which will damage the light strip. For a light strip of 10 meters per watt, we recommend that the longest one is 5 Meter. If you need to connect more, you need to connect them in parallel and then connect to the power supply.

When choosing a power supply, it is recommended to retain 20% of the added value. That is to say, if your led light bar needs 50W, the 20% added to 50W is 60W, because the maximum power consumption will be 60W. It is possible to use a power supply that can exceed the required power, but you should never Use a power supply with the same or less power rating as the required power.

To calculate the required power (watts), simply multiply the wattage per meter of the strip by the length of the strip to be powered. Therefore, if you want to power a 10W per meter strip to 5 meters, you only need to multiply 5 meters 10W per meter is enough, that is, 50 watts, and then increase the value of 20% on the 50 watts to get 60 watts, so a power supply rated at 60 watts or 72 watts will be an ideal choice. Even a 60-watt or 90-watt power supply is acceptable, because your COB strip will only extract the required power from the power supply.

The power supply is divided into waterproofand non-waterprooftype. The waterproof type has a wire, and the non-waterproof type has a terminal or DC terminal. The user can choose the appropriate power supply according to their own project needs.