Led strip lights wiring questions

Basic.  My buddy gave me a bunch of these and i want to put them in my trailer and hook up to a mower battery.  How do i connect the wires to the strips?  Have the indoor kind and the covered in clear rubbery outdoor kind.

I think you need something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/FSJEE-Connectors-Solderless-Connector-Connect/dp/B077CLT75F

I did a buttload of those in the motorhome and it's pretty simple.  On the "regular" ones, I tin the wire a bit, lay a drop of solder on the copper tab on the strip, and then solder it together.  Rinse/repeat for the other pole.

For the waterproof ones, it's the same thing but you have to peel back the plastic that makes it waterproof so you can solder to the tabs.

Or, yeah, if you're just made of money you can go buy them fancy storebought connectors like the city folk do. 

What Wae said! So did you replace all your  fluorescent tubes and then add led strips to your storage bays and awning too?

What wae said. Also, make sure to plan for wiring up sections in parallel if you're breaking up the strip at all.

Note that LED lights have dedicated + and - connections. Look for the designation likely printed on the strip somewhere.

ultraclyde said:

Note that LED lights have dedicated + and - connections. Look for the designation likely printed on the strip somewhere.

Yep. Like the ones pictured above:

In reply to bluej :

You can wire them in series or in parallel, depending on the application.  After about 5m of total length, you'll start to get some voltage drop.  You can inject additional power every 4.5-5m to make sure you don't run in to that problem, but in a trailer application I would guess that you're not likely to create any single runs quite that long.  When I replaced my florescent tubes, I put 4 strips of about 18-24 inches each into the housing and wired them in series so that the first strip was wired directly to the power switch on the housing and to the ground and then subsequent strips were wired directly to each other, back-to-front.  With a total length of only about 8ft, the strips can handle that themselves.

The good news is that if you do create a long run like that and find that the lights at the end are a little dim due to voltage drop, you can just inject the power without dismantling everything you've already wired up.  Just get your ground and +12V and solder them in to the dim end.  No need to cut the strip even, just drop a bead of solder on the tab, tin your power wires, and solder it up.

I’m aware of the +/- deal, i wired my fender lights backwards because the stupid trailer light place decided red was negative and black was positive and didn’t indicate that on the wires.  

Are the rolled up strips all the same voltage ?

Or is the voltage printed on them ?

In reply to wae :

I did a back light panel for a liqour cabinet w/ about 20 - 3.5' strips spaced a few inches apart, and the increased resistance from the soldered connections in series was enough that by halfway along, the difference was very visible. Just adding in more parallel connections where needed makes sense, just night need to plan for that ahead 

I have had a problem with some of the solderless connectors.  They would work fine at first, but after a while they start to lose contact.  The lights will dim and flicker and go out.

Right above where the kayak and conoe are stored.

Ugh. A second Canoe.

Related question to the OP: I have these LED strips used for architectural lighting in my house, powered by a random laptop power supply from Amazon. There's a 4-5 second delay before they turn on, which is annoying because I have some sharing a switched source with the main light that backlight a mirror that is offset from the wall, so it's pretty noticeable when the main light comes on and the backlight is a few seconds later. 

Anyone here know of an "instant on" power supply option that would eliminate or at least reduce the delay in the strip lights illuminating? 

In reply to Mezzanine :

I've been using these for years for lots of different projects. I've never used a laptop ps because most of my applications haven't been much more than an amp of draw. I use any 'wall wort' power supply. I've never had a delay.

There are plenty of 120v LED transformers out there. These were 12v and just wired directly to battery. They ended up working great 

DrBoost said:

In reply to Mezzanine :

I've been using these for years for lots of different projects. I've never used a laptop ps because most of my applications haven't been much more than an amp of draw. I use any 'wall wort' power supply. I've never had a delay.

Thanks. I just bought the cheapest I found and it turned out to be a bit large. I'll try to find something with a lower amperage rating and see if I can reduce the delay.