Hi! I've never used LED strip lights before but wanted to brighten up my kitchen by putting lights under the cabinets. I bought a kit and thought I had everything I needed. The instructions say I can cut the strips, but give no information on how to connect them. They provided a few connector pieces (pictured - the middle piece) and I assumed I could just slide the pins into the cut piece. This is not the case. I've searched online and found that usually a special connector or soldering is needed. I don't have the equipment for either and I really want to get these up now, without waiting for additional parts or going to the store.
Is there any other way I can connect them? Can I just put tape around it? I'd only be concerned about that being unsafe or causing a fire.
This is what I bought
Thank you in advance for the help!
How to connect LED strips side by side like this
How to plug 2 5m RGB LED light strips together? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Connecting RGB LED Strips
How to connect led strips
Videos
Hello, sorry if this has been answered a lot before but I was looking for tutorials to connect the LEDs like this but they only shared how to connect them in a straight line, is it a similar process or do you need to attach wiring between the individual stops rather than soldering them in a line? Any tips or help is greatly appreciated. I think these are the LEDs I have https://www.amazon.co.uk/BTF-LIGHTING-300LEDs-Addressable-Flexible-Waterproof/dp/B01CNL6MVY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_maf_1?crid=1WRDEBB1V7YSG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SC8rya_mVzRk404D90OIPQ.2YeoML-fhesxcfq-5mQzf4b0dp-jrXdG1VhSsc66z48&dib_tag=se&keywords=btf-5v-60L-B&qid=1755997085&sprefix=btf-5v-60l-b%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1
These strips are usually arranged in numerous parallel segments of a few series LEDs. The RGB strips can be a little different, but they work basically the same way. It looks like your strip is analog control and not digital (which would have little ICs in the strip to control individual LED color), so the specific color ground lines are all in parallel. You should be able to connect numerous strips in parallel - 12V to 12V, red to red, green to green, and blue to blue to blue. That is the same reason you can cut the strips into smaller segments if you want.
There is a limit to how much current can flow through the strip itself, which varies between manufacturers. Your other limit to how many strips can be connected together is how much power your supply / remote controller can handle. It should specify a limit in watts / current or total number of LEDs or parallel segments. That information should be on a sticker on the power supply or be listed in the manual.
From your product page:
Power 72 W
Which is 6A at 12V DC. That means your power supply/controller has to be able to handle at least 144 W (12A @ 12V DC) to connect two strips in parallel. Although, it is never a good idea to run something long term near its maximum ratings, so the supply should really be rated for something closer to 200 W.
If you are able to power multiple strips from your supply, it would be best to power them with a star topology so the current for each strip is separated. For example, connecting Christmas lights together end to end is daisy chaining, and the current for every light strand has to flow through the strands before it. Powering multiple light strands from one power strip is more of a star topology, with the current to each strip only flowing through itself (think of the power strip as your power supply).
There are devices called "RGB amplifiers" designed to do just what you are looking for, you run the input in parallel with the exist strip and your new strip off its output.