ws2801 LED strand - plugged into 12V

[theagent]

I accidentally plugged in 12v instead of 5v. Lights went on for a split second then obviously burned out. The reason I made the mistake was that I was plugging it into a ATX psu, and trusted that red was 5v and yellow was 12v. However, apparently the idiots who made the particular cable I was using had red as 12v... and thus, trusting without taking measurements, I plugged in, saw that it burned out, then took the measurement to realize it was indeed 12v.

Anyway... is there any way to salvage these LED's? I had 100 plugged in. I'm hoping that perhaps the first pixel of each strand blew a fuse / resistor and saved the rest. Is this the case with these, or should I continue to throw a fit and pound the walls at my mistake?

[pburgess]

Unlike the clock and data signals, the power lines pass from LED to LED directly down the whole strand...so everything was exposed to 12V.

Depending how long power was connected in this configuration, there's a chance that some of the LEDs may have survived. But if any prior LEDs in the strand are blown, this affects everything downstream. If the strands still have the plug connectors on them, you can test each strand separately from the beginning. If nothing lights, you can clip off the first LED and test from #2, and so forth...then eventually solder all the survivors back together.

[theagent]

Thank you for the reply. I fear that all of them were more than likely blown, but I'll try to remove the LED's one by one and test. Such a shame.