Dead NeoPixel strip?

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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primosz
 
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Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by primosz »

Or am I doing something completely wrong?

I was a very happy user of http://www.adafruit.com/products/1138 for a about over a week.
I started using it in a big project and everything was going well until one day led strip was working for 2 hours constant and since that it was almost dead (only few times diodes blinked in randomly color at random position, also while making theaterchase (from your SDK sample) led sometimes blinked in random color instead of planned one, however after a few times it went completely dead, removing a safety resistor on data cable from arduino (leonardo) helped and it started working again, I used it for few times today, and one time over 15 minutes, later on I unplugged it and since then it is completely dead, however current is on ending pins so problem most likely is in data cable (broken?). I remembered to unplugged data cable first then power, and already change all the wires and capacitor.

I attach screenshots, please see if there is no mistake, if so please point it. There was a resistor (300 Ohm) on data pin from Arduino but I had to remove it after first breaking down to make whole strip even work.
Image
Image


Project that it was used for: https://devart.withgoogle.com/#/project/17631016

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Can you try jumpering the data line over the first pixel? See if that works? It may be just the first pixel that has failed.
Also, try pressing on the first pixel to see if it maybe has a broken connection.

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primosz
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by primosz »

Yeah, cutting off 1 pixel and starting with next one helped...
however it is very sad that even when I follow yours tutorial I get such problems. Please find the solution as I don't won't to lose first pixel every week or so.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

We really don't understand what's going on with these. We sell tons of these things, and most never have this problem.
If you'd like, we can replace the strip. Please email [email protected] with a link to this thread.

clarab
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by clarab »

Please keep us updated on this issue.

We've already cut off the first pixel on multiple strips.

Some strips are now down to 27 from the original 30 that we were supposed to use.

And it has worked momentarily before burning out again.

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pburgess
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by pburgess »

What are you using for a power supply? This might be a common element in some of the failures we're seeing, and I'm wondering if certain units might need a bigger capacitor.

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primosz
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by primosz »

I'm using 5V 2A power supply from Adafruit.

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pburgess
 
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Re: Dead NeoPixel strip?

Post by pburgess »

When you hook this up, what's your usual order of operations?
A) Plug power supply into outlet, then plug DC jack into NeoPixels (or using switch).
B) Plug DC jack to pixels, then plug power supply into outlet.
C) Something else (please specify).

Thanks for your patience. Pursuing every possible lead because I still can't reproduce this phenomenon. It would actually be a big help finding a solution if I could consistently fry NeoPixels!

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