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Everything About LED Strip Connector

Mar 08, 2022
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1. What is a flexible LED light strip connector?

LED light strip connector, also called as LED tape connector, LED strip splicer, is a kind of connector that can safely and simply connect the flexible LED light strip. It is a welding free connecting device, through which the users can efficiently complete the connection of the light strip lighting system without using the electric iron, greatly reducing the installation difficulty and labor cost of the light strip lighting project.

2. How to classify LED light strip connectors?

To understand the flexible LED light strip connector, we should be familiar with the types of LED light strip connector. We can classify it in the following aspects.

Connection Types

  • Strip to Wire
  • Strip to Power
  • Strip to Strip Joints
  • Strip to Strip Bridge(Jumper)
  • Corner Connection
  • Strip to other Connector Adapter

Width of LED Strip

  • 5mm
  • 6mm
  • 8mm
  • 10mm
  • 12mm

IP of LED Strip

  • IP20-Non-waterproof
  • IP65/54-Single Side Glue Coating
  • IP66/67-Hollow Tube Waterproof
  • IP68-Solid Tube Waterproof

Pin Numbers/Light Color

  • 2 Pins -for Single Color
  • 3 Pins -for CCT / Dual Color
  • 4 Pins -for RGB
  • 5 Pins -for RGBW
  • 6 Pins -for RGB+CCT

Contact Method

  • Surface Contact
  • Pierce to Contact

3. Soldering or LED Strip Connectors ?

The answer seems clear as we all agree soldering is most reliable way of electrical connection. But we also know the fact that not everyone are skilled enough to operate soldering iron, what worse is soldering pads of led tape light are small especially when it is a RGB, RGBW or even RGBWW version. Things become more complicated in commercial project since more factors should be considered. They are Reliability, Convenience, Maintenance, Learning curve and Cost.

for more details, please read.

Is Soldering Better Than LED Strip Connector for Strip Light ?

4. Why are prices so different?

Low price products are mainly because their product quality standards are not high, so there is no need to do quality control in every link. For good products and bad products, the price difference mainly comes from the difference of materials, production technology and production labor.

Material difference

The prices of good materials and bad materials vary greatly, and the impact on performance is also obvious.

A good connector should not only be easy to use, but also be very safe. It is often difficult to balance convenience and security at the same time. As a professional LED connector supplier, we hope to meet these two requirements through better materials. Therefore, the flame retardancy, flexibility and strength of the shell as well as the overcurrent capacity and hardness of the conductor should be considered in the selection of materials. In order to ensure that the materials meet the requirements of the target market, we also require that materials must be certified and have test reports.

Production technique

Technique differences will also lead to differences in production costs.

The difference of technique mainly comes from the processing and treatment cost of materials. For example, in order to prevent copper oxidation, we will electroplate or pickle the copper parts. Or in order to realize the function, the copper parts need to be processed into special shapes. While poor connectors usually do not have these requirements, so the production technique cost can be saved.

Production labor

The labor difference mainly comes from inspection and assembly. For example, whether the products are subject to incoming inspection, first article inspection, patrol inspection and delivery inspection.

Good products also have unique functional designs, which will lead to more details of product structure. Thus, the difficulty of assembly is increased, and finally the labor cost of assembly is increased.

5. How to quickly conclude the quality of light strip connector?

The three most important points are material, current and stability.

Good materials are the foundation of good products. It often determines the life and safety of products. Materials are divided into shell materials, conductor materials and wire materials. It’s best to have certification for all these three points.

Current is the performance index of connector. Better connectors usually support higher currents without significant heating.

Stability determines whether the product can be commercialized on a large scale. The stability of light strip connector is reflected in tensile resistance and jitter test.

6. Is it necessary to develop the light strip connector independently?

This depends on your business needs, but in most cases, developing light strip connectors independently will not bring good returns. From the general appearance of the light strip connector, it seems that the structure is very simple. However, if you have a deeper understanding, you will find that the development of light strip connector will face many practical challenges. The main challenge is how to make the product meet the requirements of cost control, production efficiency, current, size, safety and ease of use. Therefore, rich experience will be needed.

Moreover, with the continuous renewal of the light strip, the light strip connector should be changed accordingly, which will lead to the waste of the previous development cost. If you insist on using old connectors, it will limit your business development.

We suggest that it is only needed to do minor modification such as packaging, wire length or color, which can not only make your products differentiated, but also do not need to pay a lot of development costs. Onlumi is helpful for you with rich experience in this field. At present, we provide the most models and specifications of light strip connectors in the world. We have more than 1500 SKUs and are still increasing.

7. Materials used for the light strip connector

The housing materials commonly used include PC (polycarbonate), ABS, Nylon and so on.

The surface-treated copper is generally used as the conductor material.

The insulation materials for the wires generally include PVC (the most common), Teflon and Silicon.

8. Customs code for the light strip connector

The customs code usually used for customs clearance are

  • 9405.40.9000
  • 8544.42.1900

9. Certification required by the light strip connector

The most common and suitable certifications are CE LVD, RoHS and Reach, etc. The certifications of UL and cUL are not necessary and rarely applied by the manufacturers in the market.

10. How to use the light strip connector

Due to different contact and fixing methods, the ways to use the light strip connector of different companies are also different. You may refer to the videos on our YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvwEpU_viG85JlMpvXoZNVA

11. Maximum Voltage and Current

The maximum voltage for the light strip connector is 24V. It is not an absolute limit that can be exceeded. But it is not recommended to exceed 36V. The maximum current for the light strip connector depends on the shell material, thickness of the wires, contact area and conductor material. At present, the maximum current for the products on the market is 6A. For the light strip connector, its maximum current should be withstood by the light strip itself, or otherwise the high temperature that the light strip generates will be transmitted to the connector that leads to overheating.

12. Manner of packing

Zip Bag, Heat-sealing, Poly Bag with hanging header, Box packaging, and Blister packing.

13. The smallest light strip connector

The current smallest light strip connector in the industry comes from the Beetle Clip Invisible Series of Onlumi. Some models can be used for the 5mm-wide LED light strips. Besides there are many slim models from onlumi that can be installed in narrow space, for example, aluminum led channel.

14. Underwater light strip connector

There is no light strip connector at present that can be directly used underwater because additional protective measures are needed.

15. Outdoor light strip connector

We can provide outdoor light trip connectors now that need no extra protection and work normally in rain wash. This is our Hippo-M Outdoor Solid Series.

16. Are the light strip connectors safe?

The low-voltage light strip splicer is safe under limited conditions, because the voltage for the light strip is quite low that is under the safe voltage range for human. However, you should not use it beyond the specific environment or the limited current. For example, please do not use the indoor connectors outdoors or connect them to high voltage (over the limit voltage) because it is not designed for high voltage application.

17. How to distinguish positive and negative anodes?

The connector is marked with positive and negative anodes on the top for correct use. It is convenient to distinguish the polarity on the two ends based on the symbols of positive and negative anodes on housing. But the connector is merely as a conductor. It does not have so-called positive and negative anodes when it is not connected with any device.

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