As a seller of RGB LED strips, we sometimes face issues with strips showing the wrong colors.
This can happen when the whole LED strip kit is set to one of the three main RGB colors (red, green, or blue):
- But one or more strips don’t work properly.
Also, if the kit is set to show a mixed color, one or more strips might show a different color than the rest.
- For example, if you set the LED strip kit to display only red light, one strip might stay off or show a different color like blue or green.
- Or, if you set the kit to show pink light by mixing red and white, one strip could appear purple while the rest are pink.
- When this happens, your LED strip installation doesn’t show a consistent color, which takes away from the desired lighting effect.
These problems usually come from issues with the connections or wiring.
It is between individual LED strips or a defect in a specific LED strip section.
- The strips connect through 4-pin connectors.
- They provide power and data to control the red, green, and blue color channels.
If there’s an issue with one of these pins or any damage to a strip, it stops proper color control and synchronization across the installation.
In this post, we’ll explain:
- How these potential problems happen in more detail
- How DITRIO prevents coloring issues that may come up
Common Causes
Usually, the main cause of wrong RGB LED strip coloring comes from the pins and connectors that join the strips.
- RGB LED strips have 4 pins
- One each for red, green, and blue, and one for the common ground
These pins slide into 4-pin connectors to join strips together and connect to the RGB LED controller.
If the connection is poor or one of these 4 pins is damaged, it can mess up the coloring for that whole strip section.
For example:
- If the red pin/connection doesn’t work, that strip section will show little or no red color, making it look bluish or greenish. This is because the red LEDs aren’t getting the data and power to turn on, while the green and blue LEDs remain lit.
- If the blue pin has a problem, that strip section might look more reddish, pink, or purple. This happens because the red and green LEDs are still working, while the blue LEDs stay unlit or underpowered.
- An issue with the common ground pin can cause the entire strip section to light up incorrectly or stay unlit. Without a shared common ground, the data and power signals are unstable, stopping the normal operation of all the LEDs.
The 4-pin connectors and soldered pin connections on RGB LED strips can cause issues.
If the pins don’t make good contact or a pin or connector is damaged, it stops the flow of power and data to the red, green, and blue LEDs in that strip section.
This prevents proper color mixing and causes that part of the strip to show wrong colors or no light at all.
Checking the 4-pin connectors and soldered pin contacts on the RGB LED strip, fixing any loose connections, or replacing damaged strip sections usually fixes wrong coloring issues.
Using strong, high-quality connectors and strip wiring from the start helps lower the chance of pin connection problems causing color synchronization failures.
Common Preventive Method
The usual way for RGB LED strip makers to find faulty strips is:
- Turn on each strip individually and check the colors one by one with the remote control.
- This process involves plugging all the LED strips into their control box.
- The inspectors then press the remote to see each color one by one for every strip.
This manual method can take a lot of time if many strips need to be checked.
As a result, it’s hard for most makers to inspect every LED strip before packing and shipping.
- Instead, they spot-check by testing only a sample of the strips.
- They then decide whether more LED strip kits need inspection based on the number of faulty kits found in the initial sample.
Because they only check a sample, some faulty LED strip kits might not be caught and end up being sold to buyers.
This spot-check sampling method can lead to inconsistent quality control and coloring issues that disappoint customers.
The main downside of manually activating and inspecting each RGB LED strip one by one is:
- It slows down production, especially when dealing with installations that have many individual LED strips.
Even the makers assign more inspectors, checking every strip is a tough process and might not be possible for some large-scale manufacturing operations.
However, skipping inspection steps to save costs also hurts quality, as some defective strips are likely to be shipped without being detected.
A perfect solution would allow for efficient yet thorough testing of all LED strips to minimize both production delays and quality and color consistency issues.
Automated systems that can quickly test multiple strips at once, while still spotting any irregularities accurately, might offer a technological solution for RGB LED strip makers who want to balance high-volume output and defect-free quality.
DITRIO’s Innovative Preventive Method
At DITRIO, quality is our main focus.
We know how important quality control methods and tools are.
- That’s why to invest in developing new technology to inspect 100% of our LED strips and 4-pin copper wires.
We collaborated with an electrical contractor to design a circuit board with specialized programming.
The completed inspection toolkit is a box with an optimized power supply for activating 10 LED strip kits at the same time.
The box has four buttons.
After connecting 10 LED strip kits, inspectors press the buttons to make sure each individual color – red, green, blue, and white – lights up correctly for all strips.
If all four colors light up properly for every strip, it means the pins of the LED strips and copper wires, control box programming, and remote are working correctly.
This confirms that the set of 10 LED strip kits is ready to ship.
We put this handy inspection box on our production line, which allows workers to find and remove faulty RGB LED strips and parts before packing.
This greatly reduces workload and boosts efficiency, helping us lower the chance of incorrect LED strip colors as much as possible.
For DITRIO buyers, our innovative 100% LED strip testing method means better product quality and reliability.
- All strips are checked, not just a sample.
- So, buyers can trust that their entire LED strip installation will work as expected with no issues of uneven coloring or unlit sections.
Given the cost and difficulty of accessing installed strips once a project is finished, thorough initial testing provides a lot of long-term value.
While no manufacturing process is perfect, DITRIO’s automated LED strip testing procedures let us maximize both quality control and production capacity to optimize volumes and minimize problems for users.
Our investments in creating a unique 100% LED strip testing system show DITRIO’s dedication to giving our customers the most reliable LED strip kits.
How do you program replacement remote control
Hi Anthony,
Please check the e-mail, and I have sent the message to you.
-Lucy from DITRIO team