LED Light Strip Challenges

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G

gromano

New member
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
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Hello,

I am reaching out to those who have had success installing LED light strips using the coach batteries and not the included AC power brick.  I have a Roadtrek Versatile 190 with 2 new coach batteries.  For the past 2 months I have been struggling with exactly how to wire the RGB controller device properly.  The result ends up in either a fried RGB controller or most recently a melted RGB controller.  I even installed a 5 AMP fuse directly connected to the RGB controller and it still melted.  I have researched this to no end but I cannot seem to figure it out. 

Can someone please recommend the best way to do this?  Ideally I want to string 3 strips together and run them off of a single wall mounted touchscreen controller.

Thank you in advance.

Greg
 
I bought those cheap 16' light strips off of ebay.  I emailed the seller to see if I could run 2 strips off of one controler, and he pointed out that the controlers are only rated for one strip, even if the strips have connectors that would allow daisy-chaining. 
 
I am not sure what style fixtures you have, but the previous owner of my motorhome installed the tape style LED lights and they are now starting to yellow and fail, so I am in the process of replacing them again.  For the kitchen overhead (originally AC florescent tube fixture) I used 3 of these panels from Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0197UVNPO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 they were priced at $8 each a few weeks ago, and are now sold out, other similar panels are available.

see photo, note I was a couple of screws short when the photo was taken so one panel looks a bit crooked.  Also note I had to pre drill holes for the screws as the while frame is Aluminum and cracks easily.
 

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We've been running a 13 foot RGB light strip in our coach for three years with no problems. The wifi controller is controlled by an ap on my phone. The installation manual said the controller would be damaged if more than one light strip were attached to its output. If you've got more than one light strip hooked to the controller's output, and you're burning up controllers, that may be what's causing it.

Kev

(By the way, welcome to the RVForum!)
 
if you have the strips  the most of the time black wire is +  and the other 3 colored wires are 12v-

keep in mind the running feet 

some controllers only want 12v dc only and the RV system can see any where from 11 to 14.6 volts and at time driving

the alternator well make the controller do funny things over the noise in the line 
 
Thank you for the replies.  Perhaps I need to install some type of regulator to control the 12 volt from the battery.
I only had one strip connected to the controller.
Greg
 
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