Also make sure that you do not add so much solder that it electrically connects one copper pad to the other. Make sure your joint is strong, both mechanically and electrically. With the first wire in place on the copper pad, add solder to the copper pad. By working on the “far” wire first, it wouldn’t be in my way when I go to work on the second wire. I started with that wire because it was on the “back end” of the strip as I had it positioned. So, I positioned the wire without the red stripe on the copper pad labeled “-” and got started. I wanted to connect the wire with the red stripe to the “+” terminal. The wire I was using had white insulation with a red stripe on one of the two wires. Using the third hand tool, I positioned the stripped end of the wire on top of the LED strip’s exposed copper pad. Now, it’s time to make the electrical connections. Solder The First Wire To The LED Light Strip I just used an inexpensive soldering iron that doesn’t have its own base, so I used an old metal pan to protect the table where I was working. Once you have all of your tools and materials ready, go ahead and heat up your soldering iron. The LED strip positioned in the third hand tool. So, for a few bucks, a 3rd hand tool can be a big help for soldering LED light strips. After all, you have to hold the part, the wire, the solder, and the soldering iron – all at the same time. Depending on the situation, I’m not really sure how you would solder without one. In reality, you only need to strip a slightly larger length of wire than the width of your copper pad. Then, I stripped about 3/8″ of insulation or so, but that was mainly out of habit.

I used a pair of scissors to cut between the two insulated wires on each end to separate them. I used wire strippers to cut my wire to the desired length and then strip off a small amount of insulation from each end. This made it very easy to solder the wire to the small copper pads I’d just exposed on the cut ends of the LED light strips.īecause I’d temped in my LED strip light, I knew pretty precisely how long my wire needed to be. It’s small gauge wire, but has a solid, rigid single conductor instead of stranded wire. For the task of soldering LED strips, I thought this particular wire was perfect. I had some extra garage door safety sensor wire laying around. Of course, you’ll need whatever wire you’ll be using to extend your LED light strip. Go ahead and gather your materials for soldering.

This peeled up the 1/8″ or so of clear coating above the copper pads. Once I had pushed down and cut the coating, I pressed the knife blade towards the cut end of the strip.

In that regard, the strip I used was pretty easy to cut without damaging. I found that as I pressed down with the knife, firm pressure got me through the clear coating without cutting into the white backing. Use a knife to remove the coating above the copper pads. If you cut somewhere other than the marked positions, you will likely disable some of the LED’s on the strip. Take care when cutting LED light strips – make your cuts only at the designated points. You will most likely see a solid line in the middle of the copper pads at which you will make new electrical connections. One way or the other, it’s typically very obvious where you should cut. Chances are, an extra inch or half inch won’t make a tremendous difference in the final appearance of your lighting. Many LED strip lights can only be cut every third section or so. The strip I was working with permitted a cut after every single LED section. It’s a lot harder to make 29″ of wire bridge a 30″ gap if you cut it too short. You can always wrap up any extra and tuck it out of sight. When you’re estimating how much wire you need, err on the side of cutting too much wire. Additionally, you’ll need to know how much wire you will want to solder in at each cut. What I’m driving at is that the first step in the project is to determine where you will need to cut your LED light strip. That way, you’ll see what you’ll have to do to end up with a job that looks the way you want it to look. Try to get it right on the first shot by giving it a dry run. Once you peel off that backing paper, though, there’s no turning back. You can always hang it up with some Scotch tape and move it around if you don’t like where you’ve placed it. If necessary, take the time to temp in your light strip to see how it fits. If I modified the light by cutting it and bridging the gap with wire, I could light all of the shelves in the closet evenly.

Cutting battery powered led strip