LED Strip Loop Clamp

I have been playing around with addressable LED strip and wanted to cut it into 20cm sections and solder wires to extend the overall length.

The problem is that solder joints are fragile, especially when suspended above a crowd of excited dancing people. Also as the strip is addressable, a break at any place will affect all the LEDs downstream.

To make the connection point between strip and wire more secure I designed a clamp that simultaneously clamps the wire and strip, protecting the solder join inside. All the wires come out the top, while the LED strip loops out the bottom. You can give it a good yank without breaking it: proper party proof.

The clamp features three components: the outer support hub, the tapered wire wedge and the tapered strip wedge. Using a single M3 screw the top wedge is pulled towards the bottom wedge clamping the wires and strip simultaneously inside the support hub against the tapered faces.

The wire I was using was 2.5mm thick and as this is addressable there are three strands of it. Smaller wire might work. Go fig, do the the trig.

I used WS2811 LED strip (well it transpired to be GS1903 but that's another story).

The solder joint should be made as small as possible to aid in assembly although there is plenty of clearance within the outer support hub to accommodate some sloppiness.

The external diameter of the clamp is the same as the ID of a bottle: this means I can protect it inside a plastic bottle by drilling a hole in the lid. Like a DIY LED light bulb! I found sparkling water bottles the best (I have had to drink a lot of it over the past few days).

This has survived one party already, with slinkys attached to each bottle, with people yanking the ends. If it can survive that...

Here's a set of 21 LED "bottle bulbs" flashing, with slinkys and balloons attached, of course: https://www.instagram.com/p/BrbBBtAHgGL/