Any Low Voltage Wizards?

Curious if someone who knows low voltage better than myself may know what’s going on with my under cabinet LED lighting. I installed it a few years ago and it was perfect for about 2 years. Then I noticed that the controller quit allowing the colors to change, which didn’t bother me because we always just keep them white. Shortly after that happened, within a couple months, half the light strips on the furthest end of the run, turned pink and stayed pink. Told myself, I need to look at that, possibly replace the controller and see if I’ve damaged any of the strips on the end of the circuit. Well fast forward to tonight and I kept walking by where the power supply and controller live in the cabinetry, and I smell the faint smell of melting plastic. Reached down and felt the power input to the controller and it’s HOT. Pulled it out and it’s gotten hot enough to melt the end of the controllers input power connector inside the controller. There’s also evidence that the first 5-6 feet of LED strip closest to the controller got hot too. It’s in a plastic channel under the cabinets and it’s melted in places. These are 12V DC strips with a 12V DC power supply wired directly to 120V AC via a RS-150-12 AC/DC power supply. I’m just trying to figure out if I have too much light strip and not enough power, or if the power supply took a crap and is overpowering the strips…or if this could have happened strictly from the IR controller going bad? If anyone has an idea I’m all ears. It’s all disconnected now and thankfully we avoided a fire!

 

First, did you buy the controller and light strips as a set? Or did you get a controller and add a bunch of light strips? It is very possible that you overloaded the controller power supply if you bought them separately. Can you give a better description of what you have?

 

For sure, sorry. I bought everything from a company called HitLights a few years ago. It wasn’t necessarily a kit. I have about 30’ of lights and bought their recommended power supply. For this length, they recommended the power supply I listed above since their smaller (normal laptop type AC/DC power supply) wasn’t sufficient. So I bought their higher grade one. Here is the rating plate on it. Honestly I’m going to rip out the controller and the lights at the end of the run that turned pink and start over, I was just curious if someone smarter than me when it comes to low voltage might see a glaring issue.

 

I think the controller is the weak link. Pretty sure it’s getting hot. I’ll order a better controller, it’s a very basic all plastic IR controller with a remote. Pretty sure it’s max output is 36w which is WAY less than I’m asking of it at 137w. Lesson learned.

 

This is the remote and controller I installed on my parents setup about 7 years ago. Still working great.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Armacos..._-pip_sem_mobile-_-203227246-_-205884027-_-N&

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Armacos...8DbSXFIy1cd21S7NaccaAmZLEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds


Edit: the dimmers (2) and power supplies (2) are hidden in the cabinet. The light switch is battery operated and mounted on the wall. My parents only use the switch for on/off after they found the lighting level they liked and it’s all white lighting. I purchased the white led strips and small gauge wire off of Amazon

 

If you wire the light strips and the IR controller in parallel and then connect to the power supply than each “device” (LED strip and IR controller) will only pull the current it needs and one will not affect the other as far as heat/functionality.

bad idea to run the strip power thru the controller. The strip just needs the data and ground connections from the controller, not the voltage feed from the power supply.

pm me with questions and I can help you directly.

 

Here is a horrible schematic drawing but hopefully it will steer you in the right direction!

make sure to check current draw from IR controller AND total LED strip length (should give you Milliamps by the foot). Then size power supply 20% bigger (more current output than calculated value) for better/cooler operation.

 

Not to be too short about it but just another POS Cinese cheap LED system.
I think you have gotten your moneys worth out of them for the vintage and I see this all the time,they just are not made to last.

I bet if you install new stuff all will be well.

I would stay away from a color changing setup too if you dont need one.
Keep it simple.

Also I have had decent luck with superbrightleds.com and they do offer a really wide range of quality levels of these under counter options.

 

Thanks @Octave for picking this up. I had to go to bed last night. Your schematic would definitely help, but it looks to me like his power supply may also be a bit under-powered, especially if it's a cheap, Chinese-made one.

 

I have 30' of light @ 3.9w per foot and 150w power supply. I believe I should be covered on the power, but it is a cheap Chinese power supply indeed. I think I'll be replacing all of the components with better parts. I truly do believe the controller was the weak link. It was rated for 36w and I was asking for 117w. Thanks for all the insight guys!

 

As @ezdog said, if you’re only looking for white, then just buy the K rating you’re looking for. No need to mess with those multi-color strips. New power supply and controller and you’re good to go