I'm not sure without inspecting them directly. Often the strips are okay, mostly because they're designed to be cut and they're manufactured in bulk.
It's often the ones that are "strings" rather than strips that are crappy. They use the same kind of design that Christmas lights use, and like Christmas lights, when one bulb goes out, the others suffer. The better Christmas lights cause half the strand to go out so that you can replace the dead bulb. The cheaper ones will just keep on chugging along, allowing the current that should be going through the now-dead bulb/LED to now go through the others. This causes the other lights to be overpowered, which shortens their lives further, causing more failures and exacerbating the situation. Usually after one light will go out, the remainder will soon go as a result.
For your strips: buy a cheap multimeter and use the volt-meter to make sure that the power coming out is about 12V. Those LED strips don't need exactly 12V, but they won't like having too much voltage. 12.7 V is probably fine.
If you put in a switch, and you probably will, don't connect it between the voltage regulators and your LED strips. Put the switch between the battery input of the voltage regulators. The voltage regulators help protect the LEDs from the input, and also switching can create a giant "spike" of current and voltage that can kill more delicate electronics (like your strips). Plus, then you won't be powering your voltage regulators even while in the "off" state.
Check the switch rating and make sure that its DC-current rating is above the current needed for your strips.
Do note that if you're converting between different voltages, the current must compensate. For example, if you're converting from 6V to 12V, the needed current at the input is
double what is needed at the output because it has to make up twice as much voltage. In fact, it will use even
more current because the conversion efficiency is not perfect. Many regulators will report 90% efficiency under ideal conditions, but to be safe, use something like 70-80% as an efficiency rating.
Your switches will have an AC/DC current rating at a specified voltage. They're not the same, even if the AC voltage is much higher. If only one current rating is provided, make sure it is sufficient for your project and that the specified DC voltage rating is above the voltage it will be switching.
For example, if you buy 15 meters of
these LED strips they are rated at 1.2A of current per meter at 12V; the current that will pass through your switch will be 15 * 1.2A = 18A. This is at 12V. If you're powering these from a 6V power supply, you'll need twice that amount of current -- 36A -- to compensate. Factor in only 80% efficiency and you have
45A of current. If you have multiple runs, you could put a
lower-rated switch for each run so you don't need a single 45A switch.
In your case, you're using a 12V power supply and don't need to convert voltages or switch as much current; your strips also don't use quite as much current (0.4A/m). Still, at 5 x 5 meters, you're still looking at 10A of current to switch; make sure you get an adequate switch. Also make sure to SEAL your switch up so that dust doesn't get inside it. The dust can corrode the contacts, increasing resistance, and possibly causing them to overheat. I would buy some extras and bring a soldering iron along just in case. Get some heat-shrink tubing too, to cover up things. Using large gauge wire, like speaker wire, will also reduce resistance and be far less prone to breakage. Make sure to use strain-relief measures to protect against mechanical or vibrational damage. Putting your wires into aluminum conduit on your car will work wonders for protecting the wiring from damage due to vibrations, people, the elements, bumps, etc.
That 10A is also going to deplete your motorcycle battery pretty quickly. You'll get about an hour of runtime before you should recharge. Have you considered buying a 12V 110AH lead-acid battery at Costco or Walmart?
If you're using a 12V battery, you probably don't need the voltage regulators. However, it would still be good to protect your strips from the current spike.
To help protect your LED strips, you can put
capacitors at their inputs to smooth out the voltage spike. Select some electrolytic capacitors with high uF ratings and a voltage rating
above your required voltage (in this case, 12V).
Capacitors like these will work and they're not very expensive. Electrolytic capacitors have a strip on the side of them with pill shaped "minus" symbols that points to the lead that should be connected to ground.
Solder up one of these in
parallel with each of your strips. In other words, the negative lead of the capacitor attaches to the ground connection of your strip, and the positive lead connects to the +12V connect leading to your strip:
Code: Select all
+------------
|
+12V ===o===========o 12V
| |
16V | + |
--------- |
capacitor | LED strip
--------- |
1000uF | - |
| |
GND ====o===========o GND
|
+------------
Try to keep them as close as possible to the strip.
Before you solder the capacitors to your strip, be sure to short the leads of the capacitor (touch them together) to discharge any accumulated charge.
