How do you connect up the Green Terminal Blocks to your wire for a Christmas light pixel controller? In this video, David shows you how.
Are you curious about how to wire pixel pigtails into a light pixel controller? If so, these tips are for you!
You are able to do this with any controller that has green terminal blocks!
What You’re Working With
When you get pigtails from a pixel vendor you will notice that you will get a cable that is basically cut off which has short bits of wire showing.
How To
When working with a receiver box with four pigtails the first thing you will need to make sure of is that if you are working with an X connect, which means that the locking ring is on the female end that goes into the controller, that you have inserted the locking rings through the cable gland properly. You are then able to proceed with the rest of the steps.
Next you will pull all the cables through down to the label.
This gives you as much wire as possible to work with inside of the controller.
Strip Your Wires
Now you may go ahead and start to strip your wires using your wire stripper of choice. If you are relatively new to this process and not quite sure how much wire to strip off a good guide to go by is to take one of the green terminal blocks, which are removable, and pull it out to test it by inserting a wire in to see if it goes in all the way. If the wire touches the back, you have the correct length.
One thing to keep in mind when ensuring you have the correct length is that you do not have any copper showing out of the terminal block. You want all of the exposed wire to be inserted inside the terminal block with ease. The reason for this is because if you have any wire sticking out, those strands could potentially touch each other, which is bad news!
Ready To Go
Once your wires are stripped and ready you may find it simpler to remove the terminal blocks from the controller. You will want to keep the controller handy so that you have access to the labels as you get everything set up.
Line up your terminal block and make sure that you know where everything is facing and where you want everything to go.
What Goes Where
When you are ready to insert the wires you will take hold of the black, which is the ground, your data wire being yellow and your positive wire being red. You may find that your terminal block needs to be loosened a bit, as sometimes happens when they come straight from the factory.
After loosening, you can then insert your wires. You may find that you have an incredibly steady hand and can insert them all at once, but if need be just do one at a time to ensure that each wire is properly inserted. It is much better to move a little slower and be safe as a precaution.
Once all the wires have been inserted, double check your work by lining everything up.
Closing
Once you have all of your pigtails connected you can go ahead and pull the wires through and everything will be nicely set. If you take your time to make sure that everything is done correctly from the start with connecting your pigtails, it will provide you with a really secure connection that won’t cause you problems in the future.