this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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My assumption with this PCB is that it switches the GND, meaning 12v is always provided to the LEDs. So the trick is to find somewhere that has a permanent GND and then connect all the LED leads to that. But I don't see a large enough spot to land three new leads, except maybe where R6 is.
You'll have to verify if my assumption is accurate, although I do wonder if you could just get a different PSU outright. This sounds like a 12v LED strip, so any sufficiently sized 12v wall-wart would also suffice.
Can you also clarify: you want this strip to be always-on and all-white, but the strip uses RGB LEDs? While it does produce white, it might not have a very high CRI and thus may be unpleasant for certain lighting applications. There are dedicated white LED strips which will perform a bit better for color rendition, and that could potentially be an issue if food needs to look appetizing under these cabinets.
it's a RGB strip but with white LEDs.
so when I bring 12 V to the 12 V lead and then GND to the R, G, or B contact, the respective LEDs light up. when I bring GND to one and then short them (R+G+B) all the LEDs light up.
sure, I tried it with a known good 12 V PSU and it works, but I'd like to use this one and just bypass the light-show circuitry.
When you say all the LEDs light up, do you mean they light up white?
Those LEDs are labelled R G B, so I would have assumed they were single colour LEDs?
they are white LEDs i.e. they shine white. the R G B leads are used to trigger them individually, for the running lights and whatnot. so when I bring 12 V to the V lead and GND to e.g. R, all the LEDs marked R (image) light up. when I then short R with G, then all R and G light up, etc.
Interesting, never heard of that arrangement before.
the whole thing (5 meter strip, remote, PSU/controller) cost like $5 total so I'm guessing that's some ingenuity at play, like reusing strips meant for RGB lights and sumsuch