DIY LED strip

There seems to be a lot of various post in other threads about led light strips. Here is my experience from all that compiled knowledge.

here is my shopping list, I went full with amazon because of prime and because i'm impatient. some other stuff i got from radioshack


5050 cool white led strip
helping hands
a heat gun
heat shrink
12v dc power supply
4 to 1 dc splitter (listed as cctv splitter)
25' of 18 guage 2 conductor wire
female dc plug 2.1mm (these are really expensive at RS, i will buy these from ebay in the future)
update: these were $3.50 each at RS. I just purchased them on ebay for $1.50 for 10

and I had my own soldering equipment already.


1) cut light strip along the dotted line, use a blade to strip off the weather proofing if yours has it.


2) cut wire to length and strip, make two solder beads and solder
use black on - and red on +, don't think it matters but helps to be consistent. forgot to take a picture, but put heat shrink around this end too.


3) cut heat shrink to size, and put it, along with dc jack cover into the wire.


4) wire black to the long stem, and red to the short one, and solder


5) screw cover onto plug and line up the heat shrink


6) use your heat gun


7) mount, in my case, i drilled a hole in the back of my besta and wired it through

I will probably do an rgb led strip in the futureand go the ways of using arduino as a controller.

Looks good. I like the idea of a splitter for multiple shelves

Only a detailed video can beat this! Thank you!!

Just one noob question... step 4... you said to solder again. Solder the copper wires onto the actual dc jack frame?

What size heat shrink did you use?

You used a 1 female to 4 male DC splitter. Would it be fine to use a 1 female to 8 male DC splitter? Or would that actually impair the brightness of the LEDs?

You wrote about 2.1mm Male DC plug being expensive from Radioshack... but did you actually use a Female DC plug?

Oh, and what is this weather proofing and why does it need to be removed?

TotalDominAsian said:

Only a detailed video can beat this! Thank you!!

Just one noob question... step 4... you said to solder again. Solder the copper wires onto the actual dc jack frame?

What size heat shrink did you use?

You used a 1 female to 4 male DC splitter. Would it be fine to use a 1 female to 8 male DC splitter? Or would that actually impair the brightness of the LEDs?

You wrote about 2.1mm Male DC plug being expensive from Radioshack... but did you actually use a Female DC plug?

Click to expand...

i soldered the wires to the dc plug after looping it in.

I'm not sure the size, i bought the variety pack.

it should technically be ok to use 8, since a single 12v can power the entire strip. I think length of cable is more of a concern, there is a lot of literature on the web that talks about that.

yes I meant female.

led strips come in indoor and outdoor types. the outdoor ones are coated in this rubber cement type material that you have to cut off.

Nice job.
I was discussing the install with Eric and you can get cheap black or silver metal trim from HD and cut them to length and tape the LED to the inside of an L (angle) trim and then tape or screw that to the shelf. that way you don't need the wide frame doors to conceal the lights

I just realized something. Is there an on/off switch or do you have to unplug it to shut off the lights?

It'd be nice to somehow have them all connected to a remote.

do it inline or better yet one of those power bars that can be turned on/off via a remote

i hooked it up to my light switch, you can add an on off button though

I used DIY LED strip lights in my display cabinet as well and I really like them! Rather than solder which I tried at first, I decided to go with pre-made connectors sold by LED Wholesalers:

https://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=857

Here is a picture of the ones that I used:



They were really easy to use so just thought I'd mention for those that don't have experience soldering.

I contemplated using those connectors, but given how many individual strips i plan on making, it wasn't that cost effective.

Might have to copy this

Actually if you go to the dioder thread I posted or you can find eBay postings for these connectors only for a lot less. Since you likely have to extend the length anyways it would be the same amount of work. Don't remember the 2pin cost but 4pin was like $5 for 10 connectors