Feeling like I am a dummy. Ray Wu Icicle Lights

[learnedinuk]

All,

I am adding icicle lights (which I have never used before, always been nodes) to a building this year and I am struggling with a wiring issue. In the past i have simply added or subtracted from full strings to get the length of a strand I need. If I need 10 feet on length and the strands come in 8 foot lengths I clip the end and simply solder on two more feet. Saving the 6 feet left over from strand 2 to use on another string.

The above works great, until I got these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/individually-LED-full-color-Icicles-string-DC12V-WS2811-controlled-all-white-wire-IP68-60nodes-set/32310871722.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dQpiUl from Ray. First they work awesome but I can't seem to simply add a piece of left over strand. Even if i keep in mind the 3,4,5 drop, which doesn't seem to make a difference. I can solder two complete strands together normally and that works fine. But if i want to add a left over 3 feet from another strand to a complete strand the added on section never works.

I have been very careful to ensure positive and negative. Still no joy.

So my question is. Is there something different electrically when dealing with icicle lights?

[Boof63]

HI, if you are soldering up ok then can't see why wouldn't work. Maybe solder into a middle of a section so that you only have the 3 or 4 wires joining across the top. Other option is if using XL, are you changing the number of nodes to account for the addition. If not then Xl will only output what its been told.
Get this programe http://www.da-share.com/software/da_e131/. this allows you to test the lights through your controller but will run the n umber of lights you tell it to, Xl may be 60 nodes but your additions may be 70 nodes. Set da_e131 to 70 (or 90 or whatever and the correct universe and test)
cheers Boof63