OK, that is indeed solid epoxy on the LEDs. No way to resolder the chips. All I can do is cut out one LED and replace it when it occurs. I have plenty of spares and a box of Wago connectors. Intermittent failures are the worst as it freezes the previous pattern following the data break. Ho hum

And Wago repair done. Looking good again

Well that went well. On New Years Eve I plugged another ESP32 and LED string into a 5V battery pack, and put a string of lights inside my car. UDP sync to the Master, and OMG.

Better start planning for the Xmas 2024 lights. Hmmm... What do I need ?

MORE LEDS !!!!!!

Safety note: The car was on my drive, and I live in a cul-de-sac, so no danger to passing motorists

If anybody knows a supplier of addressable LEDs with a 5cm spacing, please let me know. If they are already made up in 5cm x 5cm spaced matrices that can be cut to size, even better.

Ho ho ho ! It's that time of year again

I bought 200 meters of addressable LEDs with a 5cm spacing from Aliexpress, a manufacturer called Knowshine. So far they are excellent and seem higher quality than last years LEDs. These have four wires. That means you can do vertical drops without serpentine twists as the 4th lead is a return for the data. It also means I can make the vertical drops a plug in item, so spares are being created.

Last year was 10cm gap square matrices. This year 5cm gap squares. Many more LEDs, but since they only draw 10mA each MAX, it will be fine.

Warming the soldering iron up...