help with LED's

[anarekist]

I made an led light strip for my tank and it's been working well for over a year, recently i tidied up the wires and when i plugged it back in the lights flicker now? like a strobe, it will stay lit (not strobing) for a split second after i disconnect the power. what could of caused this when it didnt use to happen before? also the power supply had 2 separate black(-) and red(+) wires to use, i just used one and covered the other with electrical tape. yesterday when i had this problem i tried to light the bulbs with the un used set of wires and it didnt work, is this a sign of my power supply failing? is this common for them to only last around a year of about 10 hours of use every day?
hope someone knows a lil bit to help, i tried searching for it online but everyone talks about a dimmer causing it but i dont used one. thanks in advance.

 

[aquaponicpaw]

The unused wire should be a ground wire. Ya think?

@aquaponicpaw

 

[wrslrcichlid]

That could be it, or you may have accidentally tweaked a wire when tidying them. You might have partially pulled a wire from its connection or something.

 

[anarekist]

The unused wire should be a ground wire. Ya think?

@aquaponicpaw

2 sets of wires, black and red so 2 red and 2 black.

 

[Chizzle]

Have a similar problem with one of my LED drivers. It was doing that out of the box though, been 2 weeks and aquatraders still hasnt delivered my replacement part. What brand is your led fixture?

 

[anarekist]

it's a diy
the driver is this one
http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesaler...IVRU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333408632&sr=8-1

but instead of 1 set of black and red wires it has 2 sets

 

[bbortko]

You probably have 2 circuits for flexibility in the system. As far as flickering you probably knocked something loose or are getting transient voltage. Don't do a lot of leds but from what I've seen and heard they're very finicky and not very reliable.

 

[virgil2090]

if you can inspect where the wire meets the board(pcb),maybe the solder joint is loose.i would also check the wall outlet,make sure it has a good ground.has any other appliances been added to the room/or even another outlet?

 

[anarekist]

so i connected a volt meter to it, when it's powered it get about 12 volts which is correct, when i plug it into a LED it drops down to abbout 10v which i guess i ok since it has to draw some power and i think the volt meter is drawing power too i duno, the light still strobes so i duno what.. :\

could one led malfunction in a series cause the rest in a parallel series to strobe too?

 

[F1 VET]

Sound like a capacitor went out somewhere in the loop!

#1 S. Vettel