RE: NeoPixels: Durability and Weatherproofing

DAB — Sat, 18 May 2024 20:09:08 GMT

Good practical advise.

Well Done.

RE: NeoPixels: Durability and Weatherproofing

beacon_dave — Sat, 18 May 2024 09:57:45 GMT

Looking good.

There is glue-lined heatshrink which could give you waterproofing and strain relief in one. If you press it as it is cooling you can usually get good adhesion and sealing onto different shaped surfaces. It's a bit thicker as a result so may need to factor that in.

(Might not be so good if you want to put it over NeoPixels as well, but for the connections it might work well.)

If you are willing to sacrifice the end NeoPixel on your strip you end up with a large tab to act as a strain relief to secure your wires to. Hot glue might work well for this. If you don't want to sacrifice that optical goodness, then perhaps glue a 2" / 50mm tab onto the back of the NeoPixel strip with half of it on the strip and half of it beyond the pixel strip to glue your wires onto, before heatshrinking over to seal the deal. The tab spreads the strain over a much larger area than just relying on the pads alone. If you don't want to glue the cable ends you can also cut holes or notches in the tab to take small cable ties similar to the Phoenix style terminal connectors. (Some of the tie-on cable markers might be a good match for this - just cut them in half and you have one end prepped for a cable tie and the other for gluing onto the back of the pixel strip).

If you are making the micro:bit removable, might want to consider using markers on the cables to indicate which strip on the bicycle they should be connected with. If you are in a club then perhaps it could invest in an assortment box of numbers and letters as individuals will only require a small number of them and the often come in 100's.