How To Connect LED Strip Without Adapter?

How To Connect LED Strip Without Adapter? Connecting many LED strips is excellent for creating new light effects, and you usually need an adapter.

The best method (but not the easiest) to connect LED strips is soldering them together or mediated with a wire. Alternatively, you can apply a likewise principle but with insulating tape.

We have put a little guide for each method that should make it easy. Soldering is very professional and will get you the best results.

If you don’t have an iron solder, follow our guide to use the insulating tape.

How To Connect LED Strip Without Adapter – Guide

How to connect LED lights together without connector? Usually, to connect different LED strips, you need an adapter/connector.

In this guide, however, we will show you other effective solutions.

Some methods require more work but grant a better connection between your lights and the power source. Working pays off! 

Are you excited to see how you can do that? Check below.

Method #1: Soldering LED Strips Through Wire

Soldering wires is a great method when you want to connect many strip LEDs but keep them a bit apart from each other. 

Depending on your setup, you can hide the wires and make it look like each LED strip is independent!

Preparing to Solder

When you connect two or more strips, you’ll start losing voltage if the wire you chose is not the right gauge.

But, then, using a 16 or 18-gauge makes all the difference in the current going down that strip, and that’ll give you better lighting.

First, you must buy the wires you will use to connect the LED strips. You will need three wires if they are RGB and have three connections on each end.

We recommend color coding, so it is easy to identify when assembling. For example, buy red, green, and blue wires.

Next, you want to create exposed ends on each wire. Then, twist the exposed ends tightly so that no strands are loose. 

Tinning

This next process is called tinning. You will need a tin wire.

1. Set the solder to about 550 degrees Fahrenheit 
2. Apply a little tin to the tip 
3. Use that to heat the wires from underneath 
4. Melt some tin into the wires from above 

For the wires you just tinned, you can now trim them, so they’re about the same length as the pads on the led strip.

Uniting The Wire To The LED

Next, you can begin prepping the LED strip. Again, put a little tin on the tip of the soldering iron to help heat transfer and place that on the copper pad. 

Then, quickly feed some solder at the edge of the pad, and when you remove the heat, you should have a nice little blob that remains. 

You can now place the electric wire on top of the blob of solder.

1. Press down with your hot iron
2. Everything should melt together 
3. Remove the heat 
4. Hold in place 
5. Everything should then be connected

Tip: You must keep your solder iron clean from impurities. If there is any, it will transfer into the electric wires and reduce conductivity. 

Method #2: Soldering Two LED Strips Directly

How to use LED strip lights without adapter? For example, let’s say you want to connect two pieces of led strips but don’t want to use wires.

The first thing you’ll want to do is to line up the pads as best you can. Then make sure the arrows on both LED strips go in the same direction. 

From there, it’s pretty similar to what we taught above:

1. Apply solder and tin to the pads
2. Hold them together
3. Wait for the soldering to cool down
4. Test

Method #3: Wires And Insulating Tape

How to connect LED lights together without connector? Similar to the first method shown in this article, you can use wires and insulating tape. 

The insulating tape will replace the iron solder. As a result, you will have a less permanent setup.

However, even if less permanent, the insulating tape can stick wires nicely, so it will be in place for as long as you need. 

Moreover, using wires and insulating tape is Electricity 101, meaning anyone can do it easily.

This method will need wires to connect all your LED strip pads. That is the same as instructed in Method #1.

If you remember, we told you that color coding is useful. 

1. Strip only the tip of the wires to expose a bit of copper.
2. Twist the tips to secure
3. Place each tip on a LED strip pad
4. Use the insulating tape to fix it in place

You can use this method to connect LED strips you want to keep a bit apart. Or you can use it to connect a LED strip to an alternative power source. 

How To Group The Wires 

If you are going for a method that uses electric wires to keep different strips apart, an excellent measure you should take is to group them.

You can do it in two manners:

• With heat shrink tubes
• Insulating tape

With insulating tape, you will simply unite all the wires and wrap them. Although this is very practical and easy to do, there are some caveats. 

The first is that it will be ugly. The second is that you likely won’t be able to use the wires again in the future.

Considering what was said above, the best is to use heat shrink tubes:

1. Choose a tube that can fit all the wires
2. Start soldering/taping the first end of the wires
3. Fit them all into the tube
4. Finish the soldering/taping

You can choose different colors for your heat shrink tubes, meaning it becomes one more aesthetically pleasing item.

Tip: Ensure that the insulating tape keeps the wires properly in touch with the pads.

Method #4: Uniting LED Strips with Tape

Alright, this method simply applies the idea of Method #3 to Method #2. 

You will again use insulating tape, but you don’t need any wires this time. Instead of wires, you will connect the LED strips directly.

You probably already know the drill, but let’s go again:

1. Put the LED strip pads together
2. Take a bit of insulating tape 
3. Fix the strips together with tape

Some obvious disadvantages of this method are:

• Not very pleasant aesthetically
• Not much flexibility when compared to soldering

Note: Different from using wires and tape, it is not recommended to move the strips too much near the taped ends. It might make the strips lose touch.

Method #5: Using A Proper Controller

Perhaps you don’t want to connect your LED strips physically, but only make them work together.

In that case, you don’t need to solder or tape them to each other.

Instead, what you need is to get a controller that can control multiple LED strips.

There are multi-zone and single-zone controllers to do that. 

The first type allows you to control each strip independently from the same device, and the other will turn all of them together.

What We Learned

How To Connect LED Strip Without Adapter? Instead of using an adapter or connector, you can connect your LED strips with insulating tape.

That is a method you can easily do at home, which does not require much knowledge.

If you want to go in a more professional direction, you can solder strip lights together. Soldering grants both more flexibility and power conductivity.