How do I connect a Blinkstick Flex Board to an LED strip?
There are 3 metal contacts on the LED string every 40mm or so and corresponding metal contacts on the Blinkstick Flex Board but I can think of no useful way to keep the 2 connected
Sorry if the answer is obvious 
I have a generic 5 metre roll of WS2812B LEDs purchased off Ebay. I know there is a limit of 32 LEDs per board but I
need a number of these hence the 5m roll
EDIT: And thanks for the warm welcome 
In that case it should be connected like this:
BlinkStick Flex -> LED Strip
+5V -> +5V
DOUT -> DIN
GND -> GNDThat part I had just about worked out - it’s how to physically attach the 2 together that I am not sure about.
There are flat metal contact patches both sides but nothing to hold it in place.
Not sure glue would conduct. Can’t see how you could solder it. Really tight tape maybe?
I also have a Blinkstick Flex which has a rubber sheath holding the 2 parts together but I don’t want to risk breaking it by taking it apart to see how it works.
To make it simple you can use 3 wires to connect the Flex board to the strip. Here is how I do it:
Hope this helps. Let me know if something isn’t clear. I should probably make a video on how to do this
Ahhhh ok - so it IS solder. That does sound like it’s going to tax my basic soldering skills but I understand what you mean: basically put the solder on all the connectors then just use the soldering iron to melt the 2 halves together. I will give it a go. Thank you for the help, much appreciated
I’ve had several attempts at this now but I can’t make it work - I haven’t even managed to get a single pad to stick and have melted several centimetres of light strip. I’ve also tried soldering on small pieces of wire to no avail. Any more ideas as I am pretty much stuck with this?
LOL what is it about having a rant on forums being the solution to all problems? I’ve just given it another attempt and I’ve managed to get it to stick - it’s a really ugly join but it works. Now to hide it forever with heat shrink …
Only 2 more to go 
Hey matt,
You really need a decent soldering iron to do this kind of joints 
Hope you have better luck with the other two!
Arvy
I spoke too soon - it’s now only lighting 4 of 32 leds 
What constitutes a decent soldering iron?
Weller is very good.
Can you send me a picture of how you have it connected?
I’ve had a look at the Weller irons and they look a similar spec in terms of temperature/power etc to the one I have - I suspect my problem is lack of skill not lack of the correct tool
I can’t send you a picture as I’ve taken it apart (one of the connections came unstuck so I’ve decided to restart it)
Ok, I have now spent many hours and days on this, I’ve bought a new soldering iron (which is pretty much identical to my original one but is a Weller), I must have re-tinned the blinkstick and lights 30 or 40 times to the point that the contacts have now come off the blinkstick rendering it unusable (not to mention thrown away almost 50cm of melted lights). Whatever I try the tinning does not stay attached to the lights - there seems to be a layer of plastic between the metal and the air preventing a join (and these aren’t even the waterproof lights).
As a result I am forced to give up on this project. I have 2 further unused Blinkstick Flex boards (still in unopened anti-static bag they shipped in) I am willing to sell for £5 each if anyone is interested
Ok, after posting that last reply I went back to first principles and have FINALLY made this work and in the end it was EASY
I am sorry Arvy but I think you gave me incorrect information in your original instructions, at least for someone with less than ninja soldering skills. When I gave up on trying to solder the 2 parts together directly, I went back and looked at the light strip I’d bought. It had a connector attached that I’d cut off together with a short length of lights. Dissecting this with a scalpel, it was clearly 3 wires soldered onto the lighting. So, I had a crack at cutting the connector off and soldering it onto a new set of lights and it was really easy, got it first time, because it didn’t have to be soldered on to the side with the adhesive (despite all my scraping and heating I was unable to get enough adhesive off the sticky side to make the contact hold).
All I then had to do was to solder the female connector onto one of my remaining Blinkstick Flex boards. Didn’t work! Realised I’d soldered it on back to front - took 3 minutes to resolder it the right way and it lights up beautifully.
This has the massive additional benefit that if you break your lights (like I have with my original Blinkstick Flex - only 6 LEDs of the original 32 still light), you only have to solder a new connector onto the lights and away you go (avoiding the risk of melting the Flex board like I did with my repeated attempts).
Arvy, is the Blinkstick Flex just a Flex board with lights attached? i.e. can I resolder it with new lights?
I ordered these yesterday:
They arrived this morning and I’ve repeated the feat for my remaining Flex in minutes. I cannot emphasise how happy I am that I managed to make this work. This is a project that involves 4 raspberry pi’s, a custom built control box and much Ruby programming (attempting to add to ruby lib the same level of support as for the python library - morph etc). I would have been (was!) gutted when I thought I’d have to abandon it all because of what I thought would be the easy bit at the end.
All’s well that ends well. Now where’s the Blinkstick Flex board ordering page - I need MORE
Hi…i will suggest you to follow these steps. Remove about 1cm of sticky tape cover and sticky tape on the LED strip where it is going to be soldered to Flex board.Tin contacts both on Flex and strip with a thin layer of solder.Secure Flex board with pads on top in helping hands thingy.Align the LED strip on top so that it covers half of the pads on the Flex.