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I'm about to order a lot of RGB LED strips for a project that will hopefully be running for years if not decades.

I used to have very good luck with strips using the WS2812B chips, but in recent years the quality seems to have dropped significantly. A recent batch had a failure rate of about 1 in 1,000 after 100 hour burn-in, whereas old batches had effectively no failures even after running for several years. I assume this is due to the availability of knock-off chips now that the WS2812B's have become so popular.

Has anyone had any long term experience with running very large scale installations of these strips?

Any advice on which chip line is least likely to have failures?

Any advice on finding suppliers who use genuine article chips rather than knock-offs?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Have you determined if it was the LEDs or the driver chips which failed? When they went bad did an entire RGB set go out or just one color? Did they continue passing data through, while merely going dark, or did they break the chain as well? \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Mar 12, 2016 at 1:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ UPDATE: It is now clear that was a very bad batch. Out of 1,800 chips tested, more than a dozen failed after a 30 day burn in. The most common mode was total failure where the chip would not light and it would not relay. The next most common mode was a single color would get stuck on but the chip would still work normally otherwise. Inspecting the failed chips under the microscope only showed a single visible failure of the potting around the die, so I assume others were likely silicon defects. I am about to burn 250,000+ chips from 5 suppliers and will do a full forensic on josh.com! \$\endgroup\$
    – bigjosh
    Mar 12, 2016 at 14:48

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Hello WS2812B and SK6812 have same function normally SK6812 led i don't have problem with this led chip , and APA102 Have data and clock , quality is stable too , whose PMW frequency Speed is much better than sk6812 and WS2812B, use big project it is better to use SK9822 and apa102 ,those who have data and clock , but those led chip ,sometimes have a problem , one led is broken another will be affected , now WS2813 led and SK6822 led come out ,which one led is broken there are a article than about the compare of those led chip , you can have a look http://www.instructables.com/id/Compare-SK6822-WS2813-APA102-SK9822/?ALLSTEPS

One thing you need to know - we have produce so many led strips - before you produce led strips, you need to bake them for 24 hours at 60-70°C, as their MLS lever is 6. Then if you did not proceed with dehumidification, they die easily. Moreover, it is better to make them waterproof using silicone tubes. Finally, I advise you to use ws2813 and sk6822 led strips.

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