There, I'm sure that subject got your attention.
I figured I'd pass on an idea that I had the other night when I discovered that I had a few pixels at the end of one of my new technicolor strings that wouldn't light.
I have seen several people talk about cutting between the last-good and first-bad pixels and then describe testing procedures to determine whether it was the last lit pixel that was actually bad or the first non-lit pixel that was actually the bad one.
I had 6 nodes that wouldn't light at the end of a strand. I checked continuity from end to end and determined that my 12V and ground were making it all the way through, so it had to be a data flow issue at one of those two pixels, but I wanted an easy way to test.
Rather than cutting the line, I decided to rig up a jumper cable using a pair of sewing needles. Any needle or stick pin would do the trick, but these were the first two I could lay my hands on without my wife noticing.
I took the two needles and attached them with a short 5-inch piece of stranded wire from a piece of scrap Cat-5e.
I started a test sequence in xLights.
I knew the 12V and ground lines were good, so that left the data which is the middle wire on the technicolor strings. I poked the first needle through the insulation on the middle wire in front of the first non-lit pixel and then poked the second needle through the insulation on the middle wire after the first non-lit pixel. None of the lights after the first non-lit pixel lit up. That meant the first non-lit pixel wasn't actually bad (or on the odd case, I could have had 2 bad pixels in a row, but that's doubtful). I took the needle out of the wire after the first non-lit pixel and moved it up to the middle wire in front of the last lit pixel. Immediately the first non-lit pixel started mirroring the previously last-lit pixel and the rest of the pixels in the strand were lighting up to the test sequence but out of sync by one pixel since I was now duplicating data to two consecutive pixels. This told me that the last pixel that lights without the jumper is actually the bad pixel. Now, I can cut that pixel out and just put a dab of silicon or nail polish on the needle holes and I'm set. I think this was a bit quicker to test than cutting the line and testing the two sections.
Theoretically if the 12V or ground had been the issue, I could have just installed a jumper around the bad spot and I wouldn't have 3 wires to repair as I would if I had cut the line to test. If this strand wasn't for my (mini) mega tree strapped to pipe, I could also just bypass the data-line issue and black out the bad node for a quick fix until I could patch the strand.
I figured I'd pass the idea along, it may save someone else a little time.