All the components below i have at my disposal. I am a beginner soldererer and I am working on a custom pc case. All of it is assembled except for the lights for the inside of the pc case. I have the light strip

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSF67H0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and a controller

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AF5YOK2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and a beginner solder kit

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002LLWZY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now, i bought all of this for super super cheap on ebay in the hopes of making it work inside my pc, hooked up to my pc power supply by connecting it to the two wires (yellow and black) on a four pin molex. However, as you can see in the items, the led light strip doesn't match up with the LED controller input. And the output on the controller is made into a AC outlet.

Pictures of the inside of the controller are below. What i'm THINKING about doing:
the LED strip has a white wire (live) and black wire (ground) on one end. I would de-solder the rgbground from the controller and just attach the white wire to green spot (its a green LED strip) and the black to the ground spot. Then somehow take the 12v wire and ground wire off my 4 pink molex adapter to my PC power supply and soldering it onto the bottom of the controller

My questions (sorry it took so long to get here) are:
1. Can i solder the two wires onto the rbgground spots on the controller and it actually work? or do i just need to get another controller entirely that works with one light
2. Where do i solder the live/ground to underneath the controller to allow it to power it, or can i do that at all

as a side note i'm open to all suggestions about trying different areas or things. I am a beginner to soldering but i can remove solder and solder okay.

 

Is your PSU up to handling the total current, on top of its regular duty?

Do you want ALL the LEDs on at once? I couldn't tell - Do you know how much current that would require?

Consider cutting your strip into 3 sections, and fooling the controller into thinking you have 3 colors that are really all green. Tell the controller you want all colors on full, and there you go.

I don't like the idea of bridging the RGB pads at the controller.

 

2. Where do i solder the live/ground to underneath the controller to allow it to power it....

See the uppermost area in your picture, that connects the common black wire to the power jack? That's +12V and is labelled as such on the front side of the PCB. The other two conductors from the jack are connected and are "ground". It appears the power jack is ground on the jacket, positive inside. The online photo is hard to see, but I think it shows this also.

I'd probably use the power jack until I was ready for the final installation, and probably even then. It doesn't cost much at the Shack and buys you a lot of convenience compared to hard wiring it in.

 

gotcha, so basically cut three strips and hook them up to the rgb area on front. and just stick with the 12v out to wall outlet i have available?

 

..and just stick with the 12v out to wall outlet i have available?

I don't understand that. I thought you were using a computer PSU?

 

okay, i'm basically a complete newb when it comes to electrical components at their core. My psu will support the LEDstrip, but i don't know where to solder the power/ground wire to from the psu. Also i don't know what each point is called. All i know is that i need to solder them onto the back part somewhere where the 3 solder points are. Oh and i also understand how to solder the LED but just to clarify i connect the white wires to RGB, and the black wire from the LED strip to the black wire spot that says 12V+?

 

The white wire of the LED strip (which you said was "+"), gets connected to +12V power, same as the black wire next to the RGB wires on your controller board.

The controller's job is to control the current path back to ground for the LED strings. The ground side of the LED strips (black wire) connects to one of the 3 ground return pads, RGB.

Power to the controller is +12V and ground from your computer PSU. As I said, my preference would be to use the controller's power jack. You'd have to get the right male power jack for that, and I believe it is wired positive to the center. You can solder directly to the board instead, if you like.

Did the controller come with instructions for setting the current limit? Don't hook it all up to power before you are sure it won't fry your LED strips.

 

That helps ALOT. thank you for breaking it down for me. Nope, it was cheap tho, but came with the components and a remote to operate it through the sensor connected to topside of controller. Yeah before I get a converter for the power jack to work with the psu, I'm gonna try it in a wall outlet since I have a 12v male walkout let cord handy.

I did do some research and forum and review posts state the power pull of it is less than 12v unless you attack more than two to it at one time (through branching) that if the strips were long enough it could pull more than that. But I'm just shooting for one strip around 2.5 ft long

 

I'm thinking the strip itself has current limiting built in, so that you can supply it ~12V and it's fine. Maybe all the controller does is put out 12V with a varying duty cycle (PWM). It's hard to tell.