Yeti Lights Problem

[Sh0rtBus]

So I picked up an Axial simple light controller with lights (one strand of 4 whites and one strand of 2 reds) for my Yeti. Because the Yeti has the U4 style rear light pod, I wanted to have 2 reds and then two whites in it behind a 1 yellow and 1 blue lens. So I took the 2 red lights off their strand and pulled the two outside white lights off their strand. Soldered the whites to the red & black strand and the two red on the outsides of the white & black strand and of course soldered them back in series. Plugged both strands in and the one strand with the two whites was very dim. The other strand wouldn't light at all. So I switched ports and the strand with the two whites lights up fine, but the other strand with the 2 red and 2 whites doesn't light at all. That's problem number one.

The other problem is I plugged the light controller into the AUX 1 port on my new Airtronics RX461 so I could controll it via a lever/dial. That doesn't work properly, either, as the lights stay on no matter what position the lever/dial is in.

So....thoughts? Suggestions? Spent way too much time yesterday soldering up tiny LED's on tiny wires with a less than wonderful iron. I really need to invest in a soldering station at some point.

[heyok]

Two things happening here.
Second one first:
You need some sort of remotely operated switch in order to use a channel to turn your lights on and off. You can find other manufacutrers, but here is an example of one that I can supply:
Remote Switch For LED Lighting

Regarding the first problem - the dim lights:
What you are running into has to do with different colour LEDs have different forward voltage. Reds are typically lower voltage than white. Axial's lighting unit was built to output a certain voltage to power the strings they supply. For example if you take out a red and put in a white, you will get a dimmer string.
Axial connects their lighting in series as it makes it slightly easier to install them. But, being in series, if one light goes out, they all go out.
Maybe have a look at this for an alternative way to do your lighting:
How to wire LEDs

[Sh0rtBus]

I ahd a feeling it had something to do with the whites and reds requiring different voltages. That being the case......it seems I likely won't be able to use the Axial simple light controller for that purpose.

Now that I know I need a remote switch for on'off functionality, can you explain why? I'm no electrical engineer, but I'm assuming the RX is providing constant power to all channels regardless of what the radio is signaling it to do.

[heyok]

You have it right.

A receiver plug has three connections:
Black = Ground reference
Red = Positive (usually 5 to 6 volts)
White (sometimes orange or yellow) = servo signal

You need something that will read the servo signal and act on it. In your case, you want something to watch the signal and understand if the transmitter is telling the lights to be on or off, and then there needs to be some component in there that will do the power switching to send that voltage from the red and black to the load (your lights).