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The random color for that exact strip does look like a defective part as it can sometimes work so the Arduino is sending it correctly at least, normally with lack of power you would see a gradual color change and not be directly to one color to the other (like the orange indicated part).
It can't hurt to wire power both at the beginning and end of the led strip though but make sure you have an 400 Ohm (or higher) resistor on the data pins to prevent any led damage further along:

Connection schema

More info

http://www.tweaking4all.nl/hardware/arduino/arduino-ws2812-led/

The capacitor mentioned there is optional and mine runs without that but the resistor is highly recommended.

Every led needs about 60mA tops (20mA per RGB color internally) so that power supply of 10A should be more than enough as well, near every led there are little arrows that show the direction of how they need to be connected (for data input) so you could check that and see if you haven't accidentally turned them around.
Let me know how it goes

<blockquote data-quote="Rick164" data-source="post: 1118453" data-attributes="member: 17766">The random color for that exact strip does look like a defective part as it can sometimes work so the Arduino is sending it correctly at least, normally with lack of power you would see a&nbsp; gradual color change and not be directly to one color to the other (like the orange indicated part).It can't hurt to wire power both at the beginning and end of the led strip though but make sure you have an 400 Ohm (or higher) resistor on the data pins to prevent any led damage further along:Connection schema<img src="http://www.tweaking4all.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/arduino_no_computer_power.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />More info<a href="http://www.tweaking4all.nl/hardware/arduino/arduino-ws2812-led/" target="_blank">http://www.tweaking4all.nl/hardware/arduino/arduino-ws2812-led/</a>The capacitor mentioned there is optional and mine runs without that but the resistor is highly recommended.Every led needs about 60mA tops (20mA per RGB color internally) so that power supply of 10A should be more than enough as well, near every led there are little arrows that show the direction of how they need to be connected (for data input) so you could check that and see if you haven't accidentally turned them around.Let me know how it goes <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rick164, post: 1118453, member: 17766"] The random color for that exact strip does look like a defective part as it can sometimes work so the Arduino is sending it correctly at least, normally with lack of power you would see a gradual color change and not be directly to one color to the other (like the orange indicated part). It can't hurt to wire power both at the beginning and end of the led strip though but make sure you have an 400 Ohm (or higher) resistor on the data pins to prevent any led damage further along: [B]Connection schema[/B] [IMG]http://www.tweaking4all.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/arduino_no_computer_power.jpg[/IMG] [B]More info[/B] [url]http://www.tweaking4all.nl/hardware/arduino/arduino-ws2812-led/[/url] The capacitor mentioned there is optional and mine runs without that but the resistor is highly recommended. Every led needs about 60mA tops (20mA per RGB color internally) so that power supply of 10A should be more than enough as well, near every led there are little arrows that show the direction of how they need to be connected (for data input) so you could check that and see if you haven't accidentally turned them around. Let me know how it goes :) [/QUOTE]