[DIY] Amblight project/guide - Hyperion - WS2801/ WS2812B / APA102 (3 Viewers)

[john sproul]

Got mine from Maplins, £30 and you know it is not a clone. There is only one Official Uno R3 I've seen.

well i sourced it from amazon.ca, and everything points to it being authentic. just need to know if it is the right one i guess.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B006H06TVG/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me= maybe you could tell me if this is infact a legitimate board?

 

[Lightning303]

im very new to this ambilight stuff. it is stated above that "any" arduino uno r3 or above will be sufficient for this ambilighting project. so can i assume that buying a Arduino UNO R3 board with DIP ATmega328P would still be ok?

Doesnt matter if the ATmega is in DIP or in SMD form.
Just make sure that the USB connection is not done with an FTDI or CH340 chip but with an extra ATmega.

i should also add, that i will be powering the rp1 and the led strip separately with their own 5v2a power supplies, and i have the understanding that the arduino would power through the usb off of the rpi so another power adapter would not be needed... is this correct also?

How many leds do you have/want to use? With 2A you will only be able to power 33 leds.
If you use multiple supplies (1 for pi and 1 for leds), make sure to connect the grounds to get the same ground level on the arduino and the leds.

 

[john sproul]

ok well youve lost me with this FTDI or CH340 chip stuff... but i have 101 leds. so i guess i will need to figure out a bigger power supply? currently i have ONE for the pi board, and was going to use a 5v2a usb power adapter. i currently have the wiring attached to the end of the led's. i guess this is a LOT more complicated than i was informed it was. originally i was going to drive the leds right off of the pi board using the proper gpio pins for GND and DI. but was informed after that i need an arduino. nor was i of the impression i needed a bigger power supply. so now my question(S) is/are, is that arduino board sufficient? and how big of a power adapter do i need now? should i try to find a 5v10a to power only the led strip?[DOUBLEPOST=1427917802][/DOUBLEPOST]as well, i have the ground wire set up that it connects to the led strip, as well as it is pigtailed into a header pin so it would grab onto the gpio if the rpi2. i wish i had more knowledge of this stuff... alas im just a carpenter with some fluctuating computer skills. not very in depth for this kind of stuff though, but i can follow tutorials pretty well lol

 

[Lightning303]

well i sourced it from amazon.ca, and everything points to it being authentic. just need to know if it is the right one i guess.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B006H06TVG/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me= maybe you could tell me if this is infact a legitimate board?

ok well youve lost me with this FTDI or CH340 chip stuff...

The one you linked is the original one and is fine. Some fake/cloned arduino unos use another solution for the usb communication in order to save money (using FTDI or CH340). As you seem to want to use the originial one, this however is not the case, so all is good.

but i have 101 leds. so i guess i will need to figure out a bigger power supply?

1 led needs a maximum of 60mA. So 101 * 0,06A = 6A.
Not sure why you want to use multiple power supplies, i would just buy one of these meanwell powersupplies and hook everything up to that. Its all 5 volt, and its more efficient, needs less room and so on.
So you will need either a 6A supply for the leds plus a normal usb charger for the pi, or a 8-10A supply for everything (depends, how much extra devices you want to power aswell, e.g. capture stick, hdmi splitter and so on).

Just out of curiosity, do you actually want to use the external capture function (usb video grabber and hdmi splitter and stuff)?
Lots of people ask in this thread for help regarding pi and arduino, and i have the feeling that some just assume that this is the only or best way to set up an ambilight and dont even know that you only need a pi if you want to use a usb video grabber.

 

[john sproul]

ok, so to make a long story short. initially, yes, i wanted to use the external capturing so i could use this setup say from my dvd player, or from my ps3 etc. i started out buying a bunch of parts. and they started slowly coming in. it wasnt until after that i was finding out firstly i ordered the wrong capture card. the stupid think is a complete knockoff and has the wrong chipset. its usb007 or something... nut the stk1160 or the fushicai. so i ordered one more, and afterwards the supplier souldnt confirm the chipset so to be sure i ordered one that clearly has the specification it is an stk1160 chipset.
immediatly following this, i then discovered that i had ordered the wrong hdmi to component adapter. it was at this point that i kind of gave up for the time being about the ability to use this ambilight for the whole ordeal. i then ordered the ws2812 leds. later found out they werent supported on many devices etc. then i stumbled upon this forum. cant remember the first forums i was looking at and ive found so many "tutorials" by now that im even confused by what i need anymore. all i know is i have a raspberry pi 2, a few meters of ws2812b leds, apparently an inadequate power supply for the led's. i will try to source either a 5v6a power supply or i will buy one of those 5v10a ones and figure out how to power everything off of that. either way im assuming i need this arduino board and a better power supply for the leds. after that i will re-investigate into a powered hdmi to rca converter. after that i am hoping that wil be all i need.

 

[Lightning303]

I see .
To be honest, im not sure if a pi2 will work with this or not. I have only build this system with a pi1 and afaik @Rick164, who made this tutorial also used a pi1.

Regarding power supply, when i build this setup for a friend of mine, i used just one meanwell powersupply and then hooked up everything to that. To get the power to pi and so on, i just cut the normal power cables (e.g. micro usb for pi) and connected the +5V and GND wires directly to the supply. As everything is 5V all is fine.

 

[Rick164]

Not sure about the Pi2, the Hyperion team would need to release a new package I believe (due to hardware differences) and OpenElec 4.2 probably won't work but best to ask on the Hyperion forum in case of doubt.

Power wise I run > 200 leds (3,75mtr) on an 5V 7A at the moment which is one that is still an small brick (10A ones can be a bit clunky) and when you connect both ends of the led strips it will work fine, recommend using an stock Arduino Uno R3 due to it having the right hardware which will give you less issues then when using clones or slightly cheaper models.

 

[mueslee]

Not sure about the Pi2, the Hyperion team would need to release a new package I believe (due to hardware differences) and OpenElec 4.2 probably won't work but best to ask on the Hyperion forum in case of doubt.

according to this post ( http://forum.osmc.tv/showthread.php?tid=11053&pid=116357#pid116357 ) it works

 

[Rick164]

Awesome and even with OpenELEC 5.0.3
Currently using my rPI2 with Rasplex but will try to get around installing Hyperion on it and update the guide where needed (already a wall of text as is ).

 

[danielfmo]

Awesome and even with OpenELEC 5.0.3
Currently using my rPI2 with Rasplex but will try to get around installing Hyperion on it and update the guide where needed (already a wall of text as is ).

Hello Rick164,

I'm really looking forward to know more about your experience with rPI2

I own a rPI 1 B first edition with just 264Mb RAM and I have a lot of flickering when capturing with an easy cap STK1160.
So I would really like to know about your experience to buy the rPI2 and give a second try

My goal out be to have the rPI2 capturing the HDMI signal, and using KODI on it as a bonus if it works fine.

Regards