[DIY] Amblight project/guide - Hyperion - WS2801/ WS2812B / APA102 (5 Viewers)

[Tmaniac]

Hi @Rick164,
Been a while; back in 2012 we where both batteling with our arduino + ws2801 and FastSPI setup.

Lately i've been pondering to upgrade my AmbiLighting system.
Did you ever find a solution for 24p capturing?

i've noticed 2 indigogo projects (AmbiScreen and AmbiVision) and they both claim full capture.
I got an AmbiVision from my GF and i gotta tell you, it's a nice little product but the conversion to VGA sucks monkey balls (no 24p)

I've been reading a bit about the stand alone hyperion, and was about to begin ordering my stuff to build that when i came across your knowledge about not being able to get the 24p from the HDMI output.

Is this a limitation of the splitter hardware? (differend EDID signature?)
Or might there be a way to circomvent this? (the AmbiScreen guys claim their pass-through works with 24p but their product looks a lot like a hyperion setup in a custom box and i'm not willing to sink 150 bucks in something that won't work )

Anyway; i'm thinking of going for an APA102 + RaspPi2b (hyperion) setup.
This way i can keep using my ambilight regardless of what mediacenter i'm running.

 

[Rick164]

Hi @Tmaniac ,

Did you ever find a solution for 24p capturing?

Not yet, have tested several different solutions and TV / AVR hardware but 24P never worked.

Is this a limitation of the splitter hardware? (differend EDID signature?)

HDMI splitters are mostly different by feature set, some offer 3D or HDMI 1.4 but that's about it.
Basically it's just splitting the same signal so EDID stays intact.

Or might there be a way to circomvent this? (the AmbiScreen guys claim their pass-through works with 24p but their product looks a lot like a hyperion setup in a custom box and i'm not willing to sink 150 bucks in something that won't work )

There are some speculations about some of the new solutions using a HDMI -> HDMI (direct pass through) device which eliminates any quality loss compared to the current analog conversion, not sure what to make of it yet as I can't find any exact hardware specifications (only buzz words / marketing) so will have to wait for some actual users hands-on reviews.
There's another one starting soon which looks the same as the rest:

http://www.dreamscreentv.com/

From my personal experience and watching a few different boards all of the "plug and play" solutions always have some sort of issue be it lack of 24P or just not bringing the same end results as Hyperion where you can tinker / upgrade.
Also most of kits are 30 leds p/m (WS2801) which isn't that great especially for large tv screens but am spoiled with 218 leds here

Anyway; i'm thinking of going for an APA102 + RaspPi2b (hyperion) setup.

APA102 looks like the way to go at the moment, plan to upgrade my WS2812 leds next year if they're significantly better

 

[azzuro]

Rick, how many is the depth between your wall and the Leds ?

i plan to buy TV support and the minimal depth is 5.5cm, but the TV is curved on rear side , i think it's more 7-8cm between leds and my wall, and i want to know if 60leds/m are good, looking your video.

 

[Rick164]

Rick, how many is the depth between your wall and the Leds ?

165mm between wall and leds, mine has the Sony wedge design so bottom and top of the back the distance varies but that is the middle / average.
Decided to keep them more inwards (not right near the tv sides) like Philips does so that the light doesn't shine too far out but that depends on personal preference , 60 leds p/m is fine as any higher and you will need more power and more power wires along the way as well.

 

[The_Stig]

How important is the angle for the LEDs. Currently I plan to just stick it on the TV-Case. So this would be 90° to the wall. Is this reasonable? As said in the other thread, my distance to the wall is only 5-6cm...

 

[Lightning303]

How important is the angle for the LEDs. Currently I plan to just stick it on the TV-Case. So this would be 90° to the wall. Is this reasonable? As said in the other thread, my distance to the wall is only 5-6cm...

There is no real answer to this. I like 90°, however i have seen others use 0°/180°. Afaik @Rick164 uses something in the middle like 45°. 90° gives you a more accurate representation of the screens content on the wall, while 45° will illuminate a bigger area.
Here ia an example of 0°/180°: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/diy-noob-building-atmolight-for-mediaportal.129632/

Trial and Error might be a good way to determain what you like best. Im guessing you wont need 100% of the leds you ordered. So cut of a little strand. Connect the wires, and tape it behind your tv in an 90° angle, then test if you like it. Or if you would like a bigger area to be illuminated.

 

[Rick164]

Also depends where you place the leds on the back, more inwards you need a lower arc (45°) like with mine as otherwise you will get less light with everything cobbled together and if you put them close on the sides of the the TV you can do 90° to get it more accurate like @Lightning303 mentioned.
If you want to make the arc adjustable afterwards you can go with these curved plastic rails:

basically just stick velcro + leds on it and re-arrange if need be, just played around with different angles using that in the beginning and used what looked best

 

[invisiblelight]

Hi.. I am trying to connect my WS2812B strip with Hyperion on a Raspberry Pi Model B. I cannot seem to test the strip as I am not sure to which GPIO pin should I be connecting the LED strip DIN. My LED strip outlets are shown like this:


I tried connecting the DC barrel ping to a power adapter and the DIN (green) wire to the 4th pin (also tried later with 6th pin) of the GPIO of the RPi B. The first LED strip glows some random color and stays that way and doesn't respond to my Hyperion remote commands at all.
Should I be connecting the power pins of the DC barrel and also the pigtails or just connecting the DC barrel to the power adapter should do ?
Please help.

 

[Lightning303]

You cant connect WS2812B leds to your pi directly. You will need a dedicated microcontroller, like an arduino.

 

[Rick164]

Under the Additional configuration chapter there's a step by step explanation on how to connect and setup WS2812 leds thru an microcontroller (Arduino in this case).