[DIY] Amblight project/guide - Hyperion - WS2801/ WS2812B / APA102 (4 Viewers)

[invisiblelight]

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

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).

Thanks for your quick response. I remember reading on one of the guides that I may need some kind of a voltage stepper to increase the 3.5v of RPi to match with that of the 5V that the Uno runs on. Is this necessary ? Can you let me know where can I get one ?

Also, I hope this is the right UNO for this project - http://www.ebay.com/itm/361437744275

 

[invisiblelight]

I had high ambitions after reading lot of online guides & was trying to avoid an Arduino and make the ambilight tapping the DMA of the RPi or something of that sort. But apparently it takes lot of experience pulling of something like that. I will stick to your advice and get a UNO R3.

Do I also have to buy some diode/resistor/IC to step up the 3.6V of the RPi to match to the 5V for the Uno ?

I hope this R3 is the right one I am buying.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/361437744275

I will come back with more queries once I get the Arduino and follow your guide to the tee.

 

[Lightning303]

No you don't need to step up the voltage if you use a 5v arduino. Note that the one u linked is not genuine, and therefore might have a slower USB serial connection. Which might make problems with a lot of leds. You can use a pi directly by using ws2801, apa102 or the likes. However ws2812b doesn't work. This has also been discussed in a lot of placed already.

 

[invisiblelight]

Oh thanks for the headsup. Is there a way to find out the fake ones ?
http://www.amazon.com/arduino-org-A...p/B008GRTSV6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[Rick164]

Judging by the Amazon reviews it looks like a fake one (bad soldering / different board colors), would buy it from a decent local web store so you can return it

 

[invisiblelight]

Ok. I ended up buying the Arduino Uno from adafruit. Now, I think I blew up my WS2812B LED strip ( I connected a 12V adapter by mistake). I think the DIN/DOUT isn't working since when I test it, the LEDS don't glow at all. How can I be sure the DIN/DOUT is working fine ?

 

[Rick164]

With WS2812 you can use one of the FastLED examples included in the library like this one:

https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/blob/master/examples/Fire2012/Fire2012.ino

12V most likely fried the leds though.

 

[Lightning303]

Try cutting of the very first led, if you are lucky only the first one blew, but yeah probably all dead now =(.

 

[invisiblelight]

I tried cutting off the strip in different parts/pieces and testing (almost each) LED until the last one. Same result. They don't respond to the Arduino. They were responding to it before. So, apparently I had the setup properly working but then it looks like I fried the entire 5m strip. I'm very disappointed with myself as I had to source the 5m strip from China. Nevertheless, I will try to buy another strip and try again. This time carefully/ Thanks for your suggestions. @Lightning303 @Rick164

 

[askfriends]

i just love this ambilight, and finally managed to create one for my samsung led tv with arduino uno, ws2812b and kodi on my pc. But i want it to take the signal from my tv itself via its hdmi port, and arduino should do all the processing, is it possible? If not than can i use raspberry pi b to make this happen? If yes how?