Upgrade Apa102 - 60/mt - no light

  • Hi guys,

    i Have an issue I want to solve, surely some of you can help.

    I recently bought a new tv and also upgraded my ambilight with 200 apa102 led 60/mt.
    Previously I had 84 30/m apa102 working like a charm attached to a 5v 10a power supply.
    What I've done, is just replace those 84 30/m with 200 60/mt apa102 leaving the same setting modifying the number of leds in the Hyperion ng.

    I use a rpi4 and Arduino Uno (I've just modified the Arduino script with my 200 leds).
    On Hyperio ng web ui hardware tab i set:


    hardware led count: 200

    rgb byte order: bar

    output path: ttyACM0

    Baudrate: 115200

    Delay: 0
    Latch time: 30

    Refresh time 0

    Should I improve my power supply or I skipped something important?

  • leddevice is running, APA102 is the only thing that changed.


    I think that you have to test the Arduino and adalight protocol and set hardware count low so you know for sure it doesn't have to do anything with PSU failures.


    it can also be a little diffrent chipset in the ledstrip and Arduino has problems with those ( fake APA's or diffrent ledcontroller )



    but i am not aware of Arduino's programming, no experience with those.

  • @

    I changed the hardware counts with no luck. Any suggestions?

  • Hi !

    Have you already tested from the RPi? APA102 can be controlled directly by the RPi without an Arduino.

    Also 200 LEDs shouldn't be a problem.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

  • Hi !

    Have you already tested from the RPi? APA102 can be controlled directly by the RPi without an Arduino.

    Also 200 LEDs shouldn't be a problem.

    No, I haven’t… cause I don’t know how to manage it… anyway it’ strange cause with the previous apa102 led strip I haven’t no issues.

    I have some doubt on the power consumption, in led layout tab it says that are needed 13,2a to drive them and I’m using a max 10a power supply

  • No, I haven’t… cause I don’t know how to manage it…

    Just easy... connect GPIO 10 (Pin 19 on the Pi) to Data In (→), and GPIO 11 (Pin 23) to Clock In (→) to the LEDs.

    Make the correct LED layout count (Left, Right, Top, Bottom), set it to APA102 SPI and it should work Out of the Box.


    Edit: Give power +5V and GND from both sides, DI and CI only from the → side.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Mike72 ()

  • I have some doubt on the power consumption, in led layout tab it says that are needed 13,2a to drive them and I’m using a max 10a power supply

    Calculate 0.06 Amp per LED = 12 Amps for 200 LEDs, but only if they all go to white at the same time. Very rare.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

  • Just easy... connect GPIO 10 (Pin 19 on the Pi) to Data In (→), and GPIO 11 (Pin 23) to Clock In (→) to the LEDs.

    Make the correct LED layout count (Left, Right, Top, Bottom), set it to APA102 SPI and it should work Out of the Box.


    Edit: Give power +5V and GND from both sides, DI and CI only from the → side.

    Ok thx a lot. What you mean in your edit post? It isn’t so clear for me. If I have understood I must connect +5v and Gnd twice (from the beginning of the led strip and from the end) right?

    Do you have a skematic?

  • power the new strip from BOTH sides, beginning and end >> yes

    Is it strictly necessary? Because I have a wall mounted tv and cables are in the wall going to a furniture under the tv. It’s a bit difficult to solder a gnd and a +5v cable on the other side of the led strip. Is there an alternative or it’s a unique chance? Do I need 2 power supply?

  • even for my 30L/mtr i powered them from both sides.


    if you go over 100 leds then i would strongly advice to do that, running only on 1 PSU


    if you run 2 PSU then you can devide and cut the ledstrip in half and power them from one side only each PSU separately, sometimes they do it like this also.

    calculation is about 100 leds use at full brightness a maximum of 4,8 Amps or 25Watts on PSU.


    0,048 x amount of leds = 4,8 Amps x 5 volts = 24 Watts





    if the ledstrip is still in one piece and you only shortened it at the end then YES, power from both sides can prevent a lot of problems.

    you can also read the comments here with people who had the same problem with weird behaviour on their setup running the ledstrip powered only at the beginning.


    also check the first leds ( arrow direction) and for the fun of it connect the other side ( the end) to the GPIO. Sometimes they will switch dataflow direction on the strip.




    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



    so you know, i have a setup with 130 leds APA102 ( 30L/mtr) when in full brightness and only a PI connected to the same PSU i've never seen a higher currect draw then 4.5 Amps


    thats ledstrip and PI together only, ledstrip direcctly connected on SPI GPIO 10/11 NO SHIFTERS of any kind used. .


    so in theory, PSU with 10 Amps should be capable to run at least 200 leds.

    Baudrate of SPI ledcontroller has to be a little higher ( to lower amps be drawn) setting like at least 1500000 Hertz but thats only when you use the SPI ledcontroller SPI102 from Hyperion.ng.

    with a Arduino no dice, the Arduino doing al the calculations and Hyperion only sending data packets led info.

  • LED strips consumes relatively high currents. It is better to feed in the voltage from both sides, as a voltage drop occurs above a certain length. The first 50 LEDs still have 5V, the next 50 maybe only 4.5V and so on. That's the reason why should feed in 5V and GND on both sides. But that only applies to the power supply. The data lines have very low currents and go from the first LED to the next and so on. This is known as the daisy chain principle.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Mike72 ()

  • Ok thx for the answer. I will practice your advices trying with what I’ve. It’s a pain in the a** because of my setup, to also connect the other side of the led strip. I hope to solve in a simpler way.

  • LED strips consumes relatively high currents. It is better to feed in the voltage from both sides, as a voltage drop occurs above a certain length. The first 50 LEDs still have 5V, the next 50 maybe only 4.5V and so on. That's the reason why should feed in 5V and GND on both sides. But that only applies to the power supply. The data lines have very low currents and go from the first LED to the next and so on. This is known as the daisy chain principle.

    I got it. It make sense. I hope to solve without connect the other side because it’s so difficult for my setup.

  • I hope to solve without connect the other side because it’s so difficult for my setup.

    200 LEDs @ 60 per meter are ~ 3.3 meters... you should do this. But it's your decision.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

  • 200 LEDs @ 60 per meter are ~ 3.3 meters... you should do this. But it's your decision.

    I know I should and it’s the best way but first of all would be nice to light up the led stripe. Apparently there’s no error in the log file, so maybe I should change some setting in the arduino sketch. But really I don’t know what.

    When they’ll light up I’ll see if there’s some flickering or other issues and I’ll do the double 5v - ground connection.

    Do you have some other Xperia c’è with arduino sketches?

  • I builded in the last months some Ambilight-Projects with Hyperion.NG, but I don't use Arduinos. How I said, APA102 works good direct from the RPi. For SK6812 I used either WLED or Digi-Dot-Booster.

    Grüße aus Österreich / Greetings from Austria !

    - Don't wanna miss it anymore !

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