System stopped working after 4 years - only white LEDs

    Hey everyone,

    I’ve been running Hyperion on a Raspberry Pi 3 with APA102 LEDs for about 4 years without any issues. Everything was working great until recently. I accidentally wiggled around the TV setup when I installed new speakers and since then the LEDs don’t react to Hyperion anymore.


    What happens now:

    • As soon as the LED power is on, they just stay white.
    • Sometimes the first LED lights up yellow, the rest stay white.
    • Hyperion service itself is running fine (checked with systemctl status hyperion).
    • The USB grabber was throwing errors at first (/dev/video0 not found), but that was because I plugged it into a different USB port. After fixing that, no more errors.
    • I can see multiple /dev/video* devices (video10–16). Using v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext -d /dev/video10 shows valid formats up to 1920x1920, so the grabber seems recognized.
    • Checked wiring: 5V and GND are stable, tested with a multimeter. Found a loose connection earlier, fixed it, now power is stable.
    • Restarted Hyperion service and the Pi multiple times – no change.
    • LED config in Hyperion is still set to APA102 on /dev/spidev0.0.

    So the Pi + Hyperion seem fine, the grabber is detected, and power is good, but the LEDs don’t react to any Hyperion effects, just white (or first yellow, then white).

    Any idea what could be wrong or what else I could test to figure this out?

    Thanks in advance <3

    hardware count is 1, set that to to right number of leds in the strip.



    2025-09-13T16:10:48.019Z [hyperiond V4L2:/DEV/VIDEO0] (ERROR) Throws error nr: Cannot identify '/dev/video0' error code 2, No such file or directory


    you have (seen by debug log) V4L2 video error.



    and another thing, still running 2.0.0 Alpha version?

    try to update packets with

    Code
    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y


    and update Hyperion to 2.0.16

    its possible there is a little corruption going on the SD card, sometimes SD cards will get corrupt (loosing data) for no reason.


    it happened to me also

    is data and clk connected on GPIO 10/11?


    nothing of wires is loose there? check the connections and solder them (preferred method on GPIO)


    with soldering no resistance on joints

    Edited 3 times, last by Ambient_theater77: Merged a post created by Ambient_theater77 into this post. ().

    Thanks again for your help!


    In the meantime I decided to go for a clean setup:

    • Reflashed the Raspberry Pi 3 with HyperBian
    • Now running Hyperion 2.1.1
    • Renewed all cabling and checked power with a multimeter (5 V and GND are stable)


    Unfortunately the issue is still the same: as soon as I power on the LEDs, the whole strip just lights up white.


    The DI and CI are not directly soldered on the GPIO pins. In my old setup I used short cables with a GPIO plug. In the new setup there is an additional connector (Wago) in use. Could it be that this additional connection is already enough to disturb the DI/CI signals and cause the LEDs to stay white, even though power and ground are fine?

    Quote from quaem

    Could it be that this additional connection is already enough to disturb the DI/CI signals and cause the LEDs to stay white


    yes that's possible, if the connection on GPIO has to be without resistance.

    When using jumpercables that aren't tight around GPIO you get resistance because the contact is minimum, thus data signals can not go freely where they want to the strip. Thatswhy i always solder on my GPIO's


    what does the Debug log says now?

    Don't forget to run Hyperion in expertmode to be able to see the log :)

    did you change the hardware LEd count

    did you measure on ledstrips contactpoints/solderpoints between DI and CI if there isn't any continuity?

    Edited 3 times, last by Ambient_theater77: Merged a post created by Ambient_theater77 into this post. ().

    Yes, the hardware LED count has been updated to 133. I’m also running in expert mode with log level set to debug – the log file I posted earlier is from this setup.


    I checked all wiring with a multimeter and confirmed continuity everywhere, so there are no open connections. The setup is currently: GPIO pin → short pigtail → Wago clamp → cable → LED strip. Power supply (5 V / GND) is stable.

    That’s why I’m starting to think the Wago connectors on CI/DI might be the weak point. As you mentioned, the signal needs the cleanest possible path, and the clamps might be adding just enough resistance or interference to break it. So, as I see it, the last step I can try is to solder CI and DI directly to the GPIO pins.

    What still confuses me is that the whole system stopped working from one day to the next, without me changing anything. Could it also be a defect in the LED strip or even the Pi itself? Or would you say soldering CI/DI directly is the most likely fix here?

    Quote from quaem

    Or would you say soldering CI/DI directly is the most likely fix here?


    try that first i would do.


    Probably you touch something when going behind the tv, loose connection/wire or joints that weren't perfect but just barely okay.

    If using Wago's >> use only one port and twist all wires in that port.

    Quote from quaem

    I checked all wiring with a multimeter and confirmed continuity everywhere


    There shoulnd't be any continuity, probably thats what you meant >> between DI/CI NO continuity between GND/5volts NO continuity

    should be in screen> OL and no beep audible

    Quote from quaem

    Could it also be a defect in the LED strip or even the Pi itself?

    thats also possible, but if it was me i start troubleshooting with Debug-log > wiring/joints/contacts > defectively hardwares

    Edited once, last by Ambient_theater77: Merged a post created by Ambient_theater77 into this post. ().

    After double-checking each and every wire, I finally found the problem.

    The very first LED was apparently defective.

    As a test, I simply connected a spare piece (~ 10 LEDs) – and lo and behold – colors and effects were now playing correctly. Then I cut off the first/starting LED and soldered the setup to the second LED. Tested again - COLOR - effects are playing correctly. To complete the setup again, I simply extended the end by one LED. It's working perfectly so far.


    Thanks for all the help and great suggestions! May your LEDs always shine bright! 🙌

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