LED's keep flickering

  • Hello,


    I installed Hyperion on my Raspberry Pi Zero W. Everything works fine, but I get white flickering LED's sometimes. I used different calibration images to test it. I only get white flickering LED's at the bottom when I use the following images:




    I dont get the flickering when I use the following images:









    Also during the boot effects, I don't get the flickering.
    I am using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with an APA102 led strip and a UTV007 video grabber.
    This is my config file:



    Thank you,
    Ryan

    Edited 3 times, last by Ryan ().

  • I have seen the same on my set up. I fairly sure the led's have trouble with lower gray levels.


    I made a test video a year ago that was just supposes to show a working system I made. However the camera was sensitive enough to see the flicker at about 14 sec in the video when the red dot starts. My eyes barely could see the flicker on normal viewing. However in that same test video at about 45 secs. the camera sees no flicker from any black/gray area, at all. I think the video codex has a bit to to with it as well maybe.

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Playing with the gamma values helped me some, but there is still a faint flicker from darker areas some times, It's not to pronounced so I live with it.


    Hope its of some help.

  • Also whats the power supply amp rating that you have? Could be low current causing some flicker.

  • Also whats the power supply amp rating that you have? Could be low current causing some flicker.


    I dont think that has anything to do with it. When i use a full white image (max amps) I see no flickering. When I use the image with a gradient from black (top) to white (bottom) I see the flickering tho.

  • I been trying a wireless led controller from Here.
    I've noticed the led's are less prone to flicker.
    Probably because the controller is now so much closer to the led's, its now about <100mm away, opposed to 2+ meters of shielded cabling from Rpi to leds.


    Might be worth a try.

  • Thanks for your reply. The wire from my pi to the led strip is already really short, about 20 cm. also, when I use the pre-programmed efects, there is no flickering, so the long distance shouldn’t be a problem, right?

  • Probably not.


    You could always experiment with shorting (or lengthening) to see the effect it has on the leds.

  • No, I haven’t been able to fix this yet. What things have you tried?


    I believe this is a software issue as I had my setup working on a Pi B and switched to a B+ however, since then its been producing this issue. It may also be a case of me running a newer version of Hyperion on the B+.

  • I believe this is a software issue as I had my setup working on a Pi B and switched to a B+ however, since then its been producing this issue. It may also be a case of me running a newer version of Hyperion on the B+.


    Do you have any more information about the difference between your two setups? Have you changed the led strip, power supply, configuration file, etc? Do you know the version numbers of hyperion or raspbian? Do you still have the old SD card/image to test?


    Thank you!

  • Do you have any more information about the difference between your two setups? Have you changed the led strip, power supply, configuration file, etc? Do you know the version numbers of hyperion or raspbian? Do you still have the old SD card/image to test?


    Thank you!


    So all the hardware remained the same, same with configuration. I first made the setup in November 2017 that makes the hyperion version number 1.03.3 and there hasnt been an update since, however hypercon HAS updated since then.


    Ive noticed that when watching darker scenes the flashing becomes way more apparent or even when you, for example, pause netflix, the show/film description comes up and greys out the background.

  • Do you know if the raspbian version of the two builds was the same? I experienced several issues with raspbian stretch (like not starting hyperion on boot), so am using raspbian jessie right now

  • Do you know if the raspbian version of the two builds was the same? I experienced several issues with raspbian stretch (like not starting hyperion on boot), so am using raspbian jessie right now


    Really not sure what it was previously but at the moment its running on the raspbian stretch with retropie installed.


    I may try and update my version of hypercon and see if there are any config changed i can make which might help.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!