Posts by Lethargik

Hi!

I'm running a nearly identical setup and I would say you're on the right track but the main difference is that my whole setup is 5V which makes powering everything simpler. Is there a particular reason for the 12V LEDs? For a 55" tv, a 5V SK6812RGBW strip powered at both ends will be fine - my setup is around a 125" projector screen with four power injections and it works great, no issues with voltage drop.

This will allow you to use one 5V power supply for everything (calculate your needed amperage of course) so you can more easily ensure common ground between all devices - with a single 5V power supply, I would also add a ground between the PICO and the rPi. I'm not an electrical expert so I don't know if a common ground between 5V and 12V power supplies is safe, or a good idea.

Also, SK6812RGBW can be very troublesome to get working properly so anything you can do to simplify the setup is probably a good idea.

If you have any other questions I'll try answer best I can.

Adding a couple photos of my wiring in case it helps:

Hello!

SK6812 look really good but can be tricky to work with, I've struggled myself but finally have a working setup.

I do think there are some hardware/setup issues based on what you shared but for software, being a Hyperion forum, you won't find HyperHDR support here.

What I would suggest you try is the following:

• Check config.txt on your SD card to ensure "dtparam=spi=on" and "dtparam=audio=off" are uncommented/enabled
• Set to PWM ws2811x
• Use GPIO 18 (leaving spidev0.0 and baudrate at default)

As far as the splitter or grabber being the problem, it's possible, but if the image looks correct in the preview window I don't expect they're to blame.

Hope that helps!

Hello!

There may be other options, but I've been using the Gofanco Prophecy (https://www.gofanco.com/produc…nt-pro-hdrsplit4p-eh.html) for just over a year now and it's worked great for me, it ususally costs around $130 - $150 Canadian. I got mine through Amazon here in North America, so perhaps you can do the same in your region.

The device is 4-way HDMI splitter but only one output will downscale HDR to SDR and that's the output I run to my rPi.

Hope that helps!

How long is your data line and are you using a level shifter on it?

Based on this thread so far, especially that the lights don't flicker when the data line is disconnected, that could be the issue.

You can certainly get away with not using a level shifter if your data line is very short (6"- 8") but it's generally a good idea either way.

If possible, you could try making your data line shorter, otherwise I'd consider adding a logic level shifter.

Hope that helps!

Hello!

Adding my two-cents in case it helps: I also think 600 LEDs would be fine. It's my understanding that within the SPI bus buffer size limits, the number of LEDs is largely a hardware limitation and an rPi 4 should be powerful enough.

Although I'm not running 600 LEDs, my current setup is 490 LEDs (ws6812 RGBW)+ 4 Philips Hue bulbs with an rPi 4 (2GB) and I have no issues with it. Before this, I was using 490 ws2812b LEDs with an rPi 3A and that also worked fine. I know that isn't a definitive answer but that experience leads me to believe an rPi 4 is plenty capable of driving 600 LEDs.

In both cases I soldered my LED strips together to make one continuous ~8.2 meter strip and have power injected at 4 places evenly spaced (5V 60A PSU powers everything).

Cheers!

Me again...

I don't believe you can turn off the corners (I could be wrong) but you can go into LED layout under the Advanced Settings and adjust the Edge Gap setting which may help with lining things up a bit if that's what you're trying to do.

Awesome, glad to hear you got it working - Enjoy!!

Quote from yellow_gambit

Bulbs are perfectly white all the way up until that point, but will try power injection and report back. Will also look for a level shifter. Anyone you recommend?

Also will this need soldering or are there solderless options. Wondering as I don’t have soldering experience.

No success on power injection..didn’t think it was a problem anyway considering there way no yellowing of the LEDs at the far end. I’m at a total loss now.

Yeah, that is all really strange. No voltage drop and if the LEDs all went bright white do they respond as they should to all the effects? If they do, then I would think the data is fine as well, which I guess is good as adding a level shifter would almost certainly require soldering.

Just for the sake of trying, if you were to edit your LED layout and add or subtract a couple to all sides, do you have any more or fewer of the LEDs lit up, or any change at all? Do you the rainbow swirl effect on start up?

Quote from yellow_gambit

I’m getting a 5v 30a psu in the mail shortly so will try to see if that helps, but I doubt it because under “effects configuration “in Hyperion I’ve set an effect at 50percent and 25 percent brightness and it still stopped at the same place, so this tells me power may not be an issue.

How can I fix the early stoppage?

I can only play with the brightness in the effects config screen, is there a way to change the brightness of the leds with regards to the images it captures in screen?

How can I fix the orientation of the leds so it accurately represents what’s in screen?

As pclin suggested, I would also recommend injecting power at the end of the strip as well. The bigger power supply is great but the issue could be voltage drop which more amps or less brightness won't fix. Basically the resistance of the strip lowers the voltage as the power travels along it and at a certain distance it's no longer enough to power any more LEDs. If you have a multimeter you can check your voltage where the LEDs stop but if not, you can use the effects to set everything to solid white. If you see that the LEDS are turning reddish towards where they stop lighting up, that's a very clear indication of voltage drop as well.

As far as changing the brightness, you should be able to that in the Image Processing tab and you may also have the option to adjust brightness in your grabber/capture settings tab.

Regarding the LED layout/orientation, if it looks correct in the LED layout screen and things look as expected in the live view then it should be fine so my guess here would be that the strip isn't getting a good enough data signal. I know you mention this version of the LEDs should support 3.3v signal but a level shifter may be needed. If you can apply effects and the LEDs respond but don't look right, that could also point to the data signal being the issue. Unfortunately I can't say for sure but that's what it seems like to me.

Quote from yellow_gambit

I’ve just ordered a new power supply (5v 15A) hopefully that will be enough.. but even so I was under the impression that if you control the brightness then all of your lights should turn on to some degree.

What is it about my setup that seems problematic? Would appreciate your advice and btw what power supply do you use for your setup? I’m using a 5m 60leds/m strip for context, is that the one you use?

You're right that limiting the brightness will reduce the needed power (and in my experience gives better color results as well). I was just working from your screenshot that Hyperion showed max current draw of 17.7 amps which a 10 amp power supply obviously can't deliver. Either way, the lights should come on, just maybe not the whole strip and/or they'd be dimmer/poor colors if they don't get enough power.

Because I'm overly cautious when it comes to working with electricity there were two concerns for me:

1. If your lights are trying to pull more power than the supply can provide, you may have your power supply often running at it's limit which isn't ideal. The general advice for power supplies (for anything, your PC, LED lights, etc.) is to have a little overhead, so just for example if you knew the lights generally needed 10 amps consistently, you'd get a 12 amp or higher power supply. That said, based on pclin's comment it sounds like 15 amps will be fine for your setup and pclin is far more knowledgeable than me in all of this.
2. I believe the wire pre-soldered to LED strips is 22 or 24 AWG which is rated for about 7 amps (22 AWG) or 3.5 amps (24 AWG) so if that's your only power line and the lights are pulling more than that, the wire could get hot and be a hazard. Not trying to scare you, I just like to be as safe as I can with this kind of thing.

Quote from yellow_gambit

Do I need to use gauge wire at any point in my setup?or can my led strip power cables go into the barrel jack directly.

Some tutorials on YouTube use guage wire so I’m just curious if that’s contributing to the problem.

All wire has a gauge, typically listed as either AWG or mm². For this application, the wire gauge is chosen based on the current it needs to carry. There are other factors as well, like length, but current rating is the deciding factor here unless you have long cable runs. So, using the example above, if you have one power line and know you need a consistent 10 amps, you want a power wire rated for at least that much. You can look up "wire gauge current charts" and easily find all that info. I typically use 18 AWG wire which is rated for about 16 amps.

Lastly, my setup is pretty overkill - I have 490 LEDs (60LEDs/m) around a projector screen which is powered by a 5V 60A power supply which also powers my rPi 4 setup that includes a level shifter, rPi Pico and some other components. I have the power running through 16 AWG and split to 18 AWG and connected at 4 points along the LED strip.

So, after my long-winded reply (and knowing you've already made the needed edits to config.txt, etc.) I would set Hyperion to run as root, use the ws281x PWM controller, data wire on GPIO 18 and see if you get any response from the LEDs.

Hopefully all this is helpful. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Quote from yellow_gambit

Can you please tell me what you mean by this "driving the strips via PWM on GPIO 18." Not sure what PWM is, im new to all this sorry.

No worries. If you go to your LED hardware tab in Hyperion your first drop down is “Controller Type”. Try changing this from “sk6812spi” to “ws281x” which is listed under PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). I won’t pretend I know the difference beyond it basically being a different signal/format of data than SPI. GPIO 18 is the default PWM pin on a Raspberry Pi and you will need to run Hyperion as root for this work:

Login to the pi and enter

“sudo updateHyperionUser -u root”. Enter “Y” to confirm when prompted and reboot the pi when it’s done. You only need to do this the one time.

For context, and I’m just paraphrasing, the sk6812, ws2812b, ws2815, etc. all use the same foundation which is the ws2811 code library (which is why the controller type is labelled “ws281x”).

The sk6812 have great colours when you get them working but I’ve always had a hard time with them and up until the build I just finished this past week, I’ve only ever been able to get them working using ws281x controller type.

Lastly, as LosArtigah mentions, your power supply is too small and your power setup is a little concerning now that I look more closely. I’ll stop here for now but happy to go into the power aspect of things as well if you like.

Sharing a couple thoughts as someone who's recently struggled through an SK6812 build myself:

• From the picture you shared above, you have your data out from GPIO 18 but I believe you should use GPIO 10 if you've chosen sk6812spi controller using spidev0.0.
• You can try using the ws281x controller type and driving the strips via PWM on GPIO 18. I've personally had much better luck this way.
• You may need to add a logic level shifter for your data line. The data wiring I see is probably fine, but the breadboard wire non-soldered connection to the strip could be part of the problem as the data line can be sensitive, especially without a level shifter.

Hope that helps - good luck!

Hi Msprunk ,

I'm glad you at least know what the problem is now, but sorry to hear you have a new issue to solve.

I don't have much knowledge here, but I would suggest doing some research on ferrite rings/ferrite beads. I can't say if they'll work for you but at least they're dirt cheap on Amazon ($10-$20 for 10-pack) and come in most common sizes, so might be worth looking into.

The only other thing that comes to mind, though sadly expensive (~$100 each and you'd need two), is using MOCA adaptors if you have coax cable run throughout your home.

Sorry I can't be more helpful but good luck!

Hello!

Can you share your power supply specs and how many LEDs you're using?

If nothing has changed since you first set this up and it was working at that time then based on the details you've shared (especially that displaying red makes the blue diodes everywhere flash) this sounds like a power/connection issue most likely. However, if you have already had to replace some individual LEDs it is also possible that the strip is the problem.

You may want to start by measuring voltage and continuity across the LED strip with a multimeter. That should give you a good idea if there are any power or connection/wiring related problems (maybe a solder is loose and the common ground between the strip and the rPi is broken as a possible example).

• You said the problem is much worse with red, but does the problem happen with all colors?
• You also said most times a segment of about 10 LEDs is affected, is it always the same 10 LEDs or always in the same area of the strip?
• Lastly, you said there are a few solder connections, but do you have any solderless connections? The solderless clips/corner clips for attaching LED strips together will almost always come loose over time so if you are using any, that could be the problem.

I hope this is helpful - good luck!

No problem, we can work with what you have for now.

In terms of wiring, I'm attaching a diagram of my build for reference, maybe something will stand out compared to your wiring.

My current build is using ws2812b but that shouldn't make much difference other than the backup data on your strip (and my multiple power injections). I will add that my data line is kept very short, around 2', so if you have a very long run for your data, that could be an issue.

I too am using multiple ground terminals on my PSU, I have no issues with grounding, etc. You could try bringing all the grounds together before they connect to the PSU on one ground terminal. This shouldn't matter as the ground rails on the PSU should all be connected but you never know.

If you consistently get static rainbow colors on start up, all LEDs lighting up, then I'm leaning more towards the way Hyperion is configured as the issue. Typically, if wiring is the problem you get nothing at all, flickering, only some LEDs responding, etc.

What have you done so far to set up Hyperion using the web interface? You must have done most of these things to be where you're at, but just in case, have you:

• Switched Hyperion into Advanced or Expert mode
• Set GPIO to 18 using ws281x/PWM
• Enabled/selected a startup effect
• Set your LED layout/count and starting LED
• Enabled Internet API Access

Within the web interface, can you set a background effect and get any result?

If you change the startup effect and reboot, does anything happen?

Another thing to try is to bring up the live view of your LEDs in the web interface and then change the colors using the app. Even if the lights don't react, they should change color in the live view window (if all is properly set up) letting you know Hyperion is working as it should.

Good luck!

Sorry to hear that didn’t work for you but there’s still more to look at.

Based on what you’ve said, I also think your wiring, etc. is fine and since you see the rainbow, the rPi is controlling the LEDs so it seems to me the problem is your capture hardware/setup and/or your Hyperion configuration.

Can you please share your video source and capture hardware setup and we can see if that's a problem?

I also have a projector setup, mainly for gaming, my setup is:

• Xbox and PS5 > AVR (Denon) > Gofanco Prophecy splitter/scaler > generic USB 2.0 HDMI capture stick > rPi3A > ws2812b around 120” screen.

It’ll be helpful to know your hardware as any of the items in this chain could be the problem (in my case the Gofanco is my third splitter - the first two wouldn’t work). I still want to confirm if Hyperion is getting your video source. Can you see your capture device and video source (click “live video”) in Hyperion when setting up your LED layout?

I’m happy to continue helping as best I can and you definitely don’t need to pay me anything. I just hope we can get this working for you.

Cheers!

Thanks!

I figured you had to be stepping down voltage for the Pi to even be running but wanted to confirm

Given all this, I think the power/wiring is likely fine but I am curious if you have a level shifter in place to step up the data voltage? If you're seeing the startup rainbow it may not be necessary but generally a good idea, at least for 5V setups.

It's good that you see the startup colors but since they stay that way, I don't think Hyperion sees your video source. Can you see your capture device and video source in Hyperion when setting up your LED layout? If not, please share your video source and capture hardware setup and we can see if that's a problem.

In the meantime, on the software side, here are a few key things to do if you haven't already:

• Set Hyperion to run as root.
  Use "sudo updateHyperionUser -u root" either via SSH or from rPi console directly. I think there are more ways to do this but this seems to be the most common.
• Edit the cmdline.txt file on your SD card to extend the SPI bus.
  Add "spidev.bufsize=1024000 " to the end of the cmdline.txt file, making sure to include the space at the end. If you haven't already done this, it will likely fix the rainbow colors not lighting up the whole way around your screen.
• Check config.txt on your SD card that both "dtparam=spi=on" and "dtparam=audio=off" are uncommented/enabled.

I hope this helps!

Hello!

I think you'll need to share more detail on your setup for someone to help you troubleshoot, starting with your power setup. If you're running 12V straight the rPi4 - which is a 5V device - that's a big problem, and is dangerous.

I'm relatively new to Hyperion as well but will try to help if/where I can.

Hi everyone,

I’m going to purchase a new raspberry pi for my existing Hyperion setup and was hoping someone might share some advice on the performance levels of the raspberry pi models in terms of cpu speed, amount of ram, or if it even matters past a specific spec.

My setup is for a projector, roughly 500 leds, that I’m driving with a Pi 3A, which seems to work fine. With this many leds, I’m curious if the community here thinks there are real performance improvements from:

Moving from 1.4ghz to 1.8ghz (Pi4) or 2.4ghz (Pi5)

Moving 512GB of ram to 2GB(Pi4) or 4GB(Pi5)

Moving from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0(Pi4 and Pi5)

I’ve seen the odd comment but no real discussion on this that I can find is I appreciate any insight any one can share.

Thanks!

I don't know what the LED limit might be but I can tell you I'm running a Hyperion setup for my projector around a 120" screen at 60LED/meter of WS2812b using a Raspberry Pi 3A and I have no performance problems with it. I'm sure an RPi 4 or 5 would be even better but my response time, etc. all seem fine to me.