Beiträge von Lethargik

The main difference between 30 and 60 LED per meter is really a matter of "detail", when you have more LEDs you get a more accurate representation of what's on screen. Either looks good, but 60/m typically looks better. The way Hyperion works (in a very basic sense just for this example) is that each LED is tied to a sample area of the screen and then displays the "average" of the colour in that area. The fewer LEDs you have, the larger the sample area so you get more of a blending of colours. All that to say, if you do have a TV far from the wall, the light, and therefore colours, are going to blend anyway so your mileage will vary based on your personal setup.

Here are a few more photos for you. The first one is a test build I did on my PC using WS2812B and Arduino Nano and Prismatik software, it is at least 30cm from the wall (probably much more though) so you can get a sense of the effect at a larger distance. The rest are from my main TV build (APA102, 60/m, rPi 0 W, Hyperion).

Cheers!

Happy to help!

If you're less interested in the DIY aspect, then the insanelight product looks pretty decent. I'm basing this just off what I see on the website (using google translate) having no experience with it, but it seems pretty good. The only other "plug n play" system I knew of was dream screen and while it works well to my knowledge, it uses very few LEDs which was the turn off for me personally. The insanelight appears to use 30/m APA102 which is really good (it says 32/m but I've only seen APA102 in 30, 60 or 144/m). If you decide to build your own however, I highly recommend using 60/m of whatever LED you choose.

Personally I love the mod. I'm actually soon to rebuild it having recently moved, but I find it very immersive. As I mentioned, I'm a huge gamer so the effect of having light shooting off screen is great. It makes explosions and things like that have more of an impact as they occupy more visual space by "splashing" off screen - again this is all personal opinion, but yes, I think it's worth it.

In terms of spacing, it will still work and 30 cm isn't too far, it's actually a very good distance I would say. Mine was about 6 - 10cm off the wall and looked great, but the light didn't spread out as far as I would have liked (pic below). Basically the farther away, the softer the light and the more the colours will blend but also the wider it will reach (to a point of course). I think the best course of action is to look up a bunch of YouTube videos and see what people's setups look like. There are many out there built on desktop PCs that are easily 30cm or more away from walls so you should be able to get a good idea of how it might look.

Hi Com!

Thought I would try to help answer some of your questions to get you started. There is a lot more involved, but hopefully this will help get you pointed in the right direction. Also, I suffer from a complete inability to write short responses, so bear with me as this will be long...

Cost:
This varies greatly; size of your TV, type of LEDs you want, what equipment you already own, etc. For me, my initial build cost me probably $300 - $350 Canadian, which is about 175 - 200 GBP. that said, I had to buy things like wire, solder & soldering iron, a multimeter, and so forth. If you own some of this stuff already, you cost will obviously be less.

Brightness:
I'll be honest in that I don't remember 100% as I've recently moved and my setup is in pieces, but I'm pretty sure you can adjust brightness in the Hyperion software - apologies if I'm mistaken.

Input Lag:
Nope! I'm a huge gamer myself and there is no input lag. the signal is either dual output from HDMI on a supporting AVR or split off from a single HDMI source but in either case, the processing occurs separately, not in between the source and display so you should not experience any gaming related input lag. I've had no issues with this myself at all.

Raspberry Pi:
The type of Pi you use can matter, but between a Pi3 and a Pi Zero, either one works. I'm using a Pi Zero W myself. The OS you choose to run on it may create some difference in how you need to configure things, but that's at your discretion, not a function of the hardware. Many people use Openelec, I personally used Raspian Lite but both are fine (and there are others).

What is a hardware consideration are the connections you'll need to make. I used a Pi Zero W as I mentioned, which came without the pin header soldered on - I found it much easier to connect my wiring to the Pi this way. I also own a Pi 2 and I Pi 3, which both came with the pin header already soldered to the board (I'm pretty sure you can get them with or without the header pre-soldered, you just have to look). This isn't a problem per se, but you may wish to give that some thought in terms of what you're most comfortable with when making that purchase.

LEDs:
Not equal. There are many to choose from, and I would suggest there's a degree of subjectivity here but the top two options in my opinion are the APA102 and the WS2812B. I think the APA102 are considered the better overall product, and I would agree with that having used both, but that's primarily form an ease-of-use perspective and again, that's for you to decide based on the following and any additional research for you personal scenario:

- APA102 cost more, sometimes twice as much depending on your options for purchase.
- APA102 use SPI protocol so they can be driven directly from the Pi (though you may need a level shifter - worry about this later)
- WS2812B are not SPI, so you'll typically need to add an Arduino to drive the LEDs (I've seen some threads, even in this forum, that there might be workarounds fo this, but I'm not familiar with them - happy to be corrected if I'm wrong)

Basically, APA102 cost more but can be much easier to work with depending on your comfort/skill level. WS2812B are often much cheaper, but usually more involved in setting them up - If you know what you're doing, this is potentially a non-issue though. I was a complete "newb" and went with the APA102 which gave me no trouble.

lastly, you'll also need to consider how many LEDs per meter you want, irrespective of which LED type you decided to use.

Grabber:
The USB grabber that you want uses the UTV007 (often called Fushicai) chipset. The only way they are "problematic" (in my experience anyway) is that sometimes when you buy from amazon third party sellers or eBay/aliexpress however, what the listing says for the chipset, and what you get aren't always a perfect match, thankfully they're pretty inexpensive.

Off/On:
Turning off the LEDs can be done in the software anytime, but there are some other solutions as well. The solutions I've seen are a bit beyond my present skill level, so I won't advise on them, but there is some great info available on this forum and generally online. Personally, I would turn my LEDs off in Hyperion and then also unplug the power anytime I wasn't using them or wasn't home for added peace of mind.

I'll stop here for now but hopefully this is helpful - Good luck!

Hi Katak,

UTV007 is the correct chipset for the grabber so that should be fine.

As for the RPi 1, you may consider moving up to a RPi 2, 3 or Zero W if you have trouble with it. I can't say that you will, but I feel like I read some information when researching my build that RPi 1 was often problematic for these ambilight setups. It's just a gut feeling I have, so I could certainly be wrong but wanted to mention it just in case.

As for the short wires... haha. I setup my build with clock and data wires about 120cm long and my lights would flicker like crazy. The reason is a combination of voltage drop and that the RPi (all of them) put out clock and data signals at 3.3v but the 5v LED strips expect a 5v signal (this is why people use level shifters; to convert the 3.3v signal up to 5v from the pi to the LED). On a very short wire, the 3.3v is generally strong enough to work properly, but longer wires have more voltage drop (and the data and clock wires from the pi are very small) so the already low voltage gets further reduced and causes sporadic behavior with the LEDs. As a general rule with your build, the shorter any and all wires can be, the better.

Good luck!:)

Thank you Katak, happy to help!

I also used APA102 60/M LEDs. APA102 is generally considered the better choice for ease of use and 60 LED per meter seems to be considered the "sweet spot"; better lighting than 30/m but without the large power requirements of 144/m as you mentioned.

Based on your new information it sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you're doing:
- It might be close, but 5 meters of LED should work for a 70" TV. I have mine on a 65" TV and it used 256 out of 300 LEDs.
- I made the same estimate and also purchased a 5V DC 30A PSU (power for LEDs and RPi Zero W)

In terms of the solderless connections, they will work, but they can be unreliable as they tend to come loose over time and create a poor connection. Soldering, done properly of course, will always be a better connection than this. Since you'll need to solder additional wires for power anyway, you might consider just soldering all connections, though that is obviously your decision based on what you're comfortable with - you can certainly use the corner clips you've bought and just solder on power wires a few points along the strips if you prefer.

In terms of how to add power and connect clock and data for SPI:

I just moved, so my build is in pieces and I was able to take a few photos of what I did with my setup that I hope will help you. I've also drawn a quick sketch, just to give you a general idea of the overall layout of how I connected things - for the record I am clearly NOT an artist, haha.

[MEDIA=imgur]KU5MjhY[/MEDIA]
[MEDIA=imgur]ZP5gG3T[/MEDIA]
[MEDIA=imgur]lQRUKhi[/MEDIA]
[MEDIA=imgur]PNURNzk[/MEDIA]

- You may already be familiar, but if not the orange and grey splitter/connectors I've used for my wiring are called "Wago Clips" or "lever nuts" and I highly recommend them.
- For the wire itself, make sure to choose a gauge of wire rated for your amperage.
- keep clock and data wires as short as possible if connecting RPi to LEDs without a level shifter (shorter is always better here, under 30cm if possible - I learned this the hard way).

I'm not sure how clear these photos will be, so if anything is confusing, please ask and I'll try to clarify.

Cheers!

Hi Katak,

There is lots of information out there but a couple things I can tell you (apologies in advance, I'm pretty longwinded in my responses):

A strip this long will need power from more than one end. Typically, people will cut the strip into four pieces (one for each side of the TV) and connect power to each piece - this is what I did for my build.

Also, a very important distinction is that length doesn't determine your power needs, the number of LEDs does. LED strips typically come in either 30, 60 or 144 LEDs per meter; meaning you'll end up with very different (and potentially unsafe) power requirements if considering only length.

The general rule is that one RGB LED requires 60mA at full brightness/white, so using 0.06 x # of LEDs you can determine the amperage needed:

If your 5 meter strip is 60 LEDs per meter, 0.06 x 300 LEDs = 18 Amps (keep in mind you'll need to factor in the power needs of any other components you plan to power from the same power supply).

It is also important to consider some "overhead" when buying a power supply; for example, if you need 19A, buy a 25A or 30A power supply to leave some breathing room. Your load (devices being powered) will only draw the amount of Amps they need, and your power supply won't have to work as hard if it's capable of 25A or 30A but only has to supply 19A.

In terms of Voltage, make sure your power supply Voltage matches that of your LEDs and other components. This should be 5V, but you'll want to check all your components to be sure.

Hopefully this is helpful! Beyond that, just double check your values and keep doing your research (in addition to this site, the adafruit and arduino sites/forums have great info). If you have other questions, I'm happy to answer them if I can - good luck!

There might be some AVRs out there that do this, but from my research the vast majority do not. Generally speaking, AVRs will scale down the source content to the lowest resolution device connected to any output. I really wish they did put out a separate resolution for each HDMI out, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

As a work around, people seem to be having luck with a couple products, namely the HD Fury Linker (quite expensive), and the EZCOO 4K splitter scaler. haven't used either yet myself, but you may wish to look into those. Also keep in mind that while these might solve your 4K problem, they may not play nicely with HDR and/or Dolby Atmos; something else to consider when doing your research if those matter to you.

Good luck!

That sounds good - sorry - wasn't meaning to be alarmist but I had to say something about that wire just in case, for safety's sake.

Good luck with the build!

Happy to help!

I'm not sure what your exact plan is (one long strip or four pieces) but in the interest of safety however, do NOT use the wire you've linked to in your original post for power. Correct me if I'm wrong but that looks to me to me be 22AWG wire which is only rated for 7A max. If you are powering that whole strip from one end the LEDs could pull double that amount at times (at all LEDs full white they could pull up to 18A if you used the whole 5M strip), it is not safe.

As a side note, powering a strip that long from only one end is also likely to cause problems with the LED colour towards the end of your strip due to current drop off.

You can reference this chart at Adafruit https://learn.adafruit.com/wires-and-connections/wire-guages, but definitely get some heavier gauge wire for power and do the math (300 LEDs x 0.06A(60mA each) = 18A) to make sure your build is safe.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi Slyboots!

I've recently built two setups for HDMI input for 65" TVs so I think I can give you some advice based on what I learned in the process (I'm relatively new to this as well but my builds work great). I'll apologize in advance for how long this is going to be...

LEDs:
I went with APA102, as you mentioned; very easy to work with (no additional arduino required) and gave me no trouble at all. Other types will certainly work, but APA102 were painless in my experiences. As for the number, I went with 60/m as it seems to be the "sweet spot" from what I researched. 30/m is fine, but I got the impression 60/m looks best (better than 30/m but without the overkill/power concerns of 144/m).

Power:
In my build I used just under 5m, roughly 280 LEDs if memory serves. I used a 5V 30A power supply unit (PSU) for a couple reasons; first, I powered the rPi 0 and all the LEDs from the same PSU.

rPi 0 would need 1A
300 LEDs(5M) x 0.06A(60mA each) would need 18A
Total = 19A needed to power everything.

You would think 20A would be enough, but for safety, you should always allow some overhead (ideally 25%) in a power supply so it's not running at or too near max capacity. Leaving this overhead means the components don't have to work as hard and therefore run cooler. In terms of that industrial look, they all look like that once you get above 15A from my experience. Let me also add that you will absolutely need a multimeter for this build; many of these power supplies allow you to fine tune the voltage, so you'll want to ensure that you have your PSU set to 5V - this may sound intimidating but it's very very simple.

Wires:
I used a combination of 14 AWG, 16AWG and 18AWG wiring. All you need to ensure is that the wiring you use is rated for the current that will pass through it, which will end up being less than you think. This is largely because with a build as large as this, you'll need to cut the strip into four lengths for each side of your tv, which will each be individually connected to your PSU. There are a few sound reasons for this but it's a bit to explain, if you're interested I can upload some of my hand sketches for the wiring which is probably the best way to show you. In terms of wire connectors, use WAGO terminals, also called "lever nuts".

LED Connections:
You're best to learn to solder. It's really not tough, nor expensive and the results are way better than if you use the solder less connector options. The solder less clips like you linked will work, but they don't make as reliable a connection and they can wear out and come loose as they heat and cool and eventually lose their shape over time.

There's a lot more I can share with you but I think this covers most of your immediate questions. If you want any more detail on my build, I'm happy to share the steps, exact components, and my personal "schematics" I used if it will help you.

Good luck!

Hello!

This really all depends on what it is you're trying to do. I would guess you want to create an ambilight setup for multiple devices through your AV receiver, in which case there's going to be no bypassing the "HDMI stuff" unless none of the devices you'll want to use are outputting via HDMI.

The quick answer is that anything that comes into a receiver via HDMI, only comes out of the receiver via HDMI and likewise for RCA. This is why non-computer based builds virtually all use an "HDMI to AV" converter, which converts the digital HDMI signal to analog for the USB grabber as receivers (at least none that I know of) simply don't do this.

In terms of the LEDs, are you following a particular tutorial for your build? SK9822 are two-line SPI and very similar to APA102 so almost certainly could be made to work, but there's a reason the vast majority of users here stick with either APA102 or WS2812 LEDs; they're easy to work with and work reliably.

I was pretty new to this, (I guess I still am, haha) but I have done a few successfully builds using APA102 LEDs and would be happy to walk through that build if you like.

You don't have to cut the strip, it's up to you and will really depend on your setup. I'm using APA102 (60/m) around my 65" tv and I have cut it into four strips because I'm running power to each of the four lengths of LEDs.

The reason is that for longer strips of LEDs, supplying power at only one end is often not enough and what can happen is your LEDs toward the end of your strip will show the wrong colours because they're not receiving enough power. (look up "wire resistance and current drop-off" if you want more detailed information on this)

You can still add power along the strip, or even from both ends, without cutting it I just personally found it easier with the strips cut - but it's really up to you.

No problem - Happy to help!

If you are comfortable with setting everything up (power, wiring, Hyperion, all that stuff), then yes, all you should need to add is a HDMI2AV converter and USB Grabber (make sure it's the UTV007 chipset, also called "Fushicai").

You'll have all your devices connected to your AV receiver. Then one HDMI out from your receiver goes directly to your TV and the other HDMI out from your receiver will go to your HDMI2AV converter > USB Grabber > RPi > LEDs.

I think that's all I can tell you for the moment, but if you have any other questions as you start putting this together, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

No, you don't have to use solid core wiring. Stranded wire would be what most people would use for this but generally speaking both stranded and solid core copper wire will work just fine, so if the lights aren't working, it isn't because of the solid core wires.

I would need to know more about your setup to give you an answer on connecting the LED strip directly, but basically, as long as your wiring is a heavy enough gauge to safely carry the amount of power you need, it doesn't matter if you use solid or stranded.

Do you already have a tutorial you are planning to follow? Basically, you just need to take the HDMI output from your receiver, split it, send one of the split HDMI signals to the TV and the other to the grabber as part of your setup.

I have basically the same setup you're looking to create:

multiple devices connected to Sony STR-DN 1080 receiver (has 2 x HDMI out) -> (HDMI 1 to TV[LG B7]) HDMI 2 -> HDMI2AV converter -> USB grabber (UTV007 chipset) -> RPi Zero W (raspian lite) -> APA102 LEDs 60/m.

Whatever input I select on my receiver is what's shown on the TV and what the LEDs react to. Your setup would just need an HDMI splitter if you don't have two HDMI output on your ONKYO receiver.

There is obviously a power supply, wiring/soldering, all that stuff you'll need to learn/do in building this, but that is my basic configuration. If you're really at "square one" on this I can try to find you a link to the tutorial I followed.

As for Dolby Vision and Atmos; the Atmos is fine if your speakers are driven from the AV receiver directly. I have a 5.2.2 Atmos setup and there are no issues, if you're running an Atmos soundbar or speakers that are driven by your TV (from the HDMI output signal), I don't have any experience with that setup so I don't know, it could be fine or there could possibly be issues resulting from the downscaling I mention next:

Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG and even 4K are a problem. To put it very simply, your receiver will see some of the hardware (HDMI2AV/Grabber) as 1080p devices and so will scale down output to 1080p (this could also strip the Atmos data but I don't know for sure). Even though your TV is 4K, the receiver will scale down output to the lowest resolution device that's connected. There are some workarounds to this - HD Fury Linker seems to solve this issue but it's not cheap ($180 USD) but recently, a splitter/scaler called the EZCOO 4K HDMI 2.0 Splitter HDR Scaler is supposedly working for people and is much more affordable ($65 USD). I have not tried either of these devices, but from this forum and other general research, they seem to work well. I do plan on buying the EZCOO splitter soon to add to my setup though.

I was completely new to this myself a few months ago, so I'm definitely not an expert but I have built two setups that are working great so if you have other questions, I will try to help you out as best I can.

Good luck!

Between your description and my experience with a few APA102 setups now I can only make a guess, but based on the tutorial you followed, if you did no soldering, I would think the most likely culprit is a loose/bad connection somewhere. The solderless/clip-on connectors will expand and contract from the heating/cooling of the LEDs and can come loose or create a bad connection over time. This would be the first thing I would look at.

If it was working properly for a month, a level shifter likely won't solve the problem. However, if you have long data and clock wires (more than 12") between your pi and the first input on the LED strip, you may consider shortening them. That's not a hard rule per se, but the shorter the better on the clock and data wires. I'm NOT AN EXPERT by any means, but if level shifters are new to you (as they were to me just weeks ago) the basic idea is that the pi outputs data signals at 3.3v but the APA102 (and most if not all 5v LED strips) expect to receive data signals at 5v. It works with 3.3v but the longer the wires are, the more the signal degrades along them (and can result in badly flickering lights), therefore the shorter the better. A level shifter essentially just takes the 3.3v signal and converts it up to 5v but if this was the problem, it would have been a problem since day one.

Hope that's helpful - good luck!

Based on what you describe it sounds like the splitter is the problem but that's very strange to have two different ones doing the same thing, which leads me to ask...

do you have the splitter connected to a power source? Likely a stupid question as I'm sure you do, but I know that most splitters won't actually split if they're not properly powered - that's all I can think of. If your splitters are the un-powered type, that could be the problem too as both scenarios mean a very weak video signal that perhaps can't stand up to being split > converted to analog > digitized again through the grabber.

I know that's a long shot and maybe not too helpful, but it's all I can think of - good luck!