Beiträge von The

  • Powering Hyperion and LEDs Only When TV is On

    Nice! Didn't know such a thing existed. That definitely would have been easier, and probably worked for me for the most part. Hopefully your post will help the next user.


    My subwoofer is across the room so that part wouldn't work for me. Also, occasionally I use my AV/R to drive only audio, so that may have caused a conundrum on which device should be the master. Unsure what device Arakon has, but here is a link to a Belkin Conserve Smart AV strip review. I wonder if the strip would fall victim to device auto-firmware update routines, fooling the strip into thinking the master was "on", if only for a few minutes. I'd hope there would be some tolerant minimal power draw to avoid this.


    Regardless, the "relay solution" was a nice foray into a bit of scripting, wiring, and tinkering.

  • Powering Hyperion and LEDs Only When TV is On

    While I didn't do a lot of searching on here for similar cases, here's what I did to ensure that Hyperion and the LED array is powered only when the TV is on:


    Issues Solved:

    • Ambilight when TV is on.
    • No additional power draw, of any sort, when TV is off. Save $13 USD per year by ensuring my switched power supply is unable to draw power when system is off.


    • Didn't want a separate remote to enable/disable the system.
    • Didn't want to toggle power manually in any fashion.


    • Hassle free. High WAF (wife acceptance factor)


    Approach:

    • Power the Raspberry Pi 2 (with Hyperion NG installed) from the TV's USB port.
    • Typical setup of converters, etc. No HDMI splitter as my AVR has a "monitor" port.


    • RPI is only on when the TV is on. It's unceremoniously powered down when the TV is turned off. Folks suggest that may be bad, but we'll see and fix when/if that happens.


    • Power the 5 meters of LEDs from a switched power supply.
    • Use a to "switch" the 120V load line into the power supply. Relay is normally "open" (off). The RPI pin that tells the board to stay "on" is held voltage high, so when the RPI shuts off, the circuit breaks.


    • Relay is controlled by pin on RPI. Relay is powered by the 5V from the RPI.
    • On RPI boot, run a python script (below) to set the relay-board input pin to high, which toggles the relay, which enables power to flow to the power supply, when in turn drives the LEDs.


    Vizio USB Power Note
    [Edit Nov 30 2019] - Just upgraded my TV to a 4K Vizio. I had to search through the menu choices and toggle an option that always sent power to the USB port even when the TV is off. Basically, for my setup, I want no power to the USB port when the TV is off.

    Oddities
    A few minutes after turning the TV off (and supposedly the power if off), the RPI boots back up, LEDs turn back on, then about minute later they shut off again. My bet it's the TV turning on for a firmware check (and/or likely sending usage data to Vizio). Never figured it would power the USB ports, but evidently it does.

    Code/Stuff

    Relay:

    Relay Enclosure:     https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3777041


    Script:

    setPowerPinHigh.py

    Python
    import RPi.GPIO as GPIO  # import RPi.GPIO module
from time import sleep  # lets us have a delay
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)  # choose BCM or BOARD
GPIO.setup(4, GPIO.OUT)  # set GPIO4 as an output
GPIO.output(4, 1)  # set GPIO4 to 1/GPIO.HIGH/True



    Inserted into: /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

    Code
    python /home/pi/setPowerPinHigh.py


#Not necessary. Fires up VNC and a compiled version of hyperion
x11vnc -display :0 -usepw -noxdamage -ncache 10 -ncache_cr -forever
/home/pi/hyperion/build/bin/hyperiond



    Warning
    Proceed at your own risk controlling 120V power. If your house burns down because of this advice, call the fire department.

  • Color Channel Adjustments - Typical Settings?

    Certainly everyone's color channel adjustment setup is going to be a bit different. I'm somewhat curious on typical experience. I've a got a light gray wall (Repose Gray from Sherman Williams paint, SW 7015) behind my TV. I'm using a 5 inches short of 5 meters of WS2801 LEDs from AliExpress. My Hyperion.NG calibration settings are shown in the attachment; far from perfect, but as close as possible for my TV/wall.


    Surprises:

    • White is calibrated somewhat pink rgb(255,160,150)
    • Yellow is calibrated a burnt orange rgb(200,100,0)
    • Uncalibrated-raw-yellow appears very green.


    Irritations:

    • Red is certainly weak/dim when shown next to other colors.
    • Yellow is really weak/dim, probably due to how much calibration was done on it


    Thoughts

    • I'm betting my green and blue burn hot/bright.
    • Betting red burns dim


    If I were to invest in some different LEDs for better colors, where should money be spent?