A little help with RP3 Nano HDMI and 266 leds please

  • Greetings,


    I can't quite work out what I am doing wrong to get my Pi to talk to my Arduino Nano. I had previously had things sort of working with 266 WS2812b leds with just the Pi and Hyperion. The grabber and Hyperion were working (as far as I could tell). I connected Hyperion via windows and the frame grabs are clean. The LEDs were reacting to movement on the screen appropriately, however the flickering and colors were absurd. Nothing was the correct color and they all the LEDs were flickering like crazy. The LEDs were connected to the Pi with GPIO18 and GND. Pi is running RASPBIAN STRETCH full.


    Strangely, when I tried the Python strand test, the LEDs preformed perfectly. No flicker and great update speed.


    However, with Hyperion and the frame grabber, it's a hot mess.


    I have several Arduino Nanos for projects, so I tried hooking that up. My thinking was that it would be a lot smoother of an output. But so far, I haven't been able to get them communicating yet.


    The Nano is connected via one of the Pi's USB ports. It is running this sketch -



    Hyperion is using this config -



    I know the Nano is working with the LEDs because when it powers on it runs the 3 color test. All good there. I must be missing something that says, "Hyperion, send all output to the Nano and make it looks awesome. Thanks." I know there is a lot of resources out there, but the guide and tutorial situation is super fragmented and outdated.


    If I could get a bit of help pointing me in the right direction, that'd be swell. Thanks!

  • Thanks for the reply. I feel like I am bit closer to getting it working!


    I updated my Nano and updated my config file with ttyUSB0. That seemed to help. Now when I start Hyperion from Hypercon, the LEDs do a start sequence. But then I get nothing. This is the log from Hypercon.


    Nothing is responding, so I start Hyperion again and get this...


    Looks like there is a problem with the V4L2GRABBER but I am not sure what that might be. If I send set color command from Hypercon, nothing happens. So that could be a further clue.

  • Would I be better off just getting a level shifter and going back to running the LEDs off the Pi directly?


    Can the Pi run 266 LEDs with fast refresh rates? I thought I read somewhere that the Pi has trouble when it goes over 250 LEDs.


    Thanks again!

  • Can you control the light with the phone app? What edits did you make to the sketch? The "rate" in the sketch and the config need to match if it's not.

  • I cannot control the lights with the phone app. It connects to the Pi but that's it.


    The rate in the sketch is #define serialRate 460800. I set the rate in the config to "rate" : 460800.


    Is there something with boblight I need to do? I don't have XBMC or openelec installed on the Pi. I don't need them as I already have an i7 powered HTPC.


    The only other thing I changed in the sketch you linked to is the number of LEDs, which I set to 266.

  • I read in another thread that someone with a similar setup and the user said that they set the baud rate to 500000 and it worked. I don't know why this worked but it did.


    My Arduino Nano clone uses a CH340 USB to serial chip and it does not list 500000 as a supported baud rate. That't why I selected 460800. But I am pleased it works!


    Now it makes me want to redo the LEDs and use 144LED/meter strips and have like 400-500 leds.


    Thanks for the support, @Akriss! I am super pumped to watch my TV just to see the LEDs!

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