Hello all!
So I looked at doing an ambilight setup behind my computer monitor using prismatik/ambibox…
example here: http://imgur.com/a/7jRhp
I know I need an Arduino/other board, power supply, leds, computer, etc.
I understand all the materials I need for the project including the software but I do have a few questions I hope someone can help me with…
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I am looking for the best looking, best performing LEDs for this project. So I am unsure if I should look for LEDS that have SPI chipsets or 3-wire chipsets, exact model, etc.
I just want it to easily obtain a 60fps refresh rate and not look bad.
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What board would be best for this project? I know there are a handful compatible for fastled.
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I see that people connect raspberry pi to LEDS to control them. I also plan to put some LEDS around the back of my desk and would love to control them via my phone (preferably without needing my pc to be on) Is there somewhere I can control an arduino with my phone via wifi? Am I better off doing the ambilight light with just a audrino board and doing a separate set of LEDS with a rasp pi for easier control?
Sorry if this is all really confusing. I read a lot of the info here and I just don’t know whats best for what I want. Once I figure out all the items I need then I’m all set.
Thanks!
How are the monitor colours sampled?
Prismatik/ambibox has a built in screengrabber
Hi Anthony,
to your questions:
- Use APA102 LEDs. There are much more stable and faster than the 3 wire chipsets.
- In my Opinion the Teensy 3.2 ist the best. Good performance and a lot of memory. And it is easy if you use the octo Adapter Board. Like shown here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCoPgSwmoQc
I am using Atmowin and i am very happy with it but ambibox is also very good and I think it has a webserver to control the leds manually via browser.
- for this job you dont need a pi. I would prefer to use a ESP8266. You connect the esp like teensy and arduino to ambibox ans use on one part or stripe the ambilight (there you need a 4 wire chipset because if interrupts… e.g. APA 102 stripes) and behind your monitor you could have another static or fluent light controlled by fastled. My setup is also usable without pc. when the ambilight software is of I run some demo programms und when serial connection is activiated I fade to the ambilight image in a part of the stripe. That works great. You could control the leds via phone 1. via a website JAson Coon made a great example here. https://github.com/jasoncoon/esp8266-fastled-webserver
or you use a app like blynk. That works also great.
http://www.blynk.cc/
Wow I appreciate this help so much! after doing some reading I found a guide with the teensy. Do you mind if I message you if I have a few more questions? It seems like you’re the perfect guy for this project haha
Yes you could write me. No problem
I wrote an ambilight clone a few years ago, when FastLED was still called FastSPI 
Reference code might help you: https://github.com/shlomozippel/ArduinoScreenOutline
@Lars_Walpurgis I sent you a google hangout to message you. I’m not sure your preferred method of chatting but its a start haha
I have a media center running Kodi on Ubuntu and use boblight with a boblight plugin for Kodi. This will give you Ambilight for movies in Kodi. The system uses >100 WS2812Bs and an Arduino Pro Mini connected to the PC via a serial port. There’s a writeup for an older version here: http://lektiondestages.blogspot.de/2013/01/setting-up-arduino-lpd8806-ambilight.html
You should be fine with stable 30fps and, much more important, a low latency (otherwise the Ambilight “lags behind” screen content). A Teensy sounds like a good choice. I wouldn’t use a ESP8266, because you want to connect it via USB. If you’re looking for 100% matching colors and gamma, you’ll have some configuring to do with ANY type of LEDs. For my taste the WS2812s are just fine. The update rate depends on the number of LEDs, but honestly going higher than ~100 is overkill and will use lots of power. Good luck. This is a very satisfying project!