This instructable covers how to build, mount and control LED light bars to provide for full color ambient room lighting as well as "ambilight" style video effects.
Note that the flickering of the leds is not as noticable in real life as it is in the video. This is due to the PWM of the lights being off from the camera rate.
This is fairly easy to build as long as you have patience. Although there is a lot of soldering, it's easy to do on the strip board. I recommend having some programming experience if you build this.
You will need:
A controller - I used an LED-Wiz. I plan on switching to an arduino later, but this got me up and running quickly and easily. This controller is capable of driving 32 channels at 500ma, since each led requires 3 channels at 20ma (Red, Green and Blue) this gives me support for 10 light bars with 25 led's each (500ma / 20ma = 25 led's).
RGB Leds - I bought a pack of 200 off ebay for about $65. They are poor quality and there's some variance in the color between them but they were cheap and do the job just fine. I chose to go with 10 bars of 19 leds to give me a few spare led's in my pack. The ebay auction I bought had the title "200X Diffused 5mm Common A Manual Control RGB LED 8Kmcd"
Stripboard - I found stripboard at my local electronics supply store for $6.
Some other people have found it online here:
http://www.futurlec.com/ProtoBoards.shtml
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/ECS-4/SOLDERABLE-PERF-BOARD-LINE-PATTERN/-/1.html
Resistors - See Below
Wire - I used ribbon cable from my local store, it came in a 20 wire width which i tore into strips of 4 wires.This is the same type of cable used in floppy drive and ata33 cables.
Mounting hardware - I used vinyl siding from Home Depot, see step #5
Power Supply - You may be able to use your computer, see step #6
Software - See step 7. A computer is REQUIRED and the ambilight effects will only work with video being played from the computer. Unless you are using a video capture card to watch TV, it is not possible to have the effects from another source.
Calculating the resistor sizes:
The easiest way to figure it out is to use the online calculator here. My led's were listed as being 20ma forward current with green and blue at 3.6v - 3.8v and red at 2.0v - 2.4v.
Open the calculator and click on "Parallel leds" at the top. Entering 5 for supply voltage, 3.6 for voltage drop, 20ma for current and 19 led's gave me a value of 1 watt 3.9 ohm. Notice that the red led is different so it requires a different resistor.
The store I was at did not have nearly enough 1 watt resistors so I decided to just go for 500mW ones instead. The calculator says the resistor dissipates 503mW in my situation so I should be safe and thus far they have been reliable. I do not necessarily recommend this approach.
If you have questions about the build, please post them as comments instead of messaging me. I've received many questions that are similar and if they are posted in the comments it allows others to learn from them as well.
Note that the flickering of the leds is not as noticable in real life as it is in the video. This is due to the PWM of the lights being off from the camera rate.
This is fairly easy to build as long as you have patience. Although there is a lot of soldering, it's easy to do on the strip board. I recommend having some programming experience if you build this.
You will need:
A controller - I used an LED-Wiz. I plan on switching to an arduino later, but this got me up and running quickly and easily. This controller is capable of driving 32 channels at 500ma, since each led requires 3 channels at 20ma (Red, Green and Blue) this gives me support for 10 light bars with 25 led's each (500ma / 20ma = 25 led's).
RGB Leds - I bought a pack of 200 off ebay for about $65. They are poor quality and there's some variance in the color between them but they were cheap and do the job just fine. I chose to go with 10 bars of 19 leds to give me a few spare led's in my pack. The ebay auction I bought had the title "200X Diffused 5mm Common A Manual Control RGB LED 8Kmcd"
Stripboard - I found stripboard at my local electronics supply store for $6.
Some other people have found it online here:
http://www.futurlec.com/ProtoBoards.shtml
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/ECS-4/SOLDERABLE-PERF-BOARD-LINE-PATTERN/-/1.html
Resistors - See Below
Wire - I used ribbon cable from my local store, it came in a 20 wire width which i tore into strips of 4 wires.This is the same type of cable used in floppy drive and ata33 cables.
Mounting hardware - I used vinyl siding from Home Depot, see step #5
Power Supply - You may be able to use your computer, see step #6
Software - See step 7. A computer is REQUIRED and the ambilight effects will only work with video being played from the computer. Unless you are using a video capture card to watch TV, it is not possible to have the effects from another source.
Calculating the resistor sizes:
The easiest way to figure it out is to use the online calculator here. My led's were listed as being 20ma forward current with green and blue at 3.6v - 3.8v and red at 2.0v - 2.4v.
Open the calculator and click on "Parallel leds" at the top. Entering 5 for supply voltage, 3.6 for voltage drop, 20ma for current and 19 led's gave me a value of 1 watt 3.9 ohm. Notice that the red led is different so it requires a different resistor.
The store I was at did not have nearly enough 1 watt resistors so I decided to just go for 500mW ones instead. The calculator says the resistor dissipates 503mW in my situation so I should be safe and thus far they have been reliable. I do not necessarily recommend this approach.
If you have questions about the build, please post them as comments instead of messaging me. I've received many questions that are similar and if they are posted in the comments it allows others to learn from them as well.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Cutting the stripboard
![IMG_0582 [1024x768].JPG](/files/deriv/FG1/8CZD/FGIAG9UQ/FG18CZDFGIAG9UQ.LARGE.jpg)
To start off, I picked up a large piece of stripboard from my local electronics store. I cut this into pieces measuring (in holes) 4x57 as shown in the picture.
I cut it to this size without considering that I'd want to mount the resistor fully on the board, so you may want to make it a little larger like 4x62. If you mount the resistor fully on the board make sure to cut the copper trace beneath the resistor.
I drew lines along it with a sharpie, cut it most of the way through with a dremel, then it snapped fairly cleanly. A quick run with the dremel's sanding bit and they were ready.
I cut it to this size without considering that I'd want to mount the resistor fully on the board, so you may want to make it a little larger like 4x62. If you mount the resistor fully on the board make sure to cut the copper trace beneath the resistor.
I drew lines along it with a sharpie, cut it most of the way through with a dremel, then it snapped fairly cleanly. A quick run with the dremel's sanding bit and they were ready.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
The audio is inputed through a 3.5 MM jack, which goes to my audio mixer.. nothing fancy there, different channels, volumes, balance, etc. Then one feed goes into my speakers, so I can hear my music, the other feed goes to a control box where the signal is amplified or.. un-amplified, then it goes to a second box which i can switch between blue & green LEDs, and Orange/red LEDs.
the cool thing is that I can have it set up to react to Bass or any or all frequencies in the music.. :D
here people a link to the same he has posted as everything i just fixed 64bit support............
http://techmasterjoe.com/apps/shadlight.rar
..........
i keep getting asked a lot so here is my all around led-wiz fix all pack as well
http://techmasterjoe.com/apps/wiz-fix.zip........
.
the site is like 2 days old so be nice i am not a web site builder.
i fix hardware not software BUT i can fix the simple things.
remember to right click shadlight.exe and under compatibility set disable desktop composition
this way it will shut off windows Aero when you start it and back on when closed....
i fixed 64bit and that will stop the Crash on Start every one has
i might add it later if i do you will see a added readme file inside tell then it's the same as Shadows just fixed 64bit
irc.rizon.net
#TechMasterJoe
if anyone needs me
and cut down cpu usage at the same time lawl "got more for less"
might be to fast for some use movie 10, movie 30, or movie 10+fast scene detect.
(delay works by fading change over X number of frames)
movie10+FSR works by letting brightness change as fast as it can and only fading color data (can look a tad washed out if color is set less then 40)
FSR base starts at 128 up for smother down for faster inc delay is based on capture timer witch is in ms
---------------------
fyi--people 8ms = 60fps -----------
this will most likely be the last update tell i beat cancer.---im just to sleepy to even use the 4 ledwiz i have setup in my room.....yes that's 40 RGB channels each channel is a 3watts star lawl----------
ledblinky with music really makes my room move
--------if you like this software REPLY that-s the only way i know people are using it-------http://wizlight.webstarts.com/index.html---------http://techmasterjoe.com/superwiz.exe
http://techmasterjoe.com/app/wiz-fix.zip----
i will post a 2nd link on http://techmasterjoe.com to all my apps i have made
even to a 10channel ver for use with the ledwiz
the site runs off a server in my house so it's a bit slow PM me if links die
or if techmasterjoe.com has a error (torrents tend to kick it off)
thats how i use it still working on my I2c setup with 32 RGB channels i have not forgot it's not as easy as you think
i have a working 12 channel setup with messy code but it's 16bit per color at 6X the fq as led wiz works well but is unstable when done i will most likely post it as my own guide but it will be a lot harder then this led wiz setup i made the led wiz setup just like his in about 2hrs
my kit might take a bit and cost more as it's meant more for house lighting
my goal is 9watt LED's ran with AT328 and RF to a USB / ethernet brain
(arduino with ethernet and bluetooth atm)
the idea is to have as many lights you want and have as much range as you can get
my lights cost almost 40$ to build each and about $80 for brain
but
1. no limit on # of lights
2. 2048 steps per color ya that's how crazy it is
3. color correction using icm profiles
4. each light fits in standard light cans
5. 6db ant with a max range of 1000 feet to brain
If I were to do it again, I'd use an Arduino and write my own protocol. Back when I first tried this I was just coding for myself, now that I actually code professionally it only makes sense to code the stuff I want on my own :p
1st is GeeeeekkkkkK!!!!!
2nd is COooolllll!!!!!!
Very nice 'ible, im quite impressed.
Mainly I attempted with MPC. Made the VMR9 (renderless) change. Running shadlight i get no light output.
Also, I am confused about what I have to do to get the web interface for color control up and running.
Please any help would be appreciated.
this will get it working in vista and windows 7 as well (1/2 sec lag or so but dose work )
just remember to run the batch as a ADMIN or is a no go
this will get LuminAudio working right in vista to
http://techmasterjoe.com/installers/wiz-fix.zip
shad will not run it will lock up if vista AREO is running look at screen shot to set compatibility and 99% of the time this +.net 3.5 will fix most probs
feel free to change my room color
http://joecolor.tk
it still needs work
http://www.ledlight.com/5050-led-module-water-proof-rgb-positive-anode.aspx
but am using 20 of in pairs of 2 8 pairs around my room
and 2 on my 42" vizio trueled
It is pretty much a 120' length that I want lit, with rbg leds spanning across. The led's will be paired(paralleled) in two's, and every other pair will be on a different channel (example: chan1, chan2, chan1, chan2) so I have separate control over every other pair.
For each channel I can have 12 pairs (500ma), each pair uses 3 channels (rgb) and I have 120 pairs, so 30 channels. I plan to use a computer power supply as a dedicated power supply for this (5v/30amp) to run it.
My questions are these. First, do you think a 14/4awg running to 12 pairs 120' away would work? Do you think this whole setup will work, and if so, whats the weakest part? Finally, do you think anyone else is crazy enough to spend this much time on it LOL?
This is for a commercial project, so I am really hoping it's manageable. If anyone doesn't understand let me know and I'll draw it out for you.