Rasp Light

by speed_hack

8.6K548

Intro: Rasp Light

I know there are lots of tutorials to make Ambilight with raspberry but none of them worked for me.

So I tried different steps of different manuals and I was able to make that work.

So let’s start by the parts:

  1. Raspberry pi 2 Model B
  2. Digitaler LED-strip WS2801 50 Leds RGB

Let’s talk about software for the raspberry pi.

I’ve tried Openelec and now I’m using OSMC, in openelec I couldn’t make the lights came on so I tried OSMC and everything work nice and smoothly.

STEP 1: Installing OSMC on Raspberry Pi 2

First you need to download OSMC

Now download the tool to put the image in the SD card. (Win32 Disk Imager)

Open Win32 -> Select the Device(SDCARD) -> Choose the image & click write.

Turn on the raspberry pi and complete the configurations.

STEP 2: The Next Step Is to Install Hyperion to Make the Lights Work.

  • Preparing your system

Download OSMC updates

sudo apt-get update

Install OSMC updates

sudo apt-get upgrade

Install pre-requisite packages

sudo apt-get install git libqtcore4
libqtgui4 libqt4-network libusb-1.0-0 libprotobuf9 ca-certificates

  • Installing Hyperion

Download Hyperion

wget -N
https://raw.github.com/tvdzwan/hyperion/master/bin/install_hyperion.sh

Install hyperion

sudo sh ./install_hyperion.sh

  • Enable GPIO's:

Enter this command:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add this text to the end of the document, and then press Alt+O (Ctrl-O on Mac) to save, and Alt-X (Ctrl-X) to close, the document.

dtparam=spi=on

STEP 3: Connections

Now that we have everything install and configured it’s time to connect the LEDs to Raspberry.

The LED strip has four wire connections.

  • 5v, Clk, DI & GND.

We need to connect the 5Volts and Ground wires to an external power supply, they recommend at least 5V 2Amps.

The LED strip usually came whit 2 Ground(GND) wires because you need to connect the GND to raspberry to.

So the wiring connections are:

  • CK(CLK) -> Raspberry Pin 23 (GPIO11)
  • DI -> Raspberry Pin 19 (GPIO17)
  • GND -> Raspberry Pin 20 (GND)

If some how doesn't work try to connect to the other end of the cable.

STEP 4: Final Product

Now you can arrange the led behind the TV. I put 16 leds on top and bottom and 9 leds on each side.


8 Comments

mbarky 8 years ago

Hi Speed_hack i tried all possible tries but not worked. i think it's Configuration Problem.

Can you please send me image from your Raspberry pi2 via "Win32 Disk Imager"

Open Win32 -> Select the Device(SDCARD) -> click Read.

Regards

Thank you :)

speed_hack 8 years ago

hi, yes tonight i'll try to make the imagem.. btw check your connection from raspberry to the led's, ser if the pins are correctly connected and the right end of the led strip, when i started making this i had connected the wrong side of the LEDs

mbarky 8 years ago

Thank you Speed_hack. i already checked all the connections from the raspberry to the leds' and all of them are connected correctly and also to its Right end.

But when i disconnect the "Ground-Earth" from raspberry to the leds it works


  • GND -> Raspberry Pin 20 (GND)

is it important to connect it???

Thank you again :)

dtokez 8 years ago

I thought you had to use the config tool to set up the number of LEDs etc?

speed_hack 8 years ago

yes, but the default came with 50 leds config and i used the same 50

dtokez 8 years ago

oh i see. Any idea how to use the config tool etc?

cheers :)

speed_hack 8 years ago

yes seems to be the same leds, the configuration you can use the default it works very good or you can use the software "https://github.com/tvdzwan/hyperion/wiki/configuration"