MAJOR UPDATE:

Hey Guys!

A lot of things have changed since I began my project and I didn't expect so many

ideas, comments and improvements.

Because it is much easier to build an Ambilight than in my instruction, I decided to

update my instructable. First of all, there are, of course, many other solutions out

there. Checkout this link, it's easy and really cool:

http://hackaday.com/2011/10/05/adalight-ladyadas-ambilight/

THIS instructable is not up to date. If you want to find out about my new approach

of building a 30 channel ambilight just search for my other instructable dealing with

this topic or click this link:

http://www.instructables.com/id/30-channel-LED-RGB-Ambilight-Clone/

(http://www.instructables.com/id/30-channel-LED-RGB-Ambilight-Clone/)

Step 1: Java Microcontroller LED TV Ambient Light

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(http://cdn.instructables.com/FPT/DOE9/GKQ3D7ZY/FPTDOE9GKQ3D7ZY.LARGE.jpg)

About This Instructable

Posted:Mar 1, 2011

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This instruction is intended to explain a simple and cheap way to build your own

dynamic LED Ambient Light.

First of all I want to let you guys know that my English is not that good (I am from

Germany, so... ). But I guess you'll understand enough to follow these instructions.

I think my results are pretty cool, so I let you guys know how to rebuild this stuff.

If you want to see the final result check out this video:

INSPIRATION

A few weeks ago I came across a blog entry by SiliconRepublic (Roy). His original

post can be found here:

http://siliconrepublic.blogspot.com/2011/02/arduino-based-pc-ambient-lighting.html

(http://siliconrepublic.blogspot.com/2011/02/arduino-based-pc-ambient-

lighting.html)

The author wrote a small Processing sketch that sums-up all RGB values of his

computer display, calculates the mean values and sends them via serial connection

to a micro controller (in his case an Arduino). The Arduino controls a strip of RGB

LEDs.

That is an easy assembly and really useful at the same time. It appreciates your

way of watching movies a lot. My aim was to enhance his ideas so I could have

something like the Philips Ambilight: Different colors on different positions of the

screen. I also wanted a little user interface so I could easily change parameters

without changing my source code.

Because I am not familiar with Processing I used pure Java in this project. I guess

you can easily transfer my program to Processing due to the fact that Processing

and Java are really similar.

Beside that Java application the other main component you need to accomplish this

task is a micro controller (perhaps two?) to operate the LED strips.

ambientLED.zip (/files/orig/F75/1KBP/GKQ3D9N2/F751KBPGKQ3D9N2.zip)669 KB

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FBA/NBB4/GKGL5IKS/FBANBB4GKGL5IKS.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FCJ/WQAD/GKQ39I6W/FCJWQADGKQ39I6W.LARGE.jpg)

Step 2: Overview

The first half of this instruction set will explain everything concerning the hardware

of the project. In the second half I will explain how my Java application can be used

to control the LED strips.

But first I would like to give a brief overview of the whole assembly.

The provided application takes a screen shot of your display. That image is divided

into different parts. The right and left part of the screen and the upper part, which is

also divided into one left and one right part. That makes four parts altogether.

The application calculates three mean values for each of these areas (Red, Green,

Blue). By doing so we can combine those values to one mean color for that part of

the screen.

After we calculated four of those colors (for each area one) we can send them to

the micro controllers.

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FV2/ACCZ/GKLJ1J3L/FV2ACCZGKLJ1J3L.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/F52/9S88/GKLIWF7M/F529S88GKLIWF7M.LARGE.jpg)

The computer and the micro controllers are connected via serial connection.

After the micro controllers (in my case two Arduinos) received their messages they

can change the color of the LED strips. Therefor they change the PWM value of

their output pins. Each of these pins is connected to a transistor that switches the

externally powered 12V LED strips on and off.

Step 3: LED strips

One of the main things you need is light. You could use single RGB LEDs, but

that's not too cool because the colors don't mix as much as we would need it,

concerning to my results after some testing. So what you need is RGB SMD LED

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FSP/FOYI/GKQ39IDP/FSPFOYIGKQ39IDP.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FYC/T464/GKQ3D8XL/FYCT464GKQ3D8XL.LARGE.jpg)

strips (abbreviations LOL).

These strips contain many RGB LEDs that mix color just like we want it. You can

cut them into pieces, another useful feature we need.

I bought a 5m (16 feet) strip on eBay for 32€ (44$) shipping included. That

package also contained a remote and a receiver so you can use the rest as

ambient light or do as I did. I sold the rest for 20€.

So what I got was 2m (6.5 feet, about 80 inches) of LED strip for 10€ (14$). And

that's okay, I guess. I cut it into four peaces. One for the left side, one for the

upper left, one for the right and one for the upper right part of my TV.

There are different kinds of strips. Some have got 60 LEDs/m and some only 30. I

bought one with only 30 LEDs/m which means 15 LEDs/part and that's enough for

this project.

These strips need an extra power supply because the micro controller must not be

used. So have (or buy) a power supply (12V) serving at least 1A (better measure,

because there are some really hungry LED strips out there). Mine is energy saving

(<0.7A on full white light for the length of 80 inches (2m)).

Step 4: Micro controller

I don't want to talk about the micro controllers too long.

Each one simply receives six RGB values on its serial connection and 'translates'

them into PWM values to directly control the strength of each LED. Nothing less,

nothing more.

I used two Arduinos for my project because they only have got six PWM pins each

(we need 12 = 4 x RGB). You could also use cheaper stuff but, hey, I love my

Arduinos and already had them. So why buy something new, if it works?

The Arduino Mega has got enouhg PWM pins to use only one. That may be

cheaper, too.

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FDB/ZDQI/GKQ368GT/FDBZDQIGKQ368GT.LARGE.jpg)

Step 5: Hardware

Another thing you need are transistors and resistors to control when the LEDs shall

be on and off. Please make sure you buy the right ones. I cannot tell you which

one you need because there are different kinds of LED strips out there.

Either you have got one with common anode (like I have) than you control the

colors by modulating the ground connection.

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FMJ/RGXH/GKQ39IK8/FMJRGXHGKQ39IK8.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FX6/YV22/GKQ368D8/FX6YV22GKQ368D8.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FAL/SUGW/GKQ3D8XQ/FALSUGWGKQ3D8XQ.LARGE.jpg)

Or your LED strip has got a common cathode. Than it's the opposite. Your LEDs

share their ground and what you control is the positive (+12V) power supply.

In the figure I attached to this step you can see how the pins have to be connected

when using a common anode LED strip. You need to solder this 12 times (for each

value = 4 x RGB).

Step 6: Testing

After you soldered everything together and connected the micro controllers and the

LED strips it's time for testing.

Believe me or not, everything worked fine for me. I just soldered one transistor

back to front and had to resolder that one. But that was all.

Then I remembered an old HUB waiting for me in the basement (from a mouse pad

I never used). So I screwed the thing open and got the electronic device. I

connected the two Arduinos to it. I also got a little project box which fits perfectly

behind my TV. You only need to connect power and USB. The only thing missing is

the application to run the micro controllers.

That'll be the next steps.

Step 7: Preparation

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FFU/5LTQ/GKQ3D8Y6/FFU5LTQGKQ3D8Y6.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FTC/I5RH/GKQ368HZ/FTCI5RHGKQ368HZ.LARGE.jpg)

Because my source code is fully documented and easily to understand by looking

at the code I will explain what the application can do instead of explaining my

source code in deep. If you want to, you can just look up the code next to the

runnable jar file.

Nevertheless I will give a short overview of how the calculations work.

But first of all let's get my application to work.

INSTALL JAVA

The first thing you have to do if you want my program to run on your PC is to make

sure you have got a Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer. If you

do not have one installed yet, you can download it right here:

http://www.java.com/ (http://www.java.com/)

After installing the environment you can try to run my program without a

microcontroller. Just to make sure everything is installed correctly. You will be

informed about a missing driver which is needed to communicate with a serial

device. Do not pay attention to that message yet.

If everything looks similar to the pictures below you can go ahead.

Step 8: RXTX Library and Driver

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FSH/BNEE/GKGL3Z4L/FSHBNEEGKGL3Z4L.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FH8/34DV/GKGL67CT/FH834DVGKGL67CT.LARGE.jpg)

My Java application uses the RXTXcomm library to communicate with the

microcontrollers. That library allows an easy setup of serial connections to many

devices including the Arduino. Because a special serial driver is needed to access

a COM Port under Java you have to make sure that RXTX is installed correctly.

WINDOWS

Windows users only need to copy one file into a specific 'bin' folder of your Java

installation.

The error message you already saw told you where your Java Environment 'bin'

folder is. You only need to copy the file 'rxtxSerial.dll' into that folder and everything

should work (see figure 1 on this page).

My zip file contains the whole rxtx library including the dll file you want:

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FLI/CEM6/GKGL8BCL/FLICEM6GKGL8BCL.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FQN/OGRR/GKLJ1IBJ/FQNOGRRGKLJ1IBJ.LARGE.jpg)

TVBarLight\rxtx-2.1-7-bins-r2\Windows\i368-mingw32\rxtxSerial.dll

Copy that file into your 'bin' folder. That could be something like C:\Program

Files\Java\jre6\bin

LINUX

I've also tested my setup under Linux (Ubuntu 10.04) and it works. To use RXTX

with Linux you need to copy the file 'librxtxSerial.so' (you can find it in the rxtx folder

next to my jar) to another specific folder in your java path. For me, that folder is

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.24/jre/lib/i386

You should have a comparable folder on your system.

I really must say that my program slows down my Ubuntu. I cannot even watch a

movie while using my program and one cycle takes up to a quarter of a second.

That means the update rate is too slow. Windows works much better for this. I don't

know why. It's not the calculations.

MAC

Sorry guys, you have to find out by yourself, because I don't know anything about

Java and Mac OS (X).

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you still do not understand what I'm trying to tell you or just want to make sure

you really understood what I said have a look at this page:

http://www.jcontrol.org/download/readme_rxtx_en.html

(http://www.jcontrol.org/download/readme_rxtx_en.html)

If you want to know more about the libraries and how to use them this Wiki may

help you:

http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

(http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

Step 9: Looking for COM ports...

After you have successfully set up your Java Environment and made sure that Java

can communicate with serial devices it is time to start the program again. No error

message should pop up now.

Still getting an error telling you there is a driver missing? Something went wrong.

You can also see that there is still a problem if the upper part of the application is

painted in red.

Either you try to solve your problem or just use the program without communicating

with a serial device.

(http://cdn.instructables.com/F2X/REP7/GKGL8BJB/F2XREP7GKGL8BJB.LARGE.jpg)

Let's say you solved all problems and no error message pops up. It now takes some

time to look for available COM-Ports (up to 30 seconds).

The waiting screen automatically closes when all COM ports are found. The main

application starts.

Step 10: Main Application

The main application is divided into two main parts:

1) The outer area shows the different mean values calculated by analyzing the

pixels of the chosen display.

2) The middle part consists of two areas:

1) The upper one lets you control the COM settings.

2) You can use the lower part to change the parameters concerning the

calculations.

This main functionalities will be explained on the next pages.

Step 11: Mean Value Calculation

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FN3/F2T4/GKGL685S/FN3F2T4GKGL685S.LARGE.jpg)

If you checked 'GUI update', the outer parts of the GUI will tell you what colors have

been calculated. Let's have a look at the calculation of the left color (that means the

color on the right border of the screen).

The first thing we do is to take a screen shot of the whole screen:

screenShot = screenshotRobot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(new

Dimension(screenWidth,screenHeight)));

Then we reset all RGB values to zero.

red = green = blue = 0;

After that we have to iterate over all pixels affecting the current color. Two for-loops

will do that job for us. In each step we increment our position by the current step

width.

// Left

for (xPosition = startXSide; xPosition < endXSide; xPosition += stepWidth) {

for (yPosition = startYSide; yPosition < endYSide; yPosition += stepWidth) {

currentPixel = screenShot.getRGB(xPosition, yPosition);

red += (int) (255 & (currentPixel >> 16));

green += (int) (255 & (currentPixel >> 8));

blue =+ (int) (255 & (currentPixel));

}

}

The step width controls how many pixels affect the mean value. The higher this

value is, the faster the for loops will be processed, because we miss out a lot of

pixels. The other side of the coin is the calculation of the mean value. It is more

precisely if you if you analyze many pixels. On the other hand it is not necessary

to look at every single one because close pixels have got the same color.

It is a compromise between speed and accuracy. Just try out a few values and

monitor the update value.

We sum up all red, all green and all blue values of all pixels and divide by the

number of this pixels. Now we have got the mean value.

red /= numberOfSidePixels;

green /= numberOfSidePixels;

blue /= numberOfSidePixels;

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FR0/0UQD/GKGL5JJ5/FR00UQDGKGL5JJ5.LARGE.jpg)

If you want the application to sleep for a while after one calculation cycle you can

change the value for 'Sleep'.

Step 12: COM ports

As already explained you can control which port is responsible for which LED

strips.

Both port combo boxes contain all available ports of your system. If your desired

COM port is not listed make sure it is not used by another program when starting

my application.

Please keep in mind that you can not choose the same COM port for both combo

boxes and then start communicating, because the packets would probably switch

their order.

Check the 'COM Active' box to activate the serial communication.

If you want to change the source code feel free. You can find it next to the

runnable jar file (src folder). To compile the code you need to make sure the

rxtxComm.jar is available. That file can be found in the rxtx folder. It is already

included in my application. That's why you don't need to make it available in your

Java path.

Step 13: Test Frame

(http://cdn.instructables.com/F6M/7J6O/GKGL5JJJ/F6M7J6OGKGL5JJJ.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/F7S/YQVV/GKGL8CVW/F7SYQVVGKGL8CVW.LARGE.jpg)

There are two other useful features I added to my little app. I just had too much time

waiting for the LED strips to arrive.

If you press the 'Test' button a new full screen window will open and change every

1.5 seconds. All positions (left, upper left, upper right, right) and all colors (red,

green, blue) will be shown one after another to test everything.

The second option I added is a configuration button. This will start a new full screen

window. It lets you choose the areas to analyze. That can be really helpful. If a

movie is captured in cinema scope there's alsmost half of my display is black. I

don't want this black color to be analyzed. On the one hand this slows down my pc,

because it's a lot of computation only to add zeros. On the other hand that destroys

the real mean value because we add a lot of zeros but divide by all pixels. Figure 2

shows that window.

Step 14: Boblight

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FU0/ATKE/GKQ39DD7/FU0ATKEGKQ39DD7.LARGE.jpg)

(http://cdn.instructables.com/FEM/1QIH/GKQ3D7TL/FEM1QIHGKQ3D7TL.LARGE.jpg)

EDIT:

My program just works fine for Windows Users. For my computer it takes about 20

Screenhots per second which is more than enough. I can even make it faster by

incrementing the step width to 10 or something.

But then I switched back to Ubuntu and wanted to watch a movie with my Dolby

Digital Sound System and my new LED Lights. There was a problem. Linux does

not allow fast screenshot taking as Windows does. It was about 4 screenshots per

second and the movie stopped while processing. That was not acceptable so I

found another useful program, which is written in C++ and does just as much as

my application does (acutally it makes a loooooooot more, if you want). But without

the nice user interface. It's called Boblight and Linux users can compile the source

code on their own.

Make sure you have all required libs:

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxrender-dev portaudio19-dev

libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libavdevice-dev

Here you can find the source code of Boblight.

http://code.google.com/p/boblight/source/checkout

(http://code.google.com/p/boblight/source/checkout)

After you installed the program you need to create a file called boblight.conf. That

file tells boblight daemon where to find the micro controller and what 'protocol' to

use.

I just added my boblight.conf-file to this step, so you can download it and change it

to your desires. You have to change the devices output to your serial ports.

In my example file one device is set up for Ubuntu and one for Windows. That is

just an example and does not work, because you need to have both Linux or both

Windows. I just wanted to show how to name the ports. So either change it to

"comXX" (Windows) or /dev/usbXX for Linux.

After everything is installed you can start the boblightd (daemon) which waits for

clients to connect and then sends data to the micro controllers.

That client may be boblight-X11 which takes screenshots of the screen and

analyzes them just like my application did.

Windows users can also use boblight (not the current version, but an old one).

You only need to download this folder and copy the boblight.conf file into

http://www.xs4all.nl/~loosen/boblight/boblight-1.3-beta1.rar

(http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eloosen/boblight/boblight-1.3-beta1.rar)

After you changed the the configuration file to your needs start the daemon and

then start getpixel.

Windows Vista and W7 Users have to change their theme to Windows 7 Classic,

because the getpixel()-function does not work with aero-themes.

For me it just works fine on Windows 7 and Ubuntu and does not require that much

computation power.

If you want to find out more about boblight and how to use it (especially about the

config-files) checkout

http://blogger.xs4all.nl/loosen/ (http://blogger.xs4all.nl/loosen/)

(old)

or http://code.google.com/p/boblight/ (http://code.google.com/p/boblight/) (current

project location).

We have a be nice comment policy.

Please be positive and constructive. I Made it! Add Images Post

(/member/Eclipse+TV+Lights/)

9 months ago Reply (CVJMHH6HLSH803K)

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(/member/rajshrimohanks/)

1 year ago Reply (C5ZXTRAH6MF3WXX)

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(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (CLL0AYBGSVJVTJ5)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CYKI5DZGSVJVUTS)

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Next » (http://www.instructables.com/id/Java-Microcontroller-LED-TV-Ambient-Light/?&sort=ACTIVE&limit=40&offset=40#DISCUSS)

Eclipse TV Lights (/member/Eclipse+TV+Lights/)

Simply amazing job on this ambient LED

setup. I can tell a lot of thought and time wentinto figuring this all out. How long is

everyone spending to put these LED kits

together using your instructable?

rajshrimohanks (/member/rajshrimohanks/)

Can C/C++ be used to program the software part..? Is there any way using it?

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/)

Please help,

I am desperate with my MEGA2560 and the SW for this project.

There is a package in all of the java-files "package de.zucizu.ledlights" which can not

be found by the compiler. So I deleted this in every file and the compiler is actuallydoing his job.

Everything seems to work however the LED / PWM is not working at all with the

provided Arduino-SW.

If I am using a port-sniffer I can see, the RGB values sent by the Java app to thearduino, I do also see the flickering of the Rx LED... but the brightness is not

changing.

Using a terminal programm and send it manully it is working fine at least for LEDpin

13 (not testest the other outputs yet)

Is this because of the missing package "package de.zucizu.ledlights" ?

Or is there anything else what I miss here ?

Thanks for your help

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) GeneRalf

Hi.Actually I've build another one for

somebody and I used an Arduino

Mega, too. I had to change some

code because I haven't tried it

before and couldn't confirm if itworks or not. But now everything

works fine. I've packed everything

into a jar file to use it immediately

flag

(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (CLNWQ4WGSWZBPPM)

flag

out of the box. But you can also

see the source code, because I

added them to the package. The

Arduino source code is differentnow. But just have a look.

http://uploaded.to/file/9h8d5n1s

The order of bytes sent to the μCis the following:

First 0xFF to synchronize and then

left RGB and then upper left RGB.

After that 0xFE another

synchronisation, Upper right RGB,

right RGB.

And Arduino Pins: Left RGB = 2,3,4

Upper Left = 5,6,7

Upper Right = 8,9,10

Right = 11, 12, 13

Of course you can change it just

how you need it in the source

code. Hope I could help you.

Just ask if there are any problemsleft.

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) ledtvlight

Even with the SW for the

MEGA2560 I am experiencing the

same problem that the LED/PWM is

not switching according to the

transmitted data from the JAVA appwhile sending the data via a terminal

program it works fine.

I am wondering, how the

synchronization is working anyway ?

Let say the PC is

sendingcontinously some data ...

00 00 FF 00 00 00 FE 00 00 00 00

...You don't know the exact timing

when the uC starts reading the data.

If the uC missed the e.g. FF for the

left - lefttop side, the next FE which

was actually meant as a color valueis miinterpreted as start value for

right - top right.

So to avoid this we need to adjust

the max value in the JAVA app ofthe sent data to 253 instead of 254

and 255.

And even the JAVA is not sending

FE and FF as color value anymore,we still do not know when the

inputBuffer of the uC is loaded with

just color values

(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CTRBHPWGSWZ9WNS)

flag

(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (C4J4IWWGSUSMUDE)

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) GeneRalf

Mine really works fine.

You wrote:

>Let say the PC is

sendingcontinously some data

...

> 00 00 FF 00 00 00 FE 00 0000 00 ...

> You don't know the exact

timing when the uC starts

reading the data.

> If the uC missed the e.g. FFfor the left - lefttop side, the next

FE which was > >actually

meant as a color value is

miinterpreted as start value for

right - top right.

It won't be misinterpreted.

remember the boolean called

'left'. If the uC misses the FF it

would jump into the if-queryasking for left, because left is

true. then it would read a byte

and see that the byte is not FF.

nothing would happen. That

would continue as long as notFF is being sent.

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) ledtvlight

I am still haveing issues but I am ableto narrow it down.

So everything is working fine with the

following method

(I am using eclipse for the JAVA)

0. Put a breakpoint in the JAVA

before the RGB data are written to

the Outputstream

1. start the app with the debugger 2. select in the JAVA app the COM

port and activate the port

>> Now here I am experiencing that

LED13 goes ON and remains ONeven

no data is sent ?

3. Wait a couple seconds (e.g. 10s)

and let the debugger run for another turn

>> All LEDs are ON respectively on

the level what was sent

I am using a Arduino Mega2560 and

progrmam it with the IDE from

www.arduino.cc and program the uC

via USB.

So there is a bootloader on it..is thebootloader turning on the LED13 ?

Does this might cause the problem?

Even the Java is sending for 10sec.

the uC is not doing what expect. with

the break I have mentioned here it isworking fine ..

flag

(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (C8S180ZGSYEQCHN)

Any idea ?

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) GeneRalf

Hey!

Always plugin the uC, wait at

least 10 seconds and _THEN_

start the java program. I guess

you know that, but maybesomeone else could need that

info. Also make sure no other

program wants to send anything

over your COM. close the

Arduino IDE, although it shouldn'tmake any problems, but who

knows.

You wrote:

>> Now here I am experiencing

that LED13 goes ON and

remains ON even

no data is sent ?

That is not correct and does not

happen in my setup. maybe you

chose the wrong board in your

Arduino IDE? for example

arduino mega 1280 instead of2560 or something. if that is not

the problem, try to restart your uC

manually by pushing the reset

button on your board at that time.

but i guess that wouldn't helpeither.

LED 13 is connected to a strip of

LEDs, too isn't it? So one color

of one strip has to blinkrandomly, too. It has to be the

blue color of the right strip, if you

connected everything the way I

wrote it in one comment,

otherwise it has to be anothercolor. but pin 13 has to be

connected with a strip, because

only pins 2 to 13 are PWM pins

and that's exactly 12, just as we

need it. Am i correct?

I guess you connected everything

correctly because you say, it is

working with your method

explained. At least for one cycle.

Probably it is an issue caused by

the operating system handling

the COM ports. Windows 7 for

example always checks thewhole bunch of Com ports which

takes up to 5 seconds everytime

you try to change something with

your serial. you should note that

when you use the Arduion IDEand try to change the comport or

the board.

data is being sent over the serial

connection to checkout if that

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(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (CYZ9OKDGSUSNDB8)

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(/member/Soulforger/)

2 years ago Reply (C8ZENYUGTCP481H)

port is available (or something

like that). That lets the

microcontroller restart and blinkrandomly, which is no problem

but should be mentioned. That

could happen when the 'Looking

for Com Ports' waiting screen

appears or when you plugin youruC for the first time. Just wait a

few seconds before activating

the COM port in my program until

the uC is setup correctly and

waiting for data.

If all that won't help i have got

another idea. we have to check

out if it is a problem on your pc or

on your uC. we could try it withboblight. for that we have to

change the source code. we

have to break down the problem

to solve it. but we will solve it, I'm

sure :-)

Check your hardware (pins 2-

13), check your board settings in

arduino IDE!

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) ledtvlight

I am almost 100% positiv that LED is.Set by the bootlloader, not from you

java app. When activating the com

port in thd java,led13 turns on. So the

uc is receiving the rgb data and is

doing nothing with it since the crc isprob,@ably always wrong. Thats way

it is working perfect once i stop the

java with a breakpoint and let it run

after 10s have ellapsed. It would help

jf you could add a start sequence sentby the uC eg 0xAA 0x55 to the java.

Once this sequence was received the

uc us ready to go otherwise still he us

still busy in the bootlader. It is

independent of win7 becauze samebehavior with xp.

Thx

Soulforger (/member/Soulforger/) GeneRalf

Hi,

First of, thank you very much for a verynice instructable!

Unfortunately I too have the same

problem that only blue light is showing

from the pin 13 and that's it. Nothingelse is happening even though I see

that the Java app is sending data to

the Mega.

Did you guys figure this out or is it stilla work in progress?

flag

(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (CZ66WCAGTKH9QNO)

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(/member/aborsciov/)

2 years ago Reply (CBZGR8CGV1HFILH)

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(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (C8T4AN1GV0KKFT1)

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Thanks for your time and I too hope

that this problem can be solved!

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) Soulforger

Try my Python program. My ArduinoMega2560 runs perfectly fine with it

now http://db.tt/vguZrVVH

Everybody else who want to checkout this program let me know how to

improve it. This is actually my veryfirst Python program ;-)

aborsciov (/member/aborsciov/) GeneRalf

Thank you for the Python program. Atthe moment I tested it just on

breadboard with the multimeter andthe pwm pins vary the voltage.I had the same problem with pin 13

and it seems to be because of theserial communication but I don't know

how to solve it.

boblight does not work for me at all.

I hope that after I get all my parts

everything will work fine with thispython program.Great job!

I struggled a bit though to find and

install all libraries that were necessary.

Is there a posibility to compile it to an

executable? so I don't have to open itin python all the time.

GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) aborsciov

Once the libraries and Python are

installed you can have a shortcut onyour Desktop and doubleclick thePython script and it starts

automatically. Or you can start it from the comand line

python yourscript.py

But I will post you an exe-file soon.

Regarding the functionality of boblight

and ledtvlights original JAVA program,I am pretty sure it is because of thedifferent Serial-Port-conections on the

different Arduino boards. Some are having the FT232 chip,

some of them are having a ATMega8with bootloader which needs an extrasecond before respectively is making

an Auto SW Reset .. look here forsome details

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMega2560

(/member/aborsciov/)

2 years ago Reply (CN58BYNGV35847E)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (COHHBK4GUGDANII)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CQDVU58GSUSPOCL)

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aborsciov (/member/aborsciov/) GeneRalf

I know about the different chips, I havemega2560 which has ATMega8 andyes it causes problems.

I read many posts about this and foundout that there is actually a new

firmware supposed to correct this. Iflashed it on my arduino using the FLIPutility from Atmel, but I'm not completely

sure it changed sth. I mean the logshowed that the update was successful

but I'm not sure if it changed sth, thebootloader version that I have now is1.2.0 and I don't know which is the

original one.It is tricky to reset the board and put it

in DFU mode for the flash update but Imanaged to collect several pieces ofinformation from different forums.

I tried again the JAVA application with

no success. Your application worksnow just if I change the delay value in itto 0 vs 4 the default that you put.

I still need to receive the uln2003a ICs

and then I will be able to fully test it withLEDs.Your app is fine now, I managed to

launch it directly so it's all right.

With boblight the problem comesbecause I don't quite understand howto change the config file for my needs,

thus it gives me an error on launch thatit cannot access the com port, although

in the config file I modified it.

I can't wait to finish the whole thing,

maybe then we can give the creator ofthis topic some info about some

tweaks that need to be made in orderfor it to work.I would like to have the JAVA app

running as well or at least boblight butthe only solution I find is to order a

mega1280.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) GeneRalf

Hi, thanks but I don't have theMega anymore. But as soon as I

have build my own again I willrewrite the code to use it with mysetup and will post the results.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) Soulforger

Hey, I do not have a working

arduino here at the time,because I sold the ambient lights

I built. Until I get my tlc5940 icannot test it, sorry! But as soonas I get them I will work on that

problem.

(/member/GeneRalf/)

2 years ago Reply (CLEKRK5GUEK9SD4)

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2 years ago Reply (CYKANT6GUGDANI3)

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2 years ago Reply (CFC2GV9GTE4JYCT)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CH4TIXSGUGDANIE)

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(/member/Wes1180/)

2 years ago Reply (COZP2ZNGS3BF3Z2)

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GeneRalf (/member/GeneRalf/) ledtvlight

" ... The Mega2560 differs from allpreceding boards in that it does not

use the FTDI USB-to-serial driverchip. Instead, it features the

Atmega8U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial converter ..."

could this be the root cause incombination of the Auto-Reset when

the controlling PC opens the com port?After Reset (Com port opening) it

takes about 1s before the Arduino isready to receive and control the PWM

...

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) GeneRalf

May be. I don't know and actually Ido not have the time to test theMega anymore. I built the whole

thing for a person with an ArduinoMega and didn't have any

problems at all. Now I don't havethe Mega anymore.

I will update the whole tutorial in afew days to two weeks which will

make it much easier. By the waythis is much easier and gives youreally good results:

http://ladyada.net/make/adalight/

n3v (/member/n3v/)

Really nice project, I came across it when looking into the Software side, since I cam

up with an own HW design, using a TLC5940. Its been working really nice under Linuxwith boblight. However, under Windows it seems that the config file does not allowhaving two bytes for synchronising (works perfectly fine in ubuntu) and because of this

i keep getting flashing colors, as the FF value is sent as a color directly to the LEDs. I was wondering if anyone else has had such problems, or if it has something to do

with windows7 dropping serial data. I'm using a FTDI FT232RL for the usb to serial.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) n3v

Just change the 'protocol' to onlyhave one sync-byte.

Wes1180 (/member/Wes1180/)

This looks like a really cool project, I am considering doing it and so I have a couple

of questions.

How long should the strips be for a 22" screen?

I have never done anything like this before so what sites should I look at to get similar

prices to what you did?

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) Wes1180

(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CMNSRDMGSIP0ZB8)

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(/member/Wes1180/)

2 years ago Reply (CH9MAV3GSNQR8JR)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CFON2MDGSUT1N8U)

A 22" screen means the diagonal is 22" long which means the width of

your screen is 19.2" and the height is 10.8" (Pythagoras, lol).

You need (2*10.8")+19.2" of strip. So about 40" which is 1m. Here you

could buy it online in China without shipping costs. I guess it takes about1-2 weeks to arrive and I have never had any trouble with this store.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/waterproof-1-meter-4-5w-30-led-rgb-light-strip-dc-12v-16868

You could also buy it on eBay for about the same price I guess.

The other parts:

TLC5940 and ULN2003 - Electronic store nearby or eBay.Arduino - Ebay (Fake from china works good as well) or Sparkfun (if you

want it original, but more expensive).

Wes1180 (/member/Wes1180/) ledtvlight

So I had a search and came acrossthese.

http://bit.ly/nQLrz4 (arduino mega)

http://bit.ly/nhN9HI (ULN2003)

http://bit.ly/n8KYSy (LEDs)

A person in the comments of the LED

page mention 3 parts where you cancut off, is that going to be a problemsaying this requires 4 parts, should I

consider getting a different one?

Also what type of power supply am Igetting, I know 12v with at least 1ampbut would it be one of these?

http://bit.ly/nEdEr1

And I'd just like to say that I reallyappreciate your help, especially since

I am new to all of this and may beasking some silly questions :)

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) Wes1180

The Arduino price is okay.

You would need more LEDs, I

guess. So buy at least two of the1m strips. For my 37" TV 2meters of LED strips was

perfect. And for a 46" tv it wasstill really good. So if you have a

TV of this size or even biggeryou would definitely need longerstrips. You looked for waterproof

strips which is absolutely notnecassary. Look at this article:

http://goo.gl/EeoFc

It costs a little bit more but youget 5 Meters and could sell the

rest on the internet and get atleast 20$ for the rest so it's still

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(/member/Wes1180/)

2 years ago Reply (CIEOQOLGT2P39Q5)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CKNU7TUGSUSPOCZ)

cheaper. And these LEDs canbe used for all kind of stuff.

Maybe you want to build anotherone for a friend or something.

These LED strips can be cutevery 3 LEDs, so every 10cm.

But then you have to solder yourown connections which may be

a bit tricky. But every 50cm thereare solder points on the stripswhere you just have to solder a

cable to the strip and that isreally easy.

Your power supply link doesn'twork.

I would prefer a bigger powersupply than 1A because you can

use these power supplies for allkinds of projects and maybe youwant to use it with the rest of

your LED strip which is 3 metersof length and need more power.

Also you have got somereserves and the supply doesn'tget that hot.

I guess you come from Great

Britain, because one of yourlinks leaded me to a britishhomepage. but you can get

these power supplieseverywhere:

http://goo.gl/MUBqu

Wes1180 (/member/Wes1180/) ledtvlight

First I'd like to say thanks for beingpatient with me.

I am considering getting a 3 screen

setup, so would you suggest using 6strips, 2 on the top of each screen andnon on the sides becuase of the

positioning. (this would be half a meteron the top of each screen as they are

only 22")

Can the arduino mega support 6

strips?And can your program support 3

screens?

The resolution would be 5760 x 1080

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) Wes1180

No my java program lets youonly choose one single monitorbut you can change that, so you

can use your three screens. theonly problem is the power of

your cpu because thecalculations will be calculated inone single thread and not on

your GPU. i could change that ifyou want. Then I guess it would

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(/member/Wes1180/)

2 years ago Reply (CG00JU1GSUSPOHD)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CUMFLU6GSUSPOPH)

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(/member/Wes1180/)

2 years ago Reply (CENNMC2GTCP49JH)

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(/member/LassiVV/)

2 years ago Reply (COFV32NGT8EUQYN)

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(/member/ledtvlight/)

2 years ago Reply (CZAX2AKGSUSPOD7)

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get faster. maybe you woulddonate a few dollars for mywork, because it's a little bit

more investment :-/

Wes1180 (/member/Wes1180/) ledtvlight

I don't think i'm going to be getting thethree screens, but i would donate if I

could, but unfortunately I don't reallyhave enough money at the minute,one of the reasons why I haven't

gotten any of the stuff for this yet,sorry.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) Wes1180

Hi, no that shouldn't mean you

have to send me money. I justwanted to tell you that if I have to

make such big changes to thesource code and test everythingthat this costs a lot of time and it

would just be fair if i at least geta little something for it. I'm sorry

for your current financialsituation and hope you can getall the parts in a near future.

Wes1180 (/member/Wes1180/) ledtvlight

I was just wanting you to know that if I

could, I would donate as I like the stuffyou have done

LassiVV (/member/LassiVV/)

Hello, first of all awesome project thanks to you :) I make hardware ok, but no i dont

get boblight to work anyway. With you own java program all works ok, but i want useboblight because you recommend that.

I try change boblight config file. I can change all com port, channels pcs and othersettings ok. But no light light up my arduino board. And tx/rx leds no blinking when i

start boblighttd and after that getpixel progman. Both programs shows only black(black) Windows CMD -window.

Can you copy/paste or upload config file what works with your arduino code? Orexplain can i change arduino code/or boblight config file right.

I am very thankfull if you can answer to me with this problem :) I can c/p somepicture/video with my setup when i get that working, if that ok.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) LassiVV

I will do that as soon as I get mytlc5940 and can build anotherambilight. I will then update my

project as well because I think itis much easier and really cheap.

desol007 (/member/desol007/)

(/member/desol007/)

2 years ago Reply (CSHGTB1GQX1VN4U)

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3 years ago Reply (C0PXVPRGNRT22CT)

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2 years ago Reply (CN6LY12GP7II7GR)

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I am not sure how to install boblight. I have your software working but I can not getboblight to work. I have win7, arduino mega and uno. I am not sure how or where to

put the boblight.conf file at. Thanks for any help

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) desol007

It's not necassary to 'install'boblight. It just works out of the

box. First start boblightd (thedaemon who listens) and afterthat start the getpixel-program

which analyzes your screen andsends the data to the daemon

who then sends the bytes to yourmicrocontroller.

desol007 (/member/desol007/) ledtvlight

Thanks, I was confused now I got it

estqwerty (/member/estqwerty/)

Great video, i'll build it only to watch star wars again !!!

i researched how to add more PWM ports to arduino.take a look at this : http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/TLC5940

may will be able to use only one arduino ???

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) estqwerty

Yes, it seems as if that is a goodhardware part. I guess you can

use it to drive more LEDs.

estqwerty (/member/estqwerty/) ledtvlight

can you update the code if this isworking?

will one arduino will be able to controlmore strips - i mean it is not a cpuissue?

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) estqwerty

no it's not a cpu issue. just add a

few tlc5940 and you can controlmany strips. i just ordered two

tlc5940 from china. it takes sometime to arrive but then i will testthem out. maybe it's still

interesting for you.

ledtvlight (/member/ledtvlight/) (author) estqwerty

Yes it seems possible to me.

gacorda (/member/gacorda/)

(/member/gacorda/)

3 years ago Reply (CEBR9RZGMJT3Y55)

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We have a be nice comment policy.

Please be positive and constructive. I Made it! Add Images Post

You could use tlc5940 chip which can prevent the use or pucrchase of anotherarduino.

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