Amblone Project

Hi there,

I'm very new to this (electronics and arduino boards etc) and have done some looking around but can't quite find an answer.

I want to look at using Amblone or Adafruit to create an ambilight clone on my 42" tv. I know I'll need 2 metres of RGB LED strip to do this. I already have an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 so just need to get some LED Strips now.

I know I'll need to be using either LDP8806 or WS2081 addressable RGB LEDs. The problem is I don't know which ones is best. I know there are some slight differences but for use for an ambilight affect - is any one faster than the other?

What do you use or what would you recommend? I'm also not sure if its possible to use 52 LEDs per metre as opposed to 32 LEDs per metre but can the Arduino even power/control 52 p/m or should I rule this out completely? I'd imagine it would give a more accurate and maybe better affect but maybe its not possible to use the 52 one.

Thanks for your help in advance and I look forward to completing this project with great results!

If you mean this:

She uses one of her light strips, but its not like the kind of light strip you often see, these light strips have long flexible wires between each LED. It may not work with the less expensive type strips.

I too want to do this project, but I have a bunch of other projects ahead of it.

The mega will work, but its a bit overkill, Id like to get this working on a nano or maybe even an atiny85.
In her example, she uses 24 lights, but you could use more. My plan is to glue individual SMD RGB LEDs to the back, and wire them up. I may keep all the electronics on the inside, and wire up the leds on the outside.

These look like the LEDs she used, they use a ws280x chip, it says you send 24 bits to each pixel and it takes 1/2 second to latch them?

It looks like the ambilight originally used the LPD8806, and she doesnt seem to sell the LEDs with the LPD 8806 anymore.
but she also has some

Thanks Hippynerd!

Perhaps that mega is an overkill. I may look at returning or it keep it to learn more about them and what they can do anyways. I would like it all small and compact so I think I may go for a nano now instead as I found a project someone did here to be useful and will use this direction for mine: http://www.cjo20.net/blog/?p=42 but just use the nano instead.

I've gone for the following LED Strip: Home page | LED Strips, Controllers, Bulbs| www.Yozop.com

Thanks again for your reply and suggestions and will let you know how it all goes.

Regards

I havnt messed around with the light strips yet, but it looks like those will work (you may need to do a bit of soldering to make the strip go around the corners nicely), but Im guessing that you are up to that.

Please do update this thread as you get things working and figure out what works good/bad.

Hi there,

My lights have finally arrived!

Final thing I need to do is look at powering these lights up. They work off 5V but how do I work out how many amps I will need?

On the specs on the website it simply states:
Current: 3.2A

Seeing as it's a 5 meter roll does this mean it needs that to power 5 metres but would be less for 2 meters?

Assuming you have RGB LEDs that are 60 ma per LED (3x20), and you have about 10 LEDs per meter, then 3.2A sounds about right. You would probably need 1.5 to run 2 meters (you need a little more than 60ma per LED, since the controller chips use some of it.)