Hi All, new to the forum, not new to using OSMC. I was being redirected to the Hyperion Topic on this forum via Github yet the link redirected nowhere. Since i am stuck in my ‘little’ project i decided to open a new topic.
Let me start with some background info as to why i am asking for assistance.
Right now i am building this fun project for ambient lighting. unlike many other projects for DIY ambi (ent) lighting the size of amount of leds in my project is quite high. where a regular project is attempting to power 0,6m2 in ambilight i am attempting to power 5,2m2 of ambilight. I am using WS2812b LEDs. hypercon_SSH.jar was used to built a config.
In doing so my horizontal strands are 2,6m in length and my vertical strands are 2m in length. in total i have 9,2m of leds in a total of 9,2 m in length. My goal is to procide ambient lighting in my living room aswell as ambilight (not sure how this will work out because of the size but i want to atleast try)/ here is a video of a test setup with a single strand of 5m:
all my leds are connected and powered and when starting up my raspberry pi and the default effect for hyperion starts it does not cross the whole strand of 9,2m.
not full-lit strands with hyperion:
after some debugging and in order to exclude a hardware failure i found this neopixel strandtest thing to test led strands. i fired this up and it does light up my complete strand. i also tested the strand which did not light up all the way with hyperion.
Working unlit strand:
strandtest on full 9,2m:
So my assumption is that Hyperion is not configured to use these amounts of leds (to which i am not surprised as to the size of my project) and where i would need to start looking to configure such an amount of leds (if in all possible) or to ask for alternatives (other software like hyperion with similar functionality).
The LEDs which I am using are WS2812b LEDs in strands of 60 LEDS/meter. I have used the hyperion_SSH config (since this version is the only version to support the ws2812b as a selection).
I am using 552 LEDs in total (2 * 120 LEDs for the vertical sides and 2* 156 LEDs for the horizontal sides)… I have tried to increase the number of leds in the config to figures over 600 but obviously that did not help.
I have not counted the exact amount of leds which are lit but a good estimation would be around 450 / 500 (120+120+156+some leds). If you want me to provide exact figures let me know so i can count them for you.
I did use it on my PC. I have looked at all the options but there is not an option to configure maximum amounts of LEDs to be controlled. I have configured my horizontal strands to be 156 and my vertical strands to be 120. Times two sides the config tool even comes out at a LED count of 552. Yet, that amount is not lit when executed whereas they are all lit when using different software.
It seems to me that there is a maximum cap of LEDs to be controlled by the software which is not configurable in the tool itself.
Can you provide me the correct link to the hyperion forum then? As specified in my OP i was redirected to this forum from the official hyperion github. i have attempted google but it provided no results either.
thanks. i’ll try github instead (and link to this topic if i can’t place all needed info there).
It will be a pretty sweet setup if i get it all up and working. i’ll probably face (many) more challenges due to the size of the project but hey, i’m having fun doing it Not sure how the ambilight part of the setup will end up looking like because of the size and displacement of the LEDs compared to the TV. even though if that won’t work it will be a nice ambient lighting for general purposes.
Not quite sure what exactly you mean with hdcp, but i’ll give an answer as far as i can on my setup
I have a seperate setup (rpi2) for streaming / mediacenter / retropie purposes. it gets it’s data from my NAS and is connected to my amplifier along with a chromecast, set-top box, xbox.
the amp will provide the sound to my 5.1 setup and video to the TV. My idea is to grab the input from the amp towards the TV split it and feed 1 input to this Hyperion setup purely for grabbing and processing video and displaying the ambilight.
the hyperion setup is current made up of the following:
RPI model B (not B+)
breadboard with connected 74HCT125 logic converter for amping the 3.3V Data signal from the pi to the 5V needed for the led strip.
the pi is connected directly to the strip only with the logic converter in between. as far as ambient lighting (not grabbing for ambilight) this suffices on timing.
what i might do depending on future tests and results when i will actually will be grabbing video output is add an Arduino Uno in between the strip and rpi for timing issues (if i will encounter any).
My problem lies in the splitting part, you can use a hdmi splitter for this, but these (mostly) don’t support maintaining CEC support.
My receiver has two hdmi out’s, which can be the same output!
Problem solved it seems, but the output from my xs4all iptv box turns purple then… after much searching this seems to be an HDCP issue, a sort of copy protection.
Since my hdmi2av converter doesn’t support hdcp (it seems), the output is turned into a pink overlay.
It’s ok from my ps3 and ps4 so they don’t relay on hdcp that much it seems…
Are those the 3 pin led strips?
I think you have to use them in pwm mode on the pi as the timing is quite critical…
How many leds DO light up exactly?
If I’d had to guess: about 255?
Edit: saw that about 500 worked…
Could still be a timing problem or signal degradation over this huge number.
You might need a dedicated microcontroller like an arduino to do the job.
What RPI are you using and how do you connect your leds?
Yes they are 3-pin LEDs. I have counted the # of leds which light up and it is 451 (horizontal (156) + bottom (156) + right (120) + left (19) ).
Timing can’t be the issue in this case. In my OP i state that under the exact same hardware configuration just different LED software (neopixel library / rpi_wsx2812 on github) lights all the leds and does not stop at 451. in boith cases i use the PWM pin (GPIO18) on the raspberry pi which is a model B.
i agree with you that they need a very specific timing and i might need an arduino when i get around testing with video capture at a later stage.
Not sure how the ambilight part of the setup will end up looking like because of the size and displacement of the LEDs compared to the TV. even though if that won’t work it will be a nice ambient lighting for general purposes. 
