Ambilight for Non Addressable RGB Leds [Using Arduino]

first of all .. if you don't know what Ambilgiht is Check Ambilgiht Phillips

check out my other tutorial if you don't have an arduino TUT

since it's the same rgb led and same 3 transistors i used before why put arduino to work ?

the answer is because with arduino you can control the colors for whatever your needs is .. static background or ambilight effect even for music vu meter ..

many thanx to the makers of amblone and ambibox you can do almost the same effects for your pc screen

stuff you need :

.1 your pc and screen.

.2 RGB led strip [Common Anode].

.3 Arduino mega [up to 4 channels], or arduino uno [up to 2 channels], i used the uno r3.

.4 Arduino usb cable, and arduino environment to upload the code .

.5 x3 NPN transistors for each channel, i used bd543c, it's big enough for around 5.5m of the strip.

.6 some wires, a cutter and a wire stripper .

.7 12v+ and 12v- for led strip.

this instructable will show you how to do a 1 channel, you can do more up to 4 sides with Arduino Mega and 12 transistors for all the channels .

on your pc you have two options to scan your pixels and send the colors to your arduino

either you use the amblone software found at amblone

or you can use ambibox found at Ambibox

both are great software and works perfectly ..

personally i use ambibox because i can edit allot about the led colors .. and amblone gives a small lag on my pc

if you download amblone and install it make sure to check the arduino com port which is usally com3

and select channels as you need ..

if you download ambibox and install it choose your device to amblone then click more setting and select the port to com3 or whatever port your arduino drive is connected to ..

for the areas of capture you have atleast 1 square to check .. i selected it to fulfill the screen.. u can do whatever you need :)

now let's copy our C code to arduino ..

first .. you need to have downloaded and installed the drivers available at arduino

next .. connect you device with usb and open Arduino environment

now download the code file from amblone

make sure to download the right software depending on you having an uno or mega or any other arduino devices ..

last .. open the file with Arduino environment and hit upload .. make sure that it upload successfully.

if you get any errors then you didn't download the right code .. :)

now let's head to the wire connections ..

in my case im only using one channel so im gonna use only 3 pins out of the arduino which are pin 3,5,6 sorted as R,G,B

if you are using more channels here all the pin ..

1st channel = 3,5,6

2nd channel = 9,10,11

only 2 channels on the uno

check the code for more than 2 channels on other devices ..

for the first transistor connect it's base to pin 3 red

it's collecter gets connected to the red pin on the led

and it's emitter to the 12v- [ground]

do the same for the other 2 transistors

apply the 12v+ to the common anode of the led.

that's about all .. check the results ..

here is my setup .. 1 channel .. around 5.5m led strip .. one pixel on ambibox on the whole screen.. and allot of configuration on ambibox ..

also if you like my vu meter leds that react to sound check out wndlpt