Creating an ambient light system for your TV or PC monitor is easier and cheaper than you think, and in this article we are going to tell you how you can make your own Ambilight LED system easily and cheaply, although yes, it is It is advisable to have some knowledge with Arduino.
Unfortunately, Ambilight is an exclusive technology that is only available in some Philips TV models, but luckily there are some alternatives to obtain the same effect and in a fairly inexpensive way. If we tell you that what we are going to tell you next will cost you just over 50 euros, what do you think?
What is an Ambilight or ambient light?
For a more immersive viewing experience, ambient light is one of the best additions you can put on your TV or monitor. These dynamic lighting systems extend your screen by reflecting its content onto the wall behind it, not only making the viewing experience more immersive but also helping to reduce eye strain.
There are commercial options to have this easily and quickly … although not exactly cheap. For example, the Corsair iCUE LS100 Smart Lighting monitor lighting bars gives you everything practically done but costs a little over 100 euros, and is also only compatible with PC since it requires installing the iCUE software to work.
Materials needed to make your own Ambilight
The list of materials you need is quite short and simple, you do not need to have knowledge of electronics or be a “handyman” to do it:
- An Arduino Uno development board ( € 24 at Amazon ).
- An external 5V power supply ( € 9 at Amazon ).
- 5 meters of compatible LED strip ( € 20 at Amazon ).
- Double-sided tape ( € 5 at Amazon ).
The total of these components amounts to about 58 euros, but obviously you can select somewhat cheaper components and it will cost less than 50 euros if you want, not to mention that you probably have a 5V power supply in a drawer that is worth it and you can save that money.
You will also need to have a PC with Processing installed for the initial configuration (once configured you can forget about it).
How to make your own “Ambilight” ambient light system
The first thing we recommend you do before anything else is to test the LED strips to see that there are no factory blown LEDs and that the power supply has sufficient power. Connect pin 6 of your Arduino Uno board to the line labeled DIN (usually the middle one) on the LED strip (the strip should have a breakout wire on one end, so use a male-female jumper wire to it).
You will also need to connect the GND pin of the Arduino to the GND of the LED strip. Don’t connect the 5V connector to the Arduino’s 5V pin just yet, as you will in all probability fry it. Instead, you should use the external 5V power supply for the strip, while connecting the Arduino to a USB port on your PC to supply power to it.
To emphasize this point, only signal (DIN) and ground (GND) need to be connected from the LED strip to the Arduino.
Keep in mind that these strips usually have a specific direction in which the signal should flow, indicated by arrows (you can see it in the image above). If you connect several strips you may have to re-inject the energy in half to avoid a voltage drop, although with only 5 meters this is normally unnecessary, as it is with the LED strip that we have recommended above (we indicate it, however, in case you have decided to use a different LED strip).
The setup process
Now that you have the connections made, it is time to configure the system, and for that you will need to have the Arduino connected to a PC that has Processing installed as we have indicated before. You will need to include the FastLED libraries to your Arduino library directory, and then download this code .
Edit it and modify line 7 to indicate the number of LEDs that you are going to install on the strip (it is advisable to superimpose the strip on the TV or monitor beforehand and cut where necessary so that the strip only has the LEDs you need). If you see that the color profile does not work well, you must also modify line 47 ; For the LED strip we have recommended, use the WS2812B chipset and the color order is GRB instead of RGB, for example. You can consult the FastLED documentation to find out how to calibrate your LED strip.
Lastly, you need the Processing components from the Adafruit project code . To test, open the Colorswirl.pde file, modify the number of LEDs on line 29 and the device on line 44; If Arduino is the only COM device connected, then the Serial.list () [0] parameter is fine, but if not, try Serial.list () [1]. Run the app and if all went well, your LED strips should already show a nice series of moving colors.
Install the strips on your TV or monitor
At this moment you already have the LED strips connected to the Arduino and it is configured and working, so it is time to install the strips on the screen using the double-sided tape, and remember that the strips have directional arrows that indicate you where the signal flows (it does not matter, yes, in which corner of the screen you start to install them).
Depending on the dimensions of your TV or monitor, you may be forced to cut the LED strips to “fit” correctly. All the strips have certain parts marked where they can be cut, and you will see that they have contacts to which you can solder jumper wires to connect with another section of the strip. Remember also, very important, that you must not connect the end of the last strip to the beginning , but must be “in the air”.
Once glued, the time has come to prove that everything works as it should. Once installed, we recommend that you retest what we did in the previous step to verify that everything is connected and working well.
Configure Adalight
The final step is the most tedious, but it is necessary for the lighting and color of the LED strips to synchronize with the information displayed on the screen. Each of the LEDs must be defined individually in the software, and for this you will need to load Adalight.pde in Processing and change the variable that defines the number of pixels on the sides and the top (ignore the missing ones for now ). This is done on line 87, and if for example you have 35 LEDs on the top and 22 on the sides, you should define this parameter as {0,35,22}.
Just below this line you will find a list called “per-LED information”, which is what defines each of the individual LEDs around the screen. Each LED is defined by a set of three numbers:
- The monitor number (normally zero).
- X coordinate (0 is left if you look at the screen from the front).
- Y coordinate (0 is up if you look at the screen from the front).
Thus, for example, the LED at the top left would be {0,0,0], while the second LED from the top left would be {0,1,0]. If you get errors while compiling, you have almost certainly forgotten a comma somewhere.
Once this is done, run the code and launch a movie or whatever you want to see the result. The debug console will give you data such as the FPS at which the LED strip is working (15 FPS is more than enough for a good visual experience), and will allow you to modify some other variables such as brightness for example.