DEMO:

Introduction:

Ambilight, short for “ambient lighting”, is a lighting system for televisions developed by Philips.

Ambilight creates light effects around the television that correspond to the video content. Why build it? Simply for a “more immersive viewing experience”.

How to build one?

What you need?

• Monitor (your Desktop monitor, TV monitor, or Laptop)
• Arduino IDE (get it here)
• Arduino UNO (or any Arduino compatible)
• USB printer cable (if not included in your Arduino UNO pack)
• Adrilight (get it here)
• WS2812 5050 RGB Strip (any length you need)
• Soldering Iron, Lead, and Paste
• Thin Electrical Wires or Paper Clips (metal with plastic cover)
• Double-sided tape

Assuming that you got all the items listed above, it is now time to….BUILD!

First off, you might wanna take note of what direction the LED strip is pointing and where you should cut it.

Measure the size of your monitor, cut your WS2812 RGB LED to size (LED should be equal on each sides), and facing the back of your monitor, arrange it in counter-clockwise then stick it using the double-sided tape. It doesn’t matter where you start, as long as you follow the direction.

Now that you had successfully attached it to your monitor, solder and connect the LED strip corners using some wires or paper clips to their respective contact point (except the last strip, don’t connect it back to the starting strip).

Open up your Arduino IDE, and download the a required library by going to Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries and type in “FastLED”.

With the USB printer cable, connect your Arduino UNO to your PC and let it finish installing the drivers (if any).

Select the correct Board and Port.

If you are still with me and in the right path..lol..copy the code below and hit on “Upload” (top-left arrow).

#include "FastLED.h"

#define NUM_LEDS (31) //change to your number of LEDS
#define LED_DATA_PIN 6
#define NUM_BYTES (NUM_LEDS*3) // 3 colors  

#define BRIGHTNESS 255
#define UPDATES_PER_SECOND 60

#define TIMEOUT 3000

#define MODE_ANIMATION 0
#define MODE_AMBILIGHT 1
#define MODE_BLACK 2
uint8_t mode = MODE_ANIMATION;

byte MESSAGE_PREAMBLE[] = { 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08, 0x09 };
uint8_t PREAMBLE_LENGTH = 10;
uint8_t current_preamble_position = 0;

unsigned long last_serial_available = -1L;

int led_counter = 0;
int byte_counter = 0;

CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];
byte buffer[NUM_BYTES];

// Filler animation attributes
CRGBPalette16 currentPalette = RainbowColors_p;
TBlendType    currentBlending = LINEARBLEND;
uint8_t startIndex = 0;

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(1000000); // 115200
    FastLED.clear(true);
    FastLED.addLeds<WS2812B, LED_DATA_PIN, GRB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);
    FastLED.setBrightness(BRIGHTNESS);
}

void loop()
{
    switch (mode) {
        case MODE_ANIMATION: 
            fillLEDsFromPaletteColors();
            break;
        
        case MODE_AMBILIGHT:
            processIncomingData();
            break;

            case MODE_BLACK:
            showBlack();
            break;
    }
    
}

void processIncomingData()
{
    if (waitForPreamble(TIMEOUT))
    {
        Serial.readBytes(buffer, NUM_BYTES);

        while (byte_counter < NUM_BYTES)
        {
            byte blue = buffer[byte_counter++];
            byte green = buffer[byte_counter++];
            byte red = buffer[byte_counter++];
            
            leds[led_counter++] = CRGB(red, green, blue);
        }

        FastLED.show();
        
        // flush the serial buffer to avoid flickering
        while(Serial.available()) { Serial.read(); } 
        
        byte_counter = 0;
        led_counter = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        //if we get here, there must have been data before(so the user already knows, it works!)
        //simply go to black!
        mode = MODE_BLACK;  
    }
}

bool waitForPreamble(int timeout)
{
    last_serial_available = millis();
    current_preamble_position = 0;
    while (current_preamble_position < PREAMBLE_LENGTH)
    {
        if (Serial.available() > 0)
        {
            last_serial_available = millis();

            if (Serial.read() == MESSAGE_PREAMBLE[current_preamble_position])
            {
                current_preamble_position++;
            }
            else
            {
                current_preamble_position = 0;
            }
        }

        if (millis() - last_serial_available > timeout)
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

void fillLEDsFromPaletteColors()
{
    startIndex++;

    uint8_t colorIndex = startIndex;
    for( int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) {
            leds[i] = ColorFromPalette(currentPalette, colorIndex, BRIGHTNESS, currentBlending);
            colorIndex += 3;
        }

    FastLED.delay(1000 / UPDATES_PER_SECOND);

    if (Serial.available() > 0)
    {
        mode = MODE_AMBILIGHT;
    }
}

void showBlack()
{     
    for( int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) 
    {
        leds[i] = CRGB(0,0,0);
    }
    FastLED.delay(1000 / UPDATES_PER_SECOND);

    if (Serial.available() > 0)
    {
        mode = MODE_AMBILIGHT;
    }
}

Once all of it are done, you are close to your final quest!

The Wiring!

Get or create 3 connector wires.

Follow the wiring diagram below….

And that is it!

Try it out by opening the Adrilight application, tweak some stuffs that’ll fit your lights.

Enjoy your new monitor addon, “Ambilight”!

Thank you for reading!

Credits to:

• https://github.com/fabsenet/ (Adrilight)
• Hackster.io (cover photo)