A simple Ambilight appliaction for macOS.
The application samples the edges of your screen and sends the LED pixel information over usb serial.
Color, and border can be adjusted. It automatically detects 16:9 movies and will therefore omit black bars (4:3 movies are not supported).
You can also control the Ambilight as an RGB light bulb over http requests, allowing you to add it to your SmartHome system e.g. using homebridge.
You can use any controller connected over USB serial. LED data is simply send with a preceding 0x73 and three 0xff at the end, to keep track of frames.
As an example, one can use an Arduino Uno and the following sketch.
#include "FastLED.h"
FASTLED_USING_NAMESPACE
#define DATA_PIN 3
#define LED_TYPE WS2813
#define COLOR_ORDER GRB
#define NUM_LEDS 460
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];
void setup() {
// Fast serial speed
Serial.begin(4000000);
// tell FastLED about the LED strip configuration
FastLED.addLeds<LED_TYPE, DATA_PIN, COLOR_ORDER>(leds, NUM_LEDS).setCorrection(TypicalLEDStrip);
// Standard brightness
FastLED.setBrightness(20);
// Rainbow swirl at beginning
for (int i = 0; i < 80; i++) {
gradient();
FastLED.show();
FastLED.delay(10);
}
}
void loop() {
if (Serial.available()) {
char c = Serial.read();
if (c == 's') {
for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) {
while (Serial.available() < 3) {}
Serial.readBytes( (char*)(&leds[i]), 3);
}
while (Serial.available() < 3) {}; // Read 3x 0xff
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { Serial.read(); }
FastLED.show();
}
}
}
If you want to have support for the remaining features such as e.g. confetti pattern and direct brightness control, see Arduino sketch AmbilightReceiver.
- store all settings s.t. they are not reset upon app restart.
- make number of horizontal and vertical LEDs a setting.
- maybe add support for skipping leds (if e.g. there are no at the bottom).
- WiFi LED support for e.g. ESP8266 ambilight.