Adalight system around a 133" screen

[croman]

First I would like to thank you for the great tutorial that you created, I think it will give me a great starting point in learning how to do this.

However, I would like to tap in the general knowledge of this group and find out from experience what sort of hurdles I can expect trying to do this around a 133" screen.

I would prefer to use LED strips instead of Bullet lights if possible

So I guess the first general question I have is if anyone has any general recommendations as far as what board to use due to the size and if they have any tips for tackling this?

Thank You in Advance

[tldr]

doesn't really matter. if you use lpd8806, (sounds like you want to), all the processor does is copy data from the serial port to the spi port. for the ws2801 data is buffered, but only up to 256 bytes. i guess it's conceivable that with a really large screen you might have to increase the buffer size, but, if you cranked that buffer out to 1k, that's 341 and a third leds. i'm not sure how the buffer size corresponds to the maximum number of leds supported, but the buffering is done because with the ws2801 the output has to be faster than the input because latching data to the outputs occurs any time there's a pause greater than 1ms, (i think).

so how many leds is it going to take to go around that screen, anyway?

[pburgess]

I'd suggest either the Teensy 2.0 (not 3.0, LEDstream hasn't been tested there yet), Arduino Leonardo or Arduino Micro (NOT the "Pro Micro," that's a different animal). All of these support fast USB transfers required for lots of LEDs.

With a fast board like the above, the Arduino-side software for Adalight can potentially handle hundreds (even thousands) of LEDs...there's no RAM-based limitation there (it was written to also handle "video walls," we just never got around to that), and no point really in increasing the buffer.

[croman]

Thank you for the replies. I am going to measure around the screen this weekend when I am home so that I can see how many lights it is going to be.

I will post back once I have more specifics as I am sure I will have many more questions

Thank you

[croman]

One other thing I would like to ask before I invest money in this..

Has anyone been able to make this system work when using PowerDVD to display a movie?

I use MediaPortal as my HTPC software and it calls up PowerDVD to run my Blu-Rays. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any reference to Adalight and PowerDVD working together so I figured I better check

Thanks

[pburgess]

Hi croman,

Not sure about PowerDVD. What I'd suggest you do is go through all the software steps in the tutorial...i.e. download Processing and the Adalight code...and then make one change in the software, so it doesn't actually try connecting to the Arduino. The preview window should still appear, and hopefully you can pop this in front of PowerDVD. If it's all black (or some other color) when running PowerDVD, then this combo won't work. If you get colored squares, that's promising. You'll also get some impression of frame rate this way.

[croman]

Great advice, thank you very much.