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Use a Raspberry Pi to control multiple led strips?

ramm

Hallo all,

 

I've got a Raspberry Pi 2 and I don't have a practical use for it. What I do have is a lot of led strips I also have no practicle use for. What i've been wanting for long is led strips in my house but i'm unsure how to control them all. The nicest would be to control them all from a single point and maybe even make it music activated.

 

I'm gonna be honest with you I don't really know why I bought a rapsberry pi 2 since I almost got no programming knowledge so I am asking here if someone would know how do-able it would be for a newbie to modify a raspberry pi 2 (also with plates you mount on top) to control multiple led strips. I do got wires, soldering supplies, shrink tube etc but I just dont know the electronics and the programming part.

 

How would one use a raspberry pi 2 to control led strips?

 

Thanks for the help I really appreciate it

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https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-spectrum-analyzer-display-on-rgb-led-strip/led-strip-and-rgb-led-software haven't followed this one myself but it should be good I've used adafruit stuff before. 

CPU: Intel 3570 GPUs: Nvidia GTX 660Ti Case: Fractal design Define R4  Storage: 1TB WD Caviar Black & 240GB Hyper X 3k SSD Sound: Custom One Pros Keyboard: Ducky Shine 4 Mouse: Logitech G500

 

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3 minutes ago, werto165 said:

https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-spectrum-analyzer-display-on-rgb-led-strip/led-strip-and-rgb-led-software haven't followed this one myself but it should be good I've used adafruit stuff before. 

thank you

 

so thats for a single led strips? how about if you want 10? Don't you need another board you click on top of the raspberry pi 2?

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PM me and I'll give you more deets. Been looking into building a lighting setup for my house so I can point you to lots of resources.

 

Understand:

Pi operates on 5V logic... Most LED strips can take a 5V ANALOG (PWM) data signal at but often need a 12V external power supply.

AMPERAGE is a measurement for how FAR the power goes or for how well something is saturated with power over a distance.

Individually addressable LEDs take up boat loads more memory than non addressable LEDs so consider that when building your system.

 

 

START SMALL. Build your project up piece by piece.

> Get the led strip powered. > Get on/off button working > Use something to change colors... >networking and so on

 

This approach will help you understand each part of the code rather than copying and pasting someone elses project then trying to reverse engineer it.

 

I learned a TON about coding from the class "Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals". This class explains to you CODE STRUCTURE and jargon with examples so that you can approach most other languages. You will find much of your 'coding' is copying examples and then just tweaking them.

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2 minutes ago, Captain Matt said:

PM me and I'll give you more deets. Been looking into building a lighting setup for my house so I can point you to lots of resources.

 

Understand:

Pi operates on 5V logic... Most LED strips can take a 5V ANALOG (PWM) data signal at but often need a 12V external power supply.

AMPERAGE is a measurement for how FAR the power goes or for how well something is saturated with power over a distance.

Individually addressable LEDs take up boat loads more memory than non addressable LEDs so consider that when building your system.

 

 

START SMALL. Build your project up piece by piece.

> Get the led strip powered. > Get on/off button working > Use something to change colors... >networking and so on

 

This approach will help you understand each part of the code rather than copying and pasting someone elses project then trying to reverse engineer it.

 

I learned a TON about coding from the class "Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals". This class explains to you CODE STRUCTURE and jargon with examples so that you can approach most other languages. You will find much of your 'coding' is copying examples and then just tweaking them.

wow thanks this is really alot of useful information!

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7 hours ago, Captain Matt said:

Pi operates on 5V logic... Most LED strips can take a 5V ANALOG (PWM) data signal at but often need a 12V external power supply.

Wrong. Pi operates on 3.3V and is NOT 5V tolerant. Put 5V through any of the GPIO pins and you'll fry it. If you want 5V you will need a level shifter.

 

7 hours ago, Captain Matt said:

AMPERAGE is a measurement for how FAR the power goes or for how well something is saturated with power over a distance.

Wrong. Ampere is the measurement of how fast electrons zips through a conductor. It has nothing to do with how far can the power can go. The longer distance you go, current will still be the same as they are the sum of all the loads along the electrical path.

 

Just fyi before magic smoke comes out xD

The Internet is invented by cats. Why? Why else would it have so much cat videos?

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11 hours ago, Huntsman said:

Wrong. Pi operates on 3.3V and is NOT 5V tolerant. Put 5V through any of the GPIO pins and you'll fry it. If you want 5V you will need a level shifter.

 

Wrong. Ampere is the measurement of how fast electrons zips through a conductor. It has nothing to do with how far can the power can go. The longer distance you go, current will still be the same as they are the sum of all the loads along the electrical path.

 

Just fyi before magic smoke comes out xD

Thanks for the correction on the Pi voltages!!!
 

What I mean by 'how far it goes' is that, if you have more and more LED (thus distance), you will need more amperage to power the LEDs at full power.

As an addition to my post, here is a GREAT video.

 

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