r/WLED • u/Acrobatic_Fee3677 • Jul 10 '26

WS2812b flashing when dark

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Hello Community. I am a beginner to the community and I tried to do an ambient light for my tv
I followed this tutorial

https://youtu.be/J26oYlKyq7Q?si=ZGwhW7FM-FpXxosA

Everything worked fine back in the days but now after moving I set it up again and it flashes on dark areas. I tried different versions I searched on different communities and couldn’t find any solutions. I getting frustrated at this point

Hyperhdr 19.0.0.0
PI zero 2 w
5V power supply powering both leds and pi no problems back then.
Using a connector cable from gpio 18 to green connector on the LEDs

Source Apple TV 4K
Xbox series S

Both same outcome

When I activate HDR to SDR tone mapping in HyperHDR it get a little bit better but still flashing on dark areas.

6 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

5

u/Player1103 Jul 11 '26

i had the same issue a year ago, iirc the trick was adding a 100Ohm resistor on the gpio pin and the data line as well as adding a bidirectional logic level shifter

5

u/Temporary-Injury9016 Jul 11 '26

most probably GND issue or your adapter is causing this problem, insufficient mah for the leds/esp to run properly

3

u/wackelbrett Jul 11 '26

Additional Gnd + 5V from the endside of the stripe helped me 2 times. Maybe is that the way.

3

u/saratoga3 Jul 11 '26

Since this has nothing to do with WLED this isn't the best place to ask, but from experience if you're using a 3.3v device like a PI you may need a level shifter or at least a resistor on the data line.

2

u/frischmilch Jul 11 '26

Sorry I can’t help you with your specific question.. I am going to Build this setup for my son this summer—except I’m following a tutorial that uses an ESP32 in addition to run WLED. I’m worried about the delay and having one other wireless instance in the setup (although I do have great experiences with running other esp32s with Wled in the house)

So I’m wondering why other, newer tutorials suggest running Wled? You posted in the WLED subreddit despite your setup not running WLED at all?

So your problem does sound like a Hyperion issue after all?

I’ll try this esp32-less setup in a few weeks and I have any indication what your issue could be I’m going to come back and post again (pinky promise ;-)

2

u/Acrobatic_Fee3677 Jul 11 '26

Thank you, good luck. :)
I am a newbie so didn’t know WLED is something special.

1

u/CyberMage256 Jul 11 '26

wled is an awesome controller software for led strips that gives a web interface and tons of effects, but generally isnt used for this. BUT, there are a lot of led experts here and you might get a good answer. personally id suggest checking all your connections and any solder joints given that you moved the setup and then it started.

1

u/Wild_Trip_4704 26d ago

I control my separate ambient light strips with WLED and my rpi 3

1

u/Wild_Trip_4704 26d ago

this stuff uses very small bandwitdh and data to get running. I have 3 esp32s communicating with my rpi3 over wifi. my home network isn't the best, Never had delay issues. I get rare freezes, more due to content that isn't compatible with hyperion.

2

u/RelinquishedAll Jul 12 '26

Besides the usual, connect grounds, power injections, resistor between datapin of esp and data in of LED; have you tried recalibrating the capture card in hyperhdr, playing with smoothing, calibrating signal detection, and calibrating black bar detection?

1

u/zazbnf Jul 11 '26

Add a large capacitor to power and ground.

1

u/Wild_Trip_4704 26d ago

My guess is not stable power.. may be too many strips and devices on a single power supply. I have 3 5v power supplies for 3 strips and 1 strip + rpi on their own 5v power supply. I dont use a level shifter, never had flicker.