DonsDeals Blog: Don's Projects: Updated DIY Arduino Ambilight

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Don's Projects: Updated DIY Arduino Ambilight

Updated DIY Arduino Ambilight

I have updated my DIY Arduino Ambilight!

After using my DIY Ambilight for a few days I got tired of plugging in and unplugging the power supply to the ShiftBrite shield, so I finally broke down and added a switch to turn it on and off. Now that I've been using it for a few weeks, I'm tired of having to turn it on and off manually every time I want to watch TV.

I noticed that my Samsung TV had a serial interface in the form of the EX-Link connector to see if I could electrically tell if the TV was on or not. No luck. I tested the USB ports next and found that when the display is off, the USB interfaces have about .15V and just over 5V when the display is on. Bingo. Now to get a relay.

This relay requires 3.5V to activate and less than .25V to deactivate.

Read More...
http://dhowdy.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-have-updated-my-diy-arduino-ambilight.html

I thought that this could be useful with other Systems that have USB Ports which behave in a similar manner. I really didn't even know what an Ambilight was, until I went through a few of the links below. After figuring out that it just makes the Colors on the Edge of your TV screen Show up on the Wall Behind your TV, while a Video is Playing... I have to wonder Why??? That would play such tricks with my eyes! Not to mention be so distracting, when trying to watch anything on TV!:O Why would anyone want to build something like that of their TV??? But, the auto USB Kill Switch... that could be useful. Maybe he should have wired his to Kill that Darn Blinking Ambilight thing, when the TV Turns on!;)

PS: The Builder of this Project is a Different Don... Not me...

Don