It is possible to add an ambient backlight system to your computer monitor or TV using widely available parts open-source code, and it is very affordable.

Ambient backlight, like Philips’ Ambilight, is a technology that extends the colours shown on your TV screen to the wall behind the TV using RGB LEDs.

It creates a more immersive experience when watching movies or playing games, as the display feels bigger since you extend the colours you are looking at in your peripheral vision.

However, ambient backlight TVs and monitors are not widely available, and it significantly increases the price of the TV.

Aftermarket products, which add similar functionality to your existing TV or computer screen, exist, but these are expensive and can cost the same as an inexpensive screen.

We found an open-source alternative that can be built using an Arduino board and addressable LED strips. We decided to try it out.

The project is called Adalight WS2812 by Wifsimster and uses Arduino code to emulate a Lightpack device that can be used with different software.

Addressable LED strips are available from electronics suppliers and come in various configurations.

The project required WS2811 or WS2812 based LED strips, and we found one that runs on 5V power with 60 LEDs per meter that seemed suitable for the job.

As we wanted to equip a 27-inch computer monitor, we measured the perimeter and needed just under 2m of the lights.

It is advisable to get as much coverage around the edge of the screen as possible.

The LED strips can be glued to the rear of your screen using glue, or in our case, some thin double-sided tape.

You should ensure that the LED strips run around the screen in a circular fashion so that the output from one strip can be connected to the input of the next.

These strips can then be soldered to each other using short wires or connected using 90° connectors designed for this purpose.

The LEDs require a suitable power supply depending on the specs of the light strip. In our case, a 5V supply was needed because we are running 106 LEDs at a maximum of 30mA each, a current of just over 3A.

We had a 3A supply available and decided to simply limit the brightness of the combined setup to fit the supply.

An Arduino board is needed to process serial data sent from the computer and send out the digital signal to the LEDs to change colours. We used an inexpensive Arduino Nano clone that worked perfectly.

We used two wires to connect the Arduino board and the LED strip — one for the ground and one from a digital output pin on the board to the digital input pin on the LED strip.

Once all the hardware has been configured, the Arduino board can be programmed using the provided code. It should be modified with the correct number of LEDs and the right pin number for the output.

From there, the backlight can be set up and controlled using any software compatible with Lightpack.

We used a modified version of Prismatik for Lightpack devices, which captures your screen and converts the colours on the edges to a specific hue to send to each LED.

The overall result is spectacular — especially when watching bright videos on YouTube or while playing games.

The setup described above can be built for around R600, which is much cheaper than commercially available products.

To build our own ambient backlight system was easy and should be within the capabilities of an electronics novice.

Arduino Headline Lightpack Phillips Ambilight

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