Total noob ambilight assistance (logic lever converter)

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1

Hello,

I am an absolute beginner when it comes to electronics. I’m trying to set up an ambilight led system with my raspberry pi and so far it’s not functioning. I can test with my arduino and everything works great, but with the pi I get nothing. I am assuming the 3.3v from the pi is not enough to operate the leds (shift register?) so my solution will be a spark fun logic level converter.

My main questions are, on the level converter, do I need to convert both the data and clock? I need to supply 3.3v from the pi to lv? I also need to supply 5v from my led power supply to hv? And as far as grounding, I have my LEDs grounded through my power supply and also grounded to the pi, do I need to ground the lv side to the pi and the hv side to my led power supply? Does this make any sense at all?

Any help would be appreciated.

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stereosympathy:
Hello,

I am an absolute beginner when it comes to electronics. I’m trying to set up an ambilight led system with my raspberry pi and so far it’s not functioning. I can test with my arduino and everything works great, but with the pi I get nothing. I am assuming the 3.3v from the pi is not enough to operate the leds (shift register?) so my solution will be a spark fun logic level converter.

If it’s a common shift register, then it’s probably 5V, so it won’t work on a 3V controller.

My main questions are, on the level converter, do I need to convert both the data and clock? I need to supply 3.3v from the pi to lv? I also need to supply 5v from my led power supply to hv? And as far as grounding, I have my LEDs grounded through my power supply and also grounded to the pi, do I need to ground the lv side to the pi and the hv side to my led power supply? Does this make any sense at all?

Any help would be appreciated.

Correct, you need to supply 3.3V and 5V to the converter. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/bi … p-examples

Yes, all grounds should be connected.

For a beginner, you made great sense out of a short post. Very rare!

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Thanks for the help! I was hoping I was wandering I. The right direction.