MoMoLight: DIY Ambilight for your PC

Some of the best do-it-yourself projects are ones that give you the functionality of an expensive commercial product on the cheap, and such is the case with RafkeP's MoMoLight "Movie Mood Light" mod, which lets you endow your laptop or PC monitor with the same type of peripheral lighting found in Philips' Ambilight displays. Unfortunately, also like many of the best DIY projects, this one requires no small amount of electronics knowledge and programming skills, as you have to modify your own micro-controller, procure and install your own cold-cathodes or LED strips, and then tweak the necessary software to get the effects synced with the on-screen action. Luckily RafkeP has taken at least some of the hard work upon himself and posted the directshow filter he wrote for real-time analysis of on-screen colors, making the build a lot easier once you've assembled all of the hardware components. It's still not gonna be a cakewalk to get everything functioning properly, but when you consider that a real Ambilight set costs several thousand dollars, being able to get similar results for under $90 is probably enough incentive to give this project a shot.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

[JK @ Jul 10th 2006 6:07PM]

I have to build my own microcontroller? Why even waste the time of posting this article if I need a $100 million IC fabrication facility to complete the task?

Or did you mean I have to buy a microcontroller for $11?

Also, why are engadget editors so boldly ignorant?

[matt @ Jul 10th 2006 6:24PM]

so boldly ignorant?

why do people like you waste time posting on blogs like this? it's like the people who say how much they hate engadget, but apparently take enough time to read and post their thoughts. As for the questions, I'm sure they were rhetorical, as the link explains all...

I consider posters like you to be boldly ignorant...

[d3 @ Jul 10th 2006 6:36PM]

Hmm, which is worse, spending extra money on a tv that distracts your attention from the screen or spening untold hours on a modification to your pc that distracts your attention from the screen?

[mastershake916 @ Jul 10th 2006 6:55PM]

Quit hating on this hack, just because you're not smart enough to do it doesn't mean that it's bad.
There are way too many fanboys and haters on engadget.

[mastershake916 @ Jul 10th 2006 7:08PM]

As Bill Hicks once said:
We're here at the same point again, where you, the f***ing peon masses, can once again ruin anyone who tries to do anything because you don't know how to do it on your own!

[JK @ Jul 10th 2006 7:42PM]

Mastershake, it is you who missed the point. That I cannot build a microcontroller is not because I'm not smart enough. Quite the contrary. Unlike Evan, I am smart enough to know that building a microcontroller requires hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment (or at least tens of millions for a cheap MCU). Therefore, this hack CANNOT require building one. Instead, it requires buying one, maybe designing a PCB to include one, and writing some code to run on one.

I stand by my claim of bold ignorance.

Matt, I do it to get reactions out of people like you. It provides a ray of light in my otherwise dark day, forced to contemplate why I'm so much smarter than everyone else, never to have a satisfactory answer.

[wickedawesome @ Jul 10th 2006 7:43PM]

Yeah JK why don't U get a real job!! Ur clearly too dumb to do this hack so why bother hating on engadget????? I'm taking college classes at ITT tech and this is so easy to do if u just know how 2 put together electornic components?? Have you ever even been to college!!! LOL

This hax is AWESOME.

[SHAUN707 @ Jul 10th 2006 7:43PM]

ha that is true, just like XBOX360, PS3, Nintendo Wii - Fanboys.... etc... they should just all shutup

[Techn0mancer @ Jul 10th 2006 8:26PM]

ok, now English was never my strongest subject back when I was in school.. but this article clearly says you need to "modify your own micro-controller." Now, my understanding of the word modify, is that the object has to already exist... therefore, it would not need to be built.

So, instead of intentionally misreading something just so you can make a post to get a reaction out of people, maybe do something more constructive with your free time.. you seem to have plenty of it.

[KarlZimm @ Jul 10th 2006 8:31PM]

Did I misread the article or something, I see "modify your own micro-controller" not "build your own microcontroller."

[Luke Cashmore @ Jul 10th 2006 8:32PM]

i like cakes. does anyone else like cakes?

[noobs @ Jul 10th 2006 9:30PM]

haha. I for one do have the multimillion dollar equipment + cleanroom ready for building a microcontroller so there!

although i wouldn't waste my time doing it, what a pain in the ass that would be! making a design, using the laser writer, photolith...blahh blahh boring.

[mastershake916 @ Jul 10th 2006 9:40PM]

I just felt that people where saying that the hack is bad, if it's not for you fine but don't insult it.
JK, you were just mentioning that there was en error in the post, that's okay.
Luke Cashmore- Did you know that it's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake?

[bliss @ Jul 10th 2006 9:45PM]

#3 is right... time is money... give me a plasma that has ambient light built into instead :P

[Shane @ Jul 10th 2006 10:11PM]

This actually seems very cool. It looks simple enough that I just might be able to build it if I had the time and parts. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or the money for the parts to take something like this on right now just for fun...

Regarding the comments about building/modifying a microcontroller, must we waste our time on such petty arguments? Most intelligent people reading Engadget would know what the author meant. For what it's worth, Pushing code into a PIC isn't exactly "modifying" it...I believe they were referring to purchasing and programming a microcontroller.

[Unida767 @ Jul 11th 2006 12:34AM]

Comments made about comments are pointless. Home brew ambilight is very ingenious. Leave it at that losers.

[Jonathan @ Jul 11th 2006 12:44AM]

Thanks Unida767. I thought it was freakin' cool myself.

Hey d3, are you that easily distracted? Ya know, I got Ritalin, that helped a whole lot...

[David R. Marlborough @ Jul 11th 2006 2:42AM]

Hey, not looking to join the rants but I have a seemingly "this guy knows nothing question." Here goes, can you forgo the microprocessor if you want the ambilight to remain one color? Or would it be easier to simply wire and rig the cold cathodes seperately using an external power supply and control?

Thanks for your time.

[Rob Jones @ Jul 11th 2006 3:33AM]

CHILDREN and GENERAL IDIOTS AT LARGE, cut the crap and make this blog what it is supposed to be, about hacks and technology

NOT an insipid pissing match over who is dumbest or has the biggest yap

[CB @ Jul 11th 2006 5:54AM]

I do believe the article mentioned 'Building a hyperspace link between two distant galaxies, this seems like a lot of trouble just to get a coloured light behind my monitor..or did I read it wrong?

Ive got a much easier method..put a mirror on your forehead.

[Rynth @ Jul 11th 2006 7:13AM]

I agree with Techn0mancer, and luke cashmore... cakes are good, but pi3 is better, as for JK, you sir , are an arse. Also, whilst on the subject, wickedawsome appears to be somesort of illiterate AOL kiddie... just thought id mention it.

Onto this mod,

Looks like fun, though i reckon that that (y'know if you had a spare phillips tv lying around) you could just borrow the one out of that, and then write some spiffeh code..

Oh and jonathon, stay away from the evil ritalin , its not good for the soul.. or your sleeping pattern.

[Super Cockroach @ Jul 11th 2006 9:02AM]

Omg I've been SO WANTING to so this....

I've had no help neither, noone seemed to know what I was talking about! I will have to contact this fellow and have a chat about it..

My method of doing it was rigging a DSE K2805 panel, and using its analogue outputs to drive rgb leds or otherwise some other form of light.

You know those glowing eggs? I was hoping to be able to mod one of those :/

[puro @ Jul 11th 2006 9:06AM]

man.. some of you are just so retarded....

why not just enjoy the blog entry and read the howto...

even if you can't build it yourself it's still very interesting to read. just shut the hell up and stop making a scene.

[spec @ Jul 11th 2006 1:02PM]

I believe instead of 'build' or 'modify' the word that has escaped EVERYONE here but Shane is 'program'. Building something from scratch is NOT a hack. Modifying or repurposing existing tech is. That is not the case here. This could easily be built for under $30. $90 seems a might pricey for a PIC color mixing a hand full of LEDs.

[Evan @ Jul 11th 2006 3:16PM]

My old roommate is an EE. Here is his reply to an e-mail inquiry. "Uh, yeah, this would be easy to build - it's all pretty simple."

Would anyone be interested in buying one from us if we made them for your computers or made further mods to make one for your HT system?

[cfiliz @ Aug 31st 2007 1:21AM]

@Evan,

I'd consider to buy one from you, instead of building it myself.

[Super Cockroach @ Jul 15th 2006 8:03AM]

RE: Evan

- Yes, i would be.. but im in australia ;)

[Temi @ Jul 17th 2006 8:43AM]

Funnily enough guys Philips have actually started doing something very much like this but they seem to be a lot more advanced. My friend sent me a viral video about games breaking out into the room your in - its really really cool. It's called amBX www.ambx.com

The viral link is http://www.ambx.com/site/consumer/games/ambxviral

what you reckon?

[Re:JK @ Nov 29th 2008 7:10PM]

To a being that believes itself to be smarter than all others. Using your pedantic attitude, does this mean that you wear a neatly pressed suit while acting the fool in front of the whole known universe? (It's Life, Jim...)

P.S. A microcontroller can easily refer to the chip (or die), the circuit-board and chip, a black box thet performs "microcontroller" functions or any number of other devices. A transistor (or relay) and a small number of discrete components can easily be described as a microcontroller. So... PULL YOUR HEAD IN JK!