WS2812B RGB LEDs With Retropie

PJ

Hello,
I am trying to install some WS2812B RGB LEDs onto my Retropie setup. I would like the RGBs maybe cycle some colors or something. I connected the strip and installed all of the libraries needed. I then proceeded to run the sample program according to this article. After successfully running the script and adding the code into a while true loop to keep script running, I added the code to the startup script. When the pi starts up, the script runs and the RGBs turn on. When I try to play a game, the game doesn't load. When I disable the LED strip, the game works fine. Does anyone know how to get the WS2812B RGB LED strip to work with Retropie.

Here are the specifications of the system that I am using.
I am running Retropie on a raspberry pi 4.
The power supply is the standard raspberry pi plug.
I am using generic arcade controls from amazon with a button usb converter.
The tutorial that I used to set up the RGBs can be found Here
The video that I used to set up the script on startup can be found here

.
I am using Retropie flashed from the raspberry pi imager.

Thanks

mitu

@PJ said in WS2812B RGB LEDs With Retropie:

When I try to play a game, the game doesn't load.

Post the output of /dev/shm/runcommand.log, it should contain the errors preventing the game from starting.
If you added your own code to the onstart/onend scripts, post the contents of those scripts also.

Addison

Can't be of much help here, but I purchased three of these for my home.

alt text

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KXPRJ5D/

They're quite enjoyable, though the camera which needs to point at the television is a bit noticeable.

PJ

@mitu ```
This is really weird. Today, I tried again and the game started properly, but the cycle that I had programmed into the LED script did not continue past boot.
Here is the code that I added to the crontab file and used to run the program at startup.

@reboot sudo python3 /home/pi/OneStripNeopixel.py &

Here is my modified version of the OneStripNeopixel.py from the tutorial that I used. I added the code into a while true loop and added a blinking sequence.

#include all neccessary packages to get LEDs to work with Raspberry Pi
import time
import board
import neopixel
import sys
#Initialise a strips variable, provide the GPIO Data Pin
#utilised and the amount of LED Nodes on strip and brightness (0 to 1 value)
pixels1 = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.D12, 55, brightness=1)
#Also create an arbitary count variable
x=0
#color/pixel for cycle
color = (0, 230, 191)
pxel = 1
#Focusing on a particular strip, use the command Fill to make it all a single colour
#based on decimal code R, G, B. Number can be anything from 255 - 0. Use a RGB Colour
#Code Chart Website to quickly identify a desired fill colour.
try:
    while True:
        pixels1.fill((0, 220, 0))
        pixels1[pxel] = color
        if pxel == 30:
            pxel = 0
        pxel = pxel + 1

#Below demonstrates how to individual address a colour to a LED Node, in this case
#LED Node 10 and colour Blue was selected
#        pixels1[10] = (0, 20, 255)

#Sleep for three seconds, You should now have all LEDs showing light with the first node
#Showing a different colour
        time.sleep(0.3)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pixels1.fill((0, 0, 0))
    sys.exit()

#Little Light slider script, it will produce a nice loading bar effect all the way up
#and then all the way back
#This was created using a While Loop taking advantage of that arbitary variable to determine
#which LED Node we will taget/index with a different colour

#Below will loop until variabe x has value 35
while x<35:

    pixels1[x] = (255, 0, 0)
    pixels1[x-5] = (255, 0, 100)
    pixels1[x-10] = (0, 0, 255)
    #Add 1 to the counter
    x=x+1
    #Add a small time pause which will translate to 'smoothly' changing colour
    time.sleep(0.05)

#below section is the same process as above loop just in reverse
while x>-15:
    pixels1[x] = (255, 0, 0)
    pixels1[x+5] = (255, 0, 100)
    pixels1[x+10] = (0, 255, 0)
    x=x-1
    time.sleep(0.05)

#Add a brief time delay to appreciate what has happened
time.sleep(4)

#Complete the script by returning all the LED to off
pixels1.fill((0, 0, 0))

When I tried to open the runcommand.log, it didn't exist. Could it be by another name?

Thanks!

mitu

When I tried to open the runcommand.log, it didn't exist. Could it be by another name?

No, there's only one name and location - as in my previous post. Note that /dev/shm is memory backed, so if you rebooted the Pi, the contents are gone. You need to open the log file just after you launched a game (and it failed) in order to see the exact error after the launch.