# Trying to build an Ambilight



## A1tecice (Jun 1, 2010)

Hey there, 

I was recently looking at back lighting lights/LED's for behind monitors. and I came across a thing called Ambilight. I saw it and now im thinking I want to build one myself, But I am a novice when it comes to electronics but I do have a friend that is an electrician that will help me along the way. i just need if anyone can make some sense of the drawings and help me really. :grin:

Link to the item:
AmbilightUSB

Circuit Diagram:









Hardware: ATtiny44, 74HC595, 4 RGB leds, USB (HID from obdev)

Can anyone explain this to be in simple terms haha?

Thanks for reading!


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

Hi A1techice 


The ATtiny44 is a micro controller which is a surface mount Quad-Flat-No-Lead package type. This means that the microcontroler pins are soldered on top of the printed circuit board so there is more space to add more components. The micro controller is programmed in machine code which is written in assembler or C++. You will need the data sheet of the micro-controller to understand what the inputs and outputs of the pins do to program the microcontroller correctly or else you risk shut down or in some cases it goes up in smoke. 

The 74HC95 are 8 bit registers, registers are called arrays because they have fast memory. Think of it as box that has holds information that comes in one side and leaves the other. The output of the the registers are connected to your LED array, the register can send out the information from the micro controller in different ways. It could be sent out as parallel or serial. Parallel is when multiple inputs are used. Think of it as train tracks that are going in one direction, but the output of the register could be serial which means only one output is used or vice versa.


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