Dynamic lighting can add an exciting level of immersion when implemented correctly and the Raspberry Pi is often the perfect vessel for adding more control over LED-focused projects. Today we’re looking at a clever creation shared to Reddit from maker Matthew Gregory who is using a Raspberry Pi to change the color of an LED strip depending on which profile is logged in on his PlayStation 5.
The project required the development of a custom application to both determine who is logged in at a given time as well as what color to set the ws2812b strip to. The app was written by Gregory and is designed to run on a Raspberry Pi Zero W. When a user signs in to a profile on the PlayStation, the LED colors change on the strip. If multiple users log in, colors appear along the strip corresponding with the currently accessed profiles.
The LEDs are individually addressable NeoPixels and require a capacitor on the 5V line to ease stress on the first LED. A resistor is also required for the data pin to avoid any potential damage to the GPIO. Gregory opted to use a breadboard for the final implementation but it would be possible to solder the components together, as well.
The best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can recreate at home and Gregory was kind enough to share all of the code on GitHub. The Raspberry Pi pulls data from the PS5 using the PSN API. Gregory recommends reading through GitHub user Tustin’s profile for more details about accessing and interacting with the PSN API.
To see this project in action, check out Matthew Gregory’s official YouTube channel and be sure to follow him for more cool projects.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
