I’m looking at getting a BlinkStick Flex, I just wanted to check before buying one that it supports the same ambilight mode as the BlinkStick Pro, if so how do you enable this?
Thanks!
Hey Ryan,
BlinkStick Flex IS a BlinkStick Pro. The only difference is, that Flex has an extension API to control the number of LEDs.
I hope this is the info you need.
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That’s exactly the information I was looking for!
Thank you very much for your reply, I thought it was a modified BlinkStick Pro but wanted to make sure before ordering one, knowing this means I have now ordered one!
Thank you again.
Hi Ryan,
In theory you can use BlinkStick Flex for ambilight, however the output power of LEDs is limited in order not to draw more than 500 mA from USB port. I have a proper ambilight product in the works. Should be available early next year.
Arvydas
Argh, right. Forgot the brightness calculation, just remembered the important note somewhere on your page…
So if you buy the flex with the 32 LEDs you´re not able to turn all LEDs on at the same time with full brightness… not the very best basis for an ambilight. 
The USB port is externally powered through mains with a max power output of 900mAh so drawing too much power from the port is not a problem, is the output limiting a hardware setup or software configuration?
I’ve got one on the way now so I shall try it out and see how well it works, even if it isn’t as good as I was hoping I’m sure I will be able to find a project to use the Flex in and shall eagerly anticipate news on the ambilight product, I will be closely following!
Thank you both again,
Ryan
Output limiting is hardware based. There is no way to disable it. Even with output power limiting it’s still quite bright! 
How many LEDs can the Flex run at 100% white before things start get scaled back? How about the pro, which supports 196 LEDs? Is there a way to feed the pro extra power to assist what it gets from USB?
Only 8 LEDs. Pro can run all LEDs at full brightness with external power supply. Here you can find more details:
https://www.blinkstick.com/help/tutorials/blinkstick-pro-adafruit-neopixel-strips
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Hi,ime confused,it says flex can run 32 leds,mine only runs 8 on 10 brightness,dont uynderstand why,ive 24 ring connected,makes me wonder if the wrong firmware is on it,like blinkstick strip? any help will be great.
Can the ampage be implemented in future when standalone software is finished,like when blinkstick is able to flash patterns when pluged into power banks and an option for 1 amp 2.1 amp and standard usb 500mah,i think this would be great then we can use more leds etc more brightness.
In mirror mode (mode 3) you can control 8 LEDs. Switch to mode 2 to control more than 8 LEDs.
ime using blinkstick cliant 2.0 cr3 and its only giving me option 2 and its on 2 but still only 8 leds light up,it shows up as flex.
It shows as 32 leds and the picture of the blinkstick flex with the led strips flashes to the number of leds i choose but only 8 leds show,ive tryed differant strips too.
wow my blinkstick cliant crashed when i selected 32 leds in flex in the test mode,and the box poped up saying blinkstick cliant has crashed,but the box multiplyed into like hundreds or somthing,i had to just reset my pc,ime going to uninstall it and do fresh install of cliant to see if it fixes it.,it seems there is a bug with blinkstick flex only 8 leds supported in multiple led mode and no mirror suport eather.
A quick fix for that is to unplug the Flex from your computer then change the number of LEDs in the test mode to 31 and save it. That should stop it from crashing constantly.
If you’re wondering why, it’s because that whilst the Flex has 32 LEDs the program counts from 0 upwards so when you input 32 it tries to assign a colour to a non-existent 33rd LED which produces the out of bounds parameter error you see.
my flex only lights up 8 max,it shows 32 but i only get 8 and i cant change mode it seems it only can use multi leds.
Tried it yesterday with a Flex and the last version of the BlinkStick Client and it works as expected with 32 LEDs. I guess the device is internally still in mode 3 … Have you played around with python and set-mode with this device? What if you are on the first page in the Client clicking one LED after another and set it to some color. Does this work?
hi yes i can set color on first page,only up to 8 but it shows 32 on first page,in the picture of the strips,even if i set 32 leds to flash all leds in the pic flash but only 8 on my flex,its like it has wrong firmware,but the right eeprom,i wonder if its got strip firmware on it,
i was thinking of trying python,i got python working the other day with pro but not flex,ime still learning how to use python,ile have a play with it today.