Automatic volume control puts the kibosh on loud TV commercials

automatic-tv-volume-control

If you're having a hard time tuning out those loud commercials why not let your electronics project do it for you? This is an Arduino-based setup which adjusts television volume when it goes above a certain threshold. It uses a microphone, rather than a direct audio signal, so you can set it based on what is actually heard in the room. The control scheme uses the IR LED and IR receiver seen on … [Read more...]

Adding remote control to Klipsch surround system

adding-remote-control-to-surround-system

The speaker system [Zurcher] bought was made by Klipsch. It is a surround sound unit but it's intended to be used with a computer so there's no wireless remote for it. Instead, a wired unit sits on the desk and lets you select between the speakers or headphones, and has a volume adjustment knob. The thing is he uses them for his home theater system and had to add his own remote control hardware to … [Read more...]

Microcontroller based audio volume level compressor

avr_controlled_circuit_sm

In an effort listen to his music on shuffle without the need to touch the volume knob [Mike] build his own automatic volume leveling hardware. He knows what you're thinking right now: there's software to do that for you. But building the feature in hardware is a great stepping off point for a project. He started the prototype using LabVIEW along with a Mobile Studio development board and a Bus … [Read more...]

Keep all eyes on your kegerator with this light up gauge cluster

kegerator_gauge_cluster

A few years back [Evan] built a kegerator from a mini fridge and was quite happy with his new beer chiller. Like many of us do, he started thinking up ways in which he could improve the project as soon as it was completed. While it took a couple of years, he recently got around to adding the temperature and capacity gauges he always wanted. He added a temperature probe to the refrigerator, and … [Read more...]

Vigorous exercise keeps the tunes coming

Motion-Feedback-MP3-Player

There are cars that increase the radio volume as you drive faster, and video games that ramp up the music as your gameplay improves (we're looking at you SSX Tricky). Now you can add that feature to your workout with [Polymithic's] Motion Feedback MP3 Player. It uses a passive infrared sensor to detect motion so there's no need to wear any electronics. But if you used some Bluetooth headphones you … [Read more...]

Monitor Keg volume, CO2, and temp

keg_display

[Jean-Michel] tipped us off about his beer keg monitoring setup. It can tell you how much beer is left in each keg, how much carbon dioxide remains in the canister, and it can monitor and regulate temperature. An Arduino mega is the brain of the system. A shield was built to interface force sensors, measuring the weight of the keg to estimate how much beer remains. Analog temperature sensors … [Read more...]

Parts: DS1801 SPI audio volume potentiometer

ds1801

Dallas/Maxim's DS1801 is an audio volume potentiometer with a simple SPI interface. This chip has two channels of volume control that might be useful in a DIY audio project. We previously looked at the DS1807, a similar part with an I2C interface. This week we'll show you how to use the SPI version. … [Read more...]