Depending on the music you’re listening to, watching a VU meter bounce to the music is always a good time. So why not integrate the VU meter right into the audio source? That’s what [Matikas] did, and it’s pretty fantastic.
He started with a pair of speakers he had and picked up some NeoPixel LED strips. Carefully wrapping the LED strips around the inside circumference of each speaker, the LEDs fit behind the speaker grills, giving it a cool effect when they’re on.
To control the LEDs, he’s using an Arduino Uno (Atmega328p) which measures the audio level in order to modulate the LED output. A bit of software later (shared on GitHub if you’re interested!) and the VU meters were ready for action — check it out!
As far as VU meters go, we can’t forget this awesome giant-water-tube-VU-display-of-madness.
Pretty Cool !
We too built a far-less finished version that does both FFT and VU at our hackerspace. It would detect a high content in the bass band and light up the strip. WS2812’s are awesome!
Check the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV4zOYUQKfM
I built something similar to this, oh about 20 years or so ago using individual LEDs and a 10 LED driver IC and some resistors. It looked good, but not as good as this.
Me too. I think I used a TL071 opamp as a buffer to scale the speaker level input, then into a 10 LED bargraph driver. I played around with getting the audio to charge a capacitor to power it (replacing the AA batteries I was using), but that never quite worked before I lost interest.
Hi,
Can you tell us the Adafruit Catalog number for the LED strip? Or other source/Info??
THANKS!
Regards, Terry King
…In The Woods in Vermont, USA
terry@yourduino.com
Terry, it’s the Neopixel strips. I advise getting them via fleabay to save quite a bit
Thanks Arsenio and Blownupp!
Arsenio, may I abstract from your site and information for http://ArduinoInfo.Info ? We get 12000 hits a day there and this is a great example project.
Other: I will ask my partner in Shenzhen to try to find a good price on the strips and I’ll try to stock them in USA also.
I need to look at the Eagle files…
My Son is teaching 5th grade in Vietnam this year and has asked about a project to show the noise level in his classroom. I would like to make a version based on your work that adds an averaging function (maybe 1 or 2 minute average) and displays it as a 1 meter long pointer driven by a servo, with a typical VU meter DB (VU) scale. The LEDs would be a short-term average, maybe. Hmmm…
Back in Ancient History I designed Radio Stations and Recording Studios, consoles, filters etc. So this is Forward to The Past for me…
Regards, Terry King
…In The Woods in Vermont, USA
terry@yourduino.com
To expand on what Arsenio said, check out this seller (http://www.ebay.com/usr/3d3dinteractive) – you want the WS2812 LED strips. I’ve bought from him numerous times and he’s quick, reliable and professional. They might not be up riht now, but he sells 4 meter, 60 led/m strips for $29.99 which is just about the lowest price you’ll find anywhere, and he ships from USA. Send him a message asking for an invoice for the 4m WS2812 for $29.99
You can get the same exact product from Adafruit, only they sell them at Adafruit for $35 per meter!
You can also get it directly from the chinese manufacturer via Aliexpress. Cheaper and free shipping, but you wait longer.
Hi, these exact strips were used for the project:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1461#tutorials
Just don’t buy cheap chineese WS2812 strips as they are very sensitive for static electiricity. Tried those before making this VU meter and it were not working even when connected them for the first time.
i have 2 meters of cheapo chinese ws2812 strips that work fine and another 15 meters of ws2811. they work fine. some sellers are just more dodgy than others.
Pretty sure they just buy them and repackage them in most cases
Sure, for this VU meter this was used: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1461#tutorials
SO, way back in the 70’s they did the same thing. They basically created a light organ powered by the audio amp out from within the speaker cabinet. The speaker had a clear plastic cone and depending on the intensity and frequency the lights would vary in color and brightness.
Like this but the lights were behind the cone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4lmiYTVZFU
It’s cool looking!
Not in a bad way at all but yeah it reminds me of color organs and all the cheesy lighting stuff you used to be able to get at Spencer Gifts back when they had day-glow Led Zeppelin posters in the back a long long time ago…
…long time.
I made something similar but with the VU metered sandwiched in the speaker body: http://youtu.be/2brEllxtH54
looks cool! It would be great to see the full build in more light.
Please buy the cheapest strips you can find and then use the time effort and money adafruit puts into publishing specs, code and tutorials.
I’m sure Adafruit knows that goes with the territory! I write http://ArduinoInfo.Info and lots of specs and how-to for http://YourDuino.com . With 12000 hits a day they are mostly NOT customers, but that’s fine. I’m glad people are learning stuff. I do answer questions from people who bought stuff on ebay or dx.com, but at a lower priority if things are busy.
I believe information should be free. Hardware is Hardware….
Regards, Terry King
…In The Woods in Vermont, USA
terry@yourduino.com
I have Build a wooden VU meter (material from disposal) and it’s running a modified version of the Firmware within this project. Look at: https://wiki.hackerspace-bielefeld.de/WS2812B_VUmeter