Sync music with Leds

[rudster]

hi,

Is there a way i can use the arduino to sync music with LEDS?
Like useing an aux cord.
Then i want to move on to hooking it up to this LED table me and my friend made, then try it with the speakers on my car.



Any help would be appreciated, thank you

[pm6041141]

Well the answer is yes but, you should give more deets.

[rudster]

i wanted to know the proper way to build a circuit for it.
I found a diagram from audioguru he made this

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/attachments/electronic-projects-design-ideas-reviews/8266d1149690102-leds-sync-music-led-music-pulses-layout.png
would this circuit alone cover all the LEDs i want?

[pm6041141]

I don't know how many LED's you have, or if they have to be on all the time or if they blink a bit.

Maybe, start with blinking ONE LED to the music. Maybe the pin 13 one on board then worry about the full table.

[Entropy]

i wanted to know the proper way to build a circuit for it.
I found a diagram from audioguru he made this

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/attachments/electronic-projects-design-ideas-reviews/8266d1149690102-leds-sync-music-led-music-pulses-layout.png
would this circuit alone cover all the LEDs i want?

It depends on a lot of things. A circuit like that connected to one of the ADC pins of an Arduino would allow you to react to the music, but it depends on what you want to do.

Do you want brightness to just be proportional to volume? Then the circuit above would be sufficient on its own (possibly with some buffering for lots of LEDs).
Do you want something else to react to volume? (like lights chasing for each beat maybe) - The circuit above could be wired to an ADC input, and you could have code that did "something" with that ADC input
Fancy tricks 1 - With a bunch of bandpass filters, you could have frequency-dependent interactions
Fancy tricks 2 - If you just have certain music you'd like to sync to, you can prepropgram a light sequence that matches the music. This is how the people that do computer-controlled Christmas light displays usually do things.
Fancy tricks 3 - Have software on a PC that produces DMX-512 output in reaction to music, and build a bunch of DMX-512 lighting devices. (This is my current project for the year, with the final goal being computer-controlled Christmas lights.)

[uhe]

Fancy tricks 3 - Have software on a PC that produces DMX-512 output in reaction to music, and build a bunch of DMX-512 lighting devices. (This is my current project for the year, with the final goal being computer-controlled Christmas lights.)

Nice, I'm trying something similar with CAN and RGB power LEDs.
Also controlable with software on a PC but a hardware controller with soundinput would be much nicer

[rudster]

Entropy,
im doing what you first said, i just want the LEDS to go with mainly the bass of the music and brightness pr-optional to the volume.
I might not even need the arduino,i just thought it would be easier. I'm pretty new to all this by the way.
I was thinking how would i power 172 LEDS with an aux. It took me 36v to power it useing (4) 9V batteries.
I also need to find a way to use an outlet to power it up. im guessing for that all i need is a fuse?
any advice would help appreciate it guys

[Entropy]

36V is a bit of an odd voltage to find these days.

If you rewire your LED strings such that they'll run off of 24VDC, Circuit Specialists has a nice cheap 24v power supply - http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9590

[rudster]

Is there more a direct way, like how Christmas lights just plug in without a power supply

[Entropy]

Is there more a direct way, like how Christmas lights just plug in without a power supply

LED Christmas lights have enough LEDs in series per strand (usually 25-35) that the forward voltage is high enough to just use a dropping resistor and a basic rectifier without the dropping resistor have too much power.

That is to say, the way they're designed, the power supply requirements are so simple that the power supply can be fit into the plug at the end of the strand.

Dimming AC strands presents its own challenges - it can't be done using the hardware PWM in a microcontroller, it has to be done using software PWM that is synchronized to the AC zero crossings. In general, you have to be VERY careful when messing with AC directly. That $20 24v power supply allows you to work with LED strands in a MUCH safer fashion.

[rudster]

hmmm, i have a spare computer power supply, would that work fine? just add up the voltage?

[Entropy]

hmmm, i have a spare computer power supply, would that work fine? just add up the voltage?

Well it might work if you rewired your strands for 12v, but at that point you'd have to control a decent amount of current. Also a lot of PC power supplies don't like uneven rail loading. (e.g. running lots off of 12v but nothing on other lines.)

That 24v power supply from CSI is really cheap. If you live in a country other than the USA you can probably find a similar deal elsewhere.

[Muzlight]

No one is probably still working on this issue since 2010 but in case you have been I think I have a solution. Take an audio output and run it through the Muzlight board. The output can connect to any array of RGBA leds. So far I've only put up videos of one light shining into an obelisk shape but there could be any array of LED's with the same controller. Check it out its www.muzlight.com The video is right at the bottom of the front page. Make sure you have a good internet connection because if it skips around you won't be able to see the syncing of the music to the light.