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Build your own LTMT

No it's not a Lettuce, Tomato, Mutton, & Turkey Sandwich. It's a Light's To Music Tin.

So what does this really do? It flashes a LED to the high volumes of music. It is a EXTREMELY simplified version of the other light to music or dancing lights circuits that exist. Special thanks to: Awang8 for letting me that I didn't describe what this did.

This is how to build one If anything doesn't make sense please let me know. I'm try to keep my instructables so everybody can understand them. One down side of this is on an iPod the volume has to turned all the way up for it to work. So it's the best for listening to music through a pair of speakers.

If You Have Any Questions, Comments & Suggestions Please Post Them!

LTMT Demo video.MOV29 MB

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Step 1Stuff You Need:

What you need to Get the Job Done

Parts:

1x 5mm LED Any Color
1x 2n2222 NPN Transistor or other general switching transistor
1x 220 Ohm resistor (Red, Red, Brown)
2x 3.5mm Female Audio Jack
1x AA battery holder
1x Mint Tin (Altoids, Eclipse, any thing that will hold 2 AA battery's)
Wire

Tools: (No Pictures)

Soldering iron & Solder
Drill
Drill Bits
Wire strippers/Wire cutters

Not Needed but Helpful Tools:

Round Metal File
Uni-bit
Helping Hand
Multimeter

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31 comments

Mar 17, 2012. 9:47 PMTacticalTrumpet says:

What is this?
It looks cool but I want to know for sure what it does.

Jul 16, 2010. 6:22 PMtomtortoise says:

yo can i make this with one headphone jack, replace the light with a speaker, and use a nine volt battery to make an amplifier?

Feb 5, 2012. 11:10 AMvadipp says:

Yes, but it would be a _very_ bad quality one.

Jun 5, 2011. 8:00 PMqwerty156 says:

Could anyone please anwser this?
It would be very help full

Aug 14, 2011. 4:43 PMdarockerj says:

is there a way to have the led be on the inside of the tin? i wanted to put an image on top and have it shine through at a certain point.

Jul 5, 2011. 7:55 AMsephiroth67 says:

That all seems to fit pretty perfectly, well done!

May 15, 2010. 2:19 PMLuciusDeRais says:

I have tried with this (www.ic-on-line.cn/IOL/viewpdf/2N2222A_287463.htm) that i have taken at shool, but the uotput tension from mine iPod is not wnough. Can you help me?

Thanks and sorry for my bad English. (I'm Italian)

Jan 31, 2010. 8:39 PMcdousley says:

Why? IF your not buying a project box at least use an altoids tin

Nov 20, 2009. 11:22 AMTZENOV(new) says:

It works man thanks for the good explanation of things! In fact I use 2 LEDs and it works well!;)

Mar 29, 2009. 8:41 PMbounty1012 says:

Lol how would you fit all that on a sandwich?

Mar 29, 2009. 8:49 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

Carefully. :-D

Mar 29, 2009. 9:19 PMbounty1012 says:

lol...

Mar 9, 2009. 3:26 AMartcobain says:

can i make it multiple leds?

Mar 9, 2009. 6:46 AMcomputergeek (author) says:

Yes, just wire the LED's in parallel. If you use a 9v battery you need a resistor between the positive end of the LED's and the positive end of the battery. (The resistor is need is needed even if you only have one led)

Mar 9, 2009. 7:08 PMartcobain says:

i will show you my project when im done

Mar 9, 2009. 10:03 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

Cool

Mar 28, 2009. 7:56 AMartcobain says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4mQU8ZgPQ

heres my vid!!!

Mar 28, 2009. 10:24 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

That's Cool!

Mar 29, 2009. 4:10 AMartcobain says:

thanks

Mar 9, 2009. 7:01 PMartcobain says:

thanks for that, i will dhow my project when i'm done

Dec 18, 2008. 2:49 AMawang8 says:

Ok, so I finally stopped being embarassed about asking this question... What does a LTMT even do?

Dec 18, 2008. 8:11 AMcomputergeek (author) says:

I kind of designed it to be a very simplified form of the other Lights to music or dancing lights circuits on this site and the web. It makes a great beginning electronics project. Don't be embarrassed I didn't really explain what it does. Thanks for catching that.

Dec 6, 2008. 11:26 PMduck-lemon says:

Are you by any chance from NZ or AU because if you were from America or Britan you would most likely be using an altoids tin given that is a commonly used housing in this 'ere websiteamatron, just saying.

Dec 7, 2008. 6:39 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

I'm in the US. I used this because I only had 1 Altoids (Myntz) tin and I wanted to save it for when I needed the extra room.

Nov 27, 2008. 5:12 PMArbitror says:

Dont you think thats an awfully big tin case thing for that little electronics?

Nov 27, 2008. 10:25 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

Believe it or not there's not much room in it with the batteries in.

Dec 7, 2008. 1:27 AMawang8 says:

Yeah, for my Eclipse Torch (no Instructable) one I has to use AAAs cause I kinda got carried away putting fancy switches, massive LEDs ect. I could have stuffed AAs in there if I used just a plain old LED and a boring push-switch.

Dec 4, 2008. 1:46 AMawang8 says:

Do you need a 220ohm resistor or a 330ohm? It says 330ohm in the parts but in the photo it says 220ohm.

Dec 4, 2008. 8:40 AMcomputergeek (author) says:

It's 220 ohm. It doesn't really matter what you use. If you have a breadboard i would suggest trying different resistors out. Thanks for catching that.

Dec 1, 2008. 12:19 PMtomasys says:

nice one... but there should be a way to make it work without having to max the volume

Dec 1, 2008. 1:19 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

Thanks You might be able to run it through something like an op-amp. Another thing that might work is to put a resistor between the collector and base, but I didn't test it.