Building a VU meter for you multimedia PC

Step 5 Result

Does it look great ... or what ?

At the moment I have no idea what to do with the counter.
It can count up and it can count down. It can be reset to all zeros.

But what useful can be done with it? Should it count up steady? Should it display the typing rate of the keyboard? Should it display the number of unread emails? Should it be dark?

On the pictures it is displaying SOS ... but that is coincidence ...

Comments

[transeunte]

You could use the counter to show track time in M:SS format. :)

[Hycro]

That is a neat idea to use it as a track time counter, 'cept when you've got a track that goes over 9'59, then it might look strange on the display, or just look like the track started over.

[MasterChief1517]

You could use it to show what track # you're on....

[Hycro]

That would be a neat one...I've been wondering if there was a way to make your computer's time display on a VFD on the front panel or something...I seen one where the CPU and MoBo temp was displayed on an LCD on the front panel...I was going to modify an old back-lit digital watch to have its light always on, and be powered by my computer using the +5VSB on my power supply, and the light powered when the computer's on...but when the power goes out, I'd have to re-set the watch, and that would be tricky if it was behind my front panel, since it doesn't just pop off, it's held on by 6 screws, and I have to take half the case apart to take off the front panel, along with removing two hard drives.

[MasterChief1517]

Well, if you use a watch, power the back light by the power supply, but use the battery to power the watch itself. It'll last a very long time that way and you'll only have to pull it apart probably every few years. By the time it dies, I'd be willing to bet you've already got a new computer. Probably would be as simple as breaking some traces so the battery won't power the screen.

[Hycro]

Yea, I was thinking of that, and I'd probably keep using the same box for my computer, just change the motherboard when I need to use a quad core processor, and more than 4 GB of RAM...the board I got now can support an AMD Athlon 64 X2 and up to 4GB of RAM in two DDRII slots, it's good for what I use it for, but I did manage to get a game that requires a dual core processor to run on a single core processor, although I had to sacrifice graphics detail, and to exit the game, I have to select Exit from the menu, and then end the program with task manager, if I didn't select Exit first, I'd end up having to use my "magic red button" (it's actually the reset button, but I coloured it red...) Back to the box...it's pretty universal, 3 3.5" bays, 4 5.25" bays, 2 80mm fan mounting locations, 1 120mm fan, and 1 90mm fan, all case fans. I'll try to find a battery the correct physical size for the watch (I have many the correct voltage, which is 3V, but none the same diameter, all the ones I have are too big, and are back-up batteries for the CMOS memory for motherboards) and get it to work that way.

[frickelkram]

Hi together, very good ideas ... but this is a simple up/down counter. It can't display the time in M:SS format. A tracknumber can be displayed. The actual number has to be stored somewhere in the "driver" software because jumping from track to track can only be done by counting the differences up or down. An other solution could be to reset the counter and then count up the number to be displayed.

[zim_256]

This is rather old and maybe the hardware involved in this instructable was already trashed but anyways, you can connect the counter to the HDD led on the computer, make it count the times the LED lights up. Nothing really useful but it's better than having it show all 0's or nothing at all.

[frickelkram]

It is old ... in deed.
But the device is still alive ... unfortunately the pc where the device is built in is broken at the moment ... and still, shame on me, I have not implemented any of the nice ideas I got as feedback because I lost somehow interrest in it while the main functionality was working ...

[charlieb000]

the speed is not very fast so there is probably a capacitor that is too big somewhere... (to clarify, it mostly stays around the same level, except for drum beats)