01a.jpg

My original LED light cube got allot of reactions. Some of them where about making the LED's react to music. This did sound very interesting and I found some instructables on here.
Unfortunately I found it very hard to understand those instructables. In my opinion they weren't explained well enough and even some circuits weren't correct.

That's why I though I build one and make an instructable of it. I tried to make this instructable so easy, that everyone with or without any experience can make one!

If you make one, don't forget to share your end result photos and movies with us.

Below you'll see the end result of my Music LED Light Box.

The movie is shot with my Canon Digital Camera, in the dark. My camera can't handle the fast switching between light and dark very well. In reality the effect is even nicer then on the video.



Before people go asking who's music or what songs these are in this video, these beats are made by my brother.  :)
You can visit his website www.motabeatz.com or  YouTube channel for more information and songs.

 
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Step 1: Materials & Tools

02.jpg
To make this Music LED Light Box you can use many different things and build it different ways.
In this instructable I'll explain how I made it, a very simple way.

Materials
- 12v Adapter (a battery can be used as well)
- 3.5 jack headphone cable.
- tip31 transistor (this is the key to the whole project) - $0.50
- 5mm LED's (the color or amount is totally up to you, 1 LED per 3v. I used 12v, so 4 LEDs) - $0.28
- A4 acrylic sheet - 3mm thick (also known as 'plexiglass') - $2.00
- Fine sandpaper (I used 400) - $1.00
- Electrical Wire

If you see a price above, that means I bought it. The rest I just ripped of some old junk. The 12v Adapter was from an old wireless headphone and the 3.5 jack plug is from another old headphone.

Tools
- Jigsaw (also a Jeweler Saw can be used. But that's really hard to get straight lines)
- Glue Gun (hot glue, other glue to glue acrylic is possible)
- Drilling tool
- Solder tool (optional)
- Pen

Ones you've got this stuff you're ready to begin!


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tramont says: Apr 30, 2013. 4:03 PM
Hey you guys I did everything correctly but its still not working. Here's a pic of mine. I know its not the leds because they light up when I plug them up to a 12v source.Also thats a brand new tip31 and im using 8 Triple A batteries
DSC_1132[1].jpgDSC_1131[1].jpgDSC_1130[1].jpgDSC_1129[1].jpgDSC_1128[1].jpgDSC_1127[1].jpg
rfuzeman says: Apr 25, 2013. 7:18 PM
Can some one make a diagram of this project in parallel circuit not in series please
doodmang says: Apr 20, 2013. 9:18 PM
Either that or USB powered at least?...
doodmang says: Apr 20, 2013. 9:07 PM
Could you make this so that the 3.5mm jack is used as a power source? since headphones/earphones and some speakers do this and LEDs aren't very power intensive would it be possible?
Th4X says: Apr 18, 2013. 11:43 AM
Finished Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsuG48KyaKI
BrandonHall says: Apr 17, 2013. 3:31 PM
any ideas how to make this either a 120V (wall socket) adapter or have it powered off one battery because i have 6 strips of the LED's that you would get at Pep Boys that have their own 12V source per 2 strips i wanted to have it run off one battery and or a 120V socket please help? also i don't want to sacrifice brightness to the three sets
gtgm_110 says: Mar 19, 2013. 6:59 PM
How would you add a simple toggle switch on if you wanted that? I'm new to electronics and circuitry so thank you for the help.
bhallett in reply to gtgm_110Apr 15, 2013. 9:15 AM
just take one of the positives (or negatives) cut the wire and add the switch in between that cut wire kind of like a normal light switch just interrupt the power supply.
bhallett says: Apr 15, 2013. 9:12 AM
is there a way to attach 6 12v strips of the walmart led flex lights to one power source with out blowing out the first line and having it run off one two or three tips help!!!
joey674 says: Apr 13, 2013. 11:33 PM
I'm not entirely clear on the instructions. Can someone help? The instructions say we need a 12v battery in the circuit design. However, when demonstrating if it works he seems able to connect an audio jack to where the 12v battery should be.
erikassxx says: Apr 12, 2013. 12:23 PM
will its work for my if i will use LED line of 6 LED
ThaXified says: Mar 14, 2013. 2:45 AM
Just Finished Mine!, Instead of placing the LEDS in Series i placed them PARALELL
and i got an NPN Transistor instead of TIP31 because! this transistor works with 2 AA Batteries! so its 3V and i got the same Results! less Power MORE MAH!

-Upgraded it with 2 Speakers! so its now a Acrylic Plexiglass box with Speakers and Leds Syncing on the Rythm of the music!

Motadacruz, just tell me if u want to see my video and what do you think about it.

Peace.
AptPupil in reply to ThaXifiedApr 11, 2013. 8:25 PM
Hey, I'd like to see it! :)
Zenoah1 says: Apr 5, 2013. 12:01 PM
If one wants to use one led (one for each ear) with a headphone, which transistor other than the TIP31 should work? I tried a 2N3904 but that doesn't seem to work...
nerd7473 says: Apr 1, 2013. 11:03 AM
Well done and I like the music
ndelic says: Mar 10, 2013. 5:54 PM
Can be TIP48??
Aroo says: Feb 26, 2013. 11:12 PM
i built an 11LED setup (3v @ 20ma each) in parallel with a 100ohm resistor on each connected to a 4.5v power source. currently they slightly flicker but are always on when plugged in, is there any way to fix this?
njørgensen says: Feb 26, 2013. 4:09 AM
Hi guys. I'm building a portable soundsystem, and i want some lights on it. I'm thinking of using this guide to get some flashing. I was wondering it this circuit will work? It's 20 LED blurbs with some resistors. I have mainly 2 questions. Which resistors should i choose, i red someting about 1 ohm resistors, is this correct? Can i connect the TiP31 to the loudspeaker, with the red (+??) wire and the black (-??)(ground??) wire? Or can you only connect is by the jack stick? Overall, will this circuit work? Thank you for your help..

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1500/lyspaanlg.png
Laiman says: Feb 20, 2013. 8:53 AM
I have got a chain light of 4v lights powered by 230v, with no small circuitry whatsoever. How can I join these two ideas together? The led box based on tip31 transistor and the chain light. Is it possible and if yes how?
nfinch1992 says: Feb 11, 2013. 9:48 PM
Nice build
golddigger1559 says: Feb 1, 2013. 8:51 AM
would i be able to make a smaller circuit, running off of a 9v? and are there any other transistors that are compatible?
tgrant6 says: Jan 12, 2013. 7:42 AM
uhm
lauren152 says: Jan 10, 2013. 3:42 PM
I used a splitter and plugged one end into a speaker so it works fine for now.
lauren152 says: Jan 10, 2013. 2:41 PM
i have done everything you did except i cut the adapter cord and attached it to the led and tip35, everything works perfectly except when i plug it in i cannot hear music coming from my computer or phone or anything. what am i doing wrong?

lee.debono says: Jan 4, 2013. 8:36 PM
Would this setup work regardless of the volume setting sent through?

Lets say I have my stereo to Volume 10, and the lights are on constantly. But if I have it on volume 7 it works perfectly.

Now would this be the case for this setup or would I have to add or do something totally different?

What I am looking at doing is instead of an aux in cable, I wire it directly to my Subwoofers speaker cable inputs (coming from a car amp) which would in turn receive the signal from my amp. However I want it to always be at the optimum input level. Only thing I can think of (and not in electronic terms) is a limiter of some sort.

So regardless of how high the input is, I can tune it to a point with a dial that it will always work at that level (unless it is a very low volume which is fine anyway).
Mohan Miglani says: Jan 3, 2013. 9:03 PM
i was thinking that i should join a portable speaker with it and the speaker has a recharge able battery and instead of using 12 volts i should use 9v Ni-MH battery and 3 leds pls respond
hunner808 says: Jan 3, 2013. 3:24 PM
here are my pictures..thank you
3.jpg2.jpg1.jpg
hunner808 says: Jan 3, 2013. 3:20 PM
hi so i got it to light up when i plug it into my latptop but the light stays on and it does not flash to the beats. there is also a humming noise. is there anything i did wrong? please help this is a very important gift..thank you
jjklocke says: Dec 28, 2012. 8:37 PM
Where did you get your plexiglass? I am having a hard time finding it that cheap. Thanks for the instructable. I am going to build this for my young daughters. We like to have dance parties!
ctrejo1 says: Dec 28, 2012. 7:31 PM
Will a tip42 work?
nizedude says: Dec 20, 2012. 9:43 PM
anyone made an eagle diagram out of this already ?
i wanted to make the pcb !
KruZeey says: Dec 7, 2012. 7:53 PM
I cut my apple earphones and it had a red really thin wire, a really thin goldish wire and two blue really thin wires what do i use
tylervitale in reply to KruZeeyDec 12, 2012. 8:46 PM
The gold wire is ground. The two others are the left and right positive leads. So, for hooking it up to a speaker, you would hook the ground wire up to the negative terminal, and the positive lead to the positive terminal. You would then do the same for the other speaker, replacing the red or green wire with the green or red wire, respectively.
kushal901 says: Dec 6, 2012. 9:54 AM
I have a set of LED lights that run through the mains at 240V (UK). Would it be possible to use this same set up on the negative wire? Would I need to use a different transistor?
nhan57 says: Nov 30, 2012. 5:23 PM
Hi i'm having a problem, can someone help me???
Having one TIP31c
I followed this picture but instead of using a battery I just use my arduino Diecimila powered on the USB and one led without resistor, but when I put the right wire of the jack and the ground of the right wire on the TIP31C sometimes it just turn on and keep the light or nothing appear and then when I start the music nothing is there...
please some ideas????
bswt says: Nov 25, 2012. 7:03 PM
i'm getting noise through my speakers what kine of cap should i use
Juulvb says: Nov 11, 2012. 5:46 AM
hey
i have build this system and it works perfectly when i plug it in on my radio
but if i plug it in on my iPod or amplifier it doesn't work. i used a multiplier and saw that my radio gave much more power. but i want i also on my iPod or amplifier.. how can i fix this?? (i'm sorry for my bad English, i'm dutch)
Dubular says: Nov 4, 2012. 1:12 PM
Would it be possible to extend this idea to a set of LED Christmas lights? I built a set of LEDs that pulse to music (about 52 I think...lots of soldering) so I know the idea behind this. I'm wondering if I couldn't just use the left stereo signal (my other lights use the right) and splice a transistor in right at the beginning of a set of lights that I plan on putting on my Christmas tree.
sagar.latti says: Oct 27, 2012. 12:31 PM
dear friends which device we should use to get the audio output.if i had connected the jack to my cellphone its showing not supported,and even if connected it to the laptop not able to hear the sound,and led's are not blinking,please anyone help me...
xxullixx says: Apr 17, 2012. 12:56 PM
Hi not much of electronica, but I was wondering if this circuit could work:

http://k45.kn3.net/D49190D80.gif
Building-the-circuit.jpg
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