Music LED Light Box

Step 7 Finishing up

We've now got all the parts we need. All we need to do now is put the bottom part into the cube to make it a whole cube.

1. Use the glue gun again to put the connector for the adapter right behind the hole. Tip: Plug the cable in before gluing. This way the connector will always be on the right spot.

2. Sand the sides of the bottom plate so it fits snugly into the bottom. You just want the bottom plate slightly bigger then the hole it fits in. This way, once you put it in there, it will get stuck and won't let go while moving the cube. We won't glue the bottom, in case we need to open it for some reason. So make sure the bottom fits in tight.


That's it!!
Now plug everything in and put your music on max and enjoy!

You can change this project as much as you like. Use any LED's you want, create the box that fits the best on your desk, etc. You can also build the cube from my previous instructable.

I used photoshop to show you how different colors would look like (photo 7).

I tried to make this instructable the way so everyone can understand it. I'll try to answer them all. If you want to make one and get stuck, we'll try to get through it together.
If you have any questions please don't be shy and let me know.

Comments

[G3orge26]

Hello .... well i have to say that this is epic ... however led are quite ennoying in terms of positioning so i made this using led tape :DD and i have an important question to ask..... are you ready ?? :| is there any way to make this so that the really bass notes play ,say, in red color and the more light notes play in white color .. ?? ( sorry if this is hard to understand but i can't explain it better ...)
what im trying to say is that the colors of this box range between white and some other color .... :P

[MayExplode]

If you want that I recommend this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubQC839Pvqk :3 hope that helps

[akinich]

thanks for that
it was what i was looking for!!!! :)

[ARGMISTER]

It would require and amplifier/filter. easiest way is to just hook these up to a surround sound with the input signals for one string of leds coming from the subwoofer and 1 string of leds for the speakers.

[bridgersjosh]

HI, could you tell me if this is possible, how can you make this so you can have a switch were you can select music mode soild color or not on at all and be able to select wich one you wanted, is this possible? thanks!

[ARGMISTER]

Use the wiring diagram in this instructable to have it switch between constant on and flash with music. I dont think you can have not at all, maybe a 3 position switch?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Blinking-leds/#step1

[FTWhitledge]

If I were to use a molex from the power supply of my PC at 12v, I could do this with that correct? I would just have to watch the amperage if I were to string a bunch in parallel right?

[arjoun]

when I plug the jack is working properly mias led the pa probe as I do for the LED and sounds foction ensenmble?? I want to answer plzzzzzz

[kiler01]

i jsut finished mine, but i have a bit of a problem: it only works on pc and when the wound is turned on to max. if i try it on something liek a psp it wont light up. how to increase sensitivity?

[Never_Quit]

Implement audio amp IC. LM386N can work up to 12 volts.

[astchur]

nope wont work i used the same logic. the lm 386 requires a negative voltage so instead of ground you need 2 voltage source. one is a positive 12 volts. one is negative 12 volts. and also 90% of the time transformers are more than12 volts so that chip will fry...i have the burn mark on my finger to prove it lol

[Pengwin3]

if you use fewer LEDs, then you will get a brighter light. for example, i have mine running off of a 9v battery, so i only use 4 LEDs set up in series. you could make it a series-parallel circuit too, if you want. that will let you get the same amount of light for less power.

[duggerpato]

Nice! It was a bit squirrely at first, but they work. Funny thing, I unplugged the power supply and the speaker source kept on flashing them anyways. Guess I didn't need the power supply after all. Must be because my LEDs are much lower intensity than this instructable.

[raymondlowe]

Same here, I put it together fine (thanks motadacruz) and it was a bit dim, tried to add another transistor to amplify but couldn't make that work (just ended up being random). Went back to original plan and it was fine as long as the music was very loud.


I used the led array wizard to calculate:

14v Source voltage
3.2 diode forward voltage
25 diode forward current (mA)
4 number of LEDs in your array

Solution 0: 4 x 1 array uses 4 LEDs exactly
+----|>|----|>|----|>|----|>|---/\/\/----+ R = 56 ohms

The wizard says: In solution 0:
each 56 ohm resistor dissipates 35 mW
the wizard says the color code for 56 is green blue black
the wizard thinks ¼W resistors are fine for your application
together, all resistors dissipate 35 mW
together, the diodes dissipate 320 mW
total power dissipated by the array is 355 mW
the array draws current of 25 mA from the source.

Then I unplugged the power supply (14v wall wart) and it basically didn't change, exact same brightness. LEDs I used were a discount back of 3mm leds from eBay.

Puzzled but it works!

[khris91]

Random sugestion: Up the Bass volume on the music player.

The base is what provides the most power in the sound, and is in turn what makes the LED's flash. So if you up the base it should up the power.

On another note, when I was assembling my array I noticed too that the LED's grew dimmer when you added more to them. I recommend buying another transister and dividing the sets of 3 leds up among the two.

If you have any more questions email me at [e-mail]

Good luck!

-Khris

[duggerpato]

Yeah, well, I cut the power cord off and put the two wires together, and it don't work. Funny. It worked with a power cord, plugged in or not, but when I took the power cord off and completed the circuit, it didn't like it. Go figure...

[dtompkins22]

noob question but, how can you hear the music if the audio jack goes straight into, for example, an ipod?

[khris91]

Basically what Luong said.

BUT! If you really want to get creative what I did was I took a female audio jack port and I just attached the wires to where the other jack port was and there you go! Just attach your speakers to it and it should play just the same as a splitter and looks cleaner too in my opinion.

-Khris

[luong55]

All you need is an audio jack splitter!

[ayushgarg]

hey i m doing the same way but just using 2 9v batteries...

I m bit confused abt how to connect the 3.5mm jack... when i open that wire i hv 2 bluish wires nd 1 red-brown wire... which one is what ...??

[ayushgarg]

hey i m doing the same way but just using 2 9v batteries...

I m bit confused abt how to connect the 3.5mm jack... when i open that wire i hv 2 bluish wires nd 1 red-brown wire... which one is what ...??

[olegmilosevic]

Dude how to make two light boxes with a different flash!

[Jujumagumbo]

Ok so i did everything, checked the wires and everything is connected to the right places, but when i plug it into my music source, whether it be my laptop or ipod, the lights turn on but dont flash to the beat. I am using four 2.8V LEDs and a 12V AC adapter, please help! thanks.

[motadacruz]

Don't you have a bigger picture? I really can't see how you've hooked up everything on that small thumbnail.

[Jujumagumbo]

Hopefully these are better. Thanks for the quick response btw and the help, really appreciate it, im making this for my friends birthday, which is soon!

[motadacruz]

It's still pretty hard to see the details of the wiring. On the blue spot I highlighted with a circle, looks kinda messy there. Are you sure no wires is touching the wrong one or another? And on the red circle highlight, what is that grey/silver wire? Also, are you sure the black on is the ground from your jack?

[PhantomGamer]

The GREY wire is the RIGHT channel I believe and the BLACK is ground. So you inadvertently wired Ground to the Positive side of the cirtuit. Remove the GREY wire and move the Black to the EMITTER (right pin) of the transister and the cirtuit should work.
Lance

[Jujumagumbo]

The silver wire, i believe is the ground wire, and the black one i believe is either the right or left of the audio cable, however it is not connected to anything it might just look like it in the picture, while the red is the other audio strand(right or left).

[motadacruz]

I don't remember black wires coming out of an 'Audio Jack' cable. What kind of audio jack is that, where did you get it from? I've seen examples of audio jacks with a black wire, but that were jackas with 4 cables inside (red, white, green and black). If thats a cable you've used, then you should attach the black cable, because thats the ground in a 4 wires jack cable.

[Jujumagumbo]

its a "3-ft. shielded audio cable" from radio shack with 3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo male, i just tried switching the red n black wires, with no change. There are a total of 3 wires within the audio cable a black wire, a red wire, and a unsheathed silver wire.

[motadacruz]

I'm kind of out of ideas mate. If that's a TIP31, it's should work like that. Maybe you can try a different audio wire? In the beginning I remember having problems getting it to work withouth finding the problem. All I did after many tries was building it over from scratch, just started over. And in the end, after rebuilding it, I had it working. What the problem was in the beginning I still don't know. Also I used a breadboard. Thats a bit easier to work with and you can see better what your doing.

[Jujumagumbo]

ok, thanks very much for the help, ill let you know if i can get it to work.

[motadacruz]

Just an extra note, maybe this instruction video can help you out. This guy was so kind to create a walkthrough for the circuit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TUYNuh-iqQ

[Jujumagumbo]

Yea son! i just resoldered everything and now it works, beast, ill try to post a video when its finished, thanks again for the instructable and the help man, very cool!

[motadacruz]

You're welcome dude. Good to hear you've got it working.

[tezza321]

Wouldnt it be also possible to put audio output on the box with the following method:- Items needed - 3.5mm male to female audio cable, take your 3.5mm male to female take the male end off and wire it to the same areas as the guide states above and the loose wire you didnt use (if you used the left wire it would be the right one and opposite) and wire it direct to the new audio output. edited the diagram to show this dunno if it works just an idea.

[Jackson4521]

I am in the process of thinking of the same thing now, I think i have it figured out. I woundn't know till I try it though.

[Gouthaman Raveendran]

How could you make each light react to different frequencies in the music? Say you have a full set of nine lights, 3 were red, 3 were yellow and the 3 were green. The reds would react to low freqs and the yellow would react to mids, etc. I figured this would require 3 setup, each with its own transistor but if I had a good power source, like a computer PSU I wouldn't need to find a crazy AC>DC adapter. When it comes to selecting frequencies I'm stuck, would I use capacitors or resistors? Or neither?! :|

[B4SEC4MP]

You are looking for frequency filters. High pass, low pass, and band pass filters to be specific. Wikipedia has a lot of good information for you there. You'll be using different capacitors and inductors to create the filters. Here is another good link to help you determine specific values for your capacitors and inductors depending on what frequencies you want to block.

http://crutchfield.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2258

Be sure to do the math before you start throwing these circuits together. It seems like other users are having problems because they didn't calculate the voltage, resistance and amperage required for their circuits.

[kendrick1397]

i have a question, do i need to use AC or DC current?