Music Flashing LED Bar

Ever seen the LED bars found at clubs or raves etc. ?

well we'll show you how to make a bar similar to those in an easy step by step instructable. All you need is a little bit of thinking and you can make this in any way you want. Ultimately this light bar is only a model and you can modify it in several different ways and even make it extremely extravagant. Like all of our instructables and videos, have fun and make it even better than us. We'll give you the ideas, ya'll make them better! 

Good Luck, With that said, lets begin this awesome project! if you want a step by step instructional video watch the video bellow, if not, go on to the first step.

Enjoy

Step 1 Getting the Supplies

You will need a couple of supplies for this project, most of which you can find on E-bay (if you need a cheap price) or your local hardware store or even laying around your house.

You will need a number of LED"s depending on how big, or how extravagant you want your light to be you will need more LED's you will use etc.

For our light we used,

28 -LED's with 4 different colors.
    - White =10
    - Blue = 3
    - Green = 3
    - Red = 4

28 -120 Ohm Resistors

54 - 1" x 1" square pieces of glass
   - we found these in a pack of 24 at Hobby Lobby for $3.99

You also need several pieces of speaker wire and jumper cables.

A 48" piece of wood, if you want the bar to be larger you would go out and buy a larger piece of wood.

For your tools you will need:

Dremmel Drill
1/16" Drill Bit
Soldering Gun
Metallic Paint

Surround Sound or speaker System :)

Comments

[yissa]

Hi, great video =) could you please explain how you connected the resistors and LEDs with the speaker!!! And if I could use instead of a sound system, for seperate speakers connected to an amplifier? Looking forward to a response =)

[tviskovic]

Do you have any sheme, if you have please post to comment.
Thanks!

[onlystatic]

thank you. i think this is project is a great way to start out learning of L.E.D.S. i honestly think alot of people are missing the point of its simplicity. its a great learning tool and i appreciate you guys at HM-Innovations taking the time and effort to post it. thanks guys, keep up the good work and keep projects like these coming.

[King Julien]

Is it really that easy? You just connect the led wires to the speaker wires?

[nodoubtman]

LED color's have a different intensity, you cannot put a same value of the resistor for each led?

THank YOu!
CYa!

[HM-Innovations]

You can use a resistor for the weakest LED and then the otherones shouldn't have a problem

[saif.mac]

in 1:30 minute in this video who is the name song ?

[HM-Innovations]

I completely forgot the name of the song, it was so long ago.

[saif.mac]

ok thnx man ;) this is awsome instructable i made it but it dont work can u give me a simple circuit

[gbmaster137]

how many volts should the leds be?

[hsarode1]

Look wat u have to do is select the input u r goin to put n then divide the number of LEDs u use by it
Example

Input. 9 v
No. Of LEDs 3
Voltage of led. 9/3 = 3
So ur led should be 3 v.

I am not 100% sure that it is correct.

[hsarode1]

Should we connect 1 resistor to 1 short leg and the other end of resistor to the long am i correct.

[dog digger]

No. One resistor per LED. Connect it to the shorter lead or the longer lead. Your choice

[ctheodorou]

that bar is only 48 in long? it looks way bigger

[fastcar123]

Could you connect one resistor from the speaker and then wire a parallel circuit of LEDs from that or will it not work that way?

[MARSHALLLP]

where i can get that last song, sounds like an amazing remix! What is the title?
Also GREAT instructable, i really wanna try building this one

[Steeps5]

You did mean to say 1.5" squares of glass correct? I would say 0.5" squares of glass are awfully small.

[HM-Innovations]

1" by 1" good catch!

[bkeaton]

I don't think it is necessary to open up your speaker enclosures and solder anything to the speakers in order to connect this light bar to your sound system. Why not simply tap into your sound system right where the speakers themselves attach? The speakers attach either via a spring clip or screw terminals. The only way this would not work is on some of the less expensive systems where the speaker wiring runs directly into the receiver.

[HM-Innovations]

Yea this way is way better, it wasn't until after we made the video that we realized it was an easier and probably better to do it your way.

[kctess5]

Thats a somewhat inefficient way of doing this. I just use a tip31 transistor off my audio splitter. That way your not sucking power from your system. And you can more easily control max power to leds. And I don't usually set it up with one resistor per led. I just do like one for about 10-20 leds, though I know that a lot of people do it this way

[wingchangwow]

that's only 26 led's

[chaddu]

What voltage was the LED's that were used on this project.

[dr.shah]

How much MCD the led need to be ???and also what about their voltage??
thnks

[jeppers113d]

so what's correct 120 or 270? and has anyone been able to get this to work? i have 3 led's with 3 270's and they all just stay on and don't blink =\

[jeppers113d]

do you have a schematic? i still can't seem to get this to work blah. ok here's the hook up tested 3 LED's, i have a 12v power supply connected + to the side with the resistors, and the - to the other side with the longer anode i think its called? then from there the output of the resistor side i connected to my computer speaker + and the negative side of the device to the - .

with this hook up the LED's just turn on and stay on, if i switch it around the LED doesn't even turn on. thanks for your help

[HM-Innovations]

120ohm sorry bout that.

[jeppers113d]

no problem thank you, does watts matter in this ?

[HM-Innovations]

Yea your problem is with the power. All the power comes from the speaker, connect one LED to the possitive side of your speaker using the Resistor and the other end of the LED (anode) to the negative side of the speaker thats all you need. If you add power the LED will remain on throughout the whole thing.

[MKJIPK]

I have 2 questions:

Where does the power come from?
Is it necessary to take the speaker apart or can the positive and neg wired going to the speakers just be spliced?

[streetcurl]

Hi can go send me a graphic how you wired it because i can't see it well here ?

[sasho_8]

I also can't see it :S:S

[sasho_8]

and I need these graphic ...:S:S:S

[sasho_8]

which are these songs??

[xanxor]

what is the output of your speaker? I'm planing to do this but on my car. and I'm pretty sure my speaker needs more current than yours.

[14karma]

in one of the pictures in this instructable, it has 270 ohm resistors listed. But in the text it says 120 ohm resistors. I ordered the 270 ohm resistors. i am planning on using the light bar with a PA amp. Will these larger resistors be better suited for my higher power application. Or do i need to order the 120 ohm resistors for this to work

[dogs10109]

It says:

"The short end of the LED will all be connected together with a 120 Ohm capacitor in between each of the LED's"

I was just wondering if you meant resistor when you said capacitor?
(I'm assuming you meant resistor)

[HM-Innovations]

yes sorry i didnt even catch that

[pink piggy]

hello..sorry for my english..nice work..
but i have an ask..
you have there any IO as for example A277D or so??you have only led and resistors and this you join only with speakers??
this is really simple and nice efekt..but i have concerns, how good it work.....

but..really nice..i want this same in my car but only with white LEDs..so i think, if i can make this same..

[Eonir]

Schematics, please.