LED Music Sync Headphones

In this instructable Im going to explain how to make a blinking LED headphone. Of course the LEDs will be syncronizated with the music.

This project is especially focused to night runners. However anyone looks cool with them.

In the top video the battery was nearly off. For this reason I bought a new 3V battery and the result is in the video bellow. Sorry!

Let's start to shine!

Step 1: What Do You Need?

This project is very cheap and most of the components can be recycled. This is what you need and where you can find them:

Materials:

- 3mm 3V LED (x2) from old toys
- Kinder Surprise (not for the chocolate, but also for the plastic plastic shell) from my meal
- A pair of headphones from my pocket
- 4 in 1 cable from a broken headphone with mic
- 3V battery from a old motherboard
- 3V battery holder from a old motherboard
- Switch from a torch
- TIP31 (x2)
- Solder

Tools:

- Power drill
- Scissors
- Cutter
- Soldering iron

Optional:

- Tape
- Cotton



I chose kinder surprise plastic shell owing to is easy and cheap to buy it. You can always use your own recipient.

Soon I'll try to do the same into a big headphone. This process may avoid use the plastic shell, so wait for upgrades!

Step 2: Disassemble the Headphone

Extract the speakers and cut the wire.

Step 3: Drill It!

Drill the plastic shell so as to introduce the wire in it. Later, do the same to the headphone case for the LEDs.

Step 4: Solder It!

Start to solder following the scheme bellow.

I prefer to solder all the ground way and then continue with the rest. This simplify the wire mess.

Step 5: Some Tips

  You can fill the plastic shell with cotton so as to prevent any crash between components. For this reason you should tape the cables and the transistors too.

  Other good idea is made a holder for the plastic shell. With this you can hang the plastic shell in your t-shirt when you're running.

Step 6: Lets Get Blind!

Although it isn't so much bright in indoors, it's get very shine outdoor and at night.

 I swear you enjoy this project. Don´t be afraid and post your own versions.

Comments

[Ash J]

great tutorial!

XD S.M.U.S. ;P

[plugable]

Thanks! Also, what does SMUS stands for?

[Ash J]

it means struggle makes U stronger ;p

[ThaXified]

Video of my Working Prototypes! i maked 4 DIFFERENT WAYS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsuG48KyaKI

[vakmaz13]

hey thanks Plugable now I can finish the D3 usb headphone to analog! I'll give you credit once i finish my project and hopefully post it on this site =]

[belalthecoolboy]

cant we just put the led with the speaker as it can also gona get current from the wire
??
i m a noob plz help ..

[plugable]

Headphones works in a very low range of current, so you can't even turn on a small led with just that.

[Wally_Z]

Can this be made without the transistor? I don't have one and would like to know if it is possible.

[no_light]

if you would do that then the LEDs would not be synchronized with the music

[samedifference]

I really need the PDF but i seriously dont want to pay.... is there any way i could get it?? Please

[plugable]

Try this plug-in for firefox: Trails (I really recomend it for other issues). If you want the average ibles' pdf, reply this post.

[bbyshadow]

i dnt really getit wont there be no sound if you cut the earphone cables?? ..but can i get the average pdf ??
~**plz && thnx **~

[plugable]

Sorry, but I don't understand what you're asking for...

Well, now I realize it's not fair to give you the .pdf like that, because there are people paying for that option.

[samedifference]

you helped me out alot but i ended up doing another project instead and i still got an 100! anyways again thank you

[claton]

hey, project looks cool im definitly going to try it out, but i was only able to get my hands on TIP120 instead of TIP31. will it still work?

[plugable]

You'll need 5v of voltage in Emitter-Base, so I don't recommend you it.

[MichielB]

Hi, I have to turn the volume much to high before the leds start to react. How can I solve that? Is it the transistor, because I used a BD243B instead of a TIP31c?

Greatings!!

[plugable]

Well, the TIP31 version have that problem too. That happens because the audio output voltage is very low. The only thing you could do is attach a pre-amp circuit to this model. However, that would take some space so its more a headset solution than a ear-in headphones one.

[claton]

would you be able to make an instructables on making this?

[blarios thethird]

What kind of head phones are: 4 in 1 cable from a broken headphone with mic