VU METER (Music Visualizer) #1 With Arduino

by KJ ELECTRONICS

11K6031

Intro: VU METER (Music Visualizer) #1 With Arduino

This is the part one of the music visualizer series and In the following tutorial we are going to make a music visualizer AKA the volume meter or the uv meter from an arduino mega . The build process is very simple and easy and the program of arduino is also not that hard.

STEP 1: Watch the Video


STEP 2: Parts List

The parts needed for this build are
1.ARDUINO MEGA

2.COPPER DOT PCB

3.BREAD BOARD

4.JUMPER WIRES

5.LED (RED ,BLUE ,GREEN)

6.TOOLS(SOLDERING IRON ,SOLDER WIRE)

7.AUDIO SPLITER WITH A JACK

8.HEADER PINS

STEP 3: Testing on Bread Board( 1.LED's and ARDUINO )

Start by inserting the led on the bread board with the negative leg of the led to a common ground rail of the bread board (led count =20)

the positive leg of the led will be there at any empty rail of the bread board as shown in the video and following pictures

Then connect the ground of the arduino to the common ground rail of the led

Start from the pin 22 of the arduino mega and the flow is shown below

ARDUINO PIN LED COUNT

22------------------------------1

23------------------------------2

24------------------------------3

25------------------------------4

26------------------------------5

: : (pin follows from 22 of the arduino and ending at pin number

: : 41 of the arduino mega)

41-----------------------------20


STEP 4: Connecting the Music Source

The music source is the main thing in the following project.

As you have seen in the following video that i have used a audio spliter which will split the aux cable data into two parts one is for our circuit and the other one is which we can connect to the music system\

the connections for audio input follows as

Ground of the aux cable will go to the ground of the arduino.

Left or Right channel of the aux cable will go to the A0 analog input of the arduino mega

STEP 5: ADDING THE POTENTIOMETER

The potentiometer is used to increase or decrease the sensitivity of the music VU meter

the connection for the potentiometer are as

1st Pin___________GROUND

2nd Pin___________A1 of arduino

3rd Pin___________+5v or vcc

in the code also we have used the following command lines to the potentiometer to be worked as the sensitivity adjustment

potval=analogRead(A1);

output = analogRead(music);

potval=map (potval,0,1024,5,40);

output = output/potval;

STEP 6: UPLOADING THE CODE

After thee construction on the Bread Board we can upload the following code by using the arduino ide

any doubts in the code you can freely ask in the comment section below

STEP 7: CREATING THE PCB

After a complete test of the following circuit we can construct the same circuit much more stable on the pcb

for that repeat the same process of the connecting the led on the pcb and solder the common ground layer

then connect the audio jack left or right channel and the ground to the A0 and ground

then for the sensitivity use to pot ...

the basic idea you can get from the above video and the rest of the things are how creative you can apply the concept

STEP 8: THANKS FOR SUPPORT

you can visit the part 2 of these series click on this link

https://www.instructables.com/id/UV-METER-Part-2-U...

Thanks for visiting the following instructables

If you like the project make sure you give a like

you can visit to my youtube channel and get so many similar projects by clicking the youtube link below

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZE35bOktFxu8dIad...

26 Comments

kidd7471 3 years ago

plz can i use arduino nano than mega? by the nice job bro

ieeshkumar 3 years ago

Hi
I want to connect 50 LED per channel, so total 100 LED for Left and Right. Please do advise if this is possible using Arduino Mega.

ieesh.kumar@gmail.com

RobertsZ2 6 years ago

Looking forward to build part 2 ?

KJ ELECTRONICS 6 years ago

Already completed the part 2 of this series you can visit that through the instructables or through the profile

KJ ELECTRONICS 6 years ago

https://www.instructables.com/id/UV-METER-Part-2-Using-LM-3914-LM-3915/

ErinY8 7 years ago

Not sure what's wrong with my setup - currently all of the LEDs light up when I have it all connected and running. Could you show more detail on exactly how you have the AUX and splitter wired?

ErinY8 7 years ago

Nevermind! I got it. Bad soldering job XD

KJ ELECTRONICS 6 years ago

No worries try until you get success and hope you will get it never panic at the first stage

gravityisweak 7 years ago

Nice work! Very simple and easy to understand. Just curious if you also know how to build a VU meter without arduino? I'd like to build one but would like to try it without arduino.

Darboux 7 years ago

Take a look to the datasheets of LM3914 & LM3915. There you have examples of it. You can also choose bar mode or dot mode with a jumper. Quite simple to build!

KJ ELECTRONICS 7 years ago

This is the very first part of the series on the music visualisation series and in a few weeks your thing will also be implemented and make sure you subscribe to my youtube channel to get most updates... Thanks you

Graeme_P 7 years ago

A very nice project, although I was confused by the title and some of the description. I finally determined that the project is for a VU (volume unit) meter, not a UV (ultraviolet light) meter. I already have several VU meters in my audio system, but I could use a good UV meter to manage my risk of sunburn.

KJ ELECTRONICS 7 years ago

sunburn xD and it was just the matter or vu or flipped one uv meter :-)

Chrisbenedetto96 7 years ago

Ah I see that you have used a Arduino Mega, now I have a question based off of that fact, could it be done without multiplexing of any kind on a basic Arduino Uno knock off? Specifically a DCDuino Chinese knock off meant to be Arduino compatible? As far as I've observed it behaves correctly; however I have heard mixed reviews on the knock off systems saying things like the crystals are burning out prematurely. Since you obviously enjoy the art of creating perhaps you could offer some creative criticism; am I barking up the wrong tree? Is it possible to create a similar system, perhaps reusing segments of your code, reducing it to fit on the pinout of an Uno? I would like to create a similar device but want to use what's in my "shop" or apartment as regular people would say. If it could only be done through multiplexing perhaps you could offer advice. Beautiful PCB by the way, very accurate soldering, makes me feel like my soldering iron is obsolete!

KJ ELECTRONICS 7 years ago

very soon a video about the UV meter will be released which basically does not need any kind of microcontroller part itself and talking about the DCduino is just a clone or copy of all the arduino board and in so many country the board itself is not available .

thanks for your suggession . -kj electronics

AndreC71 7 years ago

Hello! I want to do same, but with stereo 5-digits on Nano board) Please tell me, what pot u used?

KJ ELECTRONICS 7 years ago

The value of the pot can be 1k. And if you want to use the stereo then you can follow the upcoming tutorial .This arduino based uv Meter was just an introduction that how does the uv Meter works basically and if still you want to use the arduino then add shift register like74HC595 TO MULTIPLEX the output and you can use so many LEDs by using the multiplexing the arduino output is
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