Introduction: Wiggly Wobbly - See the Sound Waves !! Real Time Audio Visualizer !!

By A.R.I.X
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Have you ever wondered how the Beetle songs look like ?? Or do you simply want to see how a sound looks like ??

Then worry not , I'm here to help you out to make it reeeeaaalll !!!

Get your speaker high and aim for the faded !!

Supplies

You will in fact need very little things to get the beats ON !!!

  • A speaker (sub - woofers or 3.5 ohm speaker)
  • A plastic bowl ( I have used a bowl of ~8.5 - 9.0 Cm diameter)
  • Water (or some liquid of your choice)
  • Sanitizer Cap (not joking)
  • A smartphone/PC for generating the sounds

Amplifier (well if you don't have don't worry , we will make one! )

Supplies for Amplifier

  • Power MOSFET (like IRFZ44)
  • 10k ohm resistor
  • 100 microFarad 16/25V Electrolytic Capacitor
  • Audio Male pin/jack
  • Heat Sink (optional)
  • Wires
  • 12V power supply

Step 1: Preparing the Amplifier !!

!! If you already have an amplifier skip these steps !!

You can Connect the components according to the circuit diagram provided above or make a skeletal structure like as I did , so that would be easy to repair or modify later !!

  • The first thing you have to do is connecting the 10k ohm resistor across the GATE and DRAIN (1 & 2)
  • Next connect the -ve terminal of the capacitor to the resistor connected near the GATE !!
  • Connect the +ve terminal to the left/right of your Audio Jack and Ground of your audio jack to the SOURCE of the MOSFET !
  • Before you proceed further cross check your connections again !!
  • Now connect your -ve terminal of the speaker to the DRAIN of your MOSFET and that's it our done with your circuit !!
  • All you have to do now is, give a power source to your circuit !!
  • Connect +ve terminal of your speaker to the +ve 12V of your wall adapter or any other power source of your choice !! (NOTE: it's DC source and not AC)
  • To complete the circuit , you have to connect -ve 12V Dc of your wall adapter or any other power source to the SOURCE of your MOSFET !!

According to my experience over time the MOSFET get's heated quickly , so to protect it use a heat sink !! It's upto you !! If you want to prolong the amplifier use a HEAT SINK or leave it !!

Step 2: Bowl's on the Top of Your Speaker

This Step is fairly simple :

  • All you have to do is find a sanitizer cap ( it will be laying a lot more than usual these days so save some of them ) .
  • Rip the cap apart from the sanitizer
  • Hot Glue the bottom or the hollow part of the Sanitizer Cap to the speaker
  • Now it's the real task for you !!
  • You can either choose a metal plat / CD disk / Bowl , I tried them all !!
  • If you choose metal plate / Bowl drill a hole at the center, so that you can screw it on top of the sanitizer !!

Step 3: Making Real Use of the Speaker

I hope you have successfully completed all the previous steps !!

Now we will have to download an app from play store

PlayStore

You can basically use any tone generator for this purpose!!

Hope you have downloaded the app/software and now you have to choose the sine wave and connect the audio jack to your phone !!

Hit play and see what happens , oh before that you will have to pour some fine sand/salt upon the metal sheet / bowl / CD ......... wow did you see that the sand/salt formed a weird pattern ??

Well , you have finally made a successful Chladni Plate !!

But this article wanted you to do something else even more better !!

So remove the metal sheet / CD if you have screwed it and now connect a bowl and pour little water so it fills half of the bowl !!

Now sweep through different frequencies and find a resonant frequency !!

How will I know ??

That's simple , when you find a resonance frequency the plate will vibrate with a humming sound and also the water will start to form a weird patterns upon it !! And those wave like things are the Nodes and the anti-node of the sound waves !!

Now you can also play some music at high volume and see what happens ?? This shows a basic visualization of the sound waves that you're passing to the bowl !!

Amazing Right !!

Now it's up-to you to do some creative things and come up with new patterns !!


Step 4: How Does It Work ?

!! The Magic behind it is purely Physics !!

of course it is mainly based on the "Chladin Plates" , you can search for it on the Internet and you find a tin of awesome visually spectacular things !
So,the patterns appear because of vibrations !! Which is generated by us , we specifically concentrate on the sin wave cause it varies periodically over time !!
Once the bowl has reached resonance(whenever the natural frequency matches the vibrating frequency then there creates a high amplitude waves and that is resonance), things get weird !! The sin waves gradually forms a standing wave(a vibration of a system in which some particular

points remain fixed while others between them vibrate with the maximum amplitude.) due to it's entropy or randomness within the system and this cause the water molecules to get disturbed.This disturbance is according to the nature of the vibrating waves or more precisely the standing waves !!

Ooofff that's a lot of theory , don't worry just get your hands on music and try different things on your newly made

Wiglly Wobbly gizmo !!

Also don't forget to check out our video !!

YouTube

Cheers Guys!