Article

Personal sound to Light Unit

small but sophisticated

Disco nights are great fun from time to time but you don’t want to overdo it in regard of the sound volumes you’re exposed to for a couple of hours. Arguably there’s no less pleasure in enjoying dance music in the privacy of your home, study or student digs. However, the true disco feeling is not obtained without a matching sound to light unit, so here’s a really small version.A sound to light unit converts music signals into light pulses. In most cases, three channels are used to cover different frequency ranges. The bass channel will then indicate the ‘beat’ of the music by a more or less rhythmical flash, while the two other channels represent the higher frequency ranges of the music channel.

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Materials

030019-PCB.pdf

Gerber file

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PCB

Download Gerber file: 030019-1.zip

Extra info / Update

The type code of IC1 should be LM358, not LM385 (text, parts list and schematic).

Component list

Resistors:
R1,R2,R7-R10,R12,R14,R16 = 10kOhm
R3,R4,R6,R11= 100kOhm
R5 = 1kOhm
R13,R15,R17 = 390Ohm
Capacitors:
C1,C3 = 10µ F 16V radial
C2,C7,C9 = 100nF
C4 = 2µ F2 16V radial
C5,C10 = 22nF
C6 = 4µ F7 16V radial
C8 = 1µ F 16V radial
C11 = 10nF
C12 =4nF7
C13 = 22µ F 16V radial
Semiconductors:
D1,D2,D3,D5,D7 = 1N4148
D4 = LED, green (see text)
D6 = LED, yellow (see text)
D8 = LED, red (see text)
IC1 = LM385N (with socket)
T1-T4 = BC548C
Miscelllaneous:
BT1 = 9V PP3 (6F22) battery with clip-on lead
MIC1 = electret microphone
PCB, available from The PCBShop