• Featured User: kurt

    Ohh_avatar

    Open-source hardware project hosting is my passion. I spend most of my free time building neat gadgets or planning what I'll build next. I love building things, and I want to make Open Hardware Hub a place that inspires others to build, ...

    Learn More

  • Updates 2013 February 18

    It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, that's ok because we've got a lot of updates to talk about. Most of these have been effective on the site fora couple weeks now. A few may or may not be active when this article gets posted, but they'll certainly be applied in the ...

    Find Out More

Mono VU Meter


Download this project


Ohh_avatar

By: kurt

A VU meter is used to display the loudness of an audio signal. This open source VU meter lights up ten LEDs to show how loud a mono audio signal is. Two of these can be made to show the loudness of each channel in a stereo signal.

Download project description w/o images
Download project description w/ images

Files

Download all project files

Bill of Materials

Qty Part # Description Schematic ID Source
1 77deb0bedb11cb6f2fc5e7d60138b782eb28615f SJ1-3523N CONN JACK STEREO R/A 3PIN 3.5MM J1 Source
1 750ce2dcceaf752266214a5e57c209b74d3212d9 BS6I SNAPS 9V 6" LEADS I-STYLE JP1 Source
1 Cbe4164d07d891a1d538ad6c895b7f50ed321034 50-0015-00 SWITCH PB SPST ALT ACT PC MOUNT S1 Source
1 618ff9489734b7d0f5a3a3e481b07cbce19f1382 SK100M035ST CAPACITOR ALUM ELEC 10UF, 35V, RADIAL C1 Source
1 E5149a40cb54d228e4704c7a15b821f3412806fd EVN-D8AA03B14 TRIMMER 10K OHM 0.1W TH P1 Source
1 3fded271729ab570e419b2879e01e68d9c1b38a3 LM3916N-1 LED BAR GRAPH DRIVER, 3916, DIP18 IC1 Source
10 B10fcd91e54061e9748ca26c34782bc79400bf95 WP7113LID 5MM LOW CURRENT RED LED, LAMP THOLE, BULK LED1, LED2, LED3, LED4, LED5, LED6, LED7, LED8, LED9, LED10 Source
1 8231ad4289f80552e8b41fa3f0d841de6ec762ed 6LR61XWA/1SB BATTERY IND ALKALINE 9 VOLT Source
1 E1fe06bce45447331f6c95a9a7a6ec31da8a0e0b Y-Audio Cable 6inch 3.5mm Stereo Jack/Two 3.5mm Stereo Plug Cable Source
loading total from bomfire.com...

Download BOM w/o images
Download BOM w/ images

Steps

21. Solder wires to audio jack

Solder a pair of wires to the audio jack as shown. The longer terminal in the middle is the reference gound. The other two pins are stereo-left and right. You audio jack may look differently. The pin in the middle/the pin that looks different is usually the reference ground.

P7304082 P7304081

22. Note: Stereo left vs. stereo right

It doesn't matter if you use stereo left or right. If you build another VU meter, then you can display stero left on one and stereo right on the other.

23. Connect audio jack

Connect one of the audio jack's terminals to ground and the other to pin 5 of the LM3916. It doesn't matter which terminal of the audio jack goes where because the audio signal is AC and the IC only measures the peak voltages.

P7304080

24. Plug audio cable into audio jack

Plug a male-male audio cable into the audio jack.

P7304078

25. Plug audio cable into Y-splitter

Plug the other end of the audio cable into a Y-splitter. The male end of the Y-splitter plugs into your PC/iPod. The female end let's you plug in your headphones/speakers.

P7304076

Download steps w/o images
Download steps w/ images

Show all steps

Revisions


7 - updated description
6 -
5 - added youtube link. updated line numbers.
4 - changed LED part
3 - added description to project image
2 - added file descriptions
1 - Initial project release
Add revision




blog comments powered by Disqus
Back