Rather than violate the data sheet requirement that one not load the AREF pin with other than a 100 nF capacitor (which is already supplied on the Nano board) why not create an external AREF of about 1.2V-1.4V with a pair of series connected diodes and a suitable current limit resistor? You can then drive the AREF pin with this reference and substitute it for the places you have used the internal reference in your circuit. Of course, you would measure this voltage with your DMM and use that value in your code. You would also want to select the external reference in void setup(). You could also just select different resistor values for the DC offset voltage dividers and use the 5V supply in place of AREF. A similar approach could be used for the brightness and sensitivity controls.
Thanks so much for your explanation of the AREF function. This solved a problem I had running a CineLights line - in sketch, wasn't getting strong enough signal for line-in analog read. By using your resister and capacitor set-up and changing AREF to internal, it now works perfectly. Glad CineLights gave you a shout-out, or I may have never figured this out . Glad the two of you are working together!! Also big thumbs up to getyerspn for explaining how to set AFER on a Mega2560 board. Big help !!
Hi again Scott. This has been an interesting learning curve so I thought I would give you a bit of an update. It dawned on me that a physical VU meter doesn't need any smoothing or processing of the audio signal, other than DC rectification, because it has an inherent latency. So I embarked on setting some behavior characteristics for the display namely rise and fall rates and any acceleration or deceleration as would be the case for a spring return needle VU meter. I have also added hang time and drop acceleration to the peak indicator dot. Once done I found I didn't need any audio processing at all, so all rolling averages and buffers were no longer needed. (another way of thinking about it is that the display itself is effectively a buffer containing the last information sent to it anyway). All the timing for the physics uses milliseconds so should be independent of device processing speed but I haven't had a chance to test it on a ST32 based device yet. faster reading of the audio input makes the display more accurate as the 16Mhz Arduino is not reading the inputs fast enough to guarantee its not missing some high frequency input. I think 22 to 44kHZ would be desirable but the results are pleasing even at the speed the Arduino can manage. As it was no longer necessary to process the audio signal the sensitivity is drastically improved. I was also able to add what amounts to an automatic volume control routine that automatically sets the sensitivity, activated by jumper, so now the display can remain consistent regardless of the input volume. A silence detection routine reduces the sensitivity to Zero when there is no input sound to stop the odd flash caused by a random spike if the sensitivity is at max. As the rise and fall rates are consistent even at very low volume the display looks the same. The useful limit seems to be 32 x signal, as if a signal needs more amplification than that its inaudible anyway. Removing the jumper means the display runs in true VU mode and the scale can be set by the manual sensitivity control. I have added an External adjustable voltage reference using an old 741 as a unity gain op amp. My scope indicated both my systems can produce peak output over 2.5 volts at high volume and using a higher reference voltage gives better noise rejection. 3 volts appears to be ideal so the 3.3v output from the Arduino can be used as the Vref input very effectively with your original circuit. Finally because the behavior of the display is no longer affected by changes to any audio processing, I experimented with both unity gain op amps to drive the input and full wave rectification. In my tests all methods including the original simple decoupling method produced the same visual display . So anyone who is HI FI aware and wants a device with very high input impedance, could use Unity gain op amps with the same software. Thanks again for your original work, without which I doubt I would have started this little project. Can you let me have an Email address to send a copy to you.
Hello Scott , thank you for the time & effort you have put into your videos , I really appreciate it , I have been able to learn a lot about led / arduino , and have made the above project and after some trouble shooting it works . Hope all is well with you .
Hi Scott great work and a lot of good ideas. I have changed a few things as using the Aref to supply a voltage caused massive cross talk between the channels. Instead all voltages are derived from Vcc with separate dividers for each input channel at 0.48v and Aref input at 0.96v. supply voltage for the brightness and sensitivity is from a single resister to Vcc as the potentiometers themselves provide the resistance to ground so with two Potentiometers in parallel of 20Kohm a single resister of 42Kohm provides the required 0.96v. The Aref pin only requires a resister to Vcc of 150Kohm as there is an internal resister of 32Kohm to ground. I have added jumpers to select auto scaling and inverting the display. I have replaced all damping routines with true rolling averages. Included auto pattern mode as a routine selected by a short button press and used the long button press to run a calibration routine for setting the noise floor and DC offset. That way the device can be calibrated in situ without needing to alter code. I have separated left and right channels everywhere in the code so that things like calibration can operate on each channel so not to assume the left channel values are appropriate for the right channel. I would like to make the modified software publicly available if you have no objection. perhaps you can let me know what credit you would like in the header for a GPL statement.
Hi Paul, sounds great! I have no problem with you releasing this however you see fit. A link back to this video would be nice, but not essential. All the best.
Hi Scott, yea I built the first one and it worked great......presently building the rev 2...and of course I rushed through it .......couldnt figure out why it wasnt working.....and only then watched the video in total......great vid as usual
cant seem to get the sensitivity right..... I am using 363 kOhm pots, other than that components are the same...I am getting a huge amount of noise (which I can accommodate with the NOISE setting = 300) but the LED height only varies by 3-4 LEDs with sensitivity down or complete overkill (all lights turned on) with sensitivity turned up even slightly more
hello Scott Marley your code and great I am very happy with it ... I ask for help in two things as I can decrease the sensitivity and also increase the time that the peak-hold led stays before going down I wanted it to stay about 3 milliseconds before to lower ... thank you
On your GitHub I read :"Supports 75 LEDs per channel" is this a limitation of the arduino uno and nano? So if I want a long led strip with more than 75 LED's I need a Mega?
Bro thank you so much, the best part is the 3.5 input circuit. Y tested it and came out amazing. I did post a reel on Instagram I tried to tag you but I couldn't find you in IG I wrote your info BTW. Thank you so much again.
Dear Scott - i really like your work and i tried to build it myself - i used an arduino mega2560 and an adafruit max4466 mic - everything seems to work fine - but the max4466 is too noisy so i will try the max9814 now - the dc offset of the 9814 is 1.25V - in your code there is an option to set this dc offset - and now to my question - # define DC_OFFSET 1.25 or # define DC_OFFSET 1250 ??
This set-up is not designed to work with amplified microphones, as I'm using the internal reference which only reads from 0 - 1.1V. Looking at the datasheet, the 9814 has a max of 2Vpp at a bias of 1.25V, so the majority of the signal is out of the range of the microphone. I would try the MAX4466 running from the 3V3 pin of the Mega (quiet supply compared to 5V). Then set the voltage reference to EXTERNAL, and connect the AREF (or REF) pin to the 3V3 supply too. You can then run the mic output straight into one of the analog pins on the Arduino, you don't need the resistor divider or capacitors.
PS I just tried what I wrote above, and it does work. You will need to increase the NOISE value somewhat, I found a value of 150 seems to work but you will need to tweak it for best results. You still get a much better response from a line-in however.
@@ScottMarley wow - thank you for your fast response - ok i will try the 4466 again as you described - i already thought about the 3V3 supply, but im not a specialist in electronics - so better ask someone who knows - thanks again - great work
Hi great project thanks, i built this for a friend however it seems to have blown my nanos voltage regulator, h was using a 5v phone charger, should i set the 500mv to 2000 to prevent this happening again?....thanks rob .
More likely to have blown the diode rather than the voltage reg :) if it is the diode that's blown, you can get around it by removing it and soldering some wire across the pads. That way you can use more current (up to 2A) Alternatively, as you say, set max milliamps or whatever it's called to 1000 and see if that works better. The diode should be rated for 1A.
@@ScottMarley brilliant, ill whip the diode off it and test.(i thought it was the reg as i was only getting 2.4v from the 5v pin on the nano...but yeah makes sense cheers)... i got my friend to buy a 1amp 5v charger instead of 2amp justin case... lol..
hello is it possible to turn off automatic adjustment to the sound level in the code? Otherwise, it goes off scale very much when a new track starts or when there is a pause in the track.
Hi Scott! Great work, I also have built a tower and used your code with small adjustments according my requirements. Do you mean we can use the "Input" pin REF as a voltage reference source? Or it works as output in this case?
If you set analogReference(INTERNAL) in the code, you can use REF as a 1.1V reference output. If you set EXTERNAL it becomes an input, so you can set the reference yourself. If you set it as DEFAULT it will simply be at Vcc.
great job. very satisfying result. just one question. if i need to use 200 leds then must switch to arduino mega or uno ? if i switch to uno ,do i have to change the code ?
A mega would handle that fine, although personally I'd use an ESP or something to do it. If you're going with an esp though, you would have to remove the analogReference stuff and use analogSetAttenuation to do it instead. If you're happy using the mega, just go with that.
if you use an arduino Mega 2560 you'll need to change the line analogReference(INTERNAL); to analogReference(INTERNAL1V1); to set the internal reference to 1.1V the mega can also use a 2.56V internal reference with the command analogReference(INTERNAL2V56); Also if you find the sensitivity to noise on the analogue input pins causes the VU to false trigger no matter what the # define NOISE 0 is set to just add a 1M ohm resistor from as close to the input pins you can get and other side of resistor to ground...not all Arduino clones are created equal and some are more prone to noise than others.
Hi @Scott Marley I have tried the same schematic. vu lights are just cycle with the lights with press of the button without even before connecting to audio input just like standalone patterns. i am not sure where it went wrong i have even tried reducing the # define NOISE but still the lights are working as standalone pattern. Any help appreciated thank you
Dear Scott, thank you for this project it works perfect. Thing is I would like to make the connection to the data of the WS2812 wireless so I can adress 2 strips in both corners of the room. Do you have any tips how to adress this?? Thanks in advance Paul
It's not something I've done before. One way of doing it would be to use Bluetooth to send a serial string containing the pattern number and height data from one microcontroller to the other. You would probably use an ESP32 for this instead of an Arduino as they have BT built in. Not sure how acceptable the lag would be though. Alternatively, you could scrap this code entirely, and use WLED which has built in support for syncing multiple ESP devices, built in sound reactive features etc. It's a very powerful piece of software that is ideal for this kind of setup.
@@ScottMarley Dear Scott, Thank you for your fast reply. I checked the WLED out but this does not give me the results as I do not want some kind of smart phone app. I got something to work on the basis of an ESP32 in combination with a Wemos. Mostly based on this project: th-cam.com/video/yninmUrl4C0/w-d-xo.html. It works but the sensitivity of the microphone is again the same problem as in your first project. Do you know if on the ESP is something like a Uref available as well??
@@paulkassenaar9474 Hi Paul, glad you got something working. On the ESP, you can use analogSetPinAttenuation(pin, ADC_0db) if the issue you're having is that the input is not sensitive enough? This will give you a max voltage input of 800mV, which is good for a weak line in. ADC_2_5db will give you up to 1.1V if 800mV is not enough. pin is the pin number for your input signal. Is this what you meant?
@@ScottMarley Dear Scott, Slowly I am getting somewhere with a lot of stumbeling on the most simple arduino grammar but ok. One thing I cannot figure out in your code is e.q in VU6 You write here: CRGB *leds; uint8_t i = 0; uint8_t *peak; // Pointer variable declaration uint16_t height = auxReading(channel); if(channel == 0) { leds = ledsLeft; // Store address of peakLeft in peak, then use *peak to peak = &peakLeft; // access the value of that address } I cannot figure out what is happening here. The statement CRGB *leds is something with a pointer but no idea how? same for leds = ledsLeft?? Can you give some more explanation?? Thanks in advance
60 is about the limit of the number of LEDs you can use. Ignore the warning and it will probably work ok. If you want to remove the warning, reduce the number of LEDs, use a different microcontroller such as an ESP32 / 8266 or remove some of the patterns.
Hello Friend!!! Please tell me- I specified "true" in the firmware so that the effects would switch automatically, But how to set the time??? For example, so that each effect would work for 30 seconds
Hello Scott. Hope you are doing well. Thank you for posting. I finally got around to attempting this project with mixed success. Tried the Nana first but come across this error - Sketch uses 21006 bytes (68%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes. Global variables use 1710 bytes (83%) of dynamic memory, leaving 338 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes. Low memory available, stability problems may occur. So i decided to try using an Arduino Mega. Good news is does work - sort of. All functions do work however the problem I am having is at very low volume the meter seems to peak (each channel spikes to the highest LED). As I gradually increase the volume on the mixer the meter does settle to what seems to be normal and works well.. Would you know what might be causing this? Your video seems smooth regardless of the volume level. Have also tried using an Uno with the same results. I used to the same components you had listed and have only change the following variables : define NOISE 20 analogReference(INTERNAL1V1); - only on the Mega as instructed by previous posters Also thank you for posting the recent tutorial videos. They are great.
Hi, I can't look at this right now but I have a few comments. It should work fine on the nano despite the warning, it's pushing the limits of ram but it's not completely full yet! Regarding it shooting up when there is no input, does it do this when connected to any other device, a phone for example? Make sure all of your grounds are good and are tied together as well as possible. Try increasing or changing the electrolytic capacitor across the power rails.
@@ScottMarley thank you for your suggestion. I have now increased the cap along the power rail to 1000uf 25v. The issue is still present. I will try connecting to another device tomorrow and see how it goes. It's a strange one because it only occurs at low volume.
I also tried with mega, almost like the same issue here like noise. Tried all things found in comment section but non works. Hoping for an actual mega video version of this..
Nice build Scott. I have compiled and run this as a mono for now on an esp32 devkitc board. It works buuuutt the patterns are reversed ie all LEDs are on and when the mic pics up noise it turns off the led's ??
If using an ESP32, there is a bunch of stuff you will have to change, as the ADC reads 4096 values rather than the 1024 of the Arduino. I've used '512' throughout the code to refer to the middle of the ADC range, this will have to be changed to 2048. 1023 will have to be changed to 4095. You'll also have to remove the analogReference(internal) call as I don't think the ESP support that and defaults to 11dB attenuation which is what you want. I presume you have the potentiometers powered from the AREF pin of your board has one? I haven't tested this with an ESP, so there's probably a bunch of other stuff you'll also have to tweak. If you do get it to work, let me know so I can see what needs changing!
@@ScottMarley not had chance to try and connect pots yet but will adjust the values as above and see how it goes👍 then see if the pots will work. It does react to the mic though all I adjusted was input pin from mic and led output pin.
@@thegoat6234 if you don't have the pots connected, you will need to set the sensitivity manually on line 75 (try 512 or something and adjust from there) and comment out the reading of the sensitivity pin on line 209, as that will be reading electrical noise if nothing is connected to it. Even with all this stuff, there might be something I've missed I'm afraid.
Tried these mods today and it still operates in reverse all LEDs are on but they react to off with noise lol? Would it be easier to alter your other code for the uno that has no pots at all? So I just set brightness and sensitivity in the code? I have uploaded the uno code and made the above adjustments to the ADC etc but it still reacts in reverse??
I actually have a prototype here of a car indicator setup that uses the 12V from the car lights rather than Bluetooth. I'll make a video about it soon but I'm just so busy :(
I do not have a Nano in stock, and since delivery time i rather long, I am planning on building it on a ATTiny85 from DigiSpark. Will this be possible? It only has 6 I/O pins (4 analog) so I am thinking of skipping the brightness potentiometer. Other then that, I do not see any problem in using the ATTiny. Am I wrong?
You're going to struggle with the amount of ram. The attiny85 only has 512b Vs 2kb in the nano. You might get away with it if you reduce the number of patterns and have a small number of LEDs. Otherwise it should work the same. I don't know what country you're in, but in the EU/US there are hundreds of nano clones on eBay for about $3-4 which work fine.
Scott Marley you were right. I ran into memory issues. So I switched to an ESP32 I also had in stock. So now I am planning to use the bluetooth in the ESP to stream the audio. And have a jack for line-Out to connect to a speaker/headphones.
@@ScottMarley I have built it now. And the VU works fine. But the sound quality of the line-out is horrible. I have ordered an external DAC since the internal DAC of the ESP32 is only 8bit. That might be the reason for the poor sound quality.
@@ScottMarley estou usando o Arduino Mega, 2560 alterei o Campo Internal para External e compilou, isso pode dar problema? no caso o erro da antes de subir, quando eu faço a checagem antes de carregar, depois que alterei para External ele compilou e carregou no arduino
Great video, you explain it very well! I’m looking to build something very similar but based off an esp32 board. Anybody know how I can do this without having the aref pin?
The ESP32 uses 1V1 as a reference by default, so you should be able to use it without setting analog reference etc and just wire it up the same as in my example.
Hi, i need that program run for 300 leds? How can i do it? When i try arduino UNO 100 leds is a limit... Please, can somebody help me? I need that very much! :)
You can use a better microcontroller, for example an Arduino Mega, Teensy, ESP8266, ESP32... With 300 LEDs you will have to plan power carefully. 15A power supply recommended, and power injection every 1m or so along the strip.
@@ScottMarley Thanks for fast reaction! I thought about Arduino Mega and ESP32 too, but i don't have free Arduino Mega now and shipping time is 2-4weeks because of covid (i'm from CZE :/). I have ESP32, but i didn't use it yet, so i don't have that much skill to make a code rework.
Sorry to hear that you haven't got it to work. It would be a lot easier to make work correctly with a 4466 as the input is buffered by the amplifier. I didn't make a microphone version as I didn't need one, it wouldn't make sense for a boombox.
Just connect the output of the mic straight to the input pin on the Arduino. You might have to remove analogreference and have the potentiometers attached to 5V rather than the aref pin. I can't remember what output level those microphones produce.
I'm building this today. I'd love to have some kind of global color control. For example, no matter which pattern is selected, it only passes red values to the strip (or any other selected color). Any thoughts on this?
@@mobilephone4045 That's a shame. Just grab an ESP, they're only a few dollars and way more capable than an Arduino.Atbthe moment, FastLED is incompatible with RGBW strips. WLED does support tlit however.
@@ScottMarley Unfortunately, I live on an island and I ordered the Nano's for this project, but now I will have to wait until next year for the ESP to arrive by boat! What a shame
I'm afraid I don't have one to sell! You can easily make it yourself using the parts shown in the schematic on GitHub. If you just want something that works out of the box, you could buy an SP107E controller, something like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SP107E-SP110E-Music-Bluetooth-Remote-Magic-Controller-For-WS2812-2811-LED-Strip/323825223820?hash=item4b657cc88c:g:YM4AAOSw5tBc9eWp
@@ScottMarley Well, i can see all the parts in the schematic but that isn't very clear. Can you give me a list of what we need and how much of it instead of studiyng a schematic picture ?
Tried sending you an email. I'd be super interested to know if you could possible do a PCB layout for this so I could order a board from PCBway or similar. I suck at doing PCB layout in eagle etc. Be more than happy to pay for your time.
I'm sorry it didn't work. I don't have a mega I'm afraid, and I don't want to buy one as I have no use for it. I also have my VU matrix wired up to a microphone now and mounted in my wall, so I'm not up for taking it apart and doing more testing with a line in. Apologies.
Hello Scott , loving your work ! i was wondering if you were upto talking via email if you dont mind ,i would like it if you could help me with some code , please .
Now I like your way of scaling the vu meter sensitivity , much more refined than my bodge ..well done sir.
Thank you, it took a while to work out the best was to do that!
Rather than violate the data sheet requirement that one not load the AREF pin with other than a 100 nF capacitor (which is already supplied on the Nano board) why not create an external AREF of about 1.2V-1.4V with a pair of series connected diodes and a suitable current limit resistor? You can then drive the AREF pin with this reference and substitute it for the places you have used the internal reference in your circuit. Of course, you would measure this voltage with your DMM and use that value in your code. You would also want to select the external reference in void setup().
You could also just select different resistor values for the DC offset voltage dividers and use the 5V supply in place of AREF. A similar approach could be used for the brightness and sensitivity controls.
Thanks so much for your explanation of the AREF function. This solved a problem I had running a CineLights line - in sketch, wasn't getting strong enough signal for line-in analog read. By using your resister and capacitor set-up and changing AREF to internal, it now works perfectly. Glad CineLights gave you a shout-out, or I may have never figured this out . Glad the two of you are working together!! Also big thumbs up to getyerspn for explaining how to set AFER on a Mega2560 board. Big help !!
Thanks so much for the comments, it's great when the stuff I do for fun helps someone else! all the best chap.
Hi again Scott. This has been an interesting learning curve so I thought I would give you a bit of an update. It dawned on me that a physical VU meter doesn't need any smoothing or processing of the audio signal, other than DC rectification, because it has an inherent latency. So I embarked on setting some behavior characteristics for the display namely rise and fall rates and any acceleration or deceleration as would be the case for a spring return needle VU meter. I have also added hang time and drop acceleration to the peak indicator dot. Once done I found I didn't need any audio processing at all, so all rolling averages and buffers were no longer needed. (another way of thinking about it is that the display itself is effectively a buffer containing the last information sent to it anyway). All the timing for the physics uses milliseconds so should be independent of device processing speed but I haven't had a chance to test it on a ST32 based device yet. faster reading of the audio input makes the display more accurate as the 16Mhz Arduino is not reading the inputs fast enough to guarantee its not missing some high frequency input. I think 22 to 44kHZ would be desirable but the results are pleasing even at the speed the Arduino can manage. As it was no longer necessary to process the audio signal the sensitivity is drastically improved. I was also able to add what amounts to an automatic volume control routine that automatically sets the sensitivity, activated by jumper, so now the display can remain consistent regardless of the input volume. A silence detection routine reduces the sensitivity to Zero when there is no input sound to stop the odd flash caused by a random spike if the sensitivity is at max. As the rise and fall rates are consistent even at very low volume the display looks the same. The useful limit seems to be 32 x signal, as if a signal needs more amplification than that its inaudible anyway. Removing the jumper means the display runs in true VU mode and the scale can be set by the manual sensitivity control. I have added an External adjustable voltage reference using an old 741 as a unity gain op amp. My scope indicated both my systems can produce peak output over 2.5 volts at high volume and using a higher reference voltage gives better noise rejection. 3 volts appears to be ideal so the 3.3v output from the Arduino can be used as the Vref input very effectively with your original circuit. Finally because the behavior of the display is no longer affected by changes to any audio processing, I experimented with both unity gain op amps to drive the input and full wave rectification. In my tests all methods including the original simple decoupling method produced the same visual display . So anyone who is HI FI aware and wants a device with very high input impedance, could use Unity gain op amps with the same software. Thanks again for your original work, without which I doubt I would have started this little project. Can you let me have an Email address to send a copy to you.
Hello Scott , thank you for the time & effort you have put into your videos , I really appreciate it , I have been able to learn a lot about led / arduino , and have made the above project and after some trouble shooting it works . Hope all is well with you .
Hi Scott great work and a lot of good ideas. I have changed a few things as using the Aref to supply a voltage caused massive cross talk between the channels. Instead all voltages are derived from Vcc with separate dividers for each input channel at 0.48v and Aref input at 0.96v. supply voltage for the brightness and sensitivity is from a single resister to Vcc as the potentiometers themselves provide the resistance to ground so with two Potentiometers in parallel of 20Kohm a single resister of 42Kohm provides the required 0.96v. The Aref pin only requires a resister to Vcc of 150Kohm as there is an internal resister of 32Kohm to ground. I have added jumpers to select auto scaling and inverting the display. I have replaced all damping routines with true rolling averages. Included auto pattern mode as a routine selected by a short button press and used the long button press to run a calibration routine for setting the noise floor and DC offset. That way the device can be calibrated in situ without needing to alter code. I have separated left and right channels everywhere in the code so that things like calibration can operate on each channel so not to assume the left channel values are appropriate for the right channel. I would like to make the modified software publicly available if you have no objection. perhaps you can let me know what credit you would like in the header for a GPL statement.
Hi Paul, sounds great! I have no problem with you releasing this however you see fit. A link back to this video would be nice, but not essential. All the best.
I will give you a copy of what I have done so you can use any way you wish
The gr8est
I LOVE You
I’ve been searxhing FOR something like this FOR months. LOVE ya❤️
Hi Scott, yea I built the first one and it worked great......presently building the rev 2...and of course I rushed through it .......couldnt figure out why it wasnt working.....and only then watched the video in total......great vid as usual
cant seem to get the sensitivity right..... I am using 363 kOhm pots, other than that components are the same...I am getting a huge amount of noise (which I can accommodate with the NOISE setting = 300) but the LED height only varies by 3-4 LEDs with sensitivity down or complete overkill (all lights turned on) with sensitivity turned up even slightly more
just figured out my AREF is measuring 0.58 volts
hello Scott Marley your code and great I am very happy with it ... I ask for help in two things as I can decrease the sensitivity and also increase the time that the peak-hold led stays before going down I wanted it to stay about 3 milliseconds before to lower ... thank you
On your GitHub I read :"Supports 75 LEDs per channel" is this a limitation of the arduino uno and nano? So if I want a long led strip with more than 75 LED's I need a Mega?
Thanks for excellent videos, only issue I have is with 'centre' VU LED remaining lit with no signal?
I found the issue........... having 39 LED's was the problem, changed to 38 😁😁😁
Bro thank you so much, the best part is the 3.5 input circuit. Y tested it and came out amazing. I did post a reel on Instagram I tried to tag you but I couldn't find you in IG I wrote your info BTW. Thank you so much again.
Thanks, that's really good of you! Glad it all worked out :)
If you use a Mega, change the analogReference to (INTERNAL1V1);
THANK YOU!!
How many LEDs is the maximum? arduino nano328
My LED has 114 lights
Friend, can you do the same code for esp8266 nodecu v3 ?!
Hello, with arduino uno. I have this error in the code
analogReference(INTERNAL????); you can help. thank you
Thanks Scott for this great update!
Have you ever studied the integration of an MSGEQ7 spectrum analyzer?
Not yet, but I did buy two MSGEQ7 chips a few days ago so if I get around to using them you'll see it on here!
Dear Scott - i really like your work and i tried to build it myself - i used an arduino mega2560 and an adafruit max4466 mic - everything seems to work fine - but the max4466 is too noisy so i will try the max9814 now - the dc offset of the 9814 is 1.25V - in your code there is an option to set this dc offset - and now to my question - # define DC_OFFSET 1.25 or # define DC_OFFSET 1250 ??
This set-up is not designed to work with amplified microphones, as I'm using the internal reference which only reads from 0 - 1.1V. Looking at the datasheet, the 9814 has a max of 2Vpp at a bias of 1.25V, so the majority of the signal is out of the range of the microphone. I would try the MAX4466 running from the 3V3 pin of the Mega (quiet supply compared to 5V). Then set the voltage reference to EXTERNAL, and connect the AREF (or REF) pin to the 3V3 supply too. You can then run the mic output straight into one of the analog pins on the Arduino, you don't need the resistor divider or capacitors.
PS I just tried what I wrote above, and it does work. You will need to increase the NOISE value somewhat, I found a value of 150 seems to work but you will need to tweak it for best results. You still get a much better response from a line-in however.
@@ScottMarley wow - thank you for your fast response - ok i will try the 4466 again as you described - i already thought about the 3V3 supply, but im not a specialist in electronics - so better ask someone who knows - thanks again - great work
Thank you very much for your fast respone, I try it.
Hi great project thanks, i built this for a friend however it seems to have blown my nanos voltage regulator, h was using a 5v phone charger, should i set the 500mv to 2000 to prevent this happening again?....thanks rob .
More likely to have blown the diode rather than the voltage reg :) if it is the diode that's blown, you can get around it by removing it and soldering some wire across the pads. That way you can use more current (up to 2A) Alternatively, as you say, set max milliamps or whatever it's called to 1000 and see if that works better. The diode should be rated for 1A.
@@ScottMarley brilliant, ill whip the diode off it and test.(i thought it was the reg as i was only getting 2.4v from the 5v pin on the nano...but yeah makes sense cheers)... i got my friend to buy a 1amp 5v charger instead of 2amp justin case... lol..
hello is it possible to turn off automatic adjustment to the sound level in the code? Otherwise, it goes off scale very much when a new track starts or when there is a pause in the track.
I made this but it doesn't follow the sound of the music. please how do you do it.
I followed you but the LED light doesn't light up with the music, it lights up automatically
the number led trip can be used ? i don't used 144 led! ardruno nano not enought memory
Hi Scott! Great work, I also have built a tower and used your code with small adjustments according my requirements. Do you mean we can use the "Input" pin REF as a voltage reference source? Or it works as output in this case?
If you set analogReference(INTERNAL) in the code, you can use REF as a 1.1V reference output. If you set EXTERNAL it becomes an input, so you can set the reference yourself. If you set it as DEFAULT it will simply be at Vcc.
@@ScottMarley Thanks a lot! Did not think about it. I'll try this approach.
great job. very satisfying result. just one question. if i need to use 200 leds then must switch to arduino mega or uno ? if i switch to uno ,do i have to change the code ?
The Uno has the same specifications as the nano, so that won't increase the number of LEDs. Is it 200 LEDs altogether or 200 per channel (400 total)?
@@ScottMarley thank you. it is 200 LEDs per channel
A mega would handle that fine, although personally I'd use an ESP or something to do it. If you're going with an esp though, you would have to remove the analogReference stuff and use analogSetAttenuation to do it instead. If you're happy using the mega, just go with that.
if you use an arduino Mega 2560 you'll need to change the line analogReference(INTERNAL); to analogReference(INTERNAL1V1); to set the internal reference to 1.1V the mega can also use a 2.56V internal reference with the command analogReference(INTERNAL2V56); Also if you find the sensitivity to noise on the analogue input pins causes the VU to false trigger no matter what the # define NOISE 0 is set to just add a 1M ohm resistor from as close to the input pins you can get and other side of resistor to ground...not all Arduino clones are created equal and some are more prone to noise than others.
@@getyerspn thank you for the detailed guidance. its amazing and helpful. do you think arduino uno is simpler for beginning and test ?
Thanks Scott
Hi @Scott Marley
I have tried the same schematic. vu lights are just cycle with the lights with press of the button without even before connecting to audio input just like standalone patterns.
i am not sure where it went wrong i have even tried reducing the # define NOISE but still the lights are working as standalone pattern.
Any help appreciated thank you
I found the issue it is with the Arduino nano clone it worked well in Arduino UNO
Dear Scott, thank you for this project it works perfect.
Thing is I would like to make the connection to the data of the WS2812 wireless so I can adress 2 strips in both corners of the room.
Do you have any tips how to adress this??
Thanks in advance
Paul
It's not something I've done before. One way of doing it would be to use Bluetooth to send a serial string containing the pattern number and height data from one microcontroller to the other. You would probably use an ESP32 for this instead of an Arduino as they have BT built in. Not sure how acceptable the lag would be though. Alternatively, you could scrap this code entirely, and use WLED which has built in support for syncing multiple ESP devices, built in sound reactive features etc. It's a very powerful piece of software that is ideal for this kind of setup.
@@ScottMarley
Dear Scott,
Thank you for your fast reply. I checked the WLED out but this does not give me the results as I do not want some kind of smart phone app.
I got something to work on the basis of an ESP32 in combination with a Wemos. Mostly based on this project: th-cam.com/video/yninmUrl4C0/w-d-xo.html. It works but the sensitivity of the microphone is again the same problem as in your first project.
Do you know if on the ESP is something like a Uref available as well??
@@paulkassenaar9474 Hi Paul, glad you got something working. On the ESP, you can use analogSetPinAttenuation(pin, ADC_0db) if the issue you're having is that the input is not sensitive enough? This will give you a max voltage input of 800mV, which is good for a weak line in. ADC_2_5db will give you up to 1.1V if 800mV is not enough. pin is the pin number for your input signal. Is this what you meant?
@@ScottMarley Dear Scott,
Slowly I am getting somewhere with a lot of stumbeling on the most simple arduino grammar but ok.
One thing I cannot figure out in your code is e.q in VU6
You write here:
CRGB *leds;
uint8_t i = 0;
uint8_t *peak; // Pointer variable declaration
uint16_t height = auxReading(channel);
if(channel == 0) {
leds = ledsLeft; // Store address of peakLeft in peak, then use *peak to
peak = &peakLeft; // access the value of that address
}
I cannot figure out what is happening here. The statement CRGB *leds is something with a pointer but no idea how?
same for leds = ledsLeft??
Can you give some more explanation??
Thanks in advance
Hi, Mr.Scott Marley, I set up 60 led, Low memory available, stability problems may occur when upload the file, Pls, advise me how to fixed.
60 is about the limit of the number of LEDs you can use. Ignore the warning and it will probably work ok. If you want to remove the warning, reduce the number of LEDs, use a different microcontroller such as an ESP32 / 8266 or remove some of the patterns.
very good👍. try more effects keep using ardino nano 👍
Hello Friend!!! Please tell me- I specified "true" in the firmware so that the effects would switch automatically, But how to set the time??? For example, so that each effect would work for 30 seconds
Change PATTERN_TIME to however many seconds you need. The constants at the top of the code are all explained with comments.
I hope to try this on the pico
Did you use a Y splitter? or is the jack a passthrough some how?
Hello Scott. Hope you are doing well. Thank you for posting. I finally got around to attempting this project with mixed success.
Tried the Nana first but come across this error -
Sketch uses 21006 bytes (68%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes.
Global variables use 1710 bytes (83%) of dynamic memory, leaving 338 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.
Low memory available, stability problems may occur.
So i decided to try using an Arduino Mega. Good news is does work - sort of. All functions do work however the problem I am having is at very low volume the meter seems to peak (each channel spikes to the highest LED). As I gradually increase the volume on the mixer the meter does settle to what seems to be normal and works well.. Would you know what might be causing this? Your video seems smooth regardless of the volume level.
Have also tried using an Uno with the same results. I used to the same components you had listed and have only change the following variables :
define NOISE 20
analogReference(INTERNAL1V1); - only on the Mega as instructed by previous posters
Also thank you for posting the recent tutorial videos. They are great.
Hi, I can't look at this right now but I have a few comments. It should work fine on the nano despite the warning, it's pushing the limits of ram but it's not completely full yet! Regarding it shooting up when there is no input, does it do this when connected to any other device, a phone for example? Make sure all of your grounds are good and are tied together as well as possible. Try increasing or changing the electrolytic capacitor across the power rails.
@@ScottMarley thank you for your suggestion. I have now increased the cap along the power rail to 1000uf 25v. The issue is still present. I will try connecting to another device tomorrow and see how it goes. It's a strange one because it only occurs at low volume.
I also tried with mega, almost like the same issue here like noise. Tried all things found in comment section but non works. Hoping for an actual mega video version of this..
Nice build Scott.
I have compiled and run this as a mono for now on an esp32 devkitc board. It works buuuutt the patterns are reversed ie all LEDs are on and when the mic pics up noise it turns off the led's ??
If using an ESP32, there is a bunch of stuff you will have to change, as the ADC reads 4096 values rather than the 1024 of the Arduino. I've used '512' throughout the code to refer to the middle of the ADC range, this will have to be changed to 2048. 1023 will have to be changed to 4095. You'll also have to remove the analogReference(internal) call as I don't think the ESP support that and defaults to 11dB attenuation which is what you want. I presume you have the potentiometers powered from the AREF pin of your board has one? I haven't tested this with an ESP, so there's probably a bunch of other stuff you'll also have to tweak. If you do get it to work, let me know so I can see what needs changing!
@@ScottMarley not had chance to try and connect pots yet but will adjust the values as above and see how it goes👍 then see if the pots will work. It does react to the mic though all I adjusted was input pin from mic and led output pin.
@@thegoat6234 if you don't have the pots connected, you will need to set the sensitivity manually on line 75 (try 512 or something and adjust from there) and comment out the reading of the sensitivity pin on line 209, as that will be reading electrical noise if nothing is connected to it. Even with all this stuff, there might be something I've missed I'm afraid.
@@ScottMarley thanks for all this help mate much appreciated I'm working at the mo so will try all the above one I'm home tomorrow 😃😊👍👍
Tried these mods today and it still operates in reverse all LEDs are on but they react to off with noise lol? Would it be easier to alter your other code for the uno that has no pots at all? So I just set brightness and sensitivity in the code? I have uploaded the uno code and made the above adjustments to the ADC etc but it still reacts in reverse??
Can I use neo pixel in this, I hd used it for star it s 5 v
Its working fine, only thing thats not working is: If i try it on a 5m 300leds strip only about 120 leds are being used. You have a solution?
It was never coded with that many LEDs in mind I'm afraid, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't work.
@@ScottMarley Thats okay, do you have a solution to get this code running on a esp32? Because esp32 doesn't have a AREF pin
Yesssss
Very cool ,can you make for car signal indicator, can controlled bluetooth with 4 input triggers
I actually have a prototype here of a car indicator setup that uses the 12V from the car lights rather than Bluetooth. I'll make a video about it soon but I'm just so busy :(
@@ScottMarley nice man ,very cool projects
@@joseledesma9506 no worries, that video is up now, I don't know of it's of any help though!
I do not have a Nano in stock, and since delivery time i rather long, I am planning on building it on a ATTiny85 from DigiSpark. Will this be possible? It only has 6 I/O pins (4 analog) so I am thinking of skipping the brightness potentiometer. Other then that, I do not see any problem in using the ATTiny. Am I wrong?
You're going to struggle with the amount of ram. The attiny85 only has 512b Vs 2kb in the nano. You might get away with it if you reduce the number of patterns and have a small number of LEDs. Otherwise it should work the same. I don't know what country you're in, but in the EU/US there are hundreds of nano clones on eBay for about $3-4 which work fine.
Scott Marley you were right. I ran into memory issues. So I switched to an ESP32 I also had in stock. So now I am planning to use the bluetooth in the ESP to stream the audio. And have a jack for line-Out to connect to a speaker/headphones.
That sounds like a much more complicated project. Key me know if you pull it off!
@@ScottMarley I have built it now. And the VU works fine. But the sound quality of the line-out is horrible. I have ordered an external DAC since the internal DAC of the ESP32 is only 8bit. That might be the reason for the poor sound quality.
O meu esta dando esse erro: analogReference(INTERNAL);
não declarado no escopo
Are you using an Arduino? If so, which one?
Are you using an Arduino? If so, which one?
@@ScottMarley estou usando o Arduino Mega, 2560 alterei o Campo Internal para External e compilou, isso pode dar problema? no caso o erro da antes de subir, quando eu faço a checagem antes de carregar, depois que alterei para External ele compilou e carregou no arduino
Sorry for the slow response. If using a mega, you need to set analogReference(INTERNAL1V1)
@@ScottMarley perfect thanks
Great video, you explain it very well! I’m looking to build something very similar but based off an esp32 board. Anybody know how I can do this without having the aref pin?
The ESP32 uses 1V1 as a reference by default, so you should be able to use it without setting analog reference etc and just wire it up the same as in my example.
Scott Marley the same as your example being all connections to aref go to 5v like in the first video?
Hi, i need that program run for 300 leds? How can i do it? When i try arduino UNO 100 leds is a limit... Please, can somebody help me? I need that very much! :)
You can use a better microcontroller, for example an Arduino Mega, Teensy, ESP8266, ESP32... With 300 LEDs you will have to plan power carefully. 15A power supply recommended, and power injection every 1m or so along the strip.
@@ScottMarley Thanks for fast reaction! I thought about Arduino Mega and ESP32 too, but i don't have free Arduino Mega now and shipping time is 2-4weeks because of covid (i'm from CZE :/). I have ESP32, but i didn't use it yet, so i don't have that much skill to make a code rework.
You should make a version using the MAX4466, because im struggling getting it to work.
Sorry to hear that you haven't got it to work. It would be a lot easier to make work correctly with a 4466 as the input is buffered by the amplifier. I didn't make a microphone version as I didn't need one, it wouldn't make sense for a boombox.
@@ScottMarley How would you make it with the microphone then?
Just connect the output of the mic straight to the input pin on the Arduino. You might have to remove analogreference and have the potentiometers attached to 5V rather than the aref pin. I can't remember what output level those microphones produce.
I'm building this today. I'd love to have some kind of global color control. For example, no matter which pattern is selected, it only passes red values to the strip (or any other selected color). Any thoughts on this?
Of I were you I'd use WLED instead of this code. This was written before WLED got as usable as it is nowm
@@ScottMarley Ha! I just finished building it, uploaded the code... and realised I have RGBW pixels. This might save me
Damn I just realised it won't run on this hardware :( Maybe update your video description?
@@mobilephone4045 That's a shame. Just grab an ESP, they're only a few dollars and way more capable than an Arduino.Atbthe moment, FastLED is incompatible with RGBW strips. WLED does support tlit however.
@@ScottMarley Unfortunately, I live on an island and I ordered the Nano's for this project, but now I will have to wait until next year for the ESP to arrive by boat! What a shame
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Can I please buy a self build kit or completed kit for this please
I'm afraid I don't have one to sell! You can easily make it yourself using the parts shown in the schematic on GitHub. If you just want something that works out of the box, you could buy an SP107E controller, something like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SP107E-SP110E-Music-Bluetooth-Remote-Magic-Controller-For-WS2812-2811-LED-Strip/323825223820?hash=item4b657cc88c:g:YM4AAOSw5tBc9eWp
@@ScottMarley Well, i can see all the parts in the schematic but that isn't very clear. Can you give me a list of what we need and how much of it instead of studiyng a schematic picture ?
Help me, ( Error compiling for board Arduino nano)
You need to post the *full* error message or there's no way I can help
Code is not complie. Showing error. Why?
When asking for help, please paste any error messages. Otherwise I can't possibly know what you're doing.
Tried sending you an email. I'd be super interested to know if you could possible do a PCB layout for this so I could order a board from PCBway or similar. I suck at doing PCB layout in eagle etc.
Be more than happy to pay for your time.
Fastled uses what version
Whatever the latest version is.
Please, a mega version 😢. Tried all. I gave up after 3 weeks.
I'm sorry it didn't work. I don't have a mega I'm afraid, and I don't want to buy one as I have no use for it. I also have my VU matrix wired up to a microphone now and mounted in my wall, so I'm not up for taking it apart and doing more testing with a line in. Apologies.
Jim Rawson
9 months ago
If you use a Mega, change the analogReference to (INTERNAL1V1);
what size capacitor do you use?
I had some trouble with noise finding its way from the lights to the speakers so I used quite a lot of capacitance, maybe 2000uF
you can use capacitors. 47uf 50v input ya
@@armnmulana6670 sure
the one that uses 5v power is given how many capacitors
Hello Scott , loving your work ! i was wondering if you were upto talking via email if you dont mind ,i would like it if you could help me with some code , please .