Disco wristband with schematic and DIY version.

[@mattinman8285]

9:25 Clive is a Wizard. Watch the transistor disappear!

[@dos541]

It stuck to his hand and it fell on the floor is my guess

[@Tjousk]

Indeed.

[@MyChrisable]

The man sure has the proper beard for wizardry ... just saying..

[@SlyPearTree]

I did find a transistor while sweeping my lab earlier today, I guess it's due to quantum physic.

[@maicod]

+slypeartree did it also travel back in time ? :D

[@dl8cy]

You Videos are always great - but this is the best for a long time - including the disapearence of the transistor with your hand edge!

[@KarlBunker]

More than three components and it worked on the first try? What sorcery is this??

[@daleyurk4369]

Clive, really enjoyed that. Obviously simple from your perspective, but for learners, an excellent video. Many thanks.

[@rcboy147]

Even for people that have lots of electronics skills, making something similar to this is still quite entertaining.

[@runforitman]

0:30 "I got big hands, big wrists; everything's big" 😏

[@tyttuut]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@Super1337357]

He's trying to say he's tall :P

[@hornylink]

oh no, the trump's infecting him O:

[@firstlast9184]

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

[@M1Cr0sOfT]

I was 5 months late :')

[@wdave6944]

I was suprised to see that itty-bitty circuit illuminate all those LEDs on the string. One NPN to rule them all...

[@Gameboygenius]

One NPN and a camera with sensitive auto exposure, probably.

[@wdave6944]

Well... yeah, maybe. But still, 4 AA cells powering it.... it's giving me ideas... Halloween is coming up soon y'know.

[@GremlinZA]

Now add a low, Band & high pass filters to triple out the outputs... So you get Bass beat, Mids, and high trebles on seperate lights....

[@joinedupjon]

the classic school disco lighting effect from my childhood! - they used to sell kits to make one of those to run SCR controlled tungsten spotlight bulbs IIRC.

[@riav2785]

Color organ

[@GremlinZA]

Shhhhh.. you giving away our age!!!!

[@grendelum]

Gremlin S.A. - great idea... funny story about disco lights (Warning: long ramble about to begin)... when I was on tour as a bands lighting director, we played the club in Minneapolis where they filmed 'Purple Rain'... what was so amazingly cool was all the lighting effects they'd added for the film were still there, and the best bit, they were all controlled via Casio keyboards !!! It reminded me of my planetarium laser show roots, we had flash keys to play the incandescent effects and the 4 laser colors (sliders as well of course), but was such a nice departure from the High End controllers and Pearl light board I used that just had small buttons under the sliders for on/off effects... you could really beat on those Casios !!!

[@big8news]

Yes win had radio shack for are projects in the USA . know its ebay and Amazon

[@zh84]

The breadboarding reminds me of the Analogue Electronics course in Higher Physics - and the coloured lights reacting to the music are suitably 80s disco!

[@SingenDrake81]

Great job on this video, I think its immensely valuable to those getting started in electronics to do little circuit explanations discussing the role of components in a circuit, and then to go ahead and build it off the diagram as you did.

[@crocellian2972]

You've done it. I want disco back. I want to be at your house with a case of Grey Goose during a February storm. Bravo man.

[@stridermt2k]

So good to see you on the bench again, sir! This is another circuit that I must build for myself now! Love this stuff.

[@techy4198]

Having the microphone inside without a hole means that the sound that reaches it will be much more attenuated in the higher frequencies, effectively giving them some low-pass filtering for free :)

[@richbooth8948]

Nice job, Clive. These "build" projects are always fun to watch and try at home. This one goes into my "Top 10 Clive Videos".

[@timw1971]

Excellent video! Great to see a build. This is what electronics is really all about -- getting stuck in, exploring the knowledge and being creative.

[@TheNevermind007]

That is a cool little circuit, and a very cool magic trick making that transistor disappear.

[@JohnGotts]

Very impressive, taking the COB out of circuit. I just ordered three to play with.

[@CookingWithCows]

I'm impressed how well it worked at the end

[@DJSMAN911]

I just tore apart a bracelet I had like this and tried to reverse engineer it. I had my schematic drawn, I just couldn’t figure out how it worked. This video definitely helped!!

[@grandadpop7865]

I recently retired and I'm starting to learn electronics, I've learned a lot from your videos (some of it useful). I'm going to try to combine this circuit with the Poundland Halloween lights you covered a few days ago.

[@orinokonx01]

That worked quite well! I'm going to have to build this, the missus will certainly enjoy it when she plays her music :)

[@cuteraptor42]

01E is actually the correct marking for resistor with precision of 1% or greater. That's used for E96 serie. I had one smd resistor marked 30A mounted on my own board and I was thinking that something was wrong... but it was in fact 200 ohm 1%

[@DavidHoshor]

I really enjoyed that video, and the fact that you were able to recreate the circuit with just a handful of components. I must try it too.

[@0xc0ffea]

Awesome video, really enjoyed it being built on the breadboard and the end result.

[@robbieaussievic]

...... That last 10 seconds was the only party I've been to in years !

[@brianartillery]

Most definitely! I have collected the replicas, and they are very convincing. At about fourteen quid each, it makes sense if your leading man is prone to dropping the £300+ handmade metal one every now and then. The opening end of Matt Smith's sonic screwdriver was particularly fragile, I have read.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Most real props are quite delicate. Especially the technical ones with lots of moving bits, as they are one-offs.

[@outaspaceman]

Built and working. I had to 'adjust' the resistor values to the ones I had available (5.1k, 20k, & 10) but everything seems fine. Thanks BC.👍

[@jimmymclemore9807]

Very enjoyable video, Clive. Now I'm going to scroll down to your "No Time For Sleep" video & give that another listen.

[@maxximumb]

That's tonight's fun project sorted. Now I just need to find something that needs to be sound activated. I'm thinking to maybe filter out the low frequencies and add a latching transistor switch, so it becomes a clapper type thing. Thanks for the excellent video Clive.

[@bigclivedotcom]

This circuit mainly responds to higher pitched noises.

[@iLive2Ride76]

As always your videos are top notch. I really liked that you built the circuit on breadboard. And you must be a magician. Really smooth disappearing of the transistor at 9.35 😂

[@SRad666]

Clive, if you were to put on a '80s style disco, with BigClive lighting, I'd fly half way round the world to be there. It would be awesome.

[@Tom_Losh]

Heheheh... Your transistor escapes between 9:27 and 9:37 as you are writing BCE, BCE, NPN on the schematic. (Sticks to the edge of your writing hand and jumps ship.) Love the videos, Clive! :^)

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

... everything's big... unpleasantly tight... ;-)

[@Zetrisy]

Comparing your like to dislike ratio, never seen anything like it. Love your content xxx

[@animationcreations42]

Damn it Clive! Why is I always feel the need to build anything you make. Because of you I will spend the next hour on ebay looking from parts, and probably spending thousands of pounds on crap from China!

[@LakeNipissing]

2nd transistor got implanted in Clive's wrist between 9:27 and 9:37. :)

[@MrBobWareham]

Nice one Clive so simple and so easy good fun thanks Bob

[@tiikoni8742]

Great video! I'd love to see you build more things on breadboard with your own twists added :-)

[@YouAllKnowBob]

Yes! Simple circuits we can build!

[@mikeguitar9769]

Might be able to use a piezo device (or even a microphonic MLCC) going to the + rail, in place of the cap.

[@penixnet]

Almost as good as the LM324 clapper circuit, but made from jelly-bean parts, which is always a plus. Love your stuff, keep'em coming.

[@ThatGuy-nv2wo]

At about 9:27 I believe the transistor gets stuck to the underside of your hand, then dropping off onto, probably, the floor.

[@bigclivedotcom]

indeed it did.

[@maicod]

+bigclivedotcom did you accidentally trample it to death or rescued it ?

[@d2factotum]

If the left-hand transistor is pulling the input of the right-hand one to 0V when this is idle, doesn't that mean the battery is constantly discharging through the 18k resistor?

[@Growveguk]

Hence the COB switching arrangement..

[@shemp308]

that was really interesting! and I think will be a little project for my grandson and myself. thanks!

[@Loscha]

I do like your music, Clive. I was hoping for "cheap shitty pink charger from China", but, No time for Sleep is just as good!

[@bradmad8346]

Very nice, I haven't used a breadboard since the 80s, I use the PC board that looks about the same trouble is you must solder, but hey if you cant solder get out of the shop, I admit bread board is quick and dirty.

[@josephe3697]

Brilliant video Clive, well done.

[@brianartillery]

That's quite a cool little toy. It looks like something that you'd see on a TV show like 'Blake's 7'. The sort of thing we'd have killed for in the 1970's...

[@bigclivedotcom]

When I was trying to put it on the Blake's 7 teleport bangles immediately came to mind.

[@joinedupjon]

I saw the B7 prop guy on a documentary once... he said had to keep making those teleport bangles because the actors 'forgot' to take them off at the end of shooting.

[@VerdantTrash]

this is great

[@christastic100]

Yes I may try this myself. its explained so well Clive

[@QlueDuPlessis]

WoW! A classic sound-to-light circuit in 2016??? Haven't seen one of those since the disco era! :D

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's proper retro stuff. The electronics magazines used to be full of projects for these.

[@davefridjhon]

bigclivedotcom

[@chrisleech1565]

Thanks Clive for getting back to some electronics hacking. Astounded at your aptitude for realizing the intent of the design. Always a welcome education in the finer points. BTW, Upon asking why you hadn't got into Arduino, your reply was "never got around to it I suppose.." Well even as a rank newb, I have just ordered the pic programmer and a dev board to get into some simple programming. So some more pic prog vids would be just lovely. But why not do some screen shots recording the process of the coding. Oh gosh my bench is just awash :-o

[@skrame01]

DIY is great. Suggestion - you should add scope measurements and some calculations to really explain how it is all working.

[@Mr.Unacceptable]

Nice video. This is what I was talking about. Now if only I had all those part laying around to play with. At 9:21 you write a symbol on the schematic you pressed the side of your palm on the transistor and it vanishes. Playing magic tricks on yourself.

[@BarneySaysHi]

I'm a bit surprised that the collector of the first is connected to the base of the second. Isn't it normally the emitter from the first connecting to the base of the second that is making for a higher gain?

[@Bob3519]

Another fun video. A nice project to build with a child or grandchild.

[@veraxis9961]

Fun stuff. I love discrete transistor circuits like this. I was a little disappointed that you didn't decide to play the Cheap Shitty Pink USB Charger Song.

[@shurdi3]

Out of curiosity, can't you just wire the output of a music source to the place where the microphone is, and have your own flashing lights along the music

[@sparkey9098]

9:23 npn in left hand one npn on table right hand righting and then its gone where did it go 9:38... did it walk away

[@ThatBulgarian]

The transistor teleported!

[@TheSpotify95]

Aah, lovely more "banggood" stuff! Still considering getting that oriental LED star from BG ;) edit: That was awesome how those lights flashed at the end of the video!

[@norwichgameplay3561]

That's actually really cool Clive! Love your videos :D

[@chems]

9:26 looks like ur the second transistor stuck to ur had and when u move it back it fell off lol

[@codebeard]

That's a really nice effect! What would happen if you adjusted the first resistor and the capacitor values? I'd actually be really interested to see this circuit with variable resistor and capacitor in place so you can adjust things. I'm guessing the other couple of resistors are less important? Or do they need to be tuned together?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The capacitor choice will affect sensitivity at different frequencies. The 100n makes it sensitive to high frequencies, but a higher value cap would extend the range somewhat. The 5.6K resistor position is matched to the microphone, the 1M is a general slight bias value and the 18K will be chosen to drive the main transistor hard enough to light the LEDs brightly, but high enough to be easy to pull to ground by the lightly biased first transistor.

[@codebeard]

+bigclivedotcom Thanks Big Clive, I might try to see if I have a suitable capacitor around here

[@droidclone]

I was just thinking about building channels into it to pick up varying tones and tying that to a light channel.

[@pshq]

I'm not sure but… can this circuit be used as a part of LED VU-meter? I mean you repeat this for each LED, with some modifications and will it work?

[@Graytail]

Should work with a little tinkering with the resistor values to change the activation points. Might be a good idea to change the resistor connected to the LED transistor in the basic circuit so you can change the volume needed on the fly and from that figure out which resistors you'd need for each stage of your VU meter. [At least I think thats the resistor you'd need to swap out, what do you say Clive?]

[@John_Ridley]

Use the output of this to pump up a capacitor with a bleeder on it, then a series of comparators to drive the leds based on capacitor voltage, should work just fine.

[@jkmacgyver]

LM3915

[@John_Ridley]

jkmacgyver Well sure, if you want to do it the EASY way. User name does NOT check out :)

[@DjResR]

Use different value zener diodes and 10k resistors to drive the bases of the transistors that drive the LED's.

[@emilcarr7190]

You should create a similar circuit, but it should have high and low pass filters to filter off certain frequencies and have multiple LEDs that light up for different frequencies

[@grendelum]

@14:14 This seems to be the song playing in every Russian dashcam crash video on KZbin...

[@maicod]

I ordered a couple of wider rectangular breadboards on Ebay and half way the power rails are split-up

[@khronscave]

"1A" is actually the marking for several SOT23-packaged _MBT2904 transistors :)

[@brianartillery]

A similar sort of thing was the Doctor Who props guy using commercially available toy 'sonic screwdrivers' for David Tennant and Matt Smith to use... because they were always breaking the (very expensive) 'hero' props.

[@bigclivedotcom]

That would make the replica props non-replicas. I bet that increased sales.

[@macro820]

That worked great Clive thanks buddy

[@jacobwcrosby]

Despite that probably half the comments reference the same thing in the video, I too, must succumb to nature and post my own... lol Super entertaining, viewing video and seeing him write, watching the transistor stick to his right hand and thinking, 'Wonder when he'll notice something's amiss', and the childish joy when, twenty seconds later, Clive 'misplaced' his transistor... lol

[@ExStaticBass]

That's just plain neat. Nice hack. I'll have to see if I can build one of those myself. Do you think MOSFETs would work in place of standard NPN transistors or would the shunt diode mess with it too much? I have a few from an old power supply I saved for parts. The chips I have are 70L02P MOSFETs in a to220 package.

[@bigclivedotcom]

MOSFETs tend to have quite a high gate voltage. Plain vanilla NPN transistors are best.

[@darjiaethera]

I went to make this circuit and realized I was missing most of the parts. Somehow. I have no idea why I don't have any 100nF caps... My electronics hoard is deficient. At least I can swap the transistors for some spare 2N4401s, correct?

[@bigclivedotcom]

You can use a wide range of capacitor values. It's not critical. The 2N4401 doesn't really have very high gain.

[@darjiaethera]

Thanks. That helps a lot. I'll root around for a better gain transistor. I'm still in the relative newbie phase where I don't quite know what numbers I can get away with changing without causing combustion or sadness.

[@magicaardvark1]

Good Job! I love the 12" remix of Too Much KZbin Thanks as always!

[@odanobunaga7062]

Can somebody explain why there are two transistors instead of just one?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Gain. The one switching the high load of the LEDs will not be as sensitive as the one switching the much lower load of its base.

[@mikeguitar9769]

Great answer. I was thinking it might be possible to use one transistor, if desired, if it was a MOSFET. Just play around with the gate biasing until it works. ... Also might be able to use a piezo device (or even a microphonic MLCC) going to the + rail, in place of the cap.

[@zx8401ztv]

I bet a single darlington transistor could be used instead. Oh my old favorite was the Bc109 lol.

[@tomturner9689]

Does it matter what volume the music is played? If the music is very loud, will the lights simply stay on all the time? I used to have an old set of 4 bulb disco lights and I believe they may have had a sensitivity option on them?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's just a fixed threshold, so at loud volumes the lights will behave differently.

[@AThreeDogNight]

That's a nice little circuit, so much in fact I tried to build it & obviously I must have ordered the wrong style of microphones, I guess. Not certain which they are until I can find the paperwork on them. So exactly what is the item # from off of ebay or at least the proper name for them because I purchased mine from Jameco Electronics, of coarse no returns anything electrical anyway. Oh well, I'm trying Clive to learn this stuff. Thanks for any help you can give.

[@Qwarzz]

That was simple and pretty amazing!

[@GadgetBoy]

The transistor is stuck to your hand...from when you wrote the poles of the transistors on the schematic.

[@craftsman123456]

I wonder how this might combine with the meteor solar project done awhile ago

[@hindler]

The music was a little bit "0898" late night chat line adverts, circa 1996....particularly the "Talk to guys just like you" ones. I don't think they were discussing Nietsche.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It was actually the hold music on a gay chat line.

[@maicod]

+bigclivedotcom omg ;)

[@MatthewPotter]

Only because you have them available, do these work with frequencies outside human hearing? Would you be able to send a signal higher or lower than what we can detect and then have it effect the circuit?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The microphone has a limited audio range.

[@aszi77]

Clive, I recommend this for a teardown: "Enchanted Light-Up Unicorn Slippers" :D

[@jusb1066]

what was the point of the cob on the wristband then?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Just the on-off function.

[@jusb1066]

so would a cob and momentary switch be cheaper than a tiny toggle switch? i dunno seems weird.

[@daanwilmer]

Maybe it also includes some protection for the lithium batteries? I don't know.

[@John_Ridley]

Almost certainly. Also easier to design the case for a pushbutton than a toggle switch. Toggle switches cost probably almost a dime each. cob plus pushbutton is way less than that.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

I suspect it provides a time delay, you press the button it stays on for a while,then after a few minutes, switches off, thus preserving the batteries. Press the button and it re-activates.

[@p166mx]

Just built this myself as I want to make some disco lights and I thought this was a really cheap way of doing it rather than going through the expense of using a microcontroller. I do not have an 18k resistor so I have had to use a 20k one. My circuit is behaving oddly as it works with just 5mm LEDs but then I tried to add a parerell LED string to it and when I do that all the LEDs just stay lit and only slightly increase with brightness to music. Am I simply overloading the second transistor so it is not switching properly? There is only 15 odd LEDs on the string (poundland ones). I am using generic BC547s from Ebay.

[@smlunchen7789]

very impressive little circuit :D

[@loudej]

Very nice video! You could even consider a series of "Let's Build a Xxx Circuit" where you put a schematic on a breadboard. Though I suppose you might quickly run out of circuits that are quite as tiny and interesting as flashing lights.

[@AlexLaw_Qld]

"But everything's big"... Clive... [shakes head]

[@JerryEricsson]

Waayyyy back in time, back before everyone in the world had computers, back before the hand held calculator was in everyones pocket, before cell phones, in fact only the richest folk could afford a car phone, and had held phones were larger then Max Smart's shoe. Back then when the 3 Dog Night was just cutting their first wax, folks used to get high and watch light organs! Well now the real light organs were very spendy, and we, the common every day soldier had no funds for such things, so we needed to design our own! Well I had a buddy, who, like you, was into lights. So what he did was to build a speaker type enclosure. On the back, he strung some of the large incandescent Christmas Tree Lights. I believe he had 10 or 12 of them, stapled by the wire to the back of the box in a sort of quasi-random design. Each bulb was a flasher, and, of course of various colors. Then going forward in the box he built an insert, so he could put different cut out pattern sheets in place, those carved out of a thin plywood, probably 1/8 inch if I recall. On those boards, he cut out shapes, hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs and even words, such as the most uttered words back then in the ARMY, FTA (Fuck the Army). Next, he put in a translucent screen, you could get them at the lumber yard as covers for florescent lights and inserts for cabinet faces. Now when you plugged that deal in, and played the music, the flashing of the lights made the shapes appear all over that screen in different colors, and your mind sort of mad them dance to the music as it rocked the old trailer house where he lived. I thought it a great deal, so I found a light organ at Radio Shack in a kit form, this became my first kit, and while it did dance to the music, it just had the same type board and all white lights, with a sort of hippey type plastic front that made it light up colored. Personally I like my buddies much better, I ended up throwing the one I built from a kit in the garbage on my next unit transfer.

[@benwinkel]

I like it so i 'liked' it! Gonna build it myself.

[@JohnnyJoannou]

Damn, thwarted by lack of resistors! I'm the kind of guy that is interested in this stuff, but has none of the requisite components except for a few old circuit boards I scrapped that have some surface mount NPN transistors.

[@EllieMappin]

I don't have an 18k resistor can I use another type

[@dist0rt07]

I used a 20k. No problems. Ended up going below 18k trying to increase sensitivity.

[@EllieMappin]

Chris Jones thanks man

[@ScottPC]

Love you Clive.

[@kristiandawe85]

this is pretty sweet, i'm making this, thanks for the schismatic clive. :)

[@mbaker335]

I brought some extra large gloves from Hong Kong. They barely covered my fingers. Then a audio headset. Again they cut off my circulation. When buying anything on bang-good or eBay from the far east it is worth remembering the relative definition of 'large'. Size 4XL is the minimum for clothing etc. Worth checking before buying anything.

[@craftsman123456]

Clive, since I have this connected to the solar charger from another project the microphone ends up in the window which is a bit away from the speaker. What would I need to change to pick up a little more from the speaker. Only need to gain about 2 feet. I have to have it pretty loud.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Can the microphone be aimed?

[@craftsman123456]

Not really it is about 2 foot behind the stereo speaker.

[@craftsman123456]

Clive I ended up getting it to have more sensitivity by replacing the capacitor with a 220uf/224 and the 18k resister to a 4.7k. Seems to work well enough for me.

[@callumBee]

That circuit does better sound to light than anything I have seen... Where was this about 12 years ago! ugh.

[@Darieee]

Well, judging by how youtube works and operates lately, this video'll be brought down quite soon due to copyright self-infringement

[@Borednesss]

Awesome, that's fun.

[@JohnnyX50]

the transistor got stuck to your hand when you wrote BCE on the drawing :), Iv wanted a circuit like this for ages, I wonder if it would work (with modifications to current limiting) as a Clock Input to a binary counter so I can use my BCD to Decimal chip on my homemade disco light chaser in a "Audio Beat" mode. I made one years ago from an Everyday Electronics mag, it was a project for touch sensitive lighting control, but I was only interested in the audio detection circuit. I lost it over the years but it worked beutifully on my custom diode decoder for 4 channel chase patterns from my said BCD to Decimal (16 stage) chip. I actually still have the decoder, chaser and electronic relays circuits and it still works but where the audio board went to I have no idea. It uses a bi-directional binary counter which I had on a slow 555 for random reverse pattern changing. I think the audio side used op-amps and filters to give a nice pure pulse output but this circuit looks like it could replace my lost work :) I cant find any circuits online for audio in to pulse (ttl logic) out :(

[@bigclivedotcom]

Many years ago I made some little PCBs with LEDs on them where a 4017 counter was clocked directly by the audio picked up by the microphone. It gave interesting effects.