Make your own LED Sign VU Meter

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Facebook: / greatscottlab
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Support me for more videos: www.patreon.com/GreatScott?ty=h
More project information (schematic, parts list,....) on Instructables: www.instructables.com/id/Make-...
In this project I will show you how to create a custom LED sign that reacts to the loudness of your music, just like a VU meter does.
Parts list (affiliate links):
Aliexpress:
1x Stripboard: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dY2...
100x 5mm Green LED: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dV6...
1x Perfboard with copper dots: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dXx...
1x 3.5mm Audio Jack: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d6P...
1x DC Jack: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d6c...
2x LM324 OpAmp: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dTf...
1x 47µF Capacitor: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d7d...
1x 100kΩ Potentiometer: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dX8...
7x IRFD220 N-channel MOSFET: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d8b...
11x 10kΩ, 1x 47kΩ, 4x 1kΩ, 2x3.3kΩ, 3x 4.7kΩ, 2x 2kΩ, 1x 6.8kΩ, 1x 2.2kΩ, 1x 51kΩ Resistor: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dTP...
1x 12V 2A Power Supply: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dYH...
1x: Buck Converter: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dZO...
Ebay:
1x Stripboard: -
100x 5mm Green LED: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x Perfboard with copper dots: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x 3.5mm Audio Jack: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x DC Jack: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
2x LM324 OpAmp: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x 47µF Capacitor: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x 100kΩ Potentiometer: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
7x IRFD220 N-channel MOSFET: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
11x 10kΩ, 1x 47kΩ, 4x 1kΩ, 2x3.3kΩ, 3x 4.7kΩ, 2x 2kΩ, 1x 6.8kΩ, 1x 2.2kΩ, 1x 51kΩ Resistor: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x 12V 2A Power Supply: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
1x: Buck Converter: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-532...
Music:
2011 Lookalike by Bartlebeats
Killing Time, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

[@movement206]

Your videos just keep getting better

[@greatscottlab]

+MOVEMENT Thanks

[@mr.h3377]

GreatScott! Hello, I love your vids! I am a young electronics tinkerer and your videos really help me understand how things work better. I am currently working on a maker fair project for the mini maker fair her in Minnesota and was wondering if I could use your design in my project. If so how would you like me to credit you? Thanks!

[@proyectosledar]

Yesss! I have so many vu meters, but never get tired of them. the lm3915 it is a very good option but lm324 it is good too. thanks for this excelente video my friend!!! saludos

[@maletil]

Como gusta verte por aquí Gastón :) Yo también esperaba un lm3915

[@jeronimomurruni]

+maletil Essentially, an LM3915 is a single chip with coparators inside.

[@stevenking2980]

OMG VU METERS ARE BOSS! I LOVE THEM! I HAVE ANALOG AND LED. Sweet! I'm not the only nut! I have a ton of old stereos from sansui to Marantz and Yamaha and Sherwood!

[@thomasgotthulk3629]

You could also use the lm3914 for a Vu meter .C.

[@danehelene5568]

physics 12 student here and also not that smart.. but we are currently trying to do this project and have no ideas on which resister to use and where to use them! hopefully anyone can help? we bought all the resistors @greatscott mentioned in the description and are desperate to know which goes where

[@matthiasnicoloso]

Wow ! I'm in the 2nd year of my apprenticeship in electronics stuff, and your videos are so helpful !

[@schwidola9657]

You know you're already a pro if you can place LED's and solder them neatly in just over half an hour. That would take me almost half a day just doing that lol. Great content would like to see more LED projects :>

[@mikosoft]

You make it sound like it's the easiest thing to do.

[@amaanqureshi1286]

it actually is very simple.

[@analogaudiorules1724]

@@amaanqureshi1286 If you have some ee engineering experience you superiority complex gatekeeper, most people don't even for somthing like this, when you started out, you couldn't do this, stop being cocky and telling how it is so easy to everyone who has an opinion about it.

[@douglassmalls6934]

@@analogaudiorules1724 No it is very easy since it require minimal soldering skills. Just look at the circuit in the video, get the parts, and connect them. It isn't hard. I did things like this when I was 12 years old and hand zero experience or knowledge.

[@shamnadabd7266]

Whenever I get bored,I used to watch greatscotts videos.. It's truly awesome.... Thumbs up man.. You're great

[@aranegames9622]

this is so weird? yesterday i was looking for a LED VU-meter and couldn't find a simple / easy to follow design then you upload this a day later. awesome!

[@Lvyni]

+AranE Games Cool!!!!

[@aranegames9622]

+The Master Gamer SWEDEN ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@ryPish]

I'd love to see a similar project with each vertical line linked to a specific audio frequency band, maybe with RGB LED for an even cooler look :o

[@AKADriver]

This would be a good project for using an LM3915 since otherwise you'd have to replicate this whole circuit for each frequency band. But, essentially, you'd just have the signal fed into a parallel array of band-pass filters, then fed into a copy of this circuit (or an LM3915) to drive each column.

[@LiveMusicOntario]

That would turn out more like what we used to call a "3 Channel Colour Organ" that were very popular kits back in the early 70's and life was groovy. :) I still have one of mine that is operational. Typically the circuit sent the speaker level audio to 3 simple filters to get low, mid and high frequencies. Separate sensitivity adjustments for each channel. Those drove some circuitry that ended up at 3 triacs, modifying the AC that powered 3 banks of AC lighting. Using 3 flood lights was good for lighting up a family room wall or taking to parties or using out side at Christmas time in the front yard. Blue for low freq. / Red for mids and Yellow for highs. No ICs; all discrete components. We had to be careful because half of the circuit was handling full line AC voltage.

[@LiveMusicOntario]

@@AKADriver I thought this video possibly would use an LM3915. I can't believe that part number came to me like nothing, though I haven't seen one in over 30 years. I had a bunch of them. My recollction is the 3915 was linear response and the 3914 was logarithmic, or the other way around. Plus I believe there is (was) an LM3916. Someone suggested slowing down the response which is a very good idea. If it's possible easily, putting in some peak hold would be good too. But at any rate when it came out, the series of chips opened up a lot of projects. I used them with 10 element LEDs in an IC package. Great for chassis mount meter projects, not for projection.

[@togethia]

You will get a better display by adding a small capacitor to the rectified audio signal, so slow the response of the meter.

[@jojothka1232]

togethia great idea!

[@bogdanm251]

rectified audio signal?? if u rectify the audio signal all you get is a small dc voltage that doesn't work.

[@rekt_n_line]

Even though I've only taken a few electrical engineering classes, I can't help but be a little happy that I do understand most (not all) of what he's talking about.

[@joaquinsanandreas3222]

I like the layout of the boards you make it so neat and clean

[@tubata111]

Scott you are a real profesor !!!!! "its prery simple" he said ....

[@brunofonseca9686]

Once again Scott, great video and thanks for the knowledge. Greetings from Brazil.

[@DenAndMug]

Impressive work! You make it sound so easy haha! We just built a sign with LEDs, wasn't that simple and we kept it very simple!

[@Fritschge128]

well, that's a great beginners project! thank you very much Scott!

[@devjock]

Ah Lochmaster! I designed a modular synth with stripboard with v3 of that software many years ago. Super cool software. It even lets you put resistors on the backside, and at odd angles, etc.. Massively useful. The site is probably still online somewhere. The ASM-1-SB edition. Good times!

[@tudu_list]

Long back I made a similar one with LM3914. Nice weekend project BTW!

[@emailausdrucker]

a true GreatScott again. awesome.

[@greatscottlab]

+emailausdrucker Thanks mate ;-)

[@DeTrOiTXX12]

That was a great project. Well done!

[@baukevanderkooi8712]

i was going to build the same thing with a lm3914, so this video is verry helpfull. thanks and keep making awsome videos.

[@TheMoeP]

You make it look easy! last time I tried doing a vu-meter I didn't sleep in 3 days

[@TheJavaSync]

Like always, You are Great !!!! Scott !!!

[@id513128]

It's very hard to doing these PCB without flexible wire lol. It make me remind to old circuit's project which is very terrible. Good job GreatScott! Keep doing short but awesome video!

[@lorenzogumirato3626]

Really interesting video. My compliments Scott!

[@maxximumb]

Brilliant project.

[@naitikshailendrakumaryadav2824]

I had made vu meter using transistor and IN4148 diode. Each led has saprate transistor. But it required more power as input signal. I connect it with speaker output of an amplifier and add a 10 uf capacitor in signal line. Its results was great. It gives a little delay to fall down of led light and also led lightup brightly.

[@agrxdrowflow958]

You are a force of nature!

[@kingsarkasmus6634]

Scott, du ist einer der besten KZbinr. Awesome!

[@manuelgarcia-ds8wy]

Dear greatscott you are the best, electronic youtuber

[@chezneydalevangroeningen6879]

I love Great Scott's video :)

[@XenoContact]

Super sweet dude ! See if you could slap in a multi color LED disco ball that can be controlled with bluetooth to your future projects that'd be really neat as well.

[@shlomibarg]

I love you videos , they are very professional , keep up the good work !!!

[@pablomosquerabarrero7981]

am from colombia and your projectas are awesome

[@svenb4475]

THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!

[@electronic7979]

Excellent project

[@stevenking2980]

Excellent video! I love your multimeter and scope too. Very nice.

[@stevenking2980]

I subbed a long time ago. Good videos.

[@ABHILASH6409]

hi ! I am 14 years old and a great fan of your channel. greetings from India . keep up the good work!

[@teadrinkingilluminati9173]

Absolutely awesome! Love it

[@davidenesi5669]

Very nice! Great vid!

[@SrijanMukherjeesinjar]

Looks Awesome!! The next thing to do would be a full K band spectrum analyser with the LED sign

[@Hefri]

Nice video, greetings from Finland!

[@videosfeeder1234]

Cool project, Bro

[@zaidhussain5206]

Thank you for sharing , you creative as usual

[@KaienSander10Official]

Next level VU meter ;)

[@Krishna245194]

As always you are awesome!

[@electronictoj5379]

i love u great scott iam a kid and i have been trying out your projects

[@sediesbo]

Love your videos! I would really appreciate a more in depth look at how it works however! Like how you did the math to figure out all the dffirent resistors, mosfets, etc that you would need.

[@benzeamer5278]

Yes!! The old intro is the best!

[@CraigMansfield]

Lovely work

[@matteopalumbo5716]

you're a good youtuber. everithing is explanated very well

[@TheBigBigBlues]

Great project!

[@casaverdero]

I have built a VU meter a while ago but I used an arduino and made 3 led bars for high mid and low frequencies.

[@LikeOnATree]

Awesome project!! Thanks!

[@almasjamie3560]

this project is too good

[@user-qr2ko9em3m]

everything is amazing from you

[@piratapan]

Awesome video, love it!

[@34Gw]

Great!!!Scott!!!!

[@PAWTeamUnited]

thanks man you have save on a summer shool electronic project

[@nicojovellanos6269]

i like your post im electronic tech for 40 years now but I would like to do it again as a hobby thanks...

[@EvilTwin6661]

+GreatScott! Thanks for answering. I'll try it when I get it.

[@DavixDevelop]

This is just what I was looking for :)

[@EMSAYMADA]

Interesting! Great work mate :)

[@surajsurya1928]

You are an electronics god...love from india...

[@thomasalexander1563]

Nice tutorial again..

[@MYNICEEV]

Awesome my very good friend.

[@sauravofficial3798]

Thank you for this video

[@Laziter73]

As an industrial Q-solderer, I'm having a bit of pain watching you cutting component legs AFTER applying the solder. I know this is how a hobbyist gets the job done, I'm no stranger to it either, at least on prototype boards. Well anywho, great stuff, I like your projects and you've been a great inspiration for making projects in my home :) Keep up the good, no great, work :)

[@tim-214]

This is awesome.

[@simplelifediy1772]

great video!!!

[@michaellundsrensen2292]

You can make the application much easier with a LM3915 and 10 BD140 PNP transistors as LED drivers.

[@MalithArambage]

awesome project :-) !!!

[@bresporttv5420]

Very awesome! Thanks :)

[@GatoRockYou]

Thank you very very much for your videos! stay creative! :)

[@DavidCoptil]

3:22 At this moment I expected you to say "okay, I'm joking, we're going to use a simpler method"...But you didn't :(

[@tunahankaratay1523]

That's super simple.

[@AlejandroMartinez-lg9mx]

Maybe you should try wire wrap, it's easy and practical to use when it comes to prototypes. Cool video, nice job!

[@KerryAllenJackson]

nice video.. I'm thinking I might take a crack at building my own version of it ☺

[@ItsMe-ic5oc]

Great video! Im still waiting for the LED Cube VU Meter Color Organ combo.

[@Nikoxion]

Wow, this. is. awesome! :D Simple, but awesome

[@thegreatxyz]

very nice video

[@tbmtech5651]

you are a beast! 👍👍👍

[@MrPinknumber]

it looks great :D

[@DanielsGameVault]

Can you make it stereo by omitting the resistors following the input jack and wiring L and R to separate circuits ?

[@NaYonOFFiciaL]

Nice Brother

[@nick1p.x226]

You are a genius :)

[@MrBiky]

It's so bananas !

[@ankushredekar2011]

u r amazing....bro

[@strategicpetersigns9934]

wau! nice job

[@isacson]

good! without arduino. Very good . !!!

[@power-max]

For version 2.0, get a bunch of capacitors/inductors to make resonant tank circuits and several of those chips to have crude but appealing spectrum analyzer!!!

[@power-max]

Probably the simplest way to do that is to use some LPF filters for the first couple letters and HPF filters for the last couple.

[@InfinityArcane]

+Power Max That's actually a pretty neat idea!

[@ahmetasantas7099]

you are the best

[@jaimecristalino]

amazing!

[@9590417334]

don't you want to add ...freq separation also...with some filters coulb be possible i guess...would work amazing as room ambient lighting as well

[@whitewalter499]

sure i will make this

[@MarcelRobitaille]

Next project: audio spectrum in leds

[@chrrtz_builds2018]

It would be a good idea

[@dennisplayinglacrosse]

I like that idea...

[@DarthJenow]

also interested

[@mechedrei3036]

Hell yeah

[@745morning]

You can do that quite easily using an arduino and the fourier transform library, the hard part would be to multiplex the led matrix

[@StrandAndCO]

I really like your videos, they are easy to follow, while they contain interesting subjects. What i do miss though, is a schematic in PDF format, or some kind of picture to download. If i go to the intructables page, i get a little image of the schematic, and it is really hard to see the components, and their value. So, a piece of advice for you, thanks for the videos though, keep them comming!

[@greatscottlab]

+Fiskelord and Friends (DK) You can download the image from Instructables with its original resolution. Just click on the Image two times and there will appear a couple of download options on the left.

[@StrandAndCO]

Nice, thanks a lot!

[@18minimus18]

Thank for this I’m going to get all the parts ordered and make one myself but with my gaming name tag instead

[@levimarch5752]

Do that with color changing LEDs? Make a screen basically.

[@jptech8088]

please do a video on just how to make the led sign and power it by battery or mains if you cant with a battery

[@Wizely24]

so good

[@nicklandyvalverdesamame7691]

veri veri good!!