Circuit design for LED light show?
I'm looking into setting up a lighting system for my room using bright LEDs that flash in sync with music. I plan on doing this with circuits rather than software so I don't always have to be playing the audio through my computer.
I've been reading up on this a little, and I guess the way to do this is with bandpass filters to filter out different frequencies for different colored lights. Does anybody have suggestions (or a link to a circuit design) that would allow me to do this?
Also, I'm looking at using white LEDs and covering them with different colored plexiglass or something similar that will allow the light to shine through but diffuse it. Any suggestions on a suitable material? Or I could use colored LEDs and a colorless material that would kind of diffuse the light as well.
Thanks for any suggestions!
These were really big in the 1970's although done with incandescent lamps.
What you want is generically called a "color organ". If you google "color organ" or "color organ schematic" or "LED color organ", you will get lots of hits. Here's one example of an LED color organ, although it may be more complex than other circuits:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/circuit-skills-led-color-organ-spon.html#
Your concept of using white LEDs with colored filters won't work well. The white LEDs are blue LEDs with some phosphor doped to add in some yellow, but the spectrum of colors is really poor. You won't be able to get the intensity of colors that you really want. You will be much better off using colored LEDs.
To diffuse the look, the classic method is to go down to the hardware store and purchase a clear acrylic prismatic diffuser for a fluorescent light fixture. Around here, they come in 2'x 4' sheets and they do a great job of giving a star-burst pattern to a point source. You will need to mount the LEDs a few inches (several centimeters) from the back of the sheet to make a large star-burst pattern. Experiment for best effect. Here's what a typical sheet looks like:
http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Lighting_Diffusers/CA-PRIS2X4
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