Stereo Vu meter - second edition 

Very much appreciated. Your very welcome. Always nice to hear of successful projects.

Can anyone share me the connection diagram

You will be glad to know. That full brightness and volume control is part of the up coming update.

Hi Johannes, Thankyou, very much appreciatted

@@cine-lights dear sir mjy ye vu meter ki bht zarorat h ap koi b keemat ly lo so plz help jo b keemat chahiey ly lo m paisy phly bhaijonga jb apko ml jae tb ap corier krwa dena plz contact me on my whatsap ..009710544923996

Updated version is 98% complete. All vu meters have been fully tested. We have added 2 full colour controlled meters. So you can easily adjust them to any colour of your choice. There are 8 new vu meters. It will be touch screen only though. We have added lots of extra standby patterns and still looking at adding some extras. So the final release of the stereo update is going to be amazing..

Brilliant!!!!

@@cine-lights dear sir mjy ye vu meter ki bht zarorat h ap koi b keemat ly lo so plz help jo b keemat chahiey ly lo m paisy phly bhaijonga jb apko ml jae tb ap corier krwa dena plz contact me on my whatsap ..009710544923996

Hey FEMA Region 9, Thanks. I do try and make them as easy to follow as possbile. I do have a big update to come for the mono vu meter, this will also be updated into the stereo version in time. Lots of hard work as gone into this one.

@@cine-lights just out of curiosity, is this your line of work? Electronics? I'm still learning and don't know if it takes an engineering background, or can an enthusiastic electronics hobbyist learn this stuff?

@@SouthSideChiTown Hi.. it's not my line of work. But do have an background of electrics and mechanical engineering. It's all new to me too.. I'm learning and sharing as I do as a hobby.

@@cine-lights okay, cool. Thanks a lot for replying to my questions, love your channel it is definitely the most informative one on RU-vid. Keep up the great work! Do you have a website or anything?

To be honest as a hobby I just have about enough time to run this channel. Its crazy how long some of these projects take to put together. And then making the video. The next video involves 3d printed parts. That was 3 days of printing. The video after ( huge vu meter update) took over a week to get anything near ready for release. .. crazy what we do for fun eh?!!

In The wiring diagram its showing a positve connection out of the input jack, into the negative side of the cap.. The white stripe on the cap also shows the negative side of the cap..

@@cine-lights Oh ok I understand now. Now onto getting the parts to upgrade my VU meter. Thanks again for this most awesome build.

Александр, попробуй перевести вопрос с помощью гугл транслятора. Все таки автор по русски не говорит. :) Хотя вон выше написал, что он использует метровые отрезки по 144 светодиода. Но непонятно на чем. Тот же одноканальный ву метр у меня на УНО запускался на 60 светодиодах и работал нормально, но IDE писал что мало памяти. Для полного фунционала мега нужна.

@@EGORka140764 Спасиб) Я уже прошил на мегу, и эту и другую версию, с блютус юзаю, один метр 144 диода, пока не заказал второй метр

Hey Pascal, Firstly thanks.. secondly, I do not own, or i did not own any of my vu meters. this setup was a thrown together, so not 3d printed... if I design any 3d printed parts I always share the stl.. so sorry

@@cine-lights Ok thanks no problem

Hi... believe it or not, i actually only own one of these vu meters. Thats the mono version with line in. i do own the microphone version but thats gathering dust in a cubboard somewhere. everytime i build or update these Vu meters i have to rebuild it myself. This vu meter is 2 strips of 51 leds ( 144 leds a metre) stuck to 2 pieces of wood and screwed to a plastic frame i glued together to keep them upright and straight so i can video it. my enclosure for the arduino mega which runs my mono vu meter, I 3d printed. the files i found on thingiverse. The problem i am having is many people do not own a 3d printer, so im trying to keep away from them as much as possible so everyone can have a go at building these projects. it is becoming harder and harder.. also another problem, the items i can source in the UK to build these projects, is not always available in other countries.. an example in Thailand you have to have special permission to own a 3d printer.. so when it comes to the build i will leave it to your imagination..

Thank you

can you give me the code please :) I also use a nano

thanks for nothing

HI Anthony.. I have made many vu meters.. with microphone, msgeq7 breakout board and line in. The reason why the stereo vu meter is not a microphone is because a Mic is only mono, to add 2 mics and get the sound separation to give you the stereo effect would be pretty difficult. I much prefer the sound reaction of line in.

Hi.. I haven't as yet.. it has been requested a few times now. I took delivery of a few new boards today, Esp8266, already had a few esp32 laying around so they are on my to-do list. I have a few reviews to do first. Would love to know how you get on.

Hi Daniel - I will try and reply as i under stand your question. The first answer is no - these leds work using a data line, not a voltage input. - the difference between the bluetooth version and the push button version is quite simple. control which is needed to switch between the patterns one is done via a simple push button, the second is via an app you need to install on your phone. its your choice ( this is android only )

@@cine-lights OK, Thank you very much

Agreed, But a few problems. i try and keep my projects as cheap as possbile., and as easy as possible. The msgeq7 breakout boards can be quite hard to get hold of a good one, im in the uk and have to order from the US. secondly the price, (a quick price check on ebay) The only one available is from the US and costs £20. , for that price i can get 3 arduino mega`s. now yes i can just get the chips and build my own, then thats where the difficulty level goes up. if i was going to keep it and use it, then i could see the point. but i make these for fun. There are numerous other ways of doing it to., but again its down to what people want, and i get very few requests for the msgeq7 or any of the other versions.

Cine-Lights thank you for response, i'm really grateful that you reply. I bought over 20 of MSGEQ7 from china for (1-5$/piece) and half of them are fake, half of the rest can only output value of 3-5 band, mayby 5 are fine, but hey, i really enjoy assembilng pcbs :). According to your work (it's incredible for me to read code that you have written for us!) als i really enjoy if you can make tutorial for programming with FASTLED library just because shifting colors/hue variations for me is magic, so as you are magician :)

Hi Paulo - yes thats correct - exactly how it says in the video., i am in process of updating this build in the next few weeks, it will be using a push button, and will have the same patterns as the latest lcd screen version.

@@cine-lights YES GREAT, BUT WHY SHOULD I USE CAPACITOR AND RESISTOR IN THE LINE IN ??

@@funaro13 because it reduces the signal to the arduino to a mic level.

You only need one 2k ohm resistor.. and yes your then good to go..

There is, but it would take a lot of editing. i will be releasing a mono microphone, and line in version, and also a stereo version - it will be vu meters only and will come with full volume and brightness control

@@cine-lights thank you !!

Me too.. Just tryed to upload code and have same problem.. Did you find any solution please?

@@sk8t3rczI haven't found any solition jet because the arduino code is for the Arduino mega

@@marcelwinkelhofer sketch too big for me too.. using uno.

Me too. I dont understand what error.

Hi, you can get a headphone splitter. They are very cheap.

@@cine-lights hi thanks for your reply, what i mean is if i plug a lead into my headphone socket on my stereo it cuts off the sound to the speakers as it should.....hmmmm

because you need an arduino mega, the uno as it says does not have enough memory

@@cine-lights ahhh i see.. edit: scrap that i just found my mega....

Hi.. The fact its using 103% of program storage explains it all... im guessing you are using a nano or arduino uno... wehn you should be using an arduino mega

@@cine-lights Thanks.

El codigo fue diseñado para Arduino MEGA. El Arduino UNO tiene mucha menos memoria. Saludos

Thank you for the code! you will get all the credit for it. It looks amazing. Just a simple thing-if using 2 power supplies, one for led strips and one for Arduino, the grounds( only the grounds) from the led strips power supply must be connected to the ground of Arduino. Great job again!

Hi I'm afraid not due to memory. I have made this arduino mega only. I have made a few mono line or microphone versions for the uno. But you are limited to 60 and 80 leds due to each led taking a little memory. I may in the future remove all the standby patterns and reduce the amount of vu meters so it will work on the uno.

Hi... The stereo version is designed for the ardunio mega only. You will have memory issues using a uno, or nano.

@@cine-lights ah thats why, thanks for the quick response, which version do you recommend for the Uno ? Thanks again for getting back to me..

Hi Ronald. You can use 12v on the arduino using the 2.1 jack as its rating is 7-12volts. you can not use 12v on the leds strips as they are rated 5v only. The most important part to buying a power supply is the Amps., building this project you will be using quite a few leds so you should be looking at a 5v 5amp+ power supply.

Hi to be honest I have no idea. I am prerry sure 2x metres of 144 leds you should be ok. An easy way is load the code into the arduino ide. Edit the code to suit your build and compile. It will caution you about memory issues if it's too much. If it compiles without issue then your good to go..

@@cine-lights Seems to work fine have some malfunction I think on my soldered board, only 1 channel seems to be displaying VU but both strips display standby patterns, back to work I guess lol Update just found the error, bad connection, btw the mic lvl adjustment works really good. Great job

Hi, This is mega only.

@@cine-lights thanks so much for everything. you're creations are something else. as someone who love anything that lights up, you are my go to for neo pixel. regards from South Africa

@@adriaanserrao2016 im glad my videos help out in someways.

Im guessing the error would be lack of memory.. This build is for arduino mega only.

Hi, i would love to answer this question., or solve this problem. but if you watch the video again. i am sure you will find your answer to fix it

Yes sorry.. in most cases I do warn people that an uno is not suitable. Even though it is shown in the picture. Yes a mega is perfect, clone or otherwise.

You can not use a microphone on this version... microphone is mono only.. this is stereo. You can build my mono version with microphone which had a full build video

Scrap that, I just used the updated version of IDE and it worked :)

@@Dazwell . Glad you got it working.. had some one else have the same problem.

Hi, on the mono version. it is positive side of the headphone lead into the negative side of the cap., on the stereo is shows different. i have tried both and can not see any difference. but for the sake of this video i would do postive to from headphone, to positive side of the cap. , so the none stripe side.

16V/50V no problem

Hi.. the mono version microphone positive to capacitor positive. On the stereo it goes in of the negative side. I have tried both ways and can not see any difference between them.

@@cine-lights , I made a version of a mono line input only (no microphone), where the signal went to the negative (-) of the capacitor. In the case of a stereo line-in input, the signal is fed to the positive (+) capacitor contact ? I understood correctly? Sorry, I do not understand English well.

I drew the unified version of the schematic. Please look. Is that right? drive.google.com/open?id=1eaGhcuxB43l42c9Frwfp8xxLiadZjX7c

@@EGORka140764 this is correct. I have tried to the negative ( other way ) and it works fine too. I will be posting an update to the stereo vu meter soon. May I use your drawing in the video?

Use as you want. :) There is a small error in the word "connector" and double line. Here is the fixed version - drive.google.com/open?id=1uCHafAEtMfN-B_1weSnbkYfY9rUNpZ6M

You don't have the neopixel library installed or you have it in the wrong directory format .... You should be able to install it from the library manager built into Arduino IDE .

Hi.. I would connect just the strip that is not working and run the neopixel strand test. Making sure the strand test it configured to work with the strip. Which is usually pin 6. To make sure everything is working.

@@cine-lights it works. When I switch the stripes, the stripe on pin6 always works. But I got the failure. Installed the Mono code 🤦‍♂️ now I got the stereo code and it works.

Hi can we email or something else? I made a Standlamp for the living room with leds and your Code. I want to do a Video about the Build. Will I get your ok for this? Because it is your Code.

@@andreasgatzka9685 Hi... you can do what ever you wish.. it's your build., would be nice for a little credit for the code :).. would love to see what you have done..

Flash the nano with the Uno bootloader! Use an Uno as ISP and flash the Uno bootloader to it then upload the sketch to the nano bit set it as Uno board in the ide. Make sure your nano has the atmega328 on it though.