The Audio Visualizer
The Audio/Music Visualizer is an LED Strip that will display different colors and brightness due to the different sound frequencies. It takes the audio input from the AUX cord and transfers it into readable data for the Arduino. Then the Arduino will send the data to the 5m LED strip, allowing it to create a light display.
Engineer
Christopher C.
Area of Interest
Computer Science & Sports
School
The Kings Academy
Grade
Incoming Sophomore
Documentation
Reflection
This project has been a wonderful experience. I’ve learned so many things from the mistakes I made throughout this project. It was a very enjoyable experience for me. It taught me so many things, from Fast Fourier Transform to converting Analog signal to Digital Signal. This has opened my eyes to more projects in the future. All this has concluded my wonderful experience at BlueStamp camp.
Second Project
Final Milestone
First Project (Failed)
First Milestone
In my first milestone, I accomplished coding the Processing (software) part. The code allows the program to convert the audio from the microphone or the system audio and transfer it into a moving FFT graph. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is a mathematical algorithm that samples a signal over a period of time and divides it into its frequency components. This allows my program to display an audio visualizer onto my computer.
While completing this part of my project, I encountered many different obstructions preventing me from advancing. While looking for my code, I could not find a similar project that also uses a 64×32 matrix. These complications lead me to create my own code that will do the exact same function, creating the FFT chart and transferring it to Arduino.
The code I have so far does not connect the Processing software with the Arduino software. The “Audio Input” uses your microphone sounds to create a visual analyzer on your computer. The “Audio System Sound” code allows you to use the microphone on your computer. But you need to do the following steps:
1. You will need to go to the sound in control panel
2. Click on the recording tab the top of the window
3. Right-click the window and enable “Show Disabled Devices”
4. Set “Stereo Mix” to default
Here is the code I have so far: https://github.com/twentythirdchris/twentythirdchris
Starter Project
The Mini POV 4
My Starter Project is the Mini POV 4. The Mini POV is a device that has 8 LED lights that will light up at a certain speed, allowing you to paint a picture across the air. You can capture the picture you created by setting the camera setting to medium-long exposure.
How it works
(Hover over the photo below)
Hover Box Element
How It Works
This project requires 3 AAA batteries to power. By powering this device, the current will be limited as it goes through the resistors. The resistors are needed to prevent the LED light from blowing out. Moving along, this Mini POV 4 also contains capacitors that will help stabilize the voltage and will filter out noise that is damaging to the device. There are also transistors that are much stronger and allows it to handle the 8 LED lights. There is also the Potentiometer, The Potentiometer sets the blinking speed of the LED, allowing you to capture the image you have painted sharper.
Complications
One of the main issues I had while creating this project was soldering. Occasionally, while soldering, the solder will clog up a point in the PCB. In order to remove it, we had to use small pins to attempt to push it out. It took a long time due to not having pins that are small enough to fit through. This issue allowed me to become more cautious while soldering and make sure that I will not melt the solder into the points. Another issue I encountered was while soldering, I accidentally broke one of the paths on the PCB. This complication took a while to fix because I did not know which path was broken. In order to fix this problem, I used a wire and soldered the two broken paths together. This taught me to be even more cautious while soldering and do not touch the Soldering Iron with the PCB.