Electronic Circuits and Projects Forum



Quick question

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  1. #1
    Nuxse Nuxse is offline

    Quick question

    I'm completely new to this world of electronics. Not that I don't use them, but to the whole building it from scratch...

    Anyway... What I'm trying to do is take the electric signal from my headphone wires and make that signal run some LEDs. But the strength of the signal isn't strong enough to make them light up.
    So is there anything out there that could amplify the signal or something? Or something that would make the lights turn on, but the lights would use power from an external source?

    Thanks for any help you guys can provide

  2. #2
    carbonzit carbonzit is offline
    There are ready-made devices that can do this, or you can build it yourself. You're correct in thinking that some kind of amplifier (or switch, more properly) is needed; the headphone signal isn't strong enough to light LEDs directly.

    What electronic skills do you have?
    • Being able to read a schematic (this is essential, and not rocket science)
    • Soldering or breadboarding
    • Looking up stuff on-line or in the library

    People here will probably be glad to help you come up with a simple DIY "color organ" (that's basically what you're asking about here).
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  3. #3
    colin55 colin55 is offline
    Try this:
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  4. Thread Starter #4
    Nuxse Nuxse is offline
    My electronic skills are pretty much knowing how to solder and follow directions haha. But I'm wondering if there was something that would work like I have in the picture It would use the electrical signal to tell the LEDs to light up on an external power source, like a small battery of some sort.
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    Last edited by Nuxse; 14th October 2011 at 07:23 PM.

  5. #5
    carbonzit carbonzit is offline
    It looks as if you have plenty of room for the circuit that Colin posted. All it is is a couple transistors and a few resistors. You'd need to use a small battery, like a coin cell. Doesn't look like enough room for AAAs.

    By the way, your picture is waaaaaaaay too big. Be nice and resize!
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    Last edited by carbonzit; 14th October 2011 at 07:20 PM.

  6. Thread Starter #6
    Nuxse Nuxse is offline
    Isn't his circuit to plug in and be plugged into with the TRS jacks? How could I get it to work inside each headphone?
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  7. #7
    carbonzit carbonzit is offline
    I don't know what that circuit board inside your headphone is, but all you need to do is connect his circuit to the wires coming into the headphone. Just find where they connect to that circuit board, and solder wires to those connections. (The incoming wire to the headphone, not the wire to the headphone speaker element.)
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    Last edited by carbonzit; 14th October 2011 at 08:43 PM.

  8. Thread Starter #8
    Nuxse Nuxse is offline
    It's just a volume adjuster, it could be taken off to make some room in there.
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  9. #9
    carbonzit carbonzit is offline
    So all you've got to do is connect the incoming line, the headphone element and the input to Colin's circuit all in parallel. Be careful not to reverse the polarity of the headphone element or they'll sound weird! (Or not: does anyone know how the human hearing system responds to out-of-phase signals?)
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  10. #10
    audioguru audioguru is offline
    Out-of-phase speakers cancel bass frequencies. Hi-Fi stores ALWAYS had the speakers connected out-of-phase then the bass tone control was turned up to maximum to try to make some bass. I always re-wired them properly and turned down the bass tone control to normal.

    Close out-of-phase speakers and headphones feel like your head is wider than normal. In-phase feels like the sounds come from inside your head.
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    Uncle $crooge

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