color organ project help

roflcakes said:

Hi,

I just finished up my first year of electronics classes at college and I was looking into something that I could build now that I'm not loaded down with classwork... and I discovered color organs.

Specifically, this is the circuit that I've found Color Organ and there are a couple things I don't understand about it.

1) The speaker input -- Should this be plugged into a stereo? Ipod?

It could be plugged into an IPOD, but it may not work to well. Probably needs to be connected to the left or right speaker output of a small stereo.


2) 117 volt isolation transformer -- What is this for and what does it connect to? Where would I get one of these?

The winding not shown needs to be plugged into a AC outlet. The transformer isolates the circuitry from the common ground of the AC outlet. Electronic suppliers like mouser.com and digikey.com would normally have stock. The one you choose depends upon the watt ratings of the lamps you use.


3) SCR -- I haven't learned anything about these yet, are there different kinds of them? Any I should not use?

These are silicon controlled rectifiers. The ones you need depend upon the ampere ratings of lamps you use.


Thanks for any help!

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