Microphone LED Vu tower schematic recommendations?

[singed5059]

I have the tower portion built and am wondering what schematic is best for it. I have looked around and people keep referencing the following instructable:

https://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FX5/67GS/FLROK12R/FX567GSFLROK12R.gif

Even the tower that mine is based off of said that is what he followed. Here is a link to what I want mine to look like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lASJL47g-Bc

I am worried about whether this will supply enough juice to the LED in each of the ten panels of frosted plexiglass. I have searched the forums and have found a bunch of schematics for Vu meters, but I believe most were for smaller scale displays. So anyone know of a schematic that has been applied to a larger scale VU?

View attachment 61663

 

[alec_t]

I am worried about whether this will supply enough juice to the LED in each of the ten panels of frosted plexiglass

I doubt that Instructable circuit will do the job as is, although it could be the basis for your schematic. How many LEDs per panel? What is the LED current/voltage spec?

 

[ronsimpson]

Notice the room lights are out. In the daytime you can not see the LEDs.

 

[singed5059]

I just want one pretty high output led per panel. I am pretty novice but since the forum has dealt with lots of lm3916 threads I was hoping someone had an idea. I imagine in my case I would want to go AC so that i can do a wall plug in for energy requirements of bright leds. I just cant recognize a schematic on my own that would meet demands

 

[ronsimpson]

You can use almost any LM3916 schematic you find.
The lm3916 can use a supply up to 25 volts.
You can use many LEDs in series to get more light. The supply voltage needs to be mores than 2 volts above the LED voltage. Example: if you have 1.5volt red LEDs, then 10 LEDs need 15 volts to work therefore a supply voltage of 20 volts will work fine. This way you have 10 times the light.

 

[audioguru]

The Instructable was designed by a little kid who knows nothing about electronics:
1) The output current to the LEDs is determined by the resistance from pin7 to ground. Use 470 ohms for a current of 25mA.
2) Pin8 should be connected to ground without R4.
3) The LM386 amplifier is a power amp. It should be an opamp.
4) R5 and R3 form a volume control with a very small adjustment range. Use a real volume control instead.
5) An important supply bypass capacitor is missing.

 

[canadaelk]

You asked the same question in another forum. Got some good answers, just like these here. Build something. There are no shortcuts! E