Jesse6131994
Member
Okay I'm going to try to understand this schematic from Audioguru.OK, that says a lot. The little circuit that Audio Guru posted is a good example of a nice simple little circuit that will work and work well. I see you mention:
First LEDs have a forward voltage Vf which is the voltage they work at. They also have a forward current If which is the amount of current they draw. We know the Vf for your LEDs is between 3.0 and 3.6 volts but your LEDs really arent well suited for this type of application. When I looked up your LEDs unfortunately they don't list the forward current. Really matters not as was mentioned the LEDs you are using are not at all suited for an application like this. More on that later.
You mention you are using the audio out from your PC to drive a Corsair Amplifier. So what is really happening is a low level audio signal also called Line Out. Line Out is about a maximum signal level of 2 volts peak to peak or 1 volt peak or actually .7 volts RMS from a source impedance around 100 to 600 Ohms. So if we use Line Out to drive something those rough parameters need to be considered. Obviously your amplifier out uses a larger signal to drive the speakers.
Note how Audio Guru's circuit starts from the music source so we can vary the signal driving the LM386 amplifier. The amplified output of the LM386 then drives the back to back LEDs in pairs. There are some resistors labeled R lacking a value. This is intentional as the value of R will be selected to limit the current to the LEDs based on... Ta Da the If (Forward Current) of the LEDs. That is why with a good circuit we need to know the If of the LEDs used.
Ron
From the music source...
-The ground wire connects to the positive end and 4th pin of the LM386 (Where does the ground wire connect to?)
-Another wire(?) connects from the music source to a 100k resistor and then to the ground (Not sure what the arrow from pin 3 on the LM386 to the resistor means)
Above the music source is the power supply...
-The 9V battery or wall battery connects to a positive end of a 470uF capacitor AND pin 6 on the negative side of LM386
-While the negative side of the same 470uF capacitor connects to a ground wire and pin 2 on the negative side of the LM386 (Where does this ground connect to, and where am I getting a ground wire from?)
Moving onto the LM386...
-Pin 5 connects to another positive end of 470uF capacitor
-Pin 5 also connects to a 0.05uF capacitor (Not sure where positive or negatives are on this one)
-On the other end of the 0.05uF it is connected by a 10(10 what?) resistor
-That resistor is connected to a ground wire from the first set of LED lights
So these 4 LED lights are wired parallel...
-I have no clue what the 'until the current is too high for the LM386' means
-Or the dotted lines near the bottom right of the second set of LED lights
Am I understanding this at all?
How would this differ if I wanted 6-8 LED lights, would I just wire in some more lights in sets of twos parallel and depending on those, up the power supply voltage and the resistors connected to the sets of twos?
Would this effect the capacitors?