Blinky Lights

This is a fun, simple, way to get started combining the music and audio we've been talking about with the visual! While not quite video, this provides us a stepping stone and presents, in a less intimidating environment some of the challengees that may come up when trying to design a fully functional a/v system.

Materials

Step-by-Step

  1. Step One
      2. Assemble the parts in the configuration based on the schematic, or the diagrams if the schematic is still too confusing, on a bread board. Have a seperate breadboard for the LED array and one for the logic circuit.
  2. Step 2
      3. As you assemble the components ont he breadboard, periodically check to make sure things are working. This can be by taking an LED (with a 330ohm leading resistor of course) and popping it into where your signal chain should be reaching at that point and seeing if it is acting in the way you expected, or it can be as simple as testing the continuity of your breadboard circuit as you go along, so your not at a loss later as to why your lights arent going nuts. Most igital multimeters have a continuity setting, but there are also dedicated continuity testers for cheap.
  3. Step 3
      4. Once your breadboarded prototype is functioning the way the article describes it as functioning, you are ready for the fun part. Before we transfer to a more permanent home for the guy, start messing around with the circuit. Add new componenets, use jumperwire to connect IC legs, whateber you think may be interesting. You can do this whether you have knowledge about analog circutry or not. The fun of the breadboard is nothing is set in stone yet and you can always return back to the circuit from the text. But id never suggest you dont at least try fucking with the thing first and see if you get a result you like better! Circuit bend your owm circuit!
  4. Step 4
      5. Transfer your circuit to one of the many semipermanent to permanent solutions out there for those of us that cant go ordering PCBs from china all the time. Youve got perfboard, protoboard, veroboard.... basically either you have some plastic with a buncha wholes in it and you connect everything with jumper wire. kinda a pain. I like the boards that basically act like breadboards, they have copper traces that connect every 3 holes on the rows, so you can use ICs without frying them and 3 seems to be just enough. THere are also the boards that connect every row all the way down. These are a pain because you need to scrape away the copper traces where you dont want the rows connected. And dont Forget about power, in my preference, usually the coulmns on either side are connected with brass traces and you use one for + and one for -.
▸ Troubleshooting & Notes

If you run into issues, check these common pitfalls:

  • Tip A
  • Tip B