Audio Visualizer

GitHub repo

Table of contents

1. Materials
2. Wiring
3. Code

Materials

• Arduino Mega
• Solderless Breadboard w/ power rails
• Sparkfun Spectrum Shield (2 MSGEQ7s on a shield)
• Adafruit NeoPixel White 60 LED strip - 3 meters
• Toggle Switch x2
• 5V 10A Power Supply (you can get away with a much lower amperage supply, but you might get some color inaccuracies)
• 9V 650mA Power Supply
• Female DC barrel adapter
• 4700uF 10v Electrolytic Capacitor
• 220 ohm resistor x2
• Stranded-core wire - 6 meters
• 3.5mm audio cable (aux cord)

This could be done with cheaper components, however many of these parts came leftover from other projects.

Wiring

The original schematic is now out-of-date. Higher amperages can fry smaller solderless breadboards due to arcing between rails. I routed all power to LEDs off the breadboard, opting for direct 5V connections between power sources and LED strips.

I used 2 toggle switches, one for 9V power to the Arduino and one for 5V power to the strip. While not in the schematic, I used two female DC barrel adapters for the 5V and 9V supplies. I used stranded-core wire for flexibility, but found them a nuisance when plugging into the breadboard. My solution for this: add some solder to the end of the wire. This gave me the convenience of a solid-core with the flexibility of a stranded-core.

I used 2 male-male 3.5mm cables that plug directly into the Sparkfun Spectrum Shield.

Code

GitHub repo

The bulk of my time was spent tweaking animations. I started with a stuttered, basic animation that I slowly fine-tuned over the course of my freshman winter term at SCU.