Hello
I am very new to all this but am prepared to listen and learn.
I’m a visual artist and musician from Brisbane Australia and am looking to begin preparing for my first Arduino project.
I would like to build a;
64+ Band Stereo Spectrum Analyser!
Using 2 - 16x32 LED Matrixes.
Customisable code to cater for more bands with larger LED matrixes.
Stereo input via TRS [1/4” or 3.5mm Balanced] or TR [1/4” or 3.5mm Unbalanced Left & Right]
To be used for eye candy and a visual cue for my audience at gigs. A young French electronic artist YMNK gave me the inspiration to aim for this.
I would prefer to have audio input coming from my audio mixer [Individual Left and Right 1/4” mono jack unbalanced], which is my main hub for all my electronic hardware - rather than a microphone.
Or instead of 1/4” substitute down to 3.5mm Jack inputs. Audio input via a small microphone would simply not be suitable due to the extreme gain output and excessive loudness and other interfering noise levels at a live gig.
So many questions as were to begin? I’ve been reading forum posts and watching numerous YouTube videos … with not much luck other than knowing Arduino is where you begin.
However it all seems some what ambiguous in finding easy and concise instructions with the ability to customise further. Eg colours, pattern variations, quantity of bands, possible dual band options.
This may seem like a simple project to some, but for someone who is entirely new to all this, it can be overwhelming.
I would appreciate any recommendations on tutorials that provide simple easy to follow and concise instructions for such a project.
Ok after some more researching and diving into YouTube etc I found this informative video …
So Arduino can only handle 5v … with this example of only using the left channel by constructing a circuit to capture and keep the analogue signal constrained within Arduino’s parameters …
Thanks.
No plan to use 2 x Pre-made LED grids of 16H x 32W
You can buy them pre-made or shall I say the correct electronics term is ‘multiplexed’?
I’ll have a look at your reference, but going by the video thumbnail image I’ll assume it’s a basic display but no actual instruction … but I could be wrong
The MSGEQ7 is commonly used in these sorts of spectrum analyzer projects, because it circumvents implementing a lot of mathematical signal analysis in software, but it only divides the audio spectrum into 7 bands (somewhat more than one octave per band), not the 64 you're looking for.
The project@TomGeorge linked above does the signal analysis is software and has a schematic diagram for the circuitry. That's as good a starting point as anything you're likely to find.
MSGEQ7 has external clock input, which allows you to shift the base frequency of the channels. Using several chips with different clocks, you can get n*7 bands, which is used, for example, in the Mark Donners's 14band spectrum analyzer
Such light modules have different sizes and are widely used, but for them it is better to use not AVR, but ESP32, RP2040 or STM32 controllers. One control board will be enough
I had a test project of a 7-band spectrum analyzer with an output to a 64x32 led matrix using a bluepill STM32F103 board as a controller.
What is your level of computer hardware and software experience? If this is your first project, or almost so, it will not go well without going through the learning process that successful experimenters do to reach a skill level adequate for this kind of project.
There is a huge difference between duplicating a project, and re-designing it.
We only know about you and your project what you tell us. If you tell us your level of experience with electronics or microcontrollers, we can tailor our answer to your level of knowledge.
are you the person that is to provide judgement of a persons skill level?
I would not be the only person to read it, but the purpose is not judgement, but an assessment of how help should be directed.
Not in technology, sorry. It's just not true. In this field, most skill and knowledge is incremental. Progress depends heavily on the complete understanding of previous subjects.
I'm sorry if you disagree, because it will be painful for you.
In the beginning some dabbling is beneficial, but as soon as the projects are even a little demanding, that goes out the window...
No. I thought you said, though, the red LED matrix that was shown didn't meet your requirements. Lots of people have lots of fun just copying projects. Nothing wrong with that.
You are focusing on my replies and not the issue at hand. You were unable to find a project to copy and that is that. A few similar ones were suggested, they were apparently unsuitable as-is, I think you implied.
Leaving only the option of modifying one. Hence my questions about your skill, as it strongly affects your ability to do so.
If you doubt that I am here to help people, please click on my profile and start counting. I'm adding you to my permanent ignore list so I won't see any of your replies...
@pasquada ,
Re your multiple flags to the moderators: @anon57585045 is trying his best to help you, but you clearly do not find his style of help suitable to your style of learning. There is nothing wrong in this, different helpers have different styles of helping and different leaners have different styles of learning, sometimes the two don't match. I suggest you thank @anon57585045 for his efforts but move on to someone whose help is a closer match to your learning requirements. Please in future flag only one post to the moderators and think first whether it really needs our involvement, in this case I think not.
@anon57585045 , thank you for your contribution but I suggest your help isn't what @pasquada needs, so maybe time to give your excellent help to someone else.
The Arduino Uno can handle 32 point and 64 point FFTs with ease, if you use the optimized implementations by OpenMusicLabs mentioned above. Even faster, use the FHT.
and am looking to begin preparing for my first Arduino project.
thank you!
