Hi,
I apologize in advance if this question isn't well written - I'm very new to electronics and don't understand a lot of the concepts. I'm working on this project:
I built it fairly easily following the instructions, but I realized I'd rather have the audio input come from a microphone so that I don't need to connect the clock to a set of speakers. I purchased this breakout board from adafruit:
I connected GND to ground, VCC to power, and OUT to 10K resistor to Analog 1. When I connect the clock to power, I get the time displayed accurately, and I'm able to change it with the buttons, so that all works well. Then, when I play a noise near the microphone (I snap my fingers very close to the microphone), the VU meter needles jump to the far right and stay there for several seconds, and then fall back to their time positions. In short, it no longer acts like a VU meter - the needles do not dance up and down with music. Also, it seems to only be able to detect sound very close to the microphone.
Some of my hypotheses (but things I'm not really experienced enough to understand how to change):
- The potentiometer needs to be adjusted - there is a trim pot on the bob which I have adjusted. I didn't notice much of a change. Also, there is a potentiometer in the original project which I've kept in, but maybe I should remove? When I adjust that potentiometer, I don't really notice a change in the VU meter sensitivity either.
- The OUT is hooked up incorrectly - I arbitrarily chose to hook it up to Analog 1, which is one of the pins the 3.5mm cable was hooked up to. This could definitely be wrong, but then wouldn't there be absolutely no response from the mic?
- The code is wrong now - perhaps I can't just switch out one element for another without adjusting the code? The code is not mine and I'm a little perplexed as to what I should change if this is the case. I haven't messed with it at all for fear it would mess up the entire project even more. However (same as point 2), wouldn't the microphone not work at all if the code were incorrect?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide me. I'm trying to walk myself through it online but I really need someone experienced to tell me what the issue may be so that I can research it more.