I am fairly new to electronics and designing led effects etc. for hobby projects. What I am attempting is this: press standard switch push button, play a short sound segment (30-45 seconds) then when sound completes turn on some effect lighting until switch is off. Reset of circuit when power is turned off as well. I am not looking to be spoon fed just need some direction. I will most likely have questions. Thanks in advance

 

Welcome to AAC!

A microcontroller such as Arduino Uno would probably be the easiest solution. If you can't program, there are some that have a drag and drop programming interface; I've never used any, so can't offer any suggestions.

It could be done with only hardware, but you'd need some device to store your sounds.

 

I was thinking just hardware. Not opposed to programming just more interested in hardware. I know of some chips that store sound. I was thinking sound chip to a 555 timer circuit that operates the led circuit.

 

I was thinking just hardware.

It can be done. Start by drawing a block diagram of the things you want the circuit to do. Then work on the circuitry required for each block.

 

The simplest method would be to have either a sensor on the current taken by the sound source, or possibly the voltage of the sound source output, into a "flip-flop" circuit so that with the power on the end of the signal from the sound source would change the state. And then when it was all completed the end signal from the light system switching off would reset everything back to "ready". No processor, no code to write, probably a CMOS logic gate and a flipflop.
Certainly not all of the details but an adequate explanation of the functions and how to get them. No nuts and volts article on how to implement an AND gate with processor board and 50 lines of code.

 

Thanks for the help. I have been doing some looking and may just go the Arduino route. Any simple schematics of the current sensor to flip-flop circuit you mentioned on the net somewhere?

 

Thanks for the help. I have been doing some looking and may just go the Arduino route. Any simple schematics of the current sensor to flip-flop circuit you mentioned on the net somewhere?

Just be aware that you’ll likely be unable to use the sound signal as an input into the Arduino. If you try, you’ll likely end up damaging the Arduino. It can be done, but you’ll need a conditioning circuit between the sound and the Arduino.

 

THAT is another reason why the arduino is a poor choice.

 

I may be over thinking this one. Simplest route may be to push switch to start sound sequence, and then have one of the outputs on a count to turn on at a specific time (10 seconds for example) then entire system shuts off at end of sequence. This way other lights, etc can turn on at other time intervals. Thoughts?

 

I may be over thinking this one. Simplest route may be to push switch to start sound sequence, and then have one of the outputs on a count to turn on at a specific time (10 seconds for example) then entire system shuts off at end of sequence. This way other lights, etc can turn on at other time intervals. Thoughts?

If the times are known and repeatable and if a stable timer is used then that would be the simple way to do it. That would be the simplest method, BUT there are several "IFs", and so it may not be the most suitable option. An adequately stable timer would probably need to be better than an average 555 timer circuit, depending on the temperature and supply voltage stability.

 

Thanks. Times will be known and repeatable. I did realize multiple if statements would be Required. I will run some scenarios and share results. I really appreciate the advice. (May need more)

 

THAT is another reason why the arduino is a poor choice.

What happens if you feed a negative voltage into your MCU’s GPIO pins?