You are simply looking for the low frequency part of a color organ.

Correct. Capturing the sound would be very much more cost effective than actually capturing the amount of energy the bass is receiving and translating it into a circuit.

 

If that was the case I couldve just ordered a led kit that has that. I'm trying to capture the bass effects. Although Ive seen those theyre pretty cool, but capturing the bass is even cooler!

What do you mean by "capturing the bass"?

 

What do you mean by "capturing the bass"?

Exactly that, capturing the bass. For instance, if my subwoofer is giving off a low bass frequency, my LEDs aren't going to light up as much, but if my subwoofer is giving off a higher bass frequency, then my LEDs will glow brighter. Do you see where I'm getting at boss?

 

What do you mean by "capturing the bass"?

My guess would be: "the signal that is left after getting rid of the midrange and treble components".

 

Exactly that, capturing the bass. For instance, if my subwoofer is giving off a low bass frequency, my LEDs aren't going to light up as much, but if my subwoofer is giving off a higher bass frequency, then my LEDs will glow brighter. Do you see where I'm getting at boss?

You can do that anywhere you want to in the audio chain, Boss!

 

You can do that anywhere you want to in the audio chain, Boss!

Right I know it's possible man it's just I'm not trying to spend $30-$40 per circuit board to have a complicated converter and extra equipment on the amplifier. Could be wrong about the price and complications, again, not very keen to the circuitry department, lol.

 

Exactly that, capturing the bass. For instance, if my subwoofer is giving off a low bass frequency, my LEDs aren't going to light up as much, but if my subwoofer is giving off a higher bass frequency, then my LEDs will glow brighter. Do you see where I'm getting at boss?

No. Not in relation to my suggestion which is simply to make an acoustical connection rather than an electrical one to avoid interface problems. You can do whatever you want with frequency, that doesn't change.

 

To be clear, I am suggesting you stick a mic in your bass box and use that to operate the LED driver. It avoids electrical connections to the amplifier.

 

No. Not in relation to my suggestion which is simply to make an acoustical connection rather than an electrical one to avoid interface problems. You can do whatever you want with frequency, that doesn't change.

What ways would I be able to harvest the audio connection? I would also have to have, again my issue, a circuit to capture the low and high frequencies of the bass and translate it to the LEDs.

 

To be clear, I am suggesting you stick a mic in your bass box and use that to operate the LED driver. It avoids electrical connections to the amplifier.

Okay I misunderstood your post. I get what you're saying. The mic will pick up the frequencies within the subwoofer box and then translate to the LEDs. Then the next question begs for me to be solved, the circuit. I need a proper circuit. I don't mind buying and testing out these methods, and I appreciate your feedback.

 

@Ian0 's circuit should work well. It uses a different strategy to avoid interfering with the amplifier by presenting a high impedance.

 

Why not couple another speaker to be used as an electrical generator to power the LED?

Well, that would, of course, be like wiring another speaker out of phase. It would require a lot more out of the amplifier... (The TS can't necessarily distinguish leg pulling, so...)

 

For instance, if my subwoofer is giving off a low bass frequency, my LEDs aren't going to light up as much, but if my subwoofer is giving off a higher bass frequency, then my LEDs will glow brighter.

The bass frequency will not affect LED brightness, unless the amplifier has its bass tone control turned down.

 

The circuit you are after is called, generically, a color organ. Very big hobby project in the 60's and 70's, lotsa variations in all the hobby magazines. Flashing red, green, and blue lights in response to the treble, midrange, and bass components of the audio. All 120 Vac light bulbs back then. Nowadays, getting a single (or group of) LED(s) to follow the beat is pretty simple. My guess is that yours keep burning out because you have no current limiting. You might need nothing more than adding 1 resistor and 1 diode (and maybe one capacitor) to your current circuit.

Please post a sketch of the circuit you have now - amp output, wires, speaker coils, LED(s), and whatever else. It doesn't have to be pretty, just complete.

ak

 

The bass frequency will not affect LED brightness, unless the amplifier has its bass tone control turned down.

Well the whole idea is that if the subwoofer receives a lower frequency then the lights aren't prone to turning that bright but a higher bass frequency makes them brighter. This is just what I've observed from plugging in the LEDs that way.

The circuit you are after is called, generically, a color organ. Very big hobby project in the 60's and 70's, lotsa variations in all the hobby magazines. Flashing red, green, and blue lights in response to the treble, midrange, and bass components of the audio. All 120 Vac light bulbs back then. Nowadays, getting a single (or group of) LED(s) to follow the beat is pretty simple. My guess is that yours keep burning out because you have no current limiting. You might need nothing more than adding 1 resistor and 1 diode (and maybe one capacitor) to your current circuit.

Please post a sketch of the circuit you have now - amp output, wires, speaker coils, LED(s), and whatever else. It doesn't have to be pretty, just complete.

ak

Below is a picture of what all I have at the moment. If there's anymore information you need please let me know.

 

Are you sure you want it to respond to frequency, rather than loudness? That is not what the simple circuit you are using does.

 

Are you sure you want it to respond to frequency, rather than loudness? That is not what the simple circuit you are using does.

Again this is from what I observed. Not sure what the specific vocabulary would be to correlate the proper observation. Loudness sounds more direct! So like if the subwoofer is being quiet but still giving off bass, the lights will be dim, then when the woofer is loud it'll be brighter. So yes, loudness. Thank you for specifying that!

 

500W into 2 ohms= 32V RMS or 45V peak. Of course the 12V string of LEDs burn out.

Maybe your amplifier produces 500 Whats which might be only 100 Watts. Then the peak voltage in to 2 ohms= 20V that will also burn out the LEDs.

 

Don't drive the LEDs from the subwoofer.

What you need is a separate 12V supply to power the LEDs.
I like the idea @Yaakov provided of using a microphone to detect the sound wave from the speaker. You will need a microphone preamp and signal conditioning circuit to filter the desired frequency and modulate the LED brightness.

 

Don't drive the LEDs from the subwoofer.

What you need is a separate 12V supply to power the LEDs.
I like the idea @Yaakov provided of using a microphone to detect the sound wave from the speaker. You will need a microphone preamp and signal conditioning circuit to filter the desired frequency and modulate the LED brightness.

Which is what I said in post #12, and others mentioned in other posts (post #8 in particular, @MrChips ).

Please, if you don’t understand something, ask for clarification