Music LED Light Box

by motadacruz on February 22, 2010

Intro: Music LED Light Box

My original LED light cube got allot of reactions. Some of them where about making the LED's react to music. This did sound very interesting and I found some instructables on here. Unfortunately I found it very hard to understand those instructables. In my opinion they weren't explained well enough and even some circuits weren't correct. That's why I though I build one and make an instructable of it. I tried to make this instructable so easy, that everyone with or without any experience can make one! If you make one, don't forget to share your end result photos and movies with us. Below you'll see the end result of my Music LED Light Box. The movie is shot with my Canon Digital Camera, in the dark. My camera can't handle the fast switching between light and dark very well. In reality the effect is even nicer then on the video.

Before people go asking who's music or what songs these are in this video, these beats are made by my brother. :) You can visit his website www.motabeatz.com or YouTube channel for more information and songs.

Step 1: Materials & Tools

To make this Music LED Light Box you can use many different things and build it different ways. In this instructable I'll explain how I made it, a very simple way. Materials - 12v Adapter (a battery can be used as well) - 3.5 jack headphone cable. - tip31 transistor (this is the key to the whole project) - $0.50 - 5mm LED's (the color or amount is totally up to you, 1 LED per 3v. I used 12v, so 4 LEDs) - $0.28 - A4 acrylic sheet - 3mm thick (also known as 'plexiglass') - $2.00 - Fine sandpaper (I used 400) - $1.00 - Electrical Wire If you see a price above, that means I bought it. The rest I just ripped of some old junk. The 12v Adapter was from an old wireless headphone and the 3.5 jack plug is from another old headphone. Tools - Jigsaw (also a Jeweler Saw can be used. But that's really hard to get straight lines) - Glue Gun (hot glue, other glue to glue acrylic is possible) - Drilling tool - Solder tool (optional) - Pen Ones you've got this stuff you're ready to begin!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. 12v Adapter. Be sure to read step 5 to find out more about this or any other adapter! 2. Ripped this from the switch as well. It's the part where the adapter goes in to and a toggle switch. Eventually I didn't use the toggle switch. 3. 5mm LED's - Blue - Water Clear 4. TIP31 transistor. To be precise, this is a TIP31c transistor. But from what I've read on the internet, a TIP31a and TIP31b can be used as well. 5. 3.5 Jack plug. Who doesn't have old headphones lying around :) 6. Sandpaper - 400 7. A4 Acrylic sheet 3mm - Also known as 'Plexiglass'.

Step 2: Preparing the box

From the acrylic sheet we're going to build the box. 1. Draw out the plates for the box on the acrylic sheet (photo 1 ). My longer plates are 15cm x 5cm. And the squares are 5cm x 5cm. Of course you can use any size for a box you want. 2. Use the jig saw to cut the plates from the acrylic sheet. Be sure to do this as perfect as you can. Because all plates need to line up nice with each other (photo 2 ). If the plates don't turn out to be equal, you can sand the sides till they all fit nice. 3. Get the drilling tool and use a drill bit that is the same size as the thickness of the headphones cord (photo 3 ). Then drill another hole for the adapter to go though. When you're drilling, do this very carefully! You don't want to hurry, else you might put too much pressure on it and break the plate.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. Hole for the audio cable. 2. Hole for the adapter.

Step 3: Frosting and Diffusing

To get the nice 'glowing' effect with the LED box, we need to have a 'frosted' look on the box and need LED's that are diffused. I only could get my hands on water clear acrylic sheets and water clear LED's. For all those who have the same, continue with this step. If you already have frosted acrylic (opal acrylic) and diffused LED's, then you can continue with step 4. 1. Get the fine sandpaper (400) and place it on a table, with the sanding side up. Get a plate and rub it over the sandpaper in a circular motion. If one side is frosted enough, turn the plate over and do the same with that side. Now you'll have a nice frosted looking effect we need (photo 1 and 2 to see the difference ). 2. Do the same with the LED's. Sand the LED's until they get the nice diffused look ( Photo 3,4 and 5 ). Photo 5 shows you 1 diffused and 1 water clear LED hooked on a 3v button cell.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. LED after sanding: Diffused LED 2. Water Clear LED's.

Image Notes 1. The left LED is diffused and the right LED is still the original water clear LED.

Step 4: Building the box

Now we've got the plates for the box, we need to put them together. Before you go and glue parts together, make sure first they fit nicely onto each other. We need all parts to fit nicely. 1. After fitting the plates get the glue gun and glue the first 3 plates together. If you have some trouble holding the plates together before gluing, you can use some tape to hold them together. This way you can put the glue on more relaxed. After gluing the 3 plates you should have something like photo 2 2. After the glue is dried, it's time to glue in the side plates. First place them and see if they fit nicely. If not sand the sides a bit so everything fits nice together. Then glue them on their place. The last (bottom) plate will not be attached yet. We need to put the whole circuit on the bottom plate later and then put it in place. At this moment you should have something like photo 3 and 4.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Step 5: Preparing the circuit

Since I have no experience in electronics whatsoever, this was the toughest part for me to find out. Other instructables had no good explaining on this subject. So for everyone who's new to this electronics stuff and have no idea what they're doing, here is some explaining for the circuit. 1. How many LED's to use? The average LED needs 3v to work.If you are going to put the LED's in series (like I did) you need to calculate how many LED's you can use with your adapter. The formula you can use is adapter output voltage / LED voltage = Total LED's So if you use a 12v adapter with the 3v LED's its: 12 / 3 = 4 LED's You can also put LED's parallel in the circuit. But I'm not getting into this, just so that this instructable stays simple and easy to understand for everyone. Let's just focus now on the LED's in series. If you want to experience with more LED's, you can always calculate your LED's and resistors here . 2. The real voltage on a adapter. Before I went building this circuit, I thought it would be useful to measure the real voltage on the adapter. The sticker on the adapter (photo 1 ) says the output 12v. But once I hooked it up on my multimeter, it shows that the actual output is around the 18v (photo 2 ). So that means I can calculate the LED's again: 18 / 3 = 6 LED's. Since I'm going to make the LED's in series I can use 6 LED's in my circuit. 3. The 3.5 audio jack plug Which wire is what? That's what I was asking and trying to find out. As you can see on photo 3, the plug itself has 3 metal parts, and 3 wires in the black protective layer. On the photo I explained which wire is what. Now with this information you can go to the next step, building the circuit.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. Ground 2. Ground 3. Left 4. Right 5. Right 6. Left

Step 6: Building the circuit

Many people get scared when they see all those weird circuits with those symbols on it. Having no clue what they mean. That's why I made a instructable friendly circuit image :) See photo 1. 1. Make sure you have all the materials to make the circuit. And enough electrical wires to connect all the components. 2. Before we build the circuit, we first need to put the audio cable through the whole in the back. 3. Build your circuit, and test it out. The best way to test it is through your audio output from your computer. Make sure the audio on your computer is set to 100% and then test it. Circuit : The positive pole from the adapter goes to the positive leg of the first LED. Next the other 5 LED's follow. Hook the negative leg from the first LED to the positive leg of the second LED. Hook the negative leg from the second LED to the positive leg of the third LED, and so on. The negative LED from the last LED goes to the center pin of the TIP31. Then hook the right pin of the TIP31 to the negative pole of the adapter. All there's left now is to hook up the audio cable. Hook the red or the white wire from the audio cable on the left pin of the TIP31. And connect the ground wire from the audio cable to the right pin of the TIP31. For better details please see photo 1, the circuit. 4. If your circuit works, solder all components together so the circuit stays together nice and strong and wont fall apart. When done with these steps it's time to finish up! If you have trouble getting the circuit to work, you can try to set it up first on a circuit board. Carlosserious was so kind to make a how-to video on making the circuit, click here for the video .

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. I've attached the white wire (right channel) to the TIP31. Since I won't use the red wire, I cut it of. 2. Please don't get cunfused, this is the backside of the TIP31!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Step 7: Finishing up
We've now got all the parts we need. All we need to do now is put the bottom part into the cube to make it a whole cube. 1. Use the glue gun again to put the connector for the adapter right behind the hole. Tip: Plug the cable in before gluing. This way the connector will always be on the right spot. 2. Sand the sides of the bottom plate so it fits snugly into the bottom. You just want the bottom plate slightly bigger then the hole it fits in. This way, once you put it in there, it will get stuck and won't let go while moving the cube. We won't glue the bottom, in case we need to open it for some reason. So make sure the bottom fits in tight. That's it!! Now plug everything in and put your music on max and enjoy! You can change this project as much as you like. Use any LED's you want, create the box that fits the best on your desk, etc. You can also build the cube from my previous instructable . I used photoshop to show you how different colors would look like ( photo 7 ). I tried to make this instructable the way so everyone can understand it. I'll try to answer them all. If you want to make one and get stuck, we'll try to get through it together. If you have any questions please don't be shy and let me know.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Image Notes 1. You can make a knot here so when accidentally pull the cable, nothing will break off inside.

Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 1123 comments

arnarg says:

Jun 3, 2012. 3:43 AM REPLY Why does every instruction of this I've seen suggest the TIP31. Shouldn't any NPN transistor that can withstand the current of the circuit work? I tried it with 2N2222A transistor I had and had no problems with it.

manas.g29 says:

Aug 13, 2012. 1:21 PM REPLY I agree did it my self with both 2n2222 and irfz44n mosfet. works like a charm. i suppose they use tip31 becuz of the high current it can deliver. for that i used a mosfet as i had to light 5meters of high intensity led strip and couldnt find tip31 in market.

mpalubinskas says:
Does P2N2222A transistor work? I tried to do the circuit with this transistor, but nothing happens...

Aug 19, 2012. 10:36 AM REPLY

manas.g29 says:

Aug 20, 2012. 10:33 AM REPLY i did it with 2n2222, but p2n2222a is same transistor designed for lower current so it should work. try using it with a single LED and resistor first. if it doesn't work then ur transistor might be faulty. try doing with BC547/548/549. they are very low current transistors so use only a single LEDresistor pair.. this will confirm whether u are getting a suitable signal output or not.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

mpalubinskas says:
I tried using only one led and resistor and it still didnt work. Then i tried another transistor, but still no effect.

Aug 21, 2012. 7:46 AM REPLY

crazy42 says:
I made the circuit for testing but it didn't work. but i don't know what's wrong. pls help me

Jul 14, 2012. 10:15 AM REPLY

Nadr0j says:
Hey crazy42.

Jul 30, 2012. 12:08 PM REPLY

Have you checked the online to confirm the polarity of the pins on your transistor? Not all transistors have the same pin setup. For example.. On my circuit I am using a 2N222A transistor. The pins go (from left to right) Emitter, Base, and Collector. The Tip31 transistor (which is the one used in this 'ible), on the other hand, goes (from left to right) Base, Collector, Emitter. The placement of the pins dictates where you must place your positive and negative leads in the circuit. I was unable to view the datasheet for your transistor on my computer. But maybe you can. Best of luck to you. http://alltransistors.com/pdfview.php?doc=kt837.pdf&dire=_integral

crazy42 says:
I did it like you said. the pins are from left to right: Emitter, Collector and Base. It didn't work again((( Is it right connection?

Aug 20, 2012. 1:51 AM REPLY

psycho_3852 says:

Aug 20, 2012. 11:45 PM REPLY I'm going to assume that your LED is a standard 3V. If it is then your 4V power supply might be over powering your LED. following the formula in the instructions. (adapter output voltage / LED voltage = Total LED's) but backwards. (Total LED's x LED voltage = adapter output voltage) to see if you have the correct voltage needed. if I did this right (correct me if I did not) then that would mean that your LED has 3V going to it, if this is true then your in luck, but you should take a look at your adapter with a multimeter to see the true voltage. it could be more then it says on the label. if it is then you might have to add a resistor to it to get it down to 3V. or possibly replace the LED depending on its tolerance and if it is blown out already. But please consider that I might be wrong about this so do a little bit of research about this before you try anything.

crazy42 says:
It works right when I connect it to 4v (the led)

Aug 21, 2012. 2:09 AM REPLY

mpalubinskas says:
When I use my P2N2222A transistor nothing happens. Do you have any ideas why? I used the pins correctly

Aug 19, 2012. 10:39 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Nadr0j says:

Aug 19, 2012. 9:16 PM REPLY It's tough to say without looking at your setup. I found one in my spare parts bin and put it in my circuit and it worked fine. Chances are something is wired up funky. Would you be willing to post a picture of your circuit so some of us could take a look at it?

mpalubinskas says:

Aug 20, 2012. 3:21 AM REPLY Sorry for my bad camera, but here's the picture of my circuit. I tried to add some notes for you because it is hard to clearly see whats in there. I hope this will help you to help me ;) NOTE: that is the back of the transistor

EET1982 says:

Aug 19, 2012. 2:02 PM REPLY I used the TIP31C and BC548 and it works great. The pins are different between BJT's and the High Power Transistors. I know you said you checked the pins. Not sure what else it could be. At first I thought to connect both the white and red wire. Found out they are the two different channels. If you connect just the red, or just the white, and the metal wiring to the ground it should work. Try that?

psycho_3852 says:

Aug 20, 2012. 11:27 PM REPLY I'm also trying to do what [arp001] is trying to do. but I think everyone is misunderstanding his question. i think he is also looking for a way to set each specific LED to light up at a different frequency of the music playing. i.e some LED's will react to highs, others will react to mid, and the last set will react to lows (bass/base). if this is not the question that [arp001] is asking then sorry, my mistake. But I would like to see if this would be possible anyway. if so it would be very helpful if someone can post a basic sciatic. Thank you

mpalubinskas says:
Does PN2NNNNA transistor work? becouse when i connect it like this guide tells it doesn't work

Aug 19, 2012. 11:40 AM REPLY

EET1982 says:

Aug 18, 2012. 5:58 PM REPLY Hi. Thank you for your great Instructable! I took your idea and ran with it abit. I also had a 12v PSU that outputted 18v. I added 5 rows of 6 blue and white leds in series. It makes for a great effect. I'm not sure what kind of enclosure to put them in yet. In the video below they are on a breadboard. Again, thanks for the awesome Instructable!

My Movie.wmv4 MB

kfryers says:

Jun 19, 2012. 3:31 AM REPLY Can someone help me out? Im trying to implement this into my car, but not sure how to? Because this is using a 3.5mm audio jack to plug into your ipod or computer, so how would i do this in a car because there is nowhere to plug a 3.5mm jack? So basically this wiring diagram is how i want it to be in my car, The top left box symbolises the music box (This circuit that makes the LEDs flash) and basically im having red green and blue LED strips in each footwell so thats why you see two of each colour, and each footwell has a 3 toggle switch so the person sitting there can choose the colour, and then the other switch at top left is going to be a 3 way switch so i can choose whether i want the music box on (so LEDs flash to music) or off (so LEDs just stay on, no flashing to music)

manas.g29 says:
connect it to speakers after amp or use 3.5mm splitter cable.

Aug 13, 2012. 1:28 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

eckoview05 says:

Jul 12, 2012. 4:18 AM REPLY I am using this in car. I have it connected to my line out converter and when i turn the volume up really loud i blow my leds. If i were to put a pot or fixed resistor on the positive side of the audio input would that prevent them from blowing?

manas.g29 says:
put suitable resistor in series with LEDs.

Aug 13, 2012. 1:26 PM REPLY

Adambowker98 says:

Jun 24, 2012. 11:41 AM REPLY Am I just completely missing something, or will you not actually hear the music because the jack is plugged in to the computer?

manas.g29 says:
3.5mm splitter cable can be used or you can do it by connecting directly to speakers after its amp.

Aug 13, 2012. 1:24 PM REPLY

zerox00 says:
I had used the exact schematic above and had attached it to the back of my monitor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7a_MwgPotM

Aug 12, 2012. 1:26 AM REPLY

nihaatilve says:
can u please explain the working of transistor...!!!! what it does exactly n ol!! n Thanx a lot buddy for dis gr8 instructables...!!!

Aug 9, 2012. 8:08 AM REPLY

nihaatilve says:

Aug 9, 2012. 8:01 AM REPLY gr8 instructables buddy!! u made it really easy for us to understand...!!.. i thought of doin dis project.... got almost all d components....btw i hav tip31A trasistor .... is it ok if i use tip31A transistor.. wil it work??????? Do reply!!!!!

sheadacus says:

Aug 7, 2012. 10:06 AM REPLY Love this project! Finished mine about a month ago. Used 100 LEDs and modified the circuit slightly. Made two frosted plexiglass towers and a long box under my dresser. Also put a switch for on/off/music on it. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tXIN6MFeW4 Mar 15, 2012. 6:33 PM REPLY I haven't been able to make the LED music box based on your tutorial but I've designed my own with 6 LED and split them into the left + right channel for better visual appearance :D However, your post inspired me to make them. Also in near future I will make some fancy case for them and place them in my room :) Here is the short video I made just to show you how does it look. LEDs are running on 5V DC so you can power them from USB or even battery.

ColdKeyboard says:

sheadacus says:

Aug 7, 2012. 9:58 AM REPLY amazing I can do this project but can't embed a video in the comments, how'd you do that? The rich editor's video embedder just writes the url.

jockkitto16 says:
that is seriously awesome! i'm going to make one of those as soon as i get the chance! BTW i like your taste in music :P

Apr 26, 2012. 4:11 PM REPLY

bsakach says:

Apr 18, 2012. 12:28 PM REPLY hey could you please send me a diagram of how you wired this? I'm working on a project and would love to have left/right channels. Thanks for the help.

ColdKeyboard says:
Here you go. Cheers.

Apr 18, 2012. 1:19 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

acarballo says:

Mar 28, 2012. 9:28 PM REPLY Very Neat, but can i ask you a question? How exactly do you get to play music AND have the audio jack from the led box at the same time? you use one of those audio splitters?

musaib jan says:

yes you need an audio splitter or you can make the connections of ur led box to ur sound system.

Apr 22, 2012. 11:37 AM REPLY

musaib jan says:

yes you need an audio splitter or you can make the connections of ur led box to ur sound system.

Apr 22, 2012. 11:37 AM REPLY

nilnate519 says:

Apr 9, 2012. 11:22 AM REPLY Yes, and they are fairly cheap, but if you want to play on speakers instead of headphones you might also want to get a male 3.5 jack from radio shack which has a way to plug in for your speakers to the splitter. Mar 29, 2012. 1:50 AM REPLY You can buy audio splitter or you can create your own from audio extension cable. You cut the top female jack and solder it near the male jack at the bottom and then those 3 wires you get at the top you solder to base of your transistors. You put the male jack in the sound card and the speakers jack in the female jack of the extension cable. :) I hope you understood what I was saying... if not I will try to create an image of how-to make that cable.

ColdKeyboard says:

BpEoEnRg says:

Aug 6, 2012. 7:32 PM REPLY Great tutorial, works awesome. The only problem is that no one ever addresses the new audio cables and the lacquer coating (where i think a lot of people are having problems.) The wires are so fine that I don't care what people say if you take a knife or flame to that wire its gone faster then the lacquer. SOLUTION - Make your own headphone cable. Use the jack and remove all wires and the casing so your left with the bare metal jack. You'll notice that there are three steps in the metal same as the male end of the jack. Solder or connect your wire to be used as the ground to the first step on the side of the plug you normally wouldn't see (any wire will work, except newer style ones with lacquer on them. You will know this from the lack of visible insulation on the wires, there not really touching there's just the thin layer of lacquer insulating them) The outer most layer is your ground. If your just using one transistor you only going to need the left or right so the other wire is up to you (I put it on the end to keep it easy which gave me the right channel). After a day of flipping and switching the circuit every way i realized that the problem lied in the headphone jacks wire itself. Sorry my camera sucks and that's not worth a video.

nickmaza says:
I modified your circuit and attached my circuit below. I had to swap the ground and left channel to make the circuit work but the LEDs are really dim. Changes I made * replaced 12v battery with 9v battery * swapped left and ground * reduced the number of LEDs to two and added a resistor I also tried removing the resistor and copy your circuit but the lights still were dim. if use the exact circuit nothing comes up. I have also attached a snap of the transistor I am using.

Aug 6, 2012. 11:18 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

rinald says:
can this same principle be applied to a 5.1 surround sound system by taking the output from each speaker independently?

Jul 30, 2012. 5:52 PM REPLY

arp001 says:

May 16, 2012. 4:16 PM REPLY How would I make this circuit more sensitive and less sensitive to the sound levels. I'm new in electrons so more specific would be appreciated (i.e. specific resistors or transistors). I just built this project and it works great. I want to build a box that has different color LEDs that are sensitive to specific levels of sound. So the some LEDs will be on a low threshold circuit, some with a higher threshold, and some on an even higher.

Nadr0j says:
Use a potentiometer to adjust gain.

Jul 30, 2012. 1:34 PM REPLY

mr.johndeer1 says:

May 29, 2012. 10:09 PM REPLY buy a variable resistor at Radioshack. Basically the same as a volume knob. If you are having problems with it staying constantly lit and bright, insert it right after the power supply and adjust it to your preference.

raja12 says:
can i use 9v battery?

Jun 4, 2012. 4:36 PM REPLY

Nadr0j says:
Yes. Just use appropriate resistors.

Jul 30, 2012. 12:14 PM REPLY

rzahid says:
Can please anybody tell me how this thing is working,,?? how the transistor is responding to the sound levels..??

Jun 10, 2012. 7:34 AM REPLY

Nadr0j says:

Jul 30, 2012. 12:14 PM REPLY To me it sounds like you're unfamiliar with how a transistor works. You should google around to figure this out. It is the main component in this circuit. I'll even get you through the first step :-). http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Youtube%3A+How+does+a+transistor+work%3F Best of luck to you. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Cogle says:
Why did you not need any current limiting resistors

Jun 17, 2012. 2:09 PM REPLY

Nadr0j says:
If you're interested here is my speculation. The LEDs have build in resistors (unlikely based on their appearance.)

Jul 30, 2012. 12:12 PM REPLY

You can also hook up some high forward voltage drop LEDs directly without a resistor but they will burn out much more quickly due to the lack of current reduction. Best of luck to you.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/

Nadr0j says:
Great 'ible. Thanks for sharing.

Jul 30, 2012. 12:10 PM REPLY

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