I finally finished another project! The project that did not want to end…
What is it?
A 14-band spectrum analyzer! (i.e., pretty lights that go zoom zoom with the music)
The idea came from here: Part.3 14 Band Spectrum Analyzer | Acrylic Tower
Here it is, in all its glory:
And an action shot, with timely music…VIRUS — A Cold Darksynth Synthwave Mix. Sorry about the potato quality, my phone doesn’t do so well in the dark.
How does it work?
It runs off of an Arduino Mega 2560 using two MSGEQ7 7-band equalizer chips with offset clock frequencies to effectively monitor 14 separate audio bands. While I was actually successful at creating my own version of this, I ended up going with a more feature-rich package called the DMS308 V.2 due to the extra configuration options and preprogrammed color schemes.
How did the build go?
I think just about everything that could go wrong during the milling, construction, and wiring did go wrong with this one. I actually stopped working on it for nearly three weeks out of sheer frustration. I ended up rebuilding the acrylic columns not once, but three times due to various problems, setbacks, and unforeseen differences in tolerances (thickness) between sheets of acrylic, despite being from the same maker — I now also understand some of the differences between cast acrylic and extruded. However, with a little downtime during our extended corona-cation I was able to push through and actually get it done.
Here’s some acrylic cutting of the oh-so-so-many individual parts…petals? Clearly, I used my CNC instead of a CO2 laser like the video. I haven’t gotten the itch for one of those yet, not that I have anywhere to put it.
And here’s the original circuit board I designed and milled on the CNC before opting to go with the prebuilt. For what it’s worth, I have zero knowledge of the proper software for making circuits. I just mapped this out in Illustrator, but it actually worked okay. In any case, I was very satisfied with the minute detail I was able to accomplish with the 0.5mm end mill, so I thought I’d go ahead and share it as I have a feeling I’ll come back to this process at some point.
The other big difference between my build and the original idea is that I used Black Walnut for the base, polished to a high-gloss finish, instead of all acrylic.
Thanks for looking! I hope you like it!