I am working on a new case and I have salvaged some VU meters from an old tape deck I was wondering if any of you guys had any ideas on how to wire them up? Any help will be appreciated! Btw this is the best mod site I have seen yet!
if I understand you correctly you have the old analogue VU meters. also you don't site your input. If its something small like hdd activity led. Then I would temporarily wire up about a 1kohm transistor and then copy some file and adjust it until it just maxes out... For say a fan inbetween 7-12 v You would need a bigger resistor or transistor. I plan on doing this for a HD activity and fan speed on a case of mine. I plan on using transistors on both. Also it helps to know the rating of the VU meter and your input source. *3dit* forgot to add, the reason you would just temporarily wire up the 1kohm transistor is because once you set it you wouldn't adjust again, so it would be easier to then just calculate or resistance and solder in a resistor
I was wanting to use them for stereo signal. Dont know to much about the input range or anything like that ( noob) at electronic type stuff . They go from 0-100 db if that tells us anything. they are analog and have two wires on them. The idea about using them to show fan act would be pretty cool. I am in the process of building a fanbus now, 5v-12v-off with bi-color LEDs could set them up oe a rheostat instead> thanx for the help so far!
what colours are the 2 wires that come from it? have you tried just putting in some power? might be as easy as 1v illuminates 1 unit on the Vu meter? maybe not though....
These are old analog meters madhat. but they have a white wire and a black wire. One guy told me that you had to wire them in series with a positive speaker lead so current to the speaker passes through them, but I dont know!
Just tested one ofthe meters with 3.6 volts from my cell battery and it pegged it big time. so i will figure a way to lower voltage and try again. Think putting e resistor inline like you do with LEDs would work?
You put them in parallel with your soundcard output. You might have to solder leads to your sound card, then from the soundcard to the meters, simple, provided that you can solder.
I solder ok but I'm not sure about that! I might use them as fan speed indicators like suggested was going to get some rheostats for my baybus i an working on but rats shak does not carry the ones i need It sucks to live in a small town! No other place local to by those sooo! Ill either order them online or go to Little Rock (50 mile drive)to get some. ill figure out some use for them. thanks for all you guys input and help!
How about using a Y-splitter cable plugged into the line-out? One side goes to the speakers, the other goes to the meters. Should work the same, shouldn't it? And no soldering on the board.
