Hey all
It's been a while, but finally I'm back... stop yelling at me wallet!... Sorry about that.
After making a SSMH, some Cmoys and a MINI³ in highschool, my knowledge is still rather limited. Thanks to college (this second year I got to choose to master in electrical engineering, but I won't get specific courses untill the second semester) that is slowly changing little by little, but alas doesn't give me alot of time to work on my favourite hobby: DIY stuff that involves audio :D.
Right now I'm working on a very nice set of budget floorspeakers. Those interested can take a look, but the site is in Dutch. In the future I might put a quick walkthrough here on Head-fi. Even though it's not really headphones related.
http://www.zelfbouwaudio.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14406
Yet as that project is coming to an end, I find myself yet again having sleepless nights thinking about all the amazing stuff I could make. Especially since I now got access to the most resourceful lab in the country, namely the electrical department just a 100m from my dorm room. I can get to use absolutely everything I'd like, order anything I want (without paying exorbitant import taxes), etch my own boards, use oscilloscopes, ask the most brilliant guys for help,... ANYTHING.
- Recently I got my hands on some displays and microcontrollers for a school related project and I started thinking: I don't have a DAC + a DAC with display that shows bitrate/tracks/... doesn't seem to be very common (googled it) = I need to try it.
- I was also interested in making a LED array synced to music. Nothing too flashy, but one day I found myself thinking how cool it would be to have a dim flashing seagreen light coming through the bassport of my speakers when the lights are turned off. Now that's what I call classy!
I abandoned the idea of using them on my speakers (as I think I can't get them to work properly without an external psu as I otherwise would compromise the incoming signal too much, PLEASE correct me if it is truly possible). I know I can just connect the leds directly to the audio source as many internet pages gladly show you, but that's just a disaster waiting to happen. I'd like something more solid, more sophisticated. I'd love to have an array of leds synced to an audio source without compromising the signal in any way (that's where the fidelity part of me kicks in) with or without an external psu (if possible).
I'd like to shoot some ideas with everyone here, exchange some ideas as I am way too underqualified to come up with something decent myself (alone). I can also bother the nice assistants at school, but I'd like to have some ideas and plans before I do so.
Maybe we could construct something along the way, put ideas together, see what comes out and improve them where possible. Hopefully I could come in handy somewhere in the process :p. I don't like just taking on projects of which I know little to nothing. I'd rather be part of the thinking process and see if being created, knowing I had something to do with it.
The first thing that popped in my head was using arduinos in both cases, but as I never worked with them before, I'm not certain if there are variants that can be programmed and locked away (like in the enclosure of a DAC).
Kind regards,
Dries
Edited by Llama16 - 11/17/11 at 1:40pm
