Spring into Summer Ambassador Design Competition Audio Visualizer-Part 1

2021-09-23 | By Tyler Marston

License: See Original Project

Hello, my name is Tyler Marston, and I am the Digi-Key Campus Ambassador at Syracuse University. In this post I will be detailing how my team has gone from concept to action plan for our summer design project. When the design competition began, I was tasked with forming a team that could make a tangible project that showed off our school spirit. To begin I recruited Mechanical Engineer Eric Silfies. The two of us combined are very well-rounded, covering all possible problems we may face when making a design project. With our team formed, the next thing for us to do was to come up with ideas for the project.

Concept

Our team got together to discuss some of these things that make Syracuse so special. One of the things that we could all agree on was the school spirit that each student shares. We decided that our project should be able to capture this spirit. We decided on making an audio visualizer and speaker. This system will be able to play our school’s fight song and display the frequencies in a beautiful way. The system will also have a microphone that allows it to capture outside noises, like a crowd, and make them visible as well. The device will sport a large Syracuse logo and will mount to a wall or stand on its own.

Specifications

After we had a firm concept, we had to research what parts we will need. The first thing that we established was that our project would be built using an Arduino Uno. This is because it is powerful enough to do everything we need, and we have plenty of experience using Arduinos. We decided on using Neo pixel LED strips for the visualizer. These LEDs operate at a lower voltage, making them a great pair for the Arduino. Next, to play the audio we need a speaker. We decided to go with a small 4-ohm speaker. We chose this speaker because it is small enough to easily fit into the visualizer design. While it may not be extremely powerful, this system isn’t going to be used for large audiences, so it will not affect its functionality. To load the music, we also needed an SD card reader. This SD card reader loads audio files from the SD card, so we can output the files when we want to. Lastly, our group needed a microphone to act as a second form of input. This microphone will intake audio when we are not playing files from the SD card. Other than the LED strips, which we are purchasing from Amazon, all the exact parts that I am using can be found below. As for the base, we plan on using lumber for the skeletal structure of the visualizer. The front panel will be made from a frosted sheet of plexiglass or plastic. This will act as a diffuser for the bright LEDs. The wooden base will be stained to uphold a clean, yet rustic look to the project.

Part List

Design Plan

From concept to final product there are many steps that will be needed in order to ensure that our project is a success. The first thing that we will need to do is create our foundation. This means assembling our wooden structure with the plexiglass and making sure that it is aesthetically pleasing. The structure will be in the shape of a rectangle, with the frosted plastic as the front and pressboard wood as the back. Once we have a base to start working with, we are then going to transition into the circuitry. This will include soldering, wiring, and testing all of our parts to make sure we are ready to code. One of the most time-consuming parts of this design will be soldering the LED strips together. The LED strips will be cut into equal segments and soldered together to make a snaking pattern of LEDs. Because of the frosted plastic, this will appear like a grid of diffused lights to viewers. After the lights are soldered, all that is left is to connect them, along with the rest of our components, to the Arduino Uno. Once all of the components are properly attached, our group will start to focus on the code. We plan on using the FastLed Library on Arduino in order to easily control the LED strips. We will use a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in order to place the different frequencies into bins, and then use the FastLed functions to display the different bins on the LEDs. After the LEDs can process and display sound, we will add a speaker to the design to play our school’s fight song off of the SD card. The SD card will use a WAV audio format so that the Arduino can play the song. Lastly, between the speaker and the Arduino there will be an amplifier, to ensure that the audio is loud enough.

Expectations

Overall, Eric and I expect this project to be a fun experience in which we learn a lot from each other and make a cool piece of art from scratch. There will be issues that we run across while making this, but we have no doubt in our mind that we can finish this project and submit a unique project for this competition.

If you find this project interesting, be sure to check back for further updates on our progress.

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