Hardware

This project uses two input sources, a microphone and an IR detector. It also has two outputs, a LED matrix and a robot (Droid). The microphone picks up the sound of music, and the system displays the audio spectrum and makes the droid dance to the beat of music. It can also operate in a mode where it receives signals from a remote control to demonstrate the droid’s movements.

Schematics

We ended up putting the MSGEQ7 and its glue on piece of proto board. The critical parts are in the oscillation circuit connected the CLIN input. The odd duck is the 200kΩ resistor that is not an E12-series value. You can also make an equivalent value by 220 kΩ and 2.2 MΩ in parallel, or put two 100kΩ in series. Now that we’re on the subject: all capacitors should be ceramic types.

Power

Logic

Bill of Materials

The price comes down to under $40 based on single quantity, excluding shipping and taxes. However, note that some items, such as the PCB, have minimum order quantities.

Make sure the MSGEQ7 is authentic. It should draw about \(0.8\,\rm{mA}\); pin 6 should have a reference voltage of \(2.5\,\rm{V}\) and have an indentation near pin 1.

Materials

The components listed below are available from components warehouses like Mouser and DigiKey, and hobby stores like Adafruit and Sparkfun.

Microphone

We use the same microphone breakout, as we did in the Pitch Detector project. This breakout has an amplifier that automatically controls the gain up to a 2 V_pp output signal. Other microphones will work for as long as the output signal is strong enough. Alternatively, you can connect directly to a music source using a 3.5 mm phone connector. This outputs about 0.9 V_pp. In all cases, remember to decouple the DC component using the 0.1 μF capacitor.

Spectrum Analyzer

This MSGEQ7 spectrum analyzer chip requires some analog components as listed below.

• 22 kΩ (red-red-orange)
• 0.1 μF (104, blue multi-layer ceramic capacitor)
• 0.1 μF (104, blue multi-layer ceramic capacitor)
• 33 pF (33, brown ceramic capacitor), correct value is important!
• 200 kΩ by placing 220 kΩ (red-red-yellow) and 2.2 MΩ in parallel (red-red-green)

Not all MSGEQ7 chips are made equally. We found it helpful to solder these components and a chip socket on a little breakout. This makes it easy to try different chips.

The MSGEQ7 is very sensitive to noise on the power rail. Add a 47 μF across the power line seems to help.

Infrared Remote and Detector

We used a SilverLit infrared remote to send control signals to the Arduino, but any remote that is supported by the Arduino IRLib library should work. The infrared (IR) detector demodulates the received IR signal and outputs a pulse stream. For the detector we used a TSOP38238, but again there are many other flavors that may work.

Arduino

We use the commonly available Arduino UNO R3 Given that you are reading this article, you are probably already familiar with this open-source microcontroller prototyping platform.

Remember to connect 3.3 Volt to the AREF input. The Analog-to-Digital converter uses this as a reference.

Bi-color 8×8 LED matrix

For the display we choose an I²C 8×8 Bicolor LED matrix. This matrix connects using the two wire I²C interface, an inter integrated circuit protocol like the SPI that I described in my article Math Talk.

Droid

We sacrificed an Android Mini Collectible Figure from the Google store in Mountain View. After cutting the legs, arms and popping off the head, it assault intensified by drilling out its eyes. We followed the instructions for the pink figure in this instructable. To move the ams and head, we used 3 small ultra-micro servos. These come with an 1.25 mm pitch Molex Picoblade connector, that requires a small extension cable. The body itself is moved with a larger micro servos that connects using the more traditional 2.5 mm pitch JST-XH connector. For the eyes we used two LEDs in series and a current limiting resistor.

These ultra-micro servos have a maximum voltage of 4.7 Volt and the combination of servos can draw up to 500 mA. We supply this 4.7 Volt rail using a separate lap power supply. Signaling diodes bring the 5 V output from the Arduino down to about 4.3 Volt.