Chinese mini VU Meters

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Hiya guys..
To me there's no substitute for a decent mechanical VU to display audio levels... that nice warm glow and meaningful busy needle etc.
However most so called VU meters are just junk, and have little correlation with real VU characteristics.
Has anyone tried these 38mm meters (and driver kits) available thru Ebay? They look cute and tidily small.
 
I bought some dual cheapie analog VU meters that are backlit and I plan to digitally drive them. I'm an arduino guy (lol) and I'll sample the audio, apply the right time constants and send out a control voltage to the meters. you can also calibrate or match them with software constants, so that the cheapness of the physical meters does not matter anymore ;)

I have meters but have not done the software yet. its on my todo list but not for the near future, though.
 
Good luck. I have some very nice looking VU's here, but hopelessly underdamped movements in them. No amount of fiddling with capacitive damping made them much better.
Great standard of work in yr projects I see. Triamps - yeah - I did a triamp a zillion years ago. Pity I knew little about thermal runaway & heatsinking all those amps properly. Still have the speakers - Goodmans 12" audiom; 4" horn loaded mid; Kelly ribbon tweeters. Luverly 1970's stuff!
 

PRR

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> Link ... Here's one

For 26 bucks, you may as well get it.

Remember that when hamburger was $1/pound, a true VU meter was $100.

It's nothing like a VU meter.

The chip is peak-catching, slow decay.

The meter and "VU" scale is linear. However the chip is forth-root law. It packs 40dB onto a linear scale. The 'half-scale' (70% which should be -3vu) point is really 20db below full scale; the "-20vu" is more like -40vu.

Seems to be 4db down at 20KHz at full input.

Chip input current for full scale is 1mA! This chip is meant for speaker outputs, not line levels.

Still a lot of decorative mojo for the price.
 
Hi,

I´m searching for large sized VU meters or panel meters, as the old Technics or Onkyo power amps had. So far I have found just one possible source, nissei.com who also manufactures small VU-meters in many different appearances. A supplier for just the mechanical part (magnet, coil, long pointer) without the display and casing, would also be welcome.

jauu
Calvin
 
Hi,

I´m searching for large sized VU meters or panel meters, as the old Technics or Onkyo power amps had. So far I have found just one possible source, nissei.com who also manufactures small VU-meters in many different appearances. A supplier for just the mechanical part (magnet, coil, long pointer) without the display and casing, would also be welcome.

jauu
Calvin

Here's some links for you:
4716129001 - Meter 0-60 Feet "Structure Locator"

VU meters are for the measurement of sound or noise levels

Analog Panel Meters from Beede Electrical Instrument Company

First is New Old Stock (Funky scale, but cheap)
Second is Hoyt meters. They make up to 5.5" (140mm) VU's but they would have to direct you to who distributes them you could deal with.
Last link is Manufacture of meter in first link.

Hope this helps
Doc
 
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If you have the circuit, all you need is any old meter of the right size/ formfactor and the 'meter' software from Jim Tonne. You design the new scale on your PC then print it to a regular printer.
I used it and printing on semi-glossy photo paper gives you a very professional scale.
MeterBasic is free but Meter cost only a little and is very flexible.
Supports log scales and other non-linear scales, should work great for Vu meter scales.

@Hugh: You can even put your company logo on the scale ;-)

jan didden
 
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