I Need A New Audio Input Indicator

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I am currently using the single LED indicator below. I now would like to have a three LED audio sound level indicator that would come on one at a time. As the sound level increases the bottom (yellow) LED would light. As it increases more, the first would go off and a second would light (Green). And when increases further, over the level needed, the second would go off and the third would light, (Red). Any suggestions?


Audio Input Indicator.jpg
 
I suppose you could stack 3 comparators on top of each other for the LEDs and then connect those to the smoothed output of a precision rectifier. You could do that with a TL074. If you want to have only 1 on at a time you're going to have to use a few logic gates.

Or you could use an LM3915 moving dot meter, that would do the trick.

Why not just use a nice old fashioned analogue VU meter if you want to see the level of the signal in real time? It can be done with very few components and just one opamp (see attached).

Hope that helps.
 

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What I would like is for a yellow LED to be on from 0 to .8Vpeak to peak, a Green LED to be on from .8V to 1Vpeak to peak, and a red LED to be on above 1Vpeak to peak. Only one LED on at any time. So how would I go about doing this with logic gates?
 
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Why not have a look at the LM39xx series of IC's, they do exactly what you require.

The LM3914 produces a linear scale
The LM3915 produces a logarithmic scale
The LM3916 produces a VU scale

The are ever so simple use and use very few external components.
 
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As already mentioned, the moving dot/led display IC should do it ! Or build a 3 OPA comparator that shorts out the Yellow & Green LED's transistors base resistors as the voltage moves up, with another transistor. The output of the Green Comp would short out the Yellow, & then the output of the Red Comp would short out the Green 🙂
 
lm3915 VU METER

Hello
greetings i need a audio limiter to limit audio signal from preamplifier when it is more than 1 volt vu meter sensitivity can be adjusted by preset so
when signal is about 1 volt led will light up LED can be attached to LDR which can be attached to ground and pin no 3 of ic TLO72 is this idea possible to make a simple limiter
warm regards
Andrew😕
 

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Hmm. You seem to be on the right track with the comparators but you'll need to drive them with a smoothed rectified version of the audio signal. The diodes on the op-amp outputs do not serve any purpose either, better to replace them with a resistor divider, perhaps 10K and 10K for each transistor. The circuit you've shown won't work at all unfortunately 🙁.

Hope that helps 🙂.
 
You're sorta on the right track, in some respects, but as has been said, it won't work as is !

Here you go ! The input is buffered & half wave rectified & smoothed, which is fine unless you want recording studio etc performance. You need to work out R4 - R7 so it gives you the voltage trigger levels you want at each stage.

The OPA's should be types that allow larger differentials between the + & - inputs than "some" will allow. TL074 would be fine.

Let me know how you get on, this time !

Are you using a Sim, or is it just drawing software ?
 

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Just a drawing. I've tried using LTspice before, but can't figure out what settings to use. I need to find some video tutorials on it.
Thanks, I really appreciate your help.
I also appreciate all the others as well.
Thank you all.
 
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