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Abstract: Musical sound and visual light are considered to be

amongst the most enjoyable input signals that the biological
sensory system can detect. Music and light have the ability to
enhance or depress an environment. For this reason, the
synchronization of music and light has become ever prevalent
in our technologic society. The proper combination of these
two electromagnetic waveforms creates the unique ability to
manipulate the tone of an environment. With the use of a
programmable microcontroller and sound sensor, we have
created a system that emulates the audio/visual experience one
has when at a concert, as they listen and see the on stage
performance.
I. INTRODUCTION

LEDs have become an integral part of the music and
entertainment industries, and are widely used today by
some of the most famous DJs in the world to boost their
stage performances. Synchronized music and lighting can
control the mood of an audience, and enhances the effects
of the music. Humans are visual creatures; therefor adding a
visual element to an already amazing audio experience can
really transform the musical experience. The goal of this
project was to design and build a sound activated light
system that would essentially flash to the beat of whatever
music is being played within its vicinity.

The motivation for this project was to create a prototype
that would demonstrate the concept behind sound activated
light shows seen at popular concert events. Our system
works by listening for a certain frequency threshold, and
then sending a signal to the microcontroller on our board
once that threshold frequency is detected. The control of the
system was designed around the basic if-else logical
statement. The output of our system is the 4 LEDs on the
LPC1758 SJSU CMPE Development Board, along with an
external El wire, which we used for additional lighting and
mood enhancement effects. The external sound sensor used
is rated to operate on 5V, but the LPC1758 SJSU CMPE
Development Board only supplies 3.3V when connected to
USB, therefore an additional power source was used, along
with other electrical control components such as: a DC to
AC converter, a voltage regulator, and a logic transistor
(used as a switch). The complete design is a bit more


complicated than we had initially expected, although
necessary to achieve the results we set out to achieve.
Our team used a USB microcontroller development board
to load our program onto the board.

II. DESIGN METHODOLOGY

The LPC1758 SJSU CMPE Development Board was
programmed to work in sync with an external Parallax
sound impact sensor. This particular sound sensor requires
a 5V power supply to turn on and function properly. Since
the LPC1758 SJSU CMPE Development Board is powered
by a USB connection, only 3.3V of power is supplied to the
board, meaning some additional power needed to be
supplied for the 5V sound sensor. To properly power the
sound sensor, an additional 9V battery was designed into
the system, as well as a 5V voltage regulator to drop the
power down to the specified 5Vs. The Parallax sound
impact sensor works by sending a single bit active-high
output signal whenever a certain frequency threshold is
detected by its on board microphone. This particular sensor
was chosen for two main reasons. The first reason was
because it has a built in series resistor that made it
compatible with the 3.3V microcontroller that is built into
the LPC1758 SJSU CMPE Development Board. The
second reason was because it features a potentiometer that
could be manually adjusted in order to make the sensor
signal a high output at our desired threshold.



Parts List

LPC1758 SJSU CMPE Development Board
Parallax sound impact sensor
3V El wire
3V El inverter
5V Voltage Regulator
Small breadboard
Logic N-Channel MOSFET transistor
9V Battery
Solid copper wire
Stranded copper wire


CmpE 30 Lab Final Project: Sound Activated
LEDs & El Wire
<Melissa Ortiz, Kyle Soder> - <008823256, 008768903>, CmpE 30 Spring 2014, Lab Section 03
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A. Schematics
*** Fully drawn and labeled figure may be seen at the end
of the report, please refer to appendix C.

III. TESTING PROCEDURES

1. Step one. Draw schematic of board and connections on
paper.
2. Step two. Logically step through the schematic to
make sure the correct connects are made.
3. Step three: Check program for any errors in Hercules.
4. Step four: Load the program onto the board via
Hercules and check for power.
5. Step five: Allow for test to idle-no noise. Hercules
should display a statement declaring that all LEDs and
EL wire are off.
6. Step 6: Introduce a high frequency noises to confirm
that Parallax sound impact sensor is working. Hercules
should display a statement declaring that all LEDS and
EL wire has been activated.
7. Step 7: Play music and adjust threshold on sensor
accordingly.

IV. TESTING RESULTS

Many difficulties arose throughout the course of this
project. Incorrect connections were the main problems,
which restricted the proper flow of current to each
component of our design. Consequently, this led to many
complications that were not easily detected. During the first
round of testing, the Parallax sound impact sensor seemed
to work flawlessly; however, none of the LEDs or the EL
wire lit up. This made it difficult for the group to determine
if the code we wrote was working properly. To troubleshoot
this issue, printf statements were added into the program to
produce on screen verifications of what lines of code were
actually being executed.

After editing the code, and rewiring the board, we began
testing again. During the second round of testing, a new
issue arose. We discovered that upon adding voltage to the
board, all 4 LEDs and EL wire immediately light up, and
remained lit, without an initial sound activated high output
signal from the parallax sound sensor. To troubleshoot this
issue, we again added printf statements to the code, and
then ran the program through the Hercules software. This
time we found the code to be stuck in an infinite loop.
Puzzled by this, we decided to test the code in a stepwise
fashion. In doing this, we discovered each individual line of
code in the program worked as expected, which meant the
problem had to be related to the hardware components of
the project.

To find where this problem was, the group referred back to
the original schematic drawings, and eventually realized we
had issues with the wiring. The first issue came from
improper grounding of the external components, and the
second issue came from a hole in our circuit. Somehow we
had failed to fully connect to all pins of our transistor.
After properly wiring the transistor, and correctly
grounding all components, all issues were resolved, and the
system worked perfectly.

V. CONCLUSION

This project was meant to demonstrate the concept behind
large-scale light shows. To a certain extent this was
achieved with success; however, the restricted time period
in which we were able to work on this project ultimately
caused us to greatly simplify our design. The system we
created responds to only a single frequency threshold.
However, a typical song incorporates a wide range of sound
frequencies, which is essentially too dynamic for our
system to handle. Nonetheless, this project does effectively
demonstrate a proof of concept, and can easily be scaled up
to create more intricate light shows, such as those seen on
professional stages.

Throughout the project we experience several set backs,
and frustrations. In fact, one of the most important skills we
learned from this project was how to deal with frustration.
This project involved a tremendous amount of
troubleshooting and evaluation before we got it to work
properly. This project also extensively tested our critical
thinking abilities, and our willingness to persist through
difficult times. In the end, we did achieve our goal, and the
performance of our system was exceptional.


VI. APPENDICES AND REFERENCES

Appendix A: Project code

Appendix B: Logical flow chart

Appendix C: Schematics

Abboud, Charley. Cmpe 30 Lab Instructor
Parallax sound impact sensor data sheet:
http://www.parallax.com/sites/default/files/downloads/2913
2-Sound-Impact-Sensor-v1.0.pdf

Voltage regulator data sheet:
http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Component
s/General/TO-220.pdf

TO-220 Transistor data sheet:
http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/C
omponents/General/FQP30N06L.pdf

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Appendix A: Project Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include "gpio.hpp"
#include "io.hpp"
#include "utilities.h"

/*

CMPE 30
Created by: Melissa Ortiz and Kyle Soder

The purpose of this code is to allow our EL Wire and 4 LEDs
on the board to respond to the high and low sound
frequencies of music.


*/


int main(void)
{
while(1) // Infinite Loop
{
GPIO pin20(P1_20); //Declaring that the SIG Port on Parallax
Sound Impact Sensor is connected to GPIO 20
pin20.setAsInput(); /* Using Pin 20 as INPUT */

GPIO pin23(P1_23); // EL WIRE Connected to GPIO 23
pin23.setAsOutput(); /* Pin 23 Set as OUTPUT */

if(pin20.read()) // Determining if the Parallax Sound
Sensor is picking up High or Low sound frequencies
{
LE.setAll(15);22
pin23.setHigh(); //Turn on voltage to 3.3v

f // Turn on all LEDs on the board
// Turn on EL wire

printf("All LEDs and EL wire have been activated \n");

// printf statement is a check for the
program. While using Hercules, this statement should pop up when a high
frequency sound has been detected.
}
else
{
LE.setAll(0);
pin23.setLow(); // Turn off voltage to 0v

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// Turn off all LEDs on the board
// Turn off EL wire

printf("\nAll LEDs and EL wire have been deactived\n");

// The seconf printf statement is a second
check for the program. While using hercules, this statement should pop up when
there is no sound-or a low frequency sound.
}

delay_ms(50); // 50 millisecond delay in before the
infinite loop restarts

}

return -1;

}









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Appendix B: Flow Chart





















F























Sound frequency
sensed
>=
Threshold
frequency
T

Start






Turn on ALL 4 LEDs and
EL WiRE
F






Set voltage to 0



Delay
50ms


D
e
l
a
y
5
0
m
s


Delay
50 ms
T
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Appendix C: Schematic