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guitar controlled light bulbs

A

Albina Shatzman

Jan 1, 1970
0
I had this crazy idea to control a lightbulb with my guitar. I was hoping
that the harder I played, the brighter the lightbulb would be, and I was
recommended to use a MOSFET transistor and that I'd basically have an
amplifier. Anyone have any sugguestions on how to design/build this? I was
hoping to keep it as simple as possible. My own genius idea would be to run
the guitar signal into the base of the transistor (possible thru an opamp to
make the signal larger, if needed) and have ac mains go into the collector
(maybe recitified if it's needed) and then have the lightbulb (just a
regular one from a hardware store) wired in series with the emitter. Like I
said, genius.
 
T

The Real Andy

Jan 1, 1970
0
Albina Shatzman said:
hoping to keep it as simple as possible. My own genius idea would be to run
the guitar signal into the base of the transistor (possible thru an opamp to
make the signal larger, if needed) and have ac mains go into the collector
(maybe recitified if it's needed) and then have the lightbulb (just a

Scary.....
 
R

Rheilly Phoull

Jan 1, 1970
0
The Real Andy said:
opamp

Scary.....
It's been done a lot already, why not find one of the kits to make it ??
 
G

GPG

Jan 1, 1970
0
Albina Shatzman said:
I had this crazy idea to control a lightbulb with my guitar. I was hoping
that the harder I played, the brighter the lightbulb would be, and I was
recommended to use a MOSFET transistor and that I'd basically have an
amplifier. Anyone have any sugguestions on how to design/build this? I was
hoping to keep it as simple as possible. My own genius idea would be to run
the guitar signal into the base of the transistor (possible thru an opamp to
make the signal larger, if needed) and have ac mains go into the collector
(maybe recitified if it's needed) and then have the lightbulb (just a
regular one from a hardware store) wired in series with the emitter. Like I
said, genius.

A bit late, genius:
http://rhythmiclight.com/archives/timeline.html
 
B

Bob Stephens

Jan 1, 1970
0
I had this crazy idea to control a lightbulb with my guitar. I was hoping
that the harder I played, the brighter the lightbulb would be, and I was
recommended to use a MOSFET transistor and that I'd basically have an
amplifier. Anyone have any sugguestions on how to design/build this? I was
hoping to keep it as simple as possible. My own genius idea would be to run
the guitar signal into the base of the transistor (possible thru an opamp to
make the signal larger, if needed) and have ac mains go into the collector
(maybe recitified if it's needed) and then have the lightbulb (just a
regular one from a hardware store) wired in series with the emitter. Like I
said, genius.

Radio Shack and Heathkit used to sell "Color Organ" kits that modulated the
intensity of colored bulbs in response to music.

sounds kind of nauseating in retrospect.


Bob
 
T

Tom

Jan 1, 1970
0
Albina said:
I had this crazy idea to control a lightbulb with my guitar. I was hoping
that the harder I played, the brighter the lightbulb would be, and I was
recommended to use a MOSFET transistor and that I'd basically have an
amplifier. Anyone have any sugguestions on how to design/build this? I was
hoping to keep it as simple as possible. My own genius idea would be to run
the guitar signal into the base of the transistor (possible thru an opamp to
make the signal larger, if needed) and have ac mains go into the collector
(maybe recitified if it's needed) and then have the lightbulb (just a
regular one from a hardware store) wired in series with the emitter. Like I
said, genius.

This is just a sound to light - they have been around since the invention of the
thyristor in the 70s.


Tom
 
R

Rolavine

Jan 1, 1970
0
It should be possible to put a low wattage light bulb with a resistor network
right on the amplifier output. I think a couple of watt bulb rated for
something like 24 volts dc, should be able to go where the speaker does, just
start increaseing the volume slowly in your experiment. You could put a high
wattage 10 ohm resistor in series with the bulb to protect the amp.

Good Luck.
 
J

John Woodgate

Jan 1, 1970
0
This is just a sound to light - they have been around since the invention of the
thyristor in the 70s.

Go back at least 30 years. High-gm pentodes (gm = 10 mS or more) were
around from the 4 V heater era, and would run 230 V 60 W lamps from 250
V DC supplies. It's just that they were very rare in those days, not
because they were impracticable or very costly. Much of the popular
music in those days was melodious rather than rhythmic, so the displays
lacked drama. Classical music offered opportunities, notably the
'William Tell' overture.
 
J

JeffM

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Color Organ" kits
modulated the intensity of colored bulbs in response to music.

sounds kind of nauseating in retrospect.

Bob Stephens

Obviously, you aren't doing enough drugs these days.
 
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