I also used the UP! Plus 3D printer I won in last year's UP! contest. I owe a special thank you to the SoHa SMART makerspace for letting me use their laser cutter for this project. Head on to the next step for a full materials list - but first, a quick note about some of the resources I used: While there are already a handful of Instructables about using the LM3914, I'm hoping this new one can contribute two things: a very clear explanation of how the circuit works along with assembly instructions, and a way to make aesthetically-pleasing LED towers that will look nice on a computer desktop, instead of just sticking all the LEDs on a breadboard. So, using two of the chips with a simple circuit and stereo sound is sufficient to drive two separate volume towers. The chip can drive a bar of 10 LEDs proportionally to an analog input, with no microcontroller required. This project lies somewhere in between - it uses a handy "LED driver" chip called the LM3914. They range from rather simple, like using a transistor to drive a single LED to using an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi to make an audio equalizer. To give credit where credit is due - if you search Instructables, there are a lot of "make LEDs respond to music" type projects. This Instructable will give you complete directions to assemble the required circuit (even if you have no electronics experience - you can even do it without soldering), build two LED towers, and hook them up to an audio input so you can simultaneously drive them and listen to music. So, I set out to find out how they worked, and build my own "mini" desktop version that would go nicely with computer speakers, instead of a big living room stereo. Many of the videos showed the end result, and maybe a slideshow of the assembly process, but lacked complete build details or a circuit diagram. The inspiration for this project started when I saw a variety of awesome stereo LED towers on YouTube (also referred to as VU meters). Update December 2014: a kit containing all the circuit parts for this project is now available from Jameco Electronics.
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