Slider pot with corresponding LEDs

[wildebelor]

So i've been toying around with the idea of a slider pot that when moved up, corresponding LEDs beside it light up?
Imagine it's your master volume pot - 8 LEDs running the length beside the slider.

Where would one even begin? 

[deadastronaut]

lm3915/6  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3dl3Gym3A8

great fun..

can be a VU  or level meter, and have dot display too...

[wildebelor]

Yeah, that seems to be what I was after - was hoping it was a little more simple and not 12v!

I guess it's just another layout I'll have to create haha

[deadastronaut]

it will run on 9v...

from 3v to 12v apparently...

stick it on a breadboard and play with the dot function, its pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6RbpkvwYUM

[R.G.]

So i've been toying around with the idea of a slider pot that when moved up, corresponding LEDs beside it light up?
Imagine it's your master volume pot - 8 LEDs running the length beside the slider.

Congratulations! You have invented the Visual Volume - LEDs to tell you where your volume is set.
See   http://visualsound.net/visual-volume/

[wildebelor]

$160! haha

I know I'm not reinventing the wheel but I thought it could be a great addition to a particular build.

[R.G.]

$160! haha

Is that good or bad?

I know I'm not reinventing the wheel but I thought it could be a great addition to a particular build.

It could be. Go make it be so.

[slacker]

What's the point of  having LEDs to show you where a pot is set when the pot already tells you that,  apart from it looking cool obviously.

Not sure Visual Sound actually invented this either but there you go.

[merlinb]

What's the point of  having LEDs to show you where a pot is set when the pot already tells you that,  apart from it looking cool obviously.

I was wondering that too. Ten LEDs is a very coarse scale, so it's not like you could even use it to recall a previous setting very accurately. A two digit 7-seg display would at least give you 100 divisions.

[wildebelor]

I like a lot of minimal design and I mean it's just an experiment really

[deadastronaut]

anything with leds is cool ...even my toothbrush and lighters well!.. ....do it man!..

[wildebelor]

Rob, just waiting on the sliders haha Any good ideas for cutting the straight line on the enclosure with a dremel? Otherwise I might have to get darron to laser it!

[deadastronaut]

never done that , but if i had to i'd draw it out, centre punch, then drill a line of holes and use a file to shape it...(no dremel here)

the alooooominum is quite soft really, and easy to file away...

if your going the dremel route, i think you might be best off making a jig so it cant move off the line...a tool for a tool.

[arma61]

What's the point of  having LEDs to show you where a pot is set .

state your/your sound mood       

                       

[deadastronaut]

  another led addict..

[R.G.]

What's the point of  having LEDs to show you where a pot is set when the pot already tells you that,  apart from it looking cool obviously.

I was wondering that too. Ten LEDs is a very coarse scale, so it's not like you could even use it to recall a previous setting very accurately. A two digit 7-seg display would at least give you 100 divisions.

It is coarse, and not what you'd do for very fine, discrete settings. But it has its place. For a foot operated pedal, it's difficult to hit resolutions finer than that, especially on the fly while you're on stage in the middle of a song. Well, it is for me anyway. Others may have much finer ankle resolution than I do. 

It's more a gauge than a meter. It was conceived specifically as a tool for the working musician on stage, not as a bedroom or studio tool, although it gets used in those ways too. A really common use of a volume pedal on stage is to vary your loudness depending on the song and even parts of a song. A guitarist might play rhythm or backing melody for a while, the go do a short solo, which usually calls for a volume boost. After the interlude, the guitarist might want to go back to the background level. It is very common for it to be hard to hit the background level by ear on a busy stage. Guitarists being guitarists, going back to level tends to be at a slightly higher level than before the solo, and over a few iterations, volume creep has put you at full up, all the time. Even a coarse gauge of level is very handy in this kind of situation.

Not sure Visual Sound actually invented this either but there you go.

I'm not certain that it was the very first instance of using a series of lights to tell the position of a control, and it predates me with the company by years, but the owner does hold a patent on it.

And, as D.A. points out, the more flashy lights, the better! 

As to cutting slots, the best manual approach is with careful marking-out first, then drilling holes and filing.  Even better if you have even a drill press available is to clamp a straight edge and two stops to the table so the box can only move in a straight line and only to the limits of the length you want, then drill start and stop holes and chuck a carbide side-cutting burr into the drill chuck. You can then manually slide it down the straight edge slowly while the burr cuts the slot. This is of course very dangerous to your hands, but can be done.

[slacker]

I'm not certain that it was the very first instance of using a series of lights to tell the position of a control, and it predates me with the company by years, but the owner does hold a patent on it.

From what I can see the patent relates specifically to rocker pedals, not the general case of any sort of control, that's what I was getting at. If it covers any control then Bob should be a millionaire by now
http://www.google.com/patents/US5659145?dq=visual+sound+pedals#PPA2,M1

And, as D.A. points out, the more flashy lights, the better! 

Indeed.

[R.G.]

From what I can see the patent relates specifically to rocker pedals, not the general case of any sort of control, that's what I was getting at. If it covers any control then Bob should be a millionaire by now
http://www.google.com/patents/US5659145?dq=visual+sound+pedals#PPA2,M1

So it does. I'd not read the patent itself. In any case, linear lighted indicators have been used for a long time, as witness the "dot" mode for the LM39xx chips themselves, and hence my advice to the OP to go for it. 

[merlinb]

There was a recent lawsuit between Harmen Studer and a British console manufacturer called Calrec over "FaderGlow" technology. This was nothing more than an LED bar meter along side a fader, which could be arranged to show the audio level or control level at different points in the circuit, as indicated by the colour of the LEDs. It was a truly retarded patent, since the "idea" is both childishly obvious and has already been used in consoles since the 80s!
Sadly Calrec were forced to settle rather than beat it, because they were being bought out by another company who didn't want to buy into the suit. Moral? Patents and lawyers both stifle innovation.

http://www.stage-directions.com/news/30-industry-news/5788-harman-studer-and-d-m-holdings-calrec-audio-reach-settlement-in-faderglow-patent-suit.html

[R.G.]

Yeah, don't get me started on patents in general.   

The right way to compete is to outrun them.  A great way to revise patents in general is to make the term not 20 years, but two. That should liven things up.