lm386 and an6884 vu meter question

Started by pinkjimiphoton, May 26, 2018, 06:45:43 PM

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pinkjimiphoton

dicking around with one of these things i found somewhere in a kit a couple years back, but can't figure out where to connect the vu meter board to? there were no instructions with the dang kit of course. does it connect to the output of the 386? or does it parallel the input?
i've googled data sheets etc but none can seem to tell me where to hook it up to with a bog-standard 386 circuit.

thanks!
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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
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"try whacking the bejesus outta it and see if it works again"....
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sixthfloor

VU meters serve to visualize the value of some voltage.

In your case it depends on which voltage you want to monitor; connect the VU meter to the output of the LM386 if you want to monitor the output level, or to the input if you want to monitor the input. Typical applications of both cases would be respectively input level monitoring for saturation detection, and showing the intensity of the output.

pinkjimiphoton

thanks sixthfloor!!
i tinkered with it last nite, decided on using it on the output. seems to work better that way! i had it on the input, but a guitar would barely light it at all.

i had bought a little kit from china, it came with the 386 stuff and the volume metering stuff, but the real reason i got it was it came with a bitchin little clear plastic box with speaker.

i took one of my rubydoobie mini amps and stuffed it in there. gotta go hit the hardware store for some nuts n bolts to put it together <of course those were as absent as the build doc lol> and will post up a pic of it later.

appreciate your help, and hey, welcome to the forum, btw!! good people here, and i hope ya hang out and get to know 'em and become part of the fam.

peace!
  • SUPPORTER
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!
"try whacking the bejesus outta it and see if it works again"....
~Jack Darr