Cold Cathode VU meter

Running 2 case-mod flourescent tubes off the speakers thru a couple of bridge rectifiers. Tried it with cheap component stereos but not enough power to drive the inverters. Had to use the old 200 watt amp.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Audio
• level
• meter
• VU
• cold
• cathode
• tubes
• case
• mod

[PlasmaStar9]

Did that and yes it works much better--gives more control and keeps from blowing the inverter when you crank up the volume. Only it costs more and takes more time and I'm an impatient kind of guy. Good insight though.

[iceducky33]

where can you buy those i would like to a set of them again :) but cant find it on the net ;(

[PlasmaStar9]

ebay, Xoxide dot com

[RobotUnderground]

In the truck demo, did you hook them up in parallel with the sub amp or have an additional amp driving them? In this vid, I assume you used a full range signal?

[PlasmaStar9]

Actually hooked them in parallel to the stock radio speakers. Later built a little circuit to drive them with transistors from a seperate power supply. Works better because you can vary the light output independent from the speaker volumn

[Splooshiba]

normally these run off 12 volts (which is stepped up later), is it just a case of varying that 12 volts to get this difference?

[PlasmaStar9]

Yes, that's correct. They start to glow on one end at around 6v or so, and the light moves up the bulb as the voltage increases.

[robot797]

couldt you use a transistor driven device to make them glow from a diverent source

but still keep the audio cobntroll?

[Raduku008]

song ? at 0:27

[Splooshiba]

thanks very much, i shall have to have a play with that.