Really cool idea.. The only thing I'd change/add would be, put a LED by each speaker (2). I'd also make it more picky. Meaning, only let it go bright, with lower frequencies, not just over all sound.

j.pocalypse wrote:

Really cool idea.. The only thing I'd change/add would be, put a LED by each speaker (2). I'd also make it more picky. Meaning, only let it go bright, with lower frequencies, not just over all sound.

Well the thing is that it is difficult to place the leds properly because of the motherboard position. I don't believe there is enough space to put in the speaker slots (if that is what you are saying) but do get stereo leds, that can be done if each speaker line was cut and included an led or two. Then you'd get the nice right and left ear effect but in light form .

As for lower frequencies, you mean full brightness on idle but with speaker power get dimmer? That's a pretty neat idea but I honestly wouldn't know how to do that. If you care to share I would implement it when I open the eee up again.

Once again this is a proof of concept and should have the potential for eye catchiness given good direction.

NOTE: the second video is being uploaded which shows is all together, and looks much nicer than the first.

I'm going to try this on a 1005ha if/when I find room.

what'd be really cool is if you added some filters and different color LEDs, so different frequencies would light different colors, like an old color organ.

what'd be really cool is if you added some filters and different color LEDs, so different frequencies would light different colors, like an old color organ.

I cannot imagine this would NOT affect sound quality (I *assume* that the OP is wiring some LEDs in parallel to his speakers. Right?)
Since you are trying to mod a computer and not an empty wooden box you could maybe come up with some more technical then just wiring LEDs to some power source, maybe some kind of SOFTWARE to do the same thing? You could use an usb-> serial adapter to send out signals to your LED, or you could implement a small microcontroller too, and control it either via i2c or usb..

Otherwise very good idea.

Sound reactive lights arent really anything new...applying them into a netbook...thats a definately a change to the old lol, ****.....even the new Kia Soul has sound reactive leds on their speakers lol

All led's need is a electrical current, speakers produce sound through electric current, attaching a led to that current thus makes the led light up depending on how much power the speakers are using, i can imagine that this could have a negative impact on the sound quality coming through the speakers since some of the juice is being hijacked to power the led

zeroanimated wrote:

All led's need is a electrical current, speakers produce sound through electric current, attaching a led to that current thus makes the led light up depending on how much power the speakers are using, i can imagine that this could have a negative impact on the sound quality coming through the speakers since some of the juice is being hijacked to power the led

Thats what I was trying to say. Didnt have the right wording, lulz.

even low power LEDs have a voltage drop of at least 0.6V or something along those lines, every diode has. Overall max volume will be lower, resulting in calm audio parts to be simply cut off and not given out by the speakers anymore.
(still a good idea to use low power LEDs to not burn through your audio chipset )

AlphaCentauri wrote:

even low power LEDs have a voltage drop of at least 0.6V or something along those lines, every diode has. Overall max volume will be lower, resulting in calm audio parts to be simply cut off and not given out by the speakers anymore.
(still a good idea to use low power LEDs to not burn through your audio chipset )

The speakers I believe are 4 ohm, possibly 8.If the speakers are 4 ohm, and you used a 330ohm resistor in series with the LED, the load only drops down to 3.952 ohms, so I believe the chipset is pretty safe, as 2 speakers could easily vary by 0.048 ohms.I'm not saying this couldn't affect sound quality, but I do think it would be a pretty minor effect, judging by the ratio, but I could be mistaken. I plan to wire up an external circuit and investigate.

Incidentally, this is similar to the way many guitar distortion pedals work, except that there the diode output is fed back into the input

sorry for double post but here is the schematic, can't get any more complicated than that (is not edited to the first post as well)

@alpha

On the mobo of the eeepc, the solder pads of the audio usb connector are getting, I want to say varying, current. So I soldered on the actual shoulder pads of the connector, and made it easy for everyone not to cut wires from the speakers. I suppose a better schematic is needed then however I don't have a USB schematic component so it will look funky. Eh I'll think of something today, right now I have to go to class.