Roational Vu Meter

A very attractive circular VU meter to fit around 34mm mic bodies. Part of the USB Microphone V2 but presented here as a versatile display with 10 WS2812B programmable LEDs.

This is an Arduino (or RPi) project although it doesn't really need the horsepower of a RPi! I recommend the ESP32 boards and later Seedstudio Xiao boards. If this is all sounding too complicated, I'll show present a full project with it later. Anyone who is familiar with these devices will understand.

One example where you might use this is as an wearable amulet for a cosplay mage/witch etc. It's quite large, about palm size (my hands anyway) but the large void in the middle leaves other possibilities open. The FastLED library is a great place to start experimenting but the examples can get you going quickly.

I've done some code to check it works (which it does). D1 is next to Din and count clockwise, so it's easy to set up a display like "rev" counters. The LEDs are spread across 270 degrees of arc to make it easier to read. The included design doesn't have any mounting points (it's meant to be glued to a flat surface) but it's a simple matter to add them.

This is is a KiCAD 8.x compatible file - and should contain enough to get you going. I recommend using the JLCPCB (or similar) prep tool to make up the Gerbers, BOM and component position files. I've made far too many mistakes doing it manually.

They work out at about 1.70UKP per unit in this size in small quantities plus shipping of course.

Open Source, BSD II Clause: in a nutshell you can sell these for a profit (and I encourage anyone who wants to, to do so) without paying me a dime provided the originator's artwork isn't removed [DIY Perks].

The visible side of the PCB is yours to abuse as you wish of course.

Here's a shot of it working - I know, I need to clean my lens. The software holds a peak level for a couple of seconds but the rest of the display is animated.