Hi,

I am new to world of electronics but I am finding it ever so intriguing as I go along I have made a few small lcd display projects but nothing special mainly from kits but added a few bits of my own to make them a little more funky I would like to make the RGB VU meter but I would also like to use it for a project I have on-going since all this is new to me and I am learning as I go along I read it would be possible to make the Vu meter bigger. I need it to be around 900mm long for my project any help on how to do this would be great I have all the chips needed to build the demo version but I would like to make it bigger.

Lee

Firstly, if you are new to electronics, I would start by building the project as it is documented. This will teach you a lot to begin with.

Then, if you want to make it bigger, you have two choices; more LEDs or bigger LEDs. More LEDs require more driving chips and more power consumption. Using bigger LEDs requires altering the circuit so that the driving chips can handle more load. To up the load that the driving chips can handle you can use other ICs like the ULN2004 Darlington pair driver chip. Adding more LED driver chips is a case of daisychaining in more chips.

Ideally you should build the original circuit on a breadboard and then test everything. Once it is working you can try altering the circuit in either of the two ways mentioned above (or a combination of both). Provided you don't opt for the 'big bang' approach of a redesign (which is running before you can walk), it shouldn't be too hard to achieve.

/Simon