How to wire in led/neon lights to light up exactly with the bass???

[BigMike916]

Back in 1998, I had 2-15's in my trunk. I bought 2, 3 foot(I think they were 3 foot) under car NEON tubes. I don't remember exactly how it came wired out of the package but I used the + and - from one tube and wired them in directly to one of my 15's, + to + and - to -.

I did the exact same thing to the other tube and the other 15. They worked GREAT without any problems.

I have been trying to do the same thing these days except everything seems to be LED.

They work at first but always burn out / blow out almost immediately.

Now-a-days, they all seem to come with a "music controller" box with some kind of sound sensing microphone that does not work EXACTLY to the beat, like direct wiring does.

These new "MICROPHONES" pick up treble, midrange, the drone of exhaust and your VOICE, which is not BASS and I want them to light up to the BASS ONLY

Back then I was only running 300-400 watts per woofer and was super slapping.

Now, today, I have 3-10's and a JL Audio HD 1200.1, which each woofer should be seeing about 400 watts as well.

This light setup used to work very well and without any sort of issue AT ALL back then.

My questions:

1) How can this be done now-a-days?

2) Why am I blowing LED's and NEON tubes? Actually not the NEON TUBE but the Little circuit board before the tube. If I wire directly into the tube, I get nothing. I have to go through the little circuit box before the tube and it lights up. (ballast?)

3) the LED's (like a light strip) work wired directly to + and - but do not last long if I turn it up.

4) Is there some kind of resistor that I can wire in / solder in line?

5) What type of resistor would that be? Part number please or Pictures and description please?

6) I am very particular when it comes to "HOW" I want these wired up. They HAVE TO BE wired DIRECTLY INTO the subwoofer wires to get the response I am looking for. It actually lets you "SEE THE FREQUENCY" (If you will) of the bass coming from the speakers and it IS FUCKING SICK!!!

Please someone help me resolve this issue. There MUST be a SIMPLE way to accomplish this. It used to be SO SIMPLE, Now, I keep blowing every type of light I buy,...shit!! SMH

[BigMike916]

You have got to be kidding me, NOt 1 reply?? I guess no one knows how this can be accomplished eh?

[reedal]

I don't know if there are any modules for it, but if you're tech savvy then maybe designing a circuit board that can step down the AC voltage exiting the speaker outs on your amplifier would work. Find out the limits of the diodes (LED's) and build a board to accomplish bring the voltage down to acceptable levels at maximum amplifier output.

[Jessica]

here is the deal, no one makes a good one of these, they all are microphone activate or hook up to your amp output, which is so damn stupid to do. So, to do it right, you need to build one that accepts RCA inputs or....

Find out what the wattage of your LED's are and by a second small amp and split your sub or use your rca out on your sub amp to connect it and hook your LED's to it and turn the gain up until they flash without burning up.

edit:

yep, that too, amp is AC out, LED's are DC. So have fun with that

[Ahmed Johnson]

What you could do is put a shitty battery under the hood and wait for the voltage drop.

[Carl Richardson]

do you have fuse link in line if not add one

[audiofanaticz]

someone on here claimed to have made a box that uses rca inputs to turn the neons on/off to the beat.

the guy wasnt very smart, so its probably something he maybe bought and took it out of the case and claimed he made it.
think he got banned tho for being a compulsive liar and being a HUGE story teller, something about his girlfriend having a weewee, and that he was a hermaphrodite.

iirc his user name was "team atomic Andrew"

[mikercw]

2) Why am I blowing LED's and NEON tubes? Actually not the NEON TUBE but the Little circuit board before the tube. If I wire directly into the tube, I get nothing. I have to go through the little circuit box before the tube and it lights up. (ballast?)

3) the LED's (like a light strip) work wired directly to + and - but do not last long if I turn it up.

Most likely because you are overloading the board. LEDS do not take much to fire up.

4) Is there some kind of resistor that I can wire in / solder in line?

(See Below).

On your own, you would be playing with Resistance/ohm. Honestly doing that math and knowing how many multiple resistors you may need would be a pain. Also you would be using transistors to power up and get the pulse.

This may or may not be an option... Due to your question #6:

You can run them off of the input signal or even the line out from a AMP.

You could try one of these:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-TDA7850-50Wx4-Power-Amplifier-Board-RCA-input-for-HIFI-Audiophile-Pro-audio/830460264.html

I think thats to much work...

If I was in your shoes I would adapt this:

http://www.oznium.com/make-leds-flash-to-music

Then play with what "Signal" you truly want to use- The easiest one would be to get a RCA to 3.5mm jack and do a direct plug in from the signal source.

Or you can build one:

http://www.oznium.com/led-controllers

Hope it helps!

[tboorn]

damn ive wanted to know how to do this without a crappy mic for ever too. Why is it so hard to just make one with an RCA input and not a mic so ambient volume doesnt affect output like it does with a stupid mic.

Ive never seen one that hooks up to your amp output like strangeduck mentioned but that still seems a tad more effective than a mic would be.

[Jwill96]

Bought a device that does this from AutoZone a few years ago. It accepts 3.5 mm aux Jack with passthru. There is a terminal strip with a hi mid and low to connect led strips up too. Works pretty well only problem it has to be inline with the aux input. Although a 3.5mm to rca adaptor could be used from an amps rca pass through jacks.