I am a fresh electrical engineering graduate, and as my first fun side project, I decided to instead of having an intense programming/whatever it takes to do the christmas light displays like in the commericials along with music (Christmas Lights To Music - Carol of the Belles - Video for example), I want to make something that will make it easier for more people to have fancy lighting displays.
My idea is to have something like a power strip/surge protector (6 to 8 normal AC outlets) that anything can be plugged into (i.e. strands of lights), and essentially plug music in, and based on that alone the lights will flash with the music.
The general plan right now is to have a audio input (headphone jack) to a graphic equalizer chip, which will take 5V DC. The chip I am looking at will be able to branch off in sections based on what the frequency is, and that is where I will put the AC outlets.
What I need to know is how to set up some sort of switch to turn the AC outlets on and off, and how to keep those at 110V, instead of just being the continuation of the 5V DC circuit. A lot of this probably doesn't make sense, like I said, I just graduated, and after working a few days, it feels like I learned nothing.
My idea is to have something like a power strip/surge protector (6 to 8 normal AC outlets) that anything can be plugged into (i.e. strands of lights), and essentially plug music in, and based on that alone the lights will flash with the music.
The general plan right now is to have a audio input (headphone jack) to a graphic equalizer chip, which will take 5V DC. The chip I am looking at will be able to branch off in sections based on what the frequency is, and that is where I will put the AC outlets.
What I need to know is how to set up some sort of switch to turn the AC outlets on and off, and how to keep those at 110V, instead of just being the continuation of the 5V DC circuit. A lot of this probably doesn't make sense, like I said, I just graduated, and after working a few days, it feels like I learned nothing.