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What we need, instead of humungous (and not very good) photos is a schematic of the circuit for this project, assuming you can get one. Then maybe someone can help you here.
Did this come with any documentation? Is there a schematic (circuit diagram) in it?
I see you've shopped this question around to several other forums. Did you get any answers on any of them?
And where did you get the information to put those components (the "mod") in that first drawing? Surely someone must have figured out how the controller works and how and where to tap into it.
Yeah just started posting it today. Here is the strip I purchased **broken link removed** and this is where I got the info for the music sync YouTube - Music LED Light Box Walkthrough
Using that controller model #, I think I found a page on it. Unfortunately, this is a Google translation of a Hong Kong distributor's web page. And of course there's like zero information on the controller. (Well, there's some totally bogus info: "Input voltage: DC12V; Output voltage:18A". WTF???)
I've tried to track down other made-in-China stuff like this, and have never had any luck, even after spending hours and hours chasing down links through Google, using their translation service, and hunting for datasheets. So far as I can tell, most of this crap just isn't documented online, like 99% of chips from "legitimate" manufacturers (TI, Fairchild, etc.) are. Hell, I can get datasheets for obsolete 74xxx chips made in the 1970s, but nothing at all on these little mass-produced Xmas light controllers and such.
I love ambition but the YouTube video is doing something much more simple than what you seem to be planning. He is sending some power to a single white LED based on what comes out of his audio feed... something that could be done just as easily, if you wanted to, by placing LEDs directly into your speaker terminals (+ / red and - / black) - then you'd soon get the LEDs flashing to the music... you might well fry a few LEDs at higher volumes or with different amplifiers, but you can place resistors in there easily enough once you figure out the limits (by guessing, I mean... that's what I did, I'm sure there's a more 'science' way to do it)... but start out at low volume. I never broke anything important (like my amplifier or speakers) by trying this out - but others more knowledgeable might scream at me.
What you're actually thinking of is connecting an audio source straight to an RGB LED controller... but what are your expectations from this? Do you expect the LEDs to light up at different intensities of white, i.e. R, G, and B will all get the signal from your audio input, or are you actually thinking of getting the LED strip to do really funky stuff based on what the music is? By that, I mean different colours for different frequencies, cool chasing patterns (seems your LED strip is quite advanced) etc.? I can't see how it ever would do anything smart like that with just the bits you have shown and what is in the YouTube video.
I do hope you get somewhere with this, as I would love to see the results, but I do not think that replacing the single white LED the guy is using in the YouTube video with your RGB LED controller board is going to get very far... it seems a whole lot more complicated, to me... it seems, to me, that you might have to end up writing your own stuff with a micro-controller.
Seems like the only real hope of doing something complex and scintillating with the LED strips would be to somehow reverse-engineer the controller chip, find out what it's up to and what inputs it has. Probably not difficult to do, given a sample unit, a workbench and a couple hours' work.
The guy in the video simply copied many of the WRONG circuits on Instructables designed by people who know nothing about electronics:
1) The audio feed goes directly to the base-emitter diode of the TIP31 power transistor so the music source and/or the base-emitter junction will blow up because a current-limiting resistor is missing.
2) The max allowed negative base-emitter voltage for a TIP31 power transistor is only 5V. If the music source is from an amplifier that has an output higher than 1.6W into 8 ohms then the base-emitter will be destroyed because a diode and resistor are missing.
Thx guys I know it seems a bit complicated. The audio source won't be music it will be an instrument for example a piano or drum pad sampler. The plan is for the LED to react to what ever is being played on the instrument. The controller will simply be used to change the colors of the strip. Otherwise I could do go direct to the strip without the controller but then I will lose all the features of the RGB strip so since I have them I want to try and use them.
What you are getting at here seems to be a color organ. A color organ circuit would respond to the frequencies of the audio in using the LED lights. For example Bass, Mid Range and Treble could for example drive Red, Green and Blue LEDs. What you will not get easily is all the other effects provided by the controller. The controller you have is not designed for audio in. That is not to say it could not be hacked but doing that less a good defined schematic would not be easy. I would suggest you try a Google of "Color Organ" and "Color Organ Circuit".
Thx guys I know it seems a bit complicated. The audio source won't be music it will be an instrument for example a piano or drum pad sampler. The plan is for the LED to react to what ever is being played on the instrument. The controller will simply be used to change the colors of the strip. Otherwise I could do go direct to the strip without the controller but then I will lose all the features of the RGB strip so since I have them I want to try and use them.
I genuinely do not see how you will tie the two together here. Starting from scratch would, likely, be infinitely easier. You can power and control the RGB LED from your own circuit and you can then know that you have it doing exactly what you want when certain things happen with your instruments. If you're a beginner then this might seem daunting (it did to me) but it's a better learning experience than unsuccessfully hacking away at an existing product and trying to force it to do something it wasn't designed to... and half-heartedly at that.
When you say you want to use the instrument to force reactions then I'm guessing you're meaning intensity - i.e. flashing, dim and bright, depending on what you're doing on the instrument. If that's the case then it will be hard because the RGB controller will be using PWM to light the LEDs (if it can do colours aside from simple red, green and blue, which it will), so won't the RGB controller itself be in complete control of the intensity of each LED?
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