Hello! Im new to the forums, my name is Shawn. I am 19 years of age and am attending college to be a network tech! In our college we are required to take a introductory class on electricity and cicuitry. I like the class alot, we learn alot of neat stuff. Im looking for some ideas and assistance on this project id like to undertake. Me and my friends want to start making custom LED boards for computer cases. I have this idea that I think is somewhat feasable. Im not absolutely sure how to rig this up but, the idea is, I want a yellow and white panel of LED's to flash to gunfire when you play video games. Pretty neat idea yea? I was thinking about how to do this. Some materials I would need would be a power molex, some vero board, the LED's, the tools to assemble... im lost though to as what I would use to time up the strobing to the gunfire and explosions and stuff... I was thinking there has to be some sort of sound activated switch or something that can operate quickly, like a clap off clap on sort of thing. Then I could just rig up a tiny speaker right by that so when a gunshot went off, it would set off the lights for just a short ammount of time. Any ideas on the top of equipment which I could use to help make this a reality? Some of the issues I can see running into would be random background noise in real life and on the computer speaker setting off the LED's, and the power supply and the molex. Would I need some resistors to cut down on the power flowing into the circuitry on the board I am making? I am assuming I would. How exactly does a power supply distribute electricity, im not sure how a power supply totally functions. Im going to do some research when I get back from work, hopefully when I get back you cool cats will have some suggestions as well!
Thanks!
Shawn