Noobie saying hi and seeking guidance.

[Guitar4hire]

Hi everyone my name's Alex.
I wanted to introduce myself as I am obviously new and needing a lot of help.
So I just wanted to at least be proper before I just start leeching for information. haha

Here it goes, So several weeks ago I somehow got the bright idea to try and turn a wall in my new apartment into a giant VU meter with EL Lights.
I quickly learned that the EL panels would be easier. Soon after I realized it would not be that much easier.
Thus I am now bringing it down to LED lights for this project.

The downside is that I still want to cover the wall.
An area approximately 10 feet wide and 3 feet tall.
(I am no way going to try to do a 10 x 10 area just yet.)

So I have very little electronics experience. Besides doing small work on my guitars and redoing the wiring for some boat trailers.
When it comes to circuit boards and parts I am out of my league.

So here are some questions.
1-Is it possible to build this wall sized vu meter with EL panels using LED circuitry?
2-If i just went with LEDs how would I go about making a board to light up a strip of 30-50 LEDs per vertical row?

Sorry for the lengthy intro. I just wanted everyone to understand I am a extremely serious about this project and I want to learn.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

 

[Reloadron]

A good start would be to get familiar with **broken link removed** That would be a foundation for the project. Then using the LM3914 look at some circuits like this.

There are dozens of possibles on what you can drive with it but I would start with a nice simple LED circuit and go from there.

Welcome To The Forums!

Ron

 

[Guitar4hire]

Thanks for the links and the advice.I think I am going to start testing out different led lights so I can kind of work the signal backwards. I think it will make it easier for me to understand what resistors I would need and such.