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Hello! Let me say I am a huge fan of this site and all the very knowledgeable people here, and I am really enjoying the learning process of Arduino. I had a request that should be really simple for an advanced coders such as yourselves, and I have scoured the internet looking for an option that works to no avail. What I am looking for is 2 things really. I am trying to make a crowd noise meter (VU Meter) that can run on a nano utilizing WS2812B neopixel strips. I have found codes that get me close, but nothing seems to get me to 100%. My only requirements are to have it with variable neopixel count with mic input on A5 and output on pin 6. I would love it to have standard VU colors (green, yellow, red) and to have a peak input hang that is adjustable in both hang time and rebound speed.
Project 2 is probably just as easy. I need to set up a nano with a length of up to 2500 pixels. I want some simple color wash / effects that run on a loop.
If there is ANY chance you can help out with this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Hi Aaron,
Having played with a Mic on a pin of the Arduino: you will need a tiny pre-amp to get reasonable/usable values from the Analog to Digital conversion.
This project may be a great start. See also this YouTube video.
As for the 2500 LEDs; you can do it, but you'll need a good power supply - what are the problems you're running into?
Hans, The mic that i have in the setup is an amplified circuit that is attached to a breadboard and wired to the A5 pin of my nano. My lack of skill in the programming is really all that is stopping this project from completing. As for the 2500 strip, The same basic wiring setup functions correctly, its just a matter of needing the programming done for it :)
Hi Aaron,
the Mic; I've heard a lot of complaints of folks using cheap AliExpress versions, can't confirm or deny these problems myself, since I have not (yet) have one 
.
Look at the project link I posted before, since that's already a complete working VU-meter project.
When I played with it, I started with simply dumping the seen values of the pin (A5) to the serial monitor, so I can see what is happening.
After that, if you're satisfied with the sensitivity, I'd start looking into transferring the values to an effect.
As for the 2500 LEDs, in most sketches you'll find a line like this:
DEFINE NUM_LEDS 123
Where "123" is the number of actual LEDs. So in your case you just have to change that to
DEFINE NUM_LEDS 2500
(for my projects anyway, other projects may give this a slightly different instead of "NUM_LEDS")
