Thanks, I'm happy you found it useful to build your own version. Cheers, Jake

Great to hear it was useful. Cheers, Jake

Thanks, I'm happy to hear you found it useful.

Thanks! I'm happy you found it useful.

Thanks 👍

This is designed to have a dual potentiometer in front where you can adjust the level. Use something like 100k.

Common ground will work just fine for a stereo version. Cheers, Jake

Thanks, yeah I think these meters would look great in a tube pre-amp and you should be able to power them using a filament supply winding. I do have a few bags of the crystallized tinning powder you mix with warm water and it works well, but these days I mostly just give the board a quick spray with a conformal coating if I'm going to use it long term. I'll probably do a quick follow up video with a final schematic and board design. Cheers - Jake.

You have the right idea, I'd never recommend using a ceramic capacitor for coupling in an actual audio circuit. They are microphonic, not stable with temperature and also changes value based on bias voltage. However while this circuit does take an audio input, it's not really an audio circuit, a bit added distortion from a ceramic capacitor will not have any effect here.

Thanks, yes you can do that, or even easier as the circuit is high input impedance going into the positive input of the first opamp, and assuming your source is reasonably low output impedance, you can just use a couple of resistors before C1 to mix the two channels together, e.g. 100k+ in value and then adjust R1 if needed (if you lose too much gain). Cheers, Jake

yeah, you got the right idea, using a comparator or an opamp with high gain would work, but you might want to add something like charging up a capacitor to add a peak hold kinda effect so it will be more visible once the peak point is reached. Another option would be using a tiny 8 pin microcontroller with an A/D input, then you can just write code to make it behave any way you prefer. Cheers, Jake

@@TheStuffMade Ι've managed to put a peak detector circuit with a comparator on a breadboard and after messing a bit with the resistor values it works okay. I've also breadboarded your circuit and was wondering what changes it would require in order to display the actual VU scale, meaning accepting larger voltages and have a 0 mark at about 1.2Vrms..I suspect since the second stage is a non-inverting configuration and the gain is inherently larger than 1 I would probably need to use a resistor from the (+) terminal to ground to form a voltage divider of the incoming signal.This way the circuit could accurately display VU values as they are with an attenuated input since the incoming signal will be much larger. From what I understand you designed this circuit to accept a signal roughly 10 times less than the actual VU value right? So, for the meter to display +4 VU it would normally require a 1.95Vrms input signal but with your circuit configuration you can reach this value with 200mV signal, if I understand correctly?

Yes, it's meant to have a potentiometer in front of the VU meter input, 100k should work fine. Cheers, Jake

@@TheStuffMade Can I do the same with tl072? Can I swap the chip?

LM385D as he showed in charts , it is a two channel op amp if i say it correctly! i am not a pro

@@ariaghobadi5409LM358 ore LM385 witch?

This design is for line level, if you have a pre-out or use separate pro and power amps, then you can use the signal before the power amp. Otherwise it doesn't matter if you have a 1,000W amp, you can use a resistor divider to get the correct voltage level as it's high input impedance. Perhaps a couple of resistors and a pot to finetune. Just be careful if your amp is class-D or some other bridged output configuration then you need a floating power supply (e.g. separate transformers) for each channel. Cheers, Jake

@@TheStuffMade ahh.. so iy means i just connect it to pre-amp control before amplifier.. kkk thankyou so much brother

Yow bro Good day.. i need some help about Vu driver... yesterday i was searching vu driver layout for my diy.. and finaly i found 1 layout.. but it takes many days or months cuz i need to fabricate.. so i try searching VU driver in online selling.. and i found 1, and it says i should connect the input vu driver to amplifier output with 2 resistor series each channel left and right.. so my problem is im so confused about this circuit.. if i will work if ill try to connect this to my pre-out.. even says i should connect to speaker output.. i cant put some link where i found the driver but ill try another ways..

DC 12V VU Meter Driver Board Audio Power Amplifier Level Meter Drive Module

Good info, thanks, that's very good uniform light for an LED and nice warm color. I guess you cracked it open, are they easy to open and close again?

@@TheStuffMade they came in two parts in my occasion which was not a good idea from the sender because the parts where just laying in a bag an the needle could have been damaged. As you figured out correctly they split at the front in the cover with the screwholes and the rest. You can actually see the led if you look past the needle coil. Its a yellow square

@@davida.2182 That's unfortunate, but good luck they didn't get damaged, I was thinking about taking a knife and see if I could break one open "for science" but in the end I opted against it as I need both of them for a project. Anyway it's good to know they use an LED, that should last a lot longer than any incandescent bulb.

@@TheStuffMade its not really that spectacular or interesting or useful but just a matter of manufacturing o guess.

Just a noob question: if I want the audio signal to pass "through" the vu meter and then send it to another audio unit, I have to convert the virtual ground in an actual audio ground?

For me, (on breadboard) scheme working better bypassing 2nd OPA and using 2 red leds instead of 1n4148's

The 2nd part of the opamp functions as both gain and a buffer to drive the meter. One of my requirements is that it must be able to do full scale with just 100mV signal as I'll have a pot for adjustment before the driver circuit.

I have and at 12V it's 50mA... not bad really.

This is only hobby, I don't provide any services or have anything for sale. Cheers, Jake

No, it needs something like +5-12V to drive the op-amps and the lights.

@@TheStuffMade and the 6v 12v thing dous it works on 5v usb port of my tv?

@@TheStuffMade and do i need the meter only or the mainbord too?