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By sideswipe2674
#182525
i ordered a Sparkfun Sound Detector because of the binary gate.

What I'm trying to do:
1. I want to have the binary gate emit light from a 1 watt LED, when it picks up sound.

My Problems:
1. By default (not connected to microcontroller), the sound detector turns on the LED light and keeps it on until it picks up a sound, causing an interrupt. I'd like to have the light stay off and emit light when sound is picked up. (The opposite of what it is doing now)

*Do i have a defective product?
*Can I change this on my Arduino?

2. When the light is being emitted, it's not at it's highest potential. It's really dim compared to connecting the led to ground + 100k resistor circuit.

Any help would be appreciated. I am new to electronics, so feel free to talk to me like I'm a 3 year old.

Thanks.
By lights0123
#182645
I (think) I can answer number 2. The thing is, this product isn't meant to provide power (I think) to anything. It's meant to be measured. If you have a transistor, you can do:
Image (just use like a 2N3904 or something like that)
User avatar
By Ross Robotics
#182653
sideswipe2674 wrote:i ordered a Sparkfun Sound Detector because of the binary gate.

What I'm trying to do:
1. I want to have the binary gate emit light from a 1 watt LED, when it picks up sound.
As stated, the Detector cannot supply enough power to the LED to light it where it's supposed to be.
My Problems:
1. By default (not connected to microcontroller), the sound detector turns on the LED light and keeps it on until it picks up a sound, causing an interrupt. I'd like to have the light stay off and emit light when sound is picked up. (The opposite of what it is doing now)
This is rather simple to do if you know how to search Google.
*Can I change this on my Arduino?
Yep, you can write code to see the signal coming from the detector and then do something when it does.