CSU East Bay Color Organ

Light Organ
PHYS 3280  Electronics Final Project
Brandon FG Langdon and Jordan Dudley
CSU East Bay Hayward, CA

Light organs have been in use in discotheques since the early 70s in order to convert sound into a visual display of light. It might sound a bit complicated: converting sound into smaller sounds and then converting that into light. In fact the circuit to build a simple light organ is made up only very rudimentary components: resistors, capacitors, transistors and diodes. Here you can learn a little about each of these components, how they are combined to make the color organ work and get a little insight into the great wealth of information provided in the Physics 3280 Electronics course.

Resistors

These devices do just what their name implies: oppose the flow of electricity. As can be seen in Fig 01 a metal wire terminates inside the material whose properties determine how much electric current can pass. This ability doesn't come without cost and that cost is the resistor heats up. Try to push too much current through them and they burn up with a very unpleasant odor. Resistors can be found anywhere as they are used in almost every device imaginable. They are used to control power entering a device; control brightness of lights or volume of the radio; heaters for 3D printers, flat irons, and the toaster. They come in many different sizes, shapes and strengths. Most commonly as the through hole type as shown in Fig 01. The color bands wrapped around the resistor are one method of determining how much resistance it can provide.

Capacitors

Transistors

Diodes