Arduino CAVA VU Meter

VU Meter for Arduino using CAVA (Console-based Audio Visualizer for Alsa) and NeoPixel LED strip.

Requirements

Note

This project is desenvolved and tested on a Linux based system. It may not work on other systems.

• Arduino (or compatible board)
• NeoPixel LED strip (WS2812B or similar)
• Adafruit NeoPixel library
• Linux based system (for the cava_out.sh script)
• CAVA (Console-based Audio Visualizer for Alsa)

Configuration

Arduino

Change the Arduino Neopixel LED strip pin in the cava-vu-meter.ino file.

// Define the pins for the neopixels
const int stripPin[NUM_STRIPS] = {3, 5, 6};

Change the number of LEDs, brightness level and number of strips in the cava-vu-meter.ino file.

#define NUM_STRIPS 1            // Number of neopixel strips
#define NUM_PIXELS 60           // Number of neopixels per strip
#define BRIGHTNESS_LEVEL 5      // Brightness level for the neopixels

Change the mode of the VU Meter in the cava-vu-meter.ino file.

// Define the visualizer modes
#define MODE_SINGLE_DOT 0
#define MODE_FULL_STRIP 1
#define MODE_DECAY      2

VU Meter color mode in the cava-vu-meter.ino file.

// Define the color modes
#define COLOR_MODE_PURPLE 0
#define COLOR_MODE_RGY    1

CAVA

Strip quantity and LED quantity in the config file.

[general]
# Strip quantity
bars = 1

[output]
# LED quantity
ascii_max_range = 60

Important

If the serial port is different from /dev/ttyUSB0, you can change it to another one in the cava_out.sh file.

Credits

Special thanks to Sahaj Sarup for MatrixVizCava project inspiration and the cava_out.sh script.