Need a basic help with a small circuit.

[Maheshvs23]

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to make a circuit which would make my LED's glow as per the music beats.
The circuit pretty much helped me and I was successful. But the problem here is that
My LED are not glowing so bright and I hardly see them on full intensity,.
I used a +12V power supply as the input and TIP31C transistor as shown in the ckt diagram.. I guess an op-amp is needed in order to boost up the power of led.
P.S- the LED's I'm using is a 1meter LED strip (LM3258)
And for the help, I need the best way to add a op-amp without messing up my circuit as I already made it on PCB and really look forward to make this circuit work.
Thank You for your time,
Regards,
Mahesh.

[Relayer]

Hello Maheshvs23,
What is the component to the right of the transistor? The one that looks like a nipple.
Regards,
Relayer

[Maheshvs23]

That is a switch.

[Maheshvs23]

That is another switch, which will let us choose if we want the led to stay continously ON or react to the music, as you can see it shorts the path of the transistor.

[Relayer]

Thanks for clearing that up in regards to the bypass switch.
I need to ask, how many LEDs are there in the 1 meter strip? If there are more than say, 5 or 6, and going by your diagram, ALL the LEDs are in series. If they are configured serially, then you're going to need more than a 12 volt PSU to drive them to full brightness. Plus they won't work properly as a VU meter.
You really need to use a dedicated IC to create a VU meter. The LM3915 would do the job nicely, though you won't be able to use the LED strip you have.
Regards,
Relayer

[Maheshvs23]

Well, In the meantime, I found myself another circuit where there wont be any power problem I guess.
Anyways, I am attaching the circuit diagram, I made this one on the breadboard and I dont know why, this too is not working well. The LED's seems to stay ON all the time even when the music is not playing. I only see minor dimming on the beats which is too hard to notice, but it doesn't count since the LED's stay ON all the time. :/

I am using the LED strip which looks like this (See the attached image). It has 54 small LED's per metre.
I also need help with the attached diagram of the circuit which I found on Instructables website. The problem is that I dont know how to connect the LM324N Chip, it looks like i have to attach it upside down( as per the image) and I don't know how to connect the Transistor too as the diagram dosent show which pin goes to ground, the 1st one or the last one as I dont know if its connected straight or inverted (the opposite way). I dont wanna mess with my components so I wont be trying anymore to prevent damage to my components as the Shop (where I get these components) is kinda far from here.
In short, I made the circuit and its still not working, is there anything im doing wrong? (As per the attached ckt diagram)
Thanks for noticing me Senpai :v
Regards,
Mahesh.

[Maheshvs23]

@Relayer
I just noticed that you mentioned "VU" Meter. VU meter is kind of a different thing here. What I want is that my LED's (LED Strip) to Glow(All at once) when Bass drops a.k.a Music beats. I just googled VU meter and those were kinda different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYsL-1NuteM
Here's a link showing the circuit working. I kinda need the same above, But with less number of strips (Hardly 1-2 metres).

[Relayer]

I've made a pin out diagram for you, for the LM324 and the TIP31C Transistor. Click on link below:

http://i.imgur.com/LVdn0SQ.jpg

Going by the picture of your LED strip, the LEDs are configured serially, therefore it will not work as intended.
When LEDs are wired in series, each one needs a specific voltage drop across it.
eg. If one LED requires say 3 volts for full illumination, then you could only drive 4 LEDs at 12 volts. The more LEDs in circuit, the less voltage that can drop across each with a 12 volt supply. So as you add more LEDs to the circuit, the less voltage would be dropped across them, the dimmer they will become.
For any reasonable success of what you're intending, you need to cut each section off and wire them in parallel. Click on link below:

http://i.imgur.com/qrlsTUN.jpg

I hope the above helps.
Regards,
Relayer

[Maheshvs23]

Well, that did help me positioning the Components.
Btw, I made this circuit and still facing some problems.
My LED's seem to continuously glow all the time, and when the music beat plays, it fades a little, and its too hard to notice.
It seems like this circuit is working the opposite way, Led dims(slightly) instead of turning ON on a musical beat.
The instructable page where I got this circuit from is below-
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-str ... /?ALLSTEPS
Please Help :c

[Relayer]

Its possible you may not have it wired correctly. The picture in the link should help you check if you've done it right or not. If it still plays up, you may have damaged the Op-amp (LM324).

http://i.imgur.com/fNFvEaY.jpg

If it still doesn't work correctly, you may have to use the other half of the Op-amp instead, to confirm whether or not its been internally damaged.
Please let me know how you get on.
Good luck!!!
Regards,
Relayer

[Maheshvs23]

Thanks a ton for the effort.
Ill let you know soon, been busy with stuffs lately.