Silver award: design and build a disco light

How do the lights and sound at a nightclub coordinate together? The lights appear to flash in time to the beat, and change colour with the pattern of the sound. How is the signal from a sound source such as a CD player or DJ deck converted into a pattern of lights? In this project, students will design and build their own model disco light unit.

A silver Crest award involves 30 hours of independent project work.  Students will first investigate the signal that comes from a sound source using an oscilloscope, and measure the maximum voltage and current output from the sound source. They can then investigate what sort of lights can be run from these signal values. They can design and build an amplifier circuit if needed.

Students can investigate:

What happens when you put more than one light in series?

What about when you put them in parallel?

Does the frequency of the signal make a difference to how the lights work?

Do they work best at low or high frequency?