Hi,
I am very happy with my Pirate Radio - EXCEPT (there had to be something :), the lights on the VU meter stays most of the time on the lower, green LED, when I play at a sounds level I can stand.
Any ideas on how to tweak the VU meter to reach higher up on the scale and get to see more of the fine yellow, orange, red colors?
Thanks in advance,
Jesper
Somebody else posted this a while back. I saved it for future reference.
You can increase the sensitivity on the Phat Beat VU Meter by doing the following:
cd Pimoroni/pivumeter
nano src/devices/phat-beat.c
Change line 88 to:
int bar = (meter_level * (meter_level / 8) / 131071.0f) * (brightness * (NUM_PIXELS/2));
Recompile the library:
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo reboot
Now your VU meter is more sensitive! Tweak the values to your liking.
I think i ended up with
int bar = (meter_level * (meter_level / 8) / 1200000.0f) * (brightness * (NUM_PIXELS/2));
Great, thank you alphanumeric.
I KNEW there would be someone out there, who had the same urge to see more lights on the Pirate Radio! :)
I will try your suggestion when I get home.
BR,
Jesper
I think it was Scott @scotts who posted it? I had a refernce in my file to the originator of the info but it must have got lost in an edit.
Yeah, at the level I set it I get 3 or 4 LED’s lit. Like you I wanted more. Set your volume to what you normally use then play with that 131071.0f number just before the * (brightness.
If I remember correctly a lower number gets you more LED’s.
It was Scott, found that original thread.
Phat Beat increase VU meter sesitivity - Support - Pimoroni Buccaneers
Ended up with using 131071.0f (wherever THAT came from? :) - works fine with both spoken radio and music - at my volume level.
But of course, now that the VU meters have come to life, it annoys me, that they are in stereo, but I only have a single speaker on my Pirate Radio. Guess, I’ll just have to spring for the “Supplementary Stereophonic* Speaker for Sea Shanty Shenanigans” to make the set complete!
*Yes, Pimoroni does acknowledge, that a single speaker can’t be “Stereophonic” :)
PS: On my old cassette tape deck, the VU meters weren’t controlled by the output volume, but by a (reference levelled) input level. It would be nice if the Pirate Radio VU meters worked from source-levels too.
131071.0f is likely what Scott used for his setup. I have dual speakers on mine. My pHat Beat and Pi are in a wooden subwoofer box. The VU meters are viewable through the speaker cloth. It’s where the sub woofer used to be. You only see them when they are lit up. It was a PC 3 speaker setup that stopped working when the amp died. I just repurposed it.