A room with a VU

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

I've always loved 'Magic Eye' fluorescent VU tubes, and I've always wanted to make a VU meter with them.
Well, I've finally finished what I set out to achieve...a 3 channel Magic Eye VU meter. Left, Right and Centre channels for my home AV amp. I didn't bother with a 5 channel project as the rear channels aren't as active as the front three.
It was tricky, as I wanted the enclosure to be fairly slim, so cramming in all the electronics was a challenge...but it turned out well.
Features are...3 channels. Chinese components/tubes. 12v external power supply (2 amp). 5v supply for the remote power on/standby (usb). The tube heaters are wired to a 6v buck converter, and the anodes are wired to a 250v DC switching supply...all contained inside the box.











In order to drive the display from my amp, I made a buffer amp based on TDA1308 chips with enough gain to add a 4th output which is a mix of all three inputs to drive my spectrum analyser.



Parts...
Magic Eye kit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000377336464.html...
Magic Eye kit with DC supply: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000378766296.html...
TDA1308 buffer: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32989513577.html?s...
Heater PSU: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32853352216.html?s...

[Morningside]

I love Magic Eyes. I love the warm glow and heat of values (tubes).