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Can I use a relay to wire lights to a speaker?

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latlog7

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I want to wire some LED strips to the bass speakers in my car so that they will light up to the music. I reason that you cant wire the lights in parallel with the speaker because the lights can blow with too much volume. I also read that it will trash the sound quality. ?

Anyway, my plan is to use a relay on the positive side of the speaker to be a switch for the lights. This way, when the speakers get power, the switch in the relay will close, and the lights can get power as a separate system, that way sound quality is unaffected. Does this plan sound good?

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It won't have nothing to do with sound quality. And if you have a crazy amount of led it can consume actual power, but Im sure you won't use more then 10w. And yes it can blow them if you have a huge amp that the output voltage are really high.

 
I want to wire some LED strips to the bass speakers in my car so that they will light up to the music. I reason that you cant wire the lights in parallel with the speaker because the lights can blow with too much volume. I also read that it will trash the sound quality. ?
Anyway, my plan is to use a relay on the positive side of the speaker to be a switch for the lights. This way, when the speakers get power, the switch in the relay will close, and the lights can get power as a separate system, that way sound quality is unaffected. Does this plan sound good?
Click to expand...
If you don't understand the difference between AC and DC you have absolutely no business attempting to install anything. There are kits to make LEDs flash to your music, you'd do best to buy one of those and have it installed by a competent professional.

 
If you don't understand the difference between AC and DC you have absolutely no business attempting to install anything.
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Okay, but I do understand the difference between AC and DC; just hear me out. So when the speaker plays, the current will be alternating very fast correct? Now if we analyze one sinusoidal cycle of the AC current, we can see that there are times when there is instantaneously no current. In theory, assuming an ideal relay with instantaneous response, this will cause the relay switch to be open when there is 'no' current. But for an actual relay, there will still be this rapid on/off, but it should be offset by a minuscule amount of time. However, the rate should still be the same. Now the human eye cannot interpret changes much faster than somewhere around 60 or 100Hz, so, (unless im using like 20Hz speakers) the lights should appear to be constant with the bass speakers.

But I just wanted to know if I was overlooking something. What exactly is wrong with this idea?

 
Okay, but I do understand the difference between AC and DC; just hear me out. So when the speaker plays, the current will be alternating very fast correct? Now if we analyze one sinusoidal cycle of the AC current, we can see that there are times when there is instantaneously no current. In theory, assuming an ideal relay with instantaneous response, this will cause the relay switch to be open when there is 'no' current. But for an actual relay, there will still be this rapid on/off, but it should be offset by a minuscule amount of time. However, the rate should still be the same. Now the human eye cannot interpret changes much faster than somewhere around 60 or 100Hz, so, (unless im using like 20Hz speakers) the lights should appear to be constant with the bass speakers.

But I just wanted to know if I was overlooking something. What exactly is wrong with this idea?
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So ignoring the risk to your amp and the lost power, what do you suppose happens when you reverse polarity on the relay? How do you suppose the relay will hang trying to energize 20-80 times per second? Assuming this was even a good idea the correct component to act as a fast switch is a semiconductor (transistor), not something with actual moving parts.

Seriously, they make kits designed to make lights pulse with the beat, or if you want to have lights come on when the sub amp is on just use the rem wire from your head unit on a relay, or simpler still use a toggle switch.

 
Ah youre right! That will definitely be very hard on the mechanical relay and will probably be so fast that the switch is stuck in between open and closed lol. Thank you so much for the help!

I want to use the microphone switch kits as a last resort, as they tend to be sensitive to a too wide range of frequencies for me.

Your suggestion of attaching a relay to the rem wire on the head unit sounds more my flavor. Is this rem wire hot when the bass is playing? Or is there a different wire on the head unit that is hot only when the bass is playing?

 
there is such thing as an electronic relay lol... not that its the right option in this situation.

start by looking at how the premade kits handle this with their circuitry and go from there..most likely it wont be worth it to tackle yourself

 
If you don't understand the difference between AC and DC you have absolutely no business attempting to install anything. There are kits to make LEDs flash to your music, you'd do best to buy one of those and have it installed by a competent professional.
Click to expand...
you can use AC to light up the leds as long as voltage doesn't exceed the lights voltage.. and yes the will blink if the signal is correct. lol

 
there is such thing as an electronic relay lol... not that its the right option in this situation.
start by looking at how the premade kits handle this with their circuitry and go from there..most likely it wont be worth it to tackle yourself
Click to expand...
id never use a relay as a high frequc or even low frequency switch. a few transistors will solve that problem. the signal out hte amp is ac and dynamic so it should work fine. lol hell get a lil ****** *** 20x2 amp and bridge it and split the RCS from your higher to power the ******. they are like 10 bucks n ebay. lol

 
If I were going to rig something like that up I'd grab a shock sensor for an alarm and use that to activate the relay that powers the lights, you could dial sensitivity as you like.

 
id never use a relay as a high frequc or even low frequency switch. a few transistors will solve that problem. the signal out hte amp is ac and dynamic so it should work fine. lol hell get a lil ****** *** 20x2 amp and bridge it and split the RCS from your higher to power the ******. they are like 10 bucks n ebay. lol
Click to expand...
did you take over his account or something

 
If I were going to rig something like that up I'd grab a shock sensor for an alarm and use that to activate the relay that powers the lights, you could dial sensitivity as you like.
Click to expand...
kmsl. a simple pair of small aluminum strips on the handles with a lil 10.1 step up transformer.. oh my..

 
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latlog7

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