Simple Analog Signal Meter

I bought a couple of these signal meters from Maplin a few months ago and today I found some time to try them on an an arduino.

Maplin sell these for £4 each, which is probably quite expensive for what they really are, given the cheap plastic material and the overall quality: just to give you an idea: the transparent front cover is attached to the rest of the unit with a piece of tape…

Still, if you want to add a simple meter on your arduino, without messing around with lcds and their libraries, this is by far the easiest way.

In my test, I simply used a potentiometer and I attached the meter like this:

Simple Analog Signal Meter
Simple Analog Signal Meter

(btw, the battery underneath the meter has just a “supporting” role)

Here is a simplified version of Tom Igoe’s “AnalogueWriteMega.pde” example, that comes with Arduino 0017:

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const int thisPin = 5;
 
void setup() {
  pinMode(thisPin, OUTPUT); 
}
 
void loop() {
  for (int x = 0; x < 255; x++) {
    analogWrite(thisPin, x);
    delay(50);
  } 
 
  for (int x = 255; x >= 0; x--) {
    analogWrite(thisPin, x);
    delay(50);
  } 
 
  delay(100);
}

… and here is a video of how it works (apologies for the poor quality):

Simple Signal Meter from Arkadian.Eu on Vimeo.