Inline Overload Indicator

[karbomusic]

I built this inline volt/ammeter back in may where the indicator runs off a separate power supply for accuracy. After verifying its accuracy to within a couple milliamps/millivolts or less, it has worked out wonderfully. It's actually now a near permanent fixture on my pedal board:



Which leads me to my question... I'd like to have an overload indicator (for the audio signal) that I could insert in various injection points on my pedal board etc. for testing. IOW, when designing circuits/pedals which end up in series and I want to be able to place this between pedal 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 etc. just so I can easily test these junctions and confirm if I'm overloading an input. Maybe, I have a circuit that when tested on the bread board, I know it has 1.8 volts of headroom before the op amp starts clipping and this would be a way to check the pedal board when configuring stuff so I know what ceiling is where when multiple pedals or gain stages or involved. Not a permanent fixture, just a hand test tool.

Translation: A led clip indicator with an adjustable clip level in volts that I can easily change since different places I'm testing may have different ceilings. I know I could find a way to just do this with a meter but the idea was if not too involved it might be a super handy tool for checking gain structure across multiple pedals. Silly or worthwhile and doable?

[merlinb]

Since the clip level won't always be known, what you want is a level meter. This comes up very often on the forum. Search for LM3916.
You could easily have 10 LEDs, each marked off with the corresponding peak voltage. Otherwise a peak detector and a digital or analog voltmeter could work...

[karbomusic]

Thanks Merlin, I'll go that route then since it makes the most sense and aligns perfectly with some of what I was already thinking in the background. I'll order a few of those if I don't already have some lying around.

Thanks!

[merlinb]

By the way, where did you get your cool volt/amp meter? And how much did it cost?