How To Make A Sound Level Meter Using SPARKvue

Did you know you can make your own sound level meter in the free app, SPARKvue from PASCO Scientific?

In this short video, Dr. Nichola Swann will show you how to along with a little bit of sense and control programming and make it do a coded output. Make sure to watch until the end for extra tips!

SPARKvue software allows you to graph and analyse your data manually, connect to sensors and choose measurements and displays, use the wireless feature for remote data logging, and custom-create experiments.

Video transcript below:

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Hi, I’m Nichola from LaBLiFe

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And in this video I’m going to show you
how to make your own sound level meter

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in the free app SPARKvue

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and we’re also going to do a little bit
of sense and control programing

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and make it do like a coded output.

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To tell you whether your sound sample’s

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being too noisy
or whether it’s being nice and quiet.

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Okay, so this is an activity
that everyone can try at home.

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If you’ve got a device
that’s either an iPad or an Android tablet

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or a Chromebook, you can just head
straight to your app store

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type in SPARKvue,
which is spelled S, P, A, R, K, V, U, E

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you will be able to download
it completely for free

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if you’re using a PC or a laptop,
you can get it for a free 60 day

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trial from the PASCO website
if you head to pasco.com

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and then you’ll be able to download it
from the downloads page.

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Okay.

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So when you open up the software,
it is going to look like this.

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So no matter what platform
you’re on, whether on a tablet

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or whether you’re on your PC,
it’s always going to look the same.

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So what we want to do
first off is click on sensor data

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and this is going to look
for the onboard sensors in your device

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if you haven’t got any of the PASCO
sensors connected to it.

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So you can see it, can see the microphone.

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So we want to toggle this on

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press the toggle button.
when you want to make a sound level.

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So this is measured in decibel
sound intensities in SI Units.

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So it’s not as intrinsically obvious
that, you know, it’s a sound measurement.

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So we’re going to go for sound level
and we want to click on graph.

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So this
is going to pull up a graph of sound level

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on the Y axis measured in decibels
against time on the X.

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So I’m just going
to want to start recording

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and then we can measure the sound level
in the room, ambient sound.

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So when I’m quiet,
it looks like it’s about 28 and then when

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I’m making noise,
it goes up to about 42

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if I can make a lot of noise.

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Oh, I should explain that.

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I brought one of my son’s toys with me
so I could make some noise

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and I just carry this around with me
everywhere, right.

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So it looked like the maximum kind of noise
we were getting.

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That was about 48, right

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This gives me a good idea
of where to place that threshold.

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So if we now come to

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the coding tab down here in the bottom
toolbar, click this code.

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So what we want to do is

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if you come to the top logic bank,
I’m going to want this IF DO function,

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I’m going to click
and drag this into the workspace.

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So then if you’ve seen this programing
language before, it’s called Google Blockly

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and it’s essentially
like little jigsaw pieces.

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You don’t have to remember any syntax
or anything like that.

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It’s a really nice introduction
to programing.

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If you try and put one piece
next to another and it doesn’t go,

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then it won’t let you do it.

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So in other ways you can’t really get bugs
in the programing.

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It just won’t let us fit them together.

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So if… I need a comparator block

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from the logic section, I’m
going to click and drag this block here.

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If my value of, come to hardware
to find the sound level

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click and drag this block into here.

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If my value of sound level measured

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in decibels goes above

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come back to the graph by clicking here.

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goes above, let’s say,
this is when I was talking

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go for 46 hey

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Come back to the code.

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I need some digits to put in here.

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So I’m going to come to the math time

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click and drag digits from up here.

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What did I say, 40… 46

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and it goes above 46.

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I want you to…
then if we come to code output down

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here,
I want to create a text output field.

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This is going to be the warning
that it displays to the user.

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So I’m going to call it WARNING and

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click okay.

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In the text output called warning,
I want it to

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say that you’re being

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too loud. (sad face)

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otherwise or else

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if that condition isn’t met
if we’re being quieter than that,

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I need an ELSE function.

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So I’m going to click
on the cog wheel in the IF DO function

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and I click and I drag that out and plonk it under the IF

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And that brings me up
another rung to this block.

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So ELSE, come back to code output

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and text output warning
and then want it to say

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“nice and quiet”

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smiley face.

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Now we need to put this in a loop

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because at the minute
it’s just going to test it once

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and we want it to test over
and over and over again.

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So I click on loop and I want this repeat
while block

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I’m going to plonk that around the whole thing
and come back up to logic

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and repeat while true.

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Now from a coding perspective,
we are sorted, so we need to go back to

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the experiment page.

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We want a new display.

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So I’m going to click on this new page up
here.

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I want two displays on the page.

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I’m going to go for this landscape
option here.

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And the top one, I’m going
to click on this 1.23 for a digits display.

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I want it to give me the actual value
of sound level.

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And then in the one underneath,

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I am going to click the 1.23 again
for another digital display.

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But in this one,
I want it to give me my warning.

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So here I have to click on user entered

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and then click on warning

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drag it back to the center

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right.

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And then I’ll have to do
is just press start and see what happens.

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So this is running our code
for us in the background.

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So the minute would be nice and quiet

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and then if I make a lot of noise,
it should set the alarm off.

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So I might need it to be… I might need the threshold
to be a little bit lower.

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So going to come back to the code in page,
I’m going to set this

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to 42

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Come back to the

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experiment page and press start again.

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So I still being nice and quiet.

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Maybe I could have done with
a constant noise

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rather than a intermittent one
and I should explain what this is.

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Actually, this is my son’s instrument
that I’ve brought with me

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He’s only 18 month old.

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And so, yeah, it’s
just a way of me making a lot of noise.

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And so, yes,
this has been an instructional video

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on how to make your own
some level meter in SPARKvue

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I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

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I hope you can make use of it
either in your classroom

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as a way of manipulating your students
to stay quiet for you.

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And it’s also just a nice way
of showing the students how they can do

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a little bit of coding, a little bit
of programing in a nice, accessible way.

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It doesn’t have to be
super scary from the get-go,

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so yeah, I hope
it’s been useful and see you next time.

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