Do you know what is Tengu? It is known as a toy which responds to music sounds and animates along with it. Tengu analyses sound and according to it’s loudness or other parameters it changes faces made of LEDs or other imaging device. Alex inspired by original Crispin Jones Tengu have decided to build one on his breadboard. He used a LED matrix for displaying face.

Tengu heart is an Atmega48 microcontroller running at 10MHz speed. Sound sensor is based on electret microphone from old mobile phone and LM386 operation amplifier. Sound is sensed on AVR ADC input and according to its level the face is updated on LED matrix. Simple and fun. Want to build one – project files are available.