phonic intermittance

i am having problems building a device to interupt a high voltage flow of electricity. i initialy tried to use an optocoupler, which i hoped would respond to an audio current as input - interupting the high voltage flow as the frequency of the audio current increeses and dwindles.

however the optocoupler did not respond with any variation. it was simply on/of in responce to a complete cercuit on the input - regrdless of any current in the input cercuit.

alternatively i am looking at this sound operted switch

but can not understand which components i should buy.

basicaly what i want to do is have sound (as electricity) produce quantitive variation in light (rather than sound).

many thnks for any help anyone could give.

benjamin.

switch

Are you after a change in intensity roughly corresponding to overall volume or do you want the light level to linearly vary with the instantaneous audio voltage? Basically what I am asking is do you want somthing similar to a set of disco lights that flash in sympathy with the bass mid and trebble or are you planning to demodulate the light back to sound?

Do you have a preferance for the type of lamp? How bright do you need it to be?

The thermal time constant of a typicall 100watt incandescent bulb will limit the frequency response above a few hertz. The voltage to light transfer characteristic of lamps is usually not linear, incandescent bulbs change resistance a lot with temperature, flourescents and neon's need to reach a strike voltage to go from on to off.

Bob