A round display is being used to simulate the look and movement of an analogue VU (volume units) meter in a project built around an ESP32 microcontroller.
The ESP32 is used to read an audio input and drive the displays, with the code created for the project simulating the way a real meter operates, including damping and variable sweep rates.
The display used is a GC9A01 round type, which has the right form factor for creating the look of a classic round VU meter.
The flexibility of the round display means it would be possible to change the dials to another look, or even a totally different kind of readout, at will.
VU meters were historically used for indicating the instantaneous level of audio output, with the choppy refresh rate of the simulated VU meter demonstrated no obstacle to its doing the same job.
