I need to use an active buzzer for sounding an alarm when any issues arise. I have a passive and an active buzzer, but the documentation was very minimal and only had the dimensions of the buzzer itself. I'm using an Arduino Nano ESP32, but I am also using a bi-directional logic level converter, therefore, I can also use 5V. I am trying to find a high quality buzzer that is loud, have the capabilities of being panel mounted and can work on 3.3V and/or 5V. There are many online, but a lot of buzzers I have found which say '100dB' or anything are from Ebay and have long delivery estimates. I'm in the UK, so it shouldn't be too difficult for fast delivery. Does anyone have any experience with active buzzers? I just want to make sure I'm buying one that is going to be reliable and loud. I'm also looking for the delivery time to be no longer than a week. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Those are not for powering anything, just for signals.
On Mouser you can sort by dB level.
(I don't think mouser separates active & passive buzzers, but technically a "buzzer" should be active and a "transducer" or "speaker" is passive.)
100dB from 3.3 or 5V might be hard to find but I didn't look through everything on Mouser.
I don't trust "eBay specs", or AliExpress, or 23rd-party Amazon suppliers, etc.
You can find very loud active buzzers locally when you look for a motorcycle horn! But they run on 12 volts.. There are very loud 5 volt buzzers. I used one left from an industrial produce that hurt your ears from the other side of our 6,000 foot suite. I don't know name or source.
For sure if he tries to drive it directly from digital pin.
For 100db you need buzzer module or you need to build a driver.
The one I used ran right off a NANO digital pin. No other power. Just two connections on the buzzer.
I run also, but at 3.3V <20mA they are not so loud...
With 5V through transistor much better
I'm using the level shifter so I can power my LCD through the VBUS pin of the Arduino Nano ESP32 without damaging the board, but I'm also using it for the buzzer, as it is bi-directional.
The voltage going in at the low side is 3.3V and my output is ~4.7V, so I just need to try implement a transistor to amplify the audio. However, any time I have tried using transistors with a buzzer, the change of volume isn't much, if anything. I have both 2N2222A and S8050 D331 transistors. I'll grab a sound meter and test if it is any louder.
I'm using this one on a standard Arduino which works very well.
I use it to inform me that the garage gate has been left open. My neighbours called me one day to inform me that a loud beep sound was coming from within my garage. I friendly asked them to go over and close the gate for me. My son had left and forgot to close it.
So I guess it's a kind of loud.
Level shifter is not boost converter, it's made for logical signals that have current next to zero. With buzzer it may work, not work, work badly or get damaged.
With help of transistor you can power your buzzer correctly from VBUS or even from external source like 9V battery.
ps. you could repurpose some old smoke alarm buzzer if you have those lying around.
are there any tutorials? I'm not sure how to drive the buzzer with VBUS with just a transistor without running VBUS through to the arduino, which will damage the board. I'm still new to electronics, so all help is appreciated!
Edit: The datasheet for my buzzer is attached below. as you can see it is pretty minimal, but it says to only run on 5.5V maximum
You will not get 100db out of that tiny buzzer.
Anyway you can try it manually connecting directly to 5V and GND.
I know I won't get 100db out of the buzzer, I made this post to query if anyone had any experience with a loud buzzer in the past, so I know what I'm buying isn't a dud. I don't have any smoke alarms handy, so I'm just trying to purchase a loud buzzer online.
I measured the sound level from around 10cm away and got 80db. I need the buzzer to be loud because the device is diagnostics for a water tank in a factory. If the water tank overflows and the alarm isn't loud enough, the tank will flood the factory floor, which I think has happened a few times..
Also, since it is a magnetic buzzer, it starts producing sound as soon as a DC voltage is applied to it. If I connect it directly to 5V and GND then it would produce a continuous sound, which I cannot use.
I'm using digital pin 5 (GPIO 9) with the buzzer, so I can produce a beeping sound, rather than a continuous sound.
The arduino pin D5 runs through the low side of the level shifter; the high side goes to the buzzer. It seemed to be louder than running through 3.3V
Just to test, what's max of that buzzer.
If it's not enough you need bigger buzzer and preferably higher voltage
Never mind, I wasn't sure that 80dB would be enough for the factory as it is pretty loud with constant machinery running etc, but the frequency alone is enough to be able to hear it from the other side of the factory. That was only the buzzer running off 3.3V too, so I still have a few channels left I could use for anything else that I need to add.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.