Hello,

I don't know if its because I'm getting old or not but I cannot hear those beepers more than 15 feet away. So I decided to make one I can hear from 100.

I have been testing piezo speakers with a 'max output' of 50-90db. Everything from PC speakers to PWM arduino buzzers, nothing was getting into the actual db range. So I looked around my house and found something sufficient. The piezo element I am using has an output of 120!

The overall buzzer is larger but thats the point, I can hear this puppy from scores of meters. 

The original device was a cheap magnetic window alarm that takes 2 AAA batteries. My first thought process was to just use the variac in the device in combination with one of the normal piezo elements. But this did not work well and produces very tiny chirps. I do not have an occiliscope but the chirps sound like betaflight is not creating square sine waves for it to make tones at any hertz rating. I am too lazy to break out my breadboard to fiddle w/ it to get it as tiny as possible. 

The method I used was to was to send the buzzer HIGH signals to the original alarm controller that generates the nasty alarm tone with an onboard IC. On the alarm controller I removed the magnetic switch and bridged the pads between one end of the switch and the resistor thats sending a constant LOW signal when the switch is "activated"(magnet next to it). After that you need to supply 5v to the board through the buzzer circuit on your FC. This is done with the GRND and BUZ+ pins. The signal wire from the bridged pads will need to be connected to BUZ-. If you use GRND from a seprate circuit(LED strip ground/CRNT sensor ground) then the board you supply voltage too wont be able to pull enough voltage over the resistor to simulator a HIGH signal and your buzzer wont work. To save a teeny space I removed the original SIP switch and bridged the board to on.  Total size: W X 21mm L X 21mm H 15mm. Do not know the weight. 

I did reduce its size to be able to fit on the back of the quadcopter with out interrupting anything. Its wrapped nicely in my favorite thing ever, black tape(not the sound part). 

Nice hack Harold!

I like it!  Just wish it was a little smaller.  Great idea though, being older I feel your pain....

Looks like a nice idea even if a little on the large side. It would be great if you could post a picture showing it's actual mounted location in the quad because I don't see it in the video or in the last picture.

Briliant! Great hack for sure!
My hearing does well and there are still times the quad is behind, upsidedown, inside of a bush or tall grass and it still becomes dificult to hear.

On a side note, I wonder what the birds will think?!

Thank you guys very much for your replies!

I cant wait to go buzzing around the field and watching heads turn. It will be a good bird deterrent I think. 

I updated my original post with pictures of where I mounted it and how chunky it looks. Thankfully my VTX is micro(had to replace my large one) and provides plenty of space for me.


I will do some testing to see how much juice this guy pulls as opposed to the regular piezo elements.

Just make sure you don't power the quad up in your house early morning haha
I think we should all go GPS now

ehhhhhhh????????????????? whatchya say???????????????????   All kidding aside, that's a great feature to have for us old guys who spend large amounts of time looking for a lost quad.....and finally hear it when we are within 15 feet of it.  Well done!

I was so excited to test it on lunch today. I could not help but giggle so much.

I was about 50 meters away when I triggered the BawlsBuzzer and I could hear it over the prop noise at full throttle. I was having so much fun sounding like a chirping bird around the trees!

It was great, and HIGHLY audible.

(16-Jul-2018, 09:14 PM)HaroldBawls Wrote: I was so excited to test it on lunch today. I could not help but giggle so much.

I was about 50 meters away when I triggered the BawlsBuzzer and I could hear it over the prop noise at full throttle. I was having so much fun sounding like a chirping bird around the trees!

It was great, and HIGHLY audible.

That "sounds" like success to me!
Great job! The BawlsBuzzer would be a great product name

(17-Jul-2018, 03:53 PM)Drone0fPrey Wrote: That "sounds" like success to me!
Great job! The BawlsBuzzer would be a great product name

I love using alliterations for naming things!