Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

OK from your picture it's an Ali/fleabay piezo buzzer/beeper, which is a piezo-disc with built-in oscillator. It already has an inductor and 2SC1623-L6 transistor, two resistors inside. Attached pic is one I took apart.
*So nothing can be done to make it much louder, you have to go bigger in size.
Operating Voltage: 3-24VDC, 10mA, Frequency 3,900±500Hz, 95dB
Drive Method: Drive Circuit Built in
B072HRZXLG TMOEC piezo buzzer HYDZ2312

You can also get just the piezo disc, some with two-wires or three-wires (needed for the self-oscillating type) and drive it with pulses from the Arduino. Junk smoke detector ones are best I find, for loud alarms because they have a huge disc.

So i just now found out that with even 5 volts on it, it's loud as all hell!!!

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

OK so with this new revelation about the speaker only needing a much smaller dc voltage to make a very loud sound, i'm thinking a 12v regulator connected to the Arduino's Vin then power the sensor off the +5 pin on the Arduino, rely on internal VRef for sensor readings, then just hook that speaker to a digital out pin and bring it high if and when i need the alarm. That simplifies my design by a lot and simplicity breeds reliability!

[eccerr0r]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

That changes things now does it...

I was playing with one of my piezo buzzers with built in oscillator and it was quite flaky, probably because it's cracked. But it was modulating kind of funny until I noticed I had my finger on and off the hole the sound comes out of the case...

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

My question is ... is there anything I can do to lower the heat output from the regulator? I've got a decent heat sync on it (three times the size of the regulator itself) and the heat sync gets so hot that you can't touch it for more than a second or so ... I'm not OK with my project wasting energy like this.

Thank You for any info you can offer,

I use these boards before and they work very well and you do not need a heat sink on them


http://www.futurlec.com/Mini_Power.shtml

I know that the input for this chip is 12 volts and drop down 5 volts

But the IC chip that is used comes in different flavors if I remember right there is a 15 volt version of it

[eccerr0r]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

It's surprising how loud these piezo buzzers can get... The flaky one I have is only a about 1cm in diameter.

I have another piezo buzzer from an expired CO alarm with a 4cm piezo element. This necessarily is also really loud, but even that 1cm one is quite piercing.

I have one apparently raw transducer that I never could get much volume from, makes me want to double check it's not got an oscillator in it.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

It's surprising how loud these piezo buzzers can get... The flaky one I have is only a about 1cm in diameter.

I have another piezo buzzer from an expired CO alarm with a 4cm piezo element. This necessarily is also really loud, but even that 1cm one is quite piercing.

I have one apparently raw transducer that I never could get much volume from, makes me want to double check it's not got an oscillator in it.

Loved the story about unknowingly covering the audio output hole ... brilliant! lol

I've noticed piezo's do really well when they can be fastened flat against any kind of hard material ... which will act as an amplifier for the sound waves. It's not uncommon to see just the disc secured to the chassis of some device ... the chassis at that point becomes a speaker... the technology is stupidly simple yet their application is vast and potent.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

These buck converter ICs ... they all seem to claim that they switch at some frequency ... are these things PWM devices?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Voltage Regulators and Heat Issues

Yes, all switch mode power supplies use some sort of PWM to regulate.