Università degli Studi di Messina

Master's degree program in

Engineering and Computer Science

A.Y. 2021/22

Embedded Systems

Buzzers

Prof. Francesco Longo

What is a Buzzer?
• An audio signaling device like a beeper or buzzer may be
electromechanical or piezoelectric or mechanical type.

• The main function of this is to convert the signal from audio to sound.

• Generally, it is powered through DC voltage and used in timers, alarm

devices, printers, alarms, computers, etc.

• Based on the various designs, it can generate different sounds like alarm,
music, bell & siren.

Types of Buzzer
A buzzer is available in different types which include the following.
• Piezoelectric
• Electromagnetic
• Mechanical
• Electromechanical
• Magnetic
 Piezoelectric Effect
• Piezoelectric Effect is the ability of certain materials to
generate an electric charge in response to applied
mechanical stress.

• The word Piezoelectric is derived from the Greek piezein,

which means to squeeze or press, and piezo, which is
Greek for “push”.

• One of the unique characteristics of the piezoelectric effect

is that it is reversible, meaning that materials exhibiting
the direct piezoelectric effect (the generation of electricity
when stress is applied) also exhibit the converse
piezoelectric effect (the generation of stress when an
electric field is applied).

• When piezoelectric material is placed under mechanical

stress, a shifting of the positive and negative charge centers
in the material takes place, which then results in an
external electrical field.

• When reversed, an outer electrical field either stretches or

compresses the piezoelectric material.
Piezo Buzzer
• The piezoelectric buzzer uses the piezoelectric effect of the
piezoelectric ceramics and uses the pulse current to drive the
vibration of the metal plate to generate sound.

• Piezoelectric buzzer is mainly composed of multi-resonator,

piezoelectric plate, impedance matcher, resonance box, housing,
etc.

• Some of the piezoelectric buzzers are also equipped with

light-emitting diodes.

• The multi-resonator consists of transistors or integrated circuits.

• When the power supply is switched on (1.5~15V DC operating

voltage), the multi-resonator oscillates and outputs 1.5~2.5kHz
audio signal. The impedance matcher pushes the piezoelectric
plate to generate sound.

• The piezoelectric plate is made of lead zirconate titanate or lead

magnesium niobate piezoelectric ceramic, and silver electrodes
are plated on both sides of the ceramic sheet. After being
polarized and aged, the silver electrodes are bonded together
with brass or stainless steel sheets.
Active Buzzer vs Passive Buzzer
• The passive buzzer is an electromagnetic squeaker used to generate sound signals
of different frequencies.

• The active buzzer is the simplest module to produce a sound of about 2 kHz
The main difference between the active buzzer and the passive buzzer is that the active buzzer
generates sound independently, the user must simply turn it on or off by applying a voltage to the
contacts, because an active buzzer has a built-in oscillating source, so it will generate a sound when
electrified.

A passive buzzer requires a signal source, it does not have such a source so it will not tweet if DC
signals are used; instead, you need to use square waves whose frequency is between 2K and 5K
to drive it.

The active buzzer will produce a louder sound signal than its competitor. The frequency of the
sound emitted by the active buzzer is 2,5 kHz +/- 300 Hz.
The power supply voltage varies from 3.5V to 5V.
Active Buzzer
Connection Schematic & Wiring diagram
First Sketch – Active Buzzer
• The sound produced by the int buzzerPin = 12;
buzzer is not controlled by the
sketch in terms of frequency. void setup() {
pinMode (buzzerPin, OUTPUT);
• So we are not controlling the }
frequency of the sound.
void loop(){
• We're just switching the buzzer digitalWrite (buzzerPin, HIGH);
on and off. delay(500);
digitalWrite (buzzerPin, LOW);
This is OK for some applications delay(500);
• if you just want an alarm to tell }
the user that something is
Producing the sound is not
happening or something is not blocking for your sketch because
happening you can use just one you can just put the pin high.
single tone, maybe switching it.
The buzzer will produce the sound
and then the sketch can go on an
perform other operations.
Changing Frequency of an Active Buzzer
• In this case we are producing a square
wave signal
int buzzer = 7;
• Because the pin is going HIGH and LOW
every 1 ms. void setup(){ pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT
}
We can compute actually the
void loop(){
frequency:
• in the first loop we have 500 Hz
unsigned char i;
• in the second loop we have 250 Hz for(i=0;i<80;i++) {
digitalWrite(buzzer,HIGH);
In the first loop, for 160 ms we are producing a sound
delay(1); digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);
that has a frequency that is a combination between
500Hz and 2300Hz (Buzzer’s frequency), while in the delay(1);
second loop for 400 ms the frequency will be a }
combination between 250Hz and 2300Hz for(i=0;i<100;i++) {
digitalWrite(buzzer,HIGH);
An active buzzer is not meant to be controlled by a delay(2);
not constant Voltage value. digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);
It is built to be used by a constant value which we
delay(2);
can provide for a certain amount of time to produce
the sound and then to be switched off in order to }
stop the sound. }
Basically what we did in the original sketch.
Passive Buzzer
Frequency of a Passive Buzzer
• If we connect instead of the active buzzer a passive one, with the
previously sketch, we can hear a frequency created only by using the
instruction inside the sketch.

• But in this case, in order to produce the sound by using a loop for
changing the value of the pin, we can’t do something else while the sound
is produced.

• The working principle of passive buzzer is using PWM generating audio

to make the air to vibrate.
• Appropriately changed as long as the vibration frequency, it can generate
different sounds.
• For example, sending a pulse of 523Hz, it can generate Alto Do, pulse of
587Hz, it can generate midrange Re, pulse of 659Hz, it can produce
midrange Mi.

• By the buzzer, you can play a song.

analogWrite to use Passive Buzzer
• We cannot use the pin number 7
int buzzerPin = 5;
because it can’t be use with
analogWrite()
void setup() {
pinMode (buzzerPin, OUTPUT);
• In this scenario we can turn on
}
the buzzer and then turn off like
we did in the sketch used for the
void loop(){
active Buzzer
analogWrite (buzzerPin, 127);
delay(500);
• Without using a loop we can tell
//We can do something else
the processor to do something
else that can be usefull in our
analogWrite (buzzerPin, 0);
sketch.
delay(500);
}
tone()
Description
• Generates a square wave of the specified frequency (and 50% duty cycle) on a pin.

• A duration can be specified, otherwise the wave continues until a call to noTone().

• The pin can be connected to a piezo buzzer or other speaker to play tones.

• Only one tone can be generated at a time. If a tone is already playing on a different pin, the call
to tone() will have no effect. If the tone is playing on the same pin, the call will set its frequency.

• Use of the tone() function will interfere with PWM output on pins 3 and 11 (on boards other
than the Mega).

• It is not possible to generate tones lower than 31Hz.

Syntax
tone(pin, frequency)
tone(pin, frequency, duration)

Parameters
pin: the Arduino pin on which to generate the tone.
frequency: the frequency of the tone in hertz. Allowed data types: unsigned int.
duration: the duration of the tone in milliseconds (optional). Allowed data types: unsigned long.
 Play a song with a passive Buzzer
Why we are using the pin number 8?

We have to understand the difference #include "pitches.h"

between the Atmel microcontroller and
the Arduino layer. int melody[] = { NOTE_C5, NOTE_D5,
NOTE_E5, NOTE_F5, NOTE_G5,
In order to implement a PWM, we can NOTE_A5, NOTE_B5, NOTE_C6};
output a square wave only on certain
pins.
int duration = 500; // 500 miliseconds
But why only on those pins?
• Because in order to produce the square wave without int buzzerPin = 8;
blocking the microcontroller we need to use timers
which are contained in the microcontroller. void setup() { }
• Who designed the Arduino library decided, because of
void loop() {
the amount of timer in the ATMega we should only use
specific pin for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < 8;
thisNote++) {
• Actually we could use any of the digital pin to tone(buzzerPin, melody[thisNote],
produce a square wave duration);
delay(1000);
• The tone function is implemented so that we can use }
whatever pin we want to produce the square wave, so
delay(2000);
we can use even pin number not marked with a tilde.
}