Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?  

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Posted by: Sembazuru

Covering the hole on the piezo "speaker" with tape works as well. (I mention this in case you don't have blu-tack handy, but there is a roll of painter's tape near your printers... for some reason...) 😉

Keep it down guys. I've half convinced my family I need an enclosure to keep the noise levels down.

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Two layers of Gorilla Duct Tape had little effect. I'll jam some earthquake putty in the hole next. It's handy, because we're having a swarm of earthquakes here in Orange County, CA right now. 

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

you need to take the LCD "cover" off ( 2 screws thru the circuit card) and get the the actual piezo speaker on the circuit card. it has a hole in the top surface of the round speaker that you can cover

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Well, I opted for the ultimate solution: I de-soldered the beeper from the LCD board (see pic with empty beeper spot, and the beeper looking like a dead bug)

You can say I did a beeperlectomy. Sorry that the pics always turn 90 degrees when uploading--don't know why.

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Definitive, but now the printer can't readily let you know to do a filament change.

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

now the printer can't readily let you know to do a filament change

Well, my post above was just meant to be a little over-dramatic--think of it as a lame attempt at being humorous.

I'm an Arduino guy, and what I really plan to do is replace the beeper with something that has an adjustable volume. I'm sure the printer just puts out a voltage across the beeper pins of some level for about a second, and the beeper responds, probably at it's max loudness at the applied voltage. The beeper may be responsive to just reducing that voltage (pot used as a volume control would be the simplest way that comes to mind). But beepers are notoriously non-linear and may simply shut down as voltage is decreased, so some further research is needed. And while I'm at it, I may add a blinking LED option to catch my eye, in addition to the audible alert.

For my ultimate solution, I can can send the beeper voltage signal to an Arduino, which, in turn, will send me a text message! I already have a WiFi-enabled Arduino that does just that for a series of temperature sensors it monitors. I can just modify that to send me a message like "Jack, the printer needs attention." I already planned on using that Arduino to monitor temps in an enclosure for my printer (project in the queue, but not yet done).

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Posted by: jack

now the printer can't readily let you know to do a filament change

Well, my post above was just meant to be a little over-dramatic--think of it as a lame attempt at being humorous.

I'm an Arduino guy, and what I really plan to do is replace the beeper with something that has an adjustable volume. I'm sure the printer just puts out a voltage across the beeper pins of some level for about a second, and the beeper responds, probably at it's max loudness at the applied voltage. The beeper may be responsive to just reducing that voltage (pot used as a volume control would be the simplest way that comes to mind). But beepers are notoriously non-linear and may simply shut down as voltage is decreased, so some further research is needed. And while I'm at it, I may add a blinking LED option to catch my eye, in addition to the audible alert.

For my ultimate solution, I can can send the beeper voltage signal to an Arduino, which, in turn, will send me a text message! I already have a WiFi-enabled Arduino that does just that for a series of temperature sensors it monitors. I can just modify that to send me a message like "Jack, the printer needs attention." I already planned on using that Arduino to monitor temps in an enclosure for my printer (project in the queue, but not yet done).

 

Those little buzzers are usually driven with a PWM signal. Since you are an Arduino tinkerer, you should understand this: The brains of our printers is basically the same chip as on an Arduino Mega. So piezo buzzers like this are driven the same way you would drive a little piezo buzzer using an UNO. The easiest circuitry way of lowering the sound of the buzzer is with a simple restive voltage divider. But, as you guessed, below a certain voltage you won't hear anything from the buzzer. What that voltage is would be specific to the model of the buzzer, and unfortunately I don't have enough experience to know what ball-park that would be. If you can find any distinctive numbers on the buzzer you might be able to find a datasheet for it with the proper Google-fu.

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Posted by: jack

now the printer can't readily let you know to do a filament change

Well, my post above was just meant to be a little over-dramatic--think of it as a lame attempt at being humorous.

I'm an Arduino guy, and what I really plan to do is replace the beeper with something that has an adjustable volume. I'm sure the printer just puts out a voltage across the beeper pins of some level for about a second, and the beeper responds, probably at it's max loudness at the applied voltage. The beeper may be responsive to just reducing that voltage (pot used as a volume control would be the simplest way that comes to mind). But beepers are notoriously non-linear and may simply shut down as voltage is decreased, so some further research is needed. And while I'm at it, I may add a blinking LED option to catch my eye, in addition to the audible alert.

For my ultimate solution, I can can send the beeper voltage signal to an Arduino, which, in turn, will send me a text message! I already have a WiFi-enabled Arduino that does just that for a series of temperature sensors it monitors. I can just modify that to send me a message like "Jack, the printer needs attention." I already planned on using that Arduino to monitor temps in an enclosure for my printer (project in the queue, but not yet done).

 

Jack,

Count me in if you want some support/assistance.  I have RPis and Arduinos all over here.  I am working on a Temp/Humidity combo and a Function Generator for 2 other projects.  😉

RAH

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

All you need to do is put a piece of tape on the piezo buzzer on the LCD module... it'll quiet down a lot. Place foam tape and it gets even more quiet.

And no, the buzzers like this are generally ON or OFF; and applied voltage has a small effect, but not much (3v to 24v range).

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

I put the Prusa beeper through some testing, using my laboratory DC power supply (beepers run on pure DC, actually) and a sound spectrum analyzer app on my iPhone. Results:

1.35VDC the beeper only clicked once when power was applied. Above that it sometimes came on until...

1.5VDC the beeper reliably came on, and I measured the sound level at 78dbA (10" away), and saw two dominant modes at 2400 and 4800 Hz. That's much louder than I wanted.

5.0VDC I measured 85dbA at the same dominant frequencies, and that's intolerably loud.

So I put a small square of Gorilla Duct tape over the beeper hole, and...

at 5.0VDC I measured 43 dbA at 2600 Hz. (higher modes attenuated somewhat).

So I plan on reinstalling the Gorilla-modified beeper, and call it a day. Thanks for all the feedback on this issue guys...Jack

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

The models like what Prusa uses are spec'd 2900Hz, 85dBA at 3v, so no surprise in your numbers.  They are typically monotone square waves, so harmonics all over the place, usually first and third are largest.  It's the squawk of the harmonics that make them painful to listen to. 

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

Thanks for posting this, I just received my second kit and it reminded me to cover the speaker before I assemble the kit. That beep during the filament change is too darn loud!

RE: Speaker beeps - too loud! Any way to disable or lower volume?

I teach every other day and walked away from the same model print that has been successful 3 times in a row.  I come in this morning to the custodian  letting me know the printer started beeping two days ago....so literally after I walked out the door it went haywire.

Anyway, I do wonder in situations like this thati f there could be a firmware  update to limit the amount of beeps, and/or time the alarm sounds, like a toaster or coffee maker?  Or one step further even upgrade the system and connect it to a network and enabled with email notifications to let you know something is a-miss?