A More Annoying Noise Maker (Version 1.0)

Step 4 Troubleshooting

If you don't hear a thing coming from your speaker its time to adjust or check the following:

-Too strong variable resistor.
-Short's Ex: two wires should be separate are touching.
-Solder bridges.
-wrong components.
-Too much or too little supply voltage.
-Bad connections.
-If you used a metal box to house the circuit I suggest you cover the inside with paper or plastic.
-Your components are damaged or really old.
-And you could have just followed the circuit diagram wrong.

If you still have trouble getting it to work leave a comment and I will try to assist you as soon as possible.

Comments

[Pyro Fiend]

Wow, Tytanium had my same questions. Didn't see that. Sorry for taking up space in your comment box for repetition. But can I use a 8 Ohm Speaker, because these are extremely common? But seriously, THANK YOU TXTCLA55!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE this Instructable. I haven't attempted to build it yet because I just found it but this is cool and simple and hopefully easy. I just am not an experienced solderer because I don't own a soldering gun so I will have to use my schools as I don't have any bread board. Ah, well. THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TXTCLA55]

yes you can! Any speaker ranging from 4 to 16 ohms.

[adnimo]

 provided you don't exceed 200ma of current (you'll burn the ic if not).

[Pyro Fiend]

Can this thing go to high frequencies? If not, how can I change the values of the resistors and/or capacitors to make it really high frequency? Your instructable ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not kidding. Beautiful diagram. Simple too. And you use commonly available parts, no Igntion Coils or Plasma Pulse Tube Resonator Thingers in sight! Oh, and if I use a variable resistor with three prongs, which ones do I use? Can I use a photoelectric cell (aka photo resistor)?

[TXTCLA55]

Woa you wrote all lot! Thanks by the way for the very nice comments. OK, for this comment. You are using photo resistors. First off yes it can do extremely high frequencies, just choose a low resistor. Secondly Well have I got news for YOU! I actually built a light theremine using them and I hope to get the ible finished writing a couple of hours so if you want you can use them in that project. as for the 3 prong variable resistors (if ya got em) just connect or test two pins. hope this helped!

[adnimo]

 actually you should always connect the 3, two of them provide full resistance and the other one is for the wiper, low resistance will always proveil but in the case of a failing whiper, your circuit won't fail, it'll just work at the maximum rated resistance for that specific variable resistor.

[Pyro Fiend]

Luckily, pretty much every resistor I own ends in a gold band, but some have five bands. However, for the HIGHER FREQUENCIES, what is the BEST resistance value? Thank you!

[TXTCLA55]

OK, low resistance equals higher sound. Capacitors don't matter. All the caps are doing is simply controlling the current. Hope this helps.

[Pyro Fiend]

Thank you for the help. Just one thing I don't get. HOW low should the resistors be? I feel kind of stupid, but is low resistance 100 ohms? Or is is 10K? OR it 220 ohms? Or is it 1K? I don't understand HOW LOW is low. If I use 100 Ohms, will it be inaudible to all humans, or will it just be a high-toned beep? Will it be 17 Hz so that some humans hear it and others don't??????????????? I feel like I am being annoying, but I am not good at soldering and I don't have a soldering gun (i use my schools) and I can't retake the circuit apart. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TXTCLA55]

well look at it this way... the "K" means 000 three zeros. so 10k is actually 10 000 ohms, thus a 100 ohm resistor would be lower than a 100k ohm resistor. Some place around 10 ohm and 10k ohm should be your high tone beep. As for your solder problem. try a bread board, from a store or online. this will allow you to plug in components and take them out again, no solder!

[Pyro Fiend]

Alright, GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pyro Fiend]

Please help me, though. I am not sure about the High Frequencies because I have never used 555 timer ICs before and I just bought two of them. If you know how to get to high frequencies, I would LOVE it if you would tell me. Thanks!!!!

[TXTCLA55]

Low resistance resistors.

[Pyro Fiend]

Hold on. How do I know if my Photoresistor is low resistance. The label says: NSL - 4950 9840. I don't know what this means. Can I use a standard resistor instead of a variable resistor of some sort so that I know it is low resistance? And how low is low? Do you mean 100 ohms, or 10K, or something else? Please Help Me!

[TXTCLA55]

Yes, if you want to try it with some standard resistors use ones with a gold band and only four colours (including gold) and just play with it. If you however still want to use the variable resistors, go to radio shack and pick up a pack of 10. they come in a range from 5K-10K; one of those has to be the one you want. Hope this was helpful!

[Pyro Fiend]

Wait a second. I'm still confused. If I use two 5K resistors (5,000 Ohms) then I can get High Frequency Sound? Or do I need lower resistors than that to get the High Frequency? Also, can I use higher Capacitors than 0.1uF, or will that lower the sound more? Usually the less capacity, the higher the sound, and the more capacity, the lower the sound, but it might be different with 555 timer ICs. How low is low with the resistors to get really high frequency (i want about 16-20 Hz, if that helps you answer my questions)? Please Help Me! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pyro Fiend]

How do you get your instructables to appear online? I can't get mine to show up when I enter Key Words.

[TXTCLA55]

I dono :P Use really weird tages I guess. Like make your own porno! or, 5 easy ways to get fast cash. thats the type of stuff i some times use. Or if you dont want to do that, just list every word in the tilte ones plus the wrong spelling.

[Pyro Fiend]

Tytanium, Capacitors aren't rated in "k", you know that right? I think the value is in Micro Farads. That's what I've read.

[TXTCLA55]

That is true. There are two ratings. One is just Frads (F), normaly reserved for huge transformers (like the ones that power your house). And then there is Micro-Frads (uF), the ones normally used in consumer products; like a radio.

[Tytanium]

Hey this thing is pretty cool and i would love to use it to be annoying.I tried to build one but i could not get it to work.I followed the schematic the way that i understood it but was unsuccessful.I had a bunch of parts laying around which is what i used.For the variable resistors i used potentiometers(i liked the fact that they use a knob) that i got out of some salvage electronics that i keep around for the components.The potentiometers that i used have 3 pins, i don't own a multimeter so i took a guess and tested them separately using a battery and an led in a simple circuit and managed to dim/brighten the led.Unfortunately when i added the potentiometers into your circuit i may have mixed something up because i could not get any sound other than a crackle in the speaker.Maybe i need to use a different speaker?. I would really like to get one of these things to work because it would be quite amusing for awhile lol. If i take a picture of the circuit without the potentiometers added would you be able to help identify if i made an error during the build?.I also think that i have used the correct capacitors as well..the capacitors that you used that are stamped "104" would that be 104k?.The other capacitor is 100uf and is 10v?. Thanks,

[TXTCLA55]

woa! lot of writing..OK.. well I suggest you try to find some variable resistors, if not you can do three other things; A) keep trying different ways to get the potentiometers working, B) try and find something close to what I used, or C) use photoresistors (as I am going to be doing in my next version). I found my variable resistors in a old radio I simply unsoldered the connections, tested them in multiple arrangements and eventually got it to work. As for your speaker I would suggest you try to use one rated for 4ohms then try adding smaller speakers. And as for the capacitors....I don't really know what they are rated for so that is why I wrote what was on them, but the other cap is in fact a 100uf. I hope this helped! please feel free to ask any more questions! Cheers -TXTCLA55