Arduino project: use a passive buzzer

In this project we’re going to use the Arduino to generate a sound using a passive buzzer.

Like we did for the active buzzer example, connect the buzzer to a wire, and then to the Arduino.

The buzzer has a + pole, I used the red wire for that (a good habit).

Then connect the - wire to GND on the Arduino, and the + wire to a digital output pin, in this case I picked pin #8:

Now we switch to the Arduino program.

You can generate a sound like you did previously for the passive buzzer, with digitalWrite(), and it will work fine.

But the Arduino language gives us another function that’s perfect to work with a passive buzzer: tone().

Using tone() we can play a frequency on the buzzer pin, for a specified duration.

Example:

int duration = 500;

void setup() {

}

void loop() {
    tone(8, 1400, duration);
    delay(200);
    tone(8, 800, duration);
    delay(200);
    tone(8, 1800, duration);
    delay(200);
    tone(8, 600, duration);
    delay(200);
}

You can go really fancy with tone(), play actual songs.

This program which is part of the Arduino example code plays a little song, which sounds better than the noise I crated above:

/*
  Melody

  Plays a melody

  circuit:
  - 8 ohm speaker on digital pin 8

  created 21 Jan 2010
  modified 30 Aug 2011
  by Tom Igoe

  This example code is in the public domain.

  http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Tone
*/

#include "pitches.h"

// notes in the melody:
int melody[] = {
  NOTE_C4, NOTE_G3, NOTE_G3, NOTE_A3, NOTE_G3, 0, NOTE_B3, NOTE_C4
};

// note durations: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, etc.:
int noteDurations[] = {
  4, 8, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
};

void setup() {
  // iterate over the notes of the melody:
  for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < 8; thisNote++) {

    // to calculate the note duration, take one second divided by the note type.
    //e.g. quarter note = 1000 / 4, eighth note = 1000/8, etc.
    int noteDuration = 1000 / noteDurations[thisNote];
    tone(8, melody[thisNote], noteDuration);

    // to distinguish the notes, set a minimum time between them.
    // the note's duration + 30% seems to work well:
    int pauseBetweenNotes = noteDuration * 1.30;
    delay(pauseBetweenNotes);
    // stop the tone playing:
    noTone(8);
  }
}

void loop() {
  // no need to repeat the melody.
}

pitches.h contains the notes frequencies and its content is:

/*************************************************
   Public Constants
 *************************************************/

#define NOTE_B0  31
#define NOTE_C1  33
#define NOTE_CS1 35
#define NOTE_D1  37
#define NOTE_DS1 39
#define NOTE_E1  41
#define NOTE_F1  44
#define NOTE_FS1 46
#define NOTE_G1  49
#define NOTE_GS1 52
#define NOTE_A1  55
#define NOTE_AS1 58
#define NOTE_B1  62
#define NOTE_C2  65
#define NOTE_CS2 69
#define NOTE_D2  73
#define NOTE_DS2 78
#define NOTE_E2  82
#define NOTE_F2  87
#define NOTE_FS2 93
#define NOTE_G2  98
#define NOTE_GS2 104
#define NOTE_A2  110
#define NOTE_AS2 117
#define NOTE_B2  123
#define NOTE_C3  131
#define NOTE_CS3 139
#define NOTE_D3  147
#define NOTE_DS3 156
#define NOTE_E3  165
#define NOTE_F3  175
#define NOTE_FS3 185
#define NOTE_G3  196
#define NOTE_GS3 208
#define NOTE_A3  220
#define NOTE_AS3 233
#define NOTE_B3  247
#define NOTE_C4  262
#define NOTE_CS4 277
#define NOTE_D4  294
#define NOTE_DS4 311
#define NOTE_E4  330
#define NOTE_F4  349
#define NOTE_FS4 370
#define NOTE_G4  392
#define NOTE_GS4 415
#define NOTE_A4  440
#define NOTE_AS4 466
#define NOTE_B4  494
#define NOTE_C5  523
#define NOTE_CS5 554
#define NOTE_D5  587
#define NOTE_DS5 622
#define NOTE_E5  659
#define NOTE_F5  698
#define NOTE_FS5 740
#define NOTE_G5  784
#define NOTE_GS5 831
#define NOTE_A5  880
#define NOTE_AS5 932
#define NOTE_B5  988
#define NOTE_C6  1047
#define NOTE_CS6 1109
#define NOTE_D6  1175
#define NOTE_DS6 1245
#define NOTE_E6  1319
#define NOTE_F6  1397
#define NOTE_FS6 1480
#define NOTE_G6  1568
#define NOTE_GS6 1661
#define NOTE_A6  1760
#define NOTE_AS6 1865
#define NOTE_B6  1976
#define NOTE_C7  2093
#define NOTE_CS7 2217
#define NOTE_D7  2349
#define NOTE_DS7 2489
#define NOTE_E7  2637
#define NOTE_F7  2794
#define NOTE_FS7 2960
#define NOTE_G7  3136
#define NOTE_GS7 3322
#define NOTE_A7  3520
#define NOTE_AS7 3729
#define NOTE_B7  3951
#define NOTE_C8  4186
#define NOTE_CS8 4435
#define NOTE_D8  4699
#define NOTE_DS8 4978

Using multiple buzzers you can also create melodies with multiple notes.

The nice thing comes from combining sounds with input from the user, for example you can create a little keyboard with toy sounds.