WhyNot?

Tunable beeper

Category: Home
Responses: 3 (3 in support, 0 neutral, 0 in opposition)
Number of views: 405
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Several appliances around my apartment put out a beep signal when their function indicates they require attention. As I have grown older I have discovered that my response to high frequency sound is not as good as when I was young and the beeper no longer makes much of a discernible sound for me anymore. It would help if I could tune the beeper to a lower frequency or if a lower frequency signal could be chosen.

sand, Apr 16 2009

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Comments from other members:

Add your comment

Although I can see the impetus for your request, I don't understand why we're satisfied with non-descript beeps when even a birthday card can play a song now.

I was once in a high-performance single engine airplane, taxied to the hold-short line, waiting to take off when I heard a persistent beep-beep-beep... it wouldn't stop. I though of the systems that produce 'beeps' on that plane--if you get to landing speed with the gear still up; if the ground prox radar thinks you're too low with gear up, if the autopilot is engaged but set wrong, if the stall-warning flap indicates impending stall, the emegency locater transmitter, etc. All really scary, but I'm still on the ground! I was starting to sweat.

It turned out to be my alarm wristwatch, set for noon, lunchtime.

hrench, Apr 16 2009

The reason appliance beepers are high frequency is because they use very small piezoelectric speakers to save space and money. Piezoelectric speakers only work well at high frequencies and small speakers are necessarily high frequency. Also, higher frequencies are louder for their wattage. Low wattage eliminates the need for an amplifier and increases battery life, if it uses a battery. A piezoelectric speaker can produce somewhat lower tones, but the volume would be much lower. But if you can hear low tones better than high tones, you still might hear it better. They could just spend a little more and use voice-coil speakers.

Dwane Anderson, Apr 16 2009

I wonder if a high frequency speaker can be modulated to produce a lower frequency. If it could stimulate a larger membrane that would be sympathetic to a lower frequency it might lower the audible frequency.

sand, Apr 16 2009

Losing the ability to hear high pitched frequencies is natures way of helping us tune our wives out.

charms, Nov 09 2009