LilyPad Buzzer Hookup Guide

Contributors: Gella

Making Sounds

Inside the buzzer is a coil of wire and a small magnet. When current flows through this coil, it becomes magnetized and pulls towards the magnet, which makes a tiny "click". When done thousands of times per second, the clicks create tones. We can use commands in Arduino to click the buzzer at specific frequencies, which we hear as different pitches. To create a musical note, we'll need two things: a pitch and a duration.

Playing Notes

language:c
/******************************************************************************

LilyPad Buzzer Example
SparkFun Electronics

This example code shows how to hook up a LilyPad Buzzer to play a simple song 
using the tone() function and setting variables for each note.

Buzzer connections:
   * + pin to 5
   * - to -

******************************************************************************/
// Which pin the buzzer is attached to
int buzzerPin = 5;

// Delay in milliseconds
int delayTime = 500; 

// Notes and their frequencies
const int C = 1046;
const int D = 1175;
const int E = 1319;
const int F = 1397;
const int G = 1568;
const int A = 1760;
const int B = 1976;
const int C1 = 2093;
const int D1 = 2349;

void setup()
{
    // Set the buzzer pin as an OUTPUT
    pinMode(buzzerPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  // Use the tone() function to play each note in a scale
  tone(buzzerPin, C);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, D);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, E);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, F);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, G);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, A);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, B);
  delay(delayTime);
  tone(buzzerPin, C1);
  delay(delayTime);
  // Use noTone() to shut off the buzzer and delay to create a 'rest'
  noTone(buzzerPin);
  delay(delayTime);
}

Upload this code to your LilyPad Arduino and listen - the code plays a scale. To make the notes, we give the tone function two pieces of information - the pin the buzzer is attached to and the frequency we want to play -tone(pin, frequency). To make a note last a certain amount of time, we use a delay() in between notes. At the top of the sketch we created variables for musical notes with the frequency in hertz. To make a pause or rest, we can use the noTone() function followed by a delay.

Try using the tone() and noTone() functions to compose a simple song. One drawback of this code is that the sounds never stop. Next we'll learn how to trigger sounds with an input so they are not constantly playing.