I’m asking not specifically about smoke detectors but any device that beeps but does not make any other, non-beeping sounds. Examples include microwaves, the timers on ovens, the fare system on a bus when you give it your fare, the little beepy heart monitor things in hospitals and old-school digital watches. These things beep but they seem to only beep; they do not make any other, non-beeping sounds.

So my question is: how do these things beep? It must be a speaker right (?), and if it is a speaker then why do these devices never make any other sounds other than beeping? (Because presumably speakers have a greater range than just a few beeps.) Or do these devices have specialized speakers that can only make a few sounds? If so, how do these speakers work?

I’m not sure if I articulated this very well but hopefully that makes sense.

  • db2
    2·
    1 day ago

    You can if the buzzer signal is only used to trigger a secondary circuit that does what op is looking for.

    • dddontshootEnglish
      2·
      24 hours ago

      That’s what I would do. Hook jumpers from the buzzer to the play button of an mp3 player. That way if the music system fails, the buzzer still wakes you up.