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Computer Case Speakers For BIOS Beeps

S

sitalchauhan

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
244
I am going to purchase the thermaltake tsunami for my next build, but it does not come with a case speaker, which is needed for when troubleshooting BIOS beeps.

Does anybody know where I can purchase a seperate case speaker that I can plug in?

(Unfortunately my current speaker in my system is fixed onto the motherboard and cannot be removed :( )
 
Dig around on trash nights for old cases, most have one.
A piezo buzzer from radioshack may also work.
 
I should have mentioned that I am from the UK, so no radioshack.
Have tried maplin and a few others that I cant remember.

Worst comes to worst, if I cant find one and the system gets errors, I can always try borrowing one of a friend... But wuld be much easier if I could find somewhere to buy one...
 
You dont know how many of those I've thrown away over the years. Must be in the hundreds :D
 
When it comes to scavenging, you're in luck. Devices like these are everywhere.

Essentially any 8ohm speaker from a pair of headphones will work. You can even find them in some cheap happy meal toys. Any electronic toy that makes noise is fair game. it doesn't even have to be big either. You'd be surprised how much noise a piezo can put out.

Another place to look would be ancient ISA modems or basically any modem you're willing to tear apart. In my experience, 90% of them have either a small speaker or piezo buzzer soldered directly to them that you can desolder and attach to your speaker headers. For header connections, you can cut the ends off of some LED headers from an old toss away case or something.
 
I have got one soldered onto my current motherboard, but dont want to risk desoldering the speaker.
I have found somebody that may be able to sell me one.
If that doesnt go through, I will purchase one from maplin.

Thanks.
 
Just wondering as this would be much easier for me, but is it possible for me to attach a LED to the speaker output instead?
So that when there is supposed to be a beep, the LED will light up instead?

Thanks
 
You'd need to measure the voltage coming across the speaker terminal and from there determine which LED to use and what type of limiting resistor to use with it. I'm sure the amount of amperage needed to drive a piezo or speaker would drive an LED just as easily so yes, you could replace it with an LED.
 
sitalchauhan said:
Just wondering as this would be much easier for me, but is it possible for me to attach a LED to the speaker output instead?
So that when there is supposed to be a beep, the LED will light up instead?

Thanks
Click to expand...

LEDs run on DC, a speaker output is AC.
This might be a problem but then again, its likely to still light up on the +ve part of the cycle and not cause damage to the LED.
I would try a low power LED so not to overload the speaker driving circuit.

As already metioned, the voltage across the LED may need to be restricted by the use of a series resistor in the circuit. I couldnt tell you the value required as it depends on the voltage given out by the speaker driving circuit.
Start with high resistance (like 1K ohm) and work your way down until its bright enough.
Dont go mad though, if the speaker driving circuit pushes out too high a voltage, having too low a resistor could allow the LED to blow.
Unlikely but worth watching out for.
You especially dont want to damage the speaker driving circuit!
 
It's true that speakers use alternating or pulsating currents to produce sound, but in this application it doesn't matter much. If I recall correctly, the frequencies needed to produce the beeps are somewhere in the kilohertz range, and since the human eye can see at most 100hertz (It's argued that it's around 30, but I'm saying 100 just to be safe.) even if only half of the pulses light the LED, it will be in the 500Hertz range minimum. The human eye would see it as a steady glow.

One of my electronics books showed a neat little project to do to show this effect in action. It involves using a phototransistor to transform light flashes into pulses of sound. There are lots of lights around you everyday that are actually turning off and on, it's just so fast you can't see it...but when converted into sound your ear can tell the difference. This is cause your ear is sensitive to frequencies much higher than your eye is.

As for the series resistor, you can google it pretty easily to find at least a dozen resistor calculators that will make finding the right resistor a piece of cake. The hardest part is getting a good voltage reading from the speaker terminals.
 
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