trying to hook a little speaker up to BOE breadboard

mowgli

I'm new to robotics and not very well versed in electronics. i have a boe-bot and i've gone through the tutorial and am looking forward to experimenting with all kinds of things. but while i'm waiting for my next paycheck, i thought i'd try to hook up this weird little voice box to my boe-bot; everytime the button is pushed, it says "I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU" in this super creapy voice--it's meant for stuffed animals. anyway i figured if i just sealed the button closed and attached the battery wires to the breadboard it might work whenever i send a high signal to that pin, but no. it runs on 3, 1.5v batteries, so i guess it needs 4.5v? i tried setting up a resistor/capacitor circuit and using the PWM command, but call me a nut, i cannot figure out the circuit diagram under PWM in the syntax/reference manual.

any advice?

thanks,
ben

bennettdan

Try getting a PCB relay with a 5VDC coil and wire the N.O. contacts to the wires of your pushbutton then run the relay with your stamp. Look through the PDF. files of parallax on how to drive the relay from the stamp.

Beau Schwabe

Sending a HIGH signal does not work?

I doubt that the "voice box" is complaining about the voltage, 5V should be just fine.

The problem is that the "voice box" is probably not getting enough current.··

PWM in this case is not the way to go here.··

As a quick check, try connecting the + of your "voice box" directly to VDD (+5V) just
to see if it comes on.· Make sure that the - of your "voice box" is connected to VSS also.
If this test works, then you may just need a NPN transistor (2n3904) connected to your
"voice box" so that it gets just a little bit more current than the onboard BS2 can supply.

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Beau Schwabe

IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.

mowgli

Thank you for all your advice. i hooked up the circuit with a transistor and it works...kind of. just sending a high signal to the i/o pin connected to the transistor base gets a long stutter from the voice box, then the "I LOVE YOU". this is acceptable, but when i integrate the IR navigation program (pretty much straight out of the BOE-BOT tutorial), the voice just stutters, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...". could the IR stuff be interfering?

Thanks,
Ben

P.S. I don't know what a relay with a 5vdc coil is. something i have to order? i'm attaching the code i've been trying.

mowgli

nevermind. i just replaced the 220 ohm resistor between the i/o pin and the transistor base with a jumper wire and now it works perfectly. thank you again for all your help.

ben