Thanks purdobol.
I finally revisited this project with some fresh eyes and I think I was overcomplicating the issue the first time around. I was getting frustrated because all I could get out of the buzzer/beeper was a little click (nothing that would be audible once installed inside the case).
Finally I did some very obvious googling that I should have done earlier and came across this stackexchange post that described my problem exactly:
https://arduino.stackexchange.com/quest ... ot-working
So since CommonSense does not yet support tone generation, I figured that I need to get some
active buzzers. I bought some cheap ones off Amazon to see if these would suit my needs.
Unfortunately, it didn't turn out so well.
Warning: Loud
I guess there are a couple of things that bother me about this.
- I don't like the tone that it makes... It's very unpleasant
- Piezo buzzers don't really have much volume control. Their range is very narrow.
- Trying to adjust the volume (voltage) also changes the pitch in a wild sounding way
So now I think it is just a matter of finding the right buzzer. I'm looking for something that works of a range of voltages (e.g. 3.3 - 5V). I'm guessing that a buzzer like that would do the trick.
Alternatively, there may be other "sound indicator" components that I'm not aware of. If that's the case, I would love to hear some suggestions
Thanks for reading and sorry for the lack of updates on this project!