Jerry Baumeister Rocket locator, not beeping?

[drew]

So I guess this is a basic electronics quesiont.

I have a breadboard, and put these parts together from these directions:
https://jbgizmo.com/page6.html

If I wire the blinking LED up in parallel with the piezo, the piezo doesn't beep. It only makes a solid, but louder, tone.

If I wire the blinking LED up in series with the piezo, it beeps, but both the light is dimmer and the piezo isn't as loud. I suspect this is because the blinking LED doesn't open entirely up when it's not lit.

I tried the LED backwards, and it smoked. It no longer blinks, now it's just a solid LED

Any ideas?

Perhaps I got the wrong part.
blinking LED
piezo speaker

 

[sghioto]

If I wire the blinking LED up in parallel with the piezo, the piezo doesn't beep. It only makes a solid, but louder, tone.

normal operation.

If I wire the blinking LED up in series with the piezo, it beeps, but both the light is dimmer and the piezo isn't as loud. I suspect this is because the blinking LED doesn't open entirely up when it's not lit.

normal operation, you're splitting the voltage between the LED and the piezo.

I tried the LED backwards, and it smoked. It no longer blinks, now it's just a solid LED

Bad idea don't do that.

Everything is working correctly as you have described.
The schematic shows a standard LED in series with the piezo not a blinking type and it's possible the substituted components may not operate as originally designed.

Steve G

 

[drew]

love that face-palm. Good thing I bought a couple of extra LEDs. I'm going to go this route for a locater alarm.

But with one of these amazon $10 that should be even easier to tie it in with the parachute cord.