Re: Source of piezo


Jon Slaughter wrote:
"jacksan" <none@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:b33fb$45bf49d0$d8447b12$28706@xxxxxxxxxxx
Digikey sells piezo 'elements' (such as #102-1126).
j


You wouldn't happen to know the variance in utility of these things? On all
electronics there are several piezo elements for under a dollar but they all
seem like they were for a specific application(piezoelectric speaker). I'm
wondering if there are limited applications for many of these configurations
or if I can pretty much interchange them. e.g., like rip up an old cheap
microphone that I don't use and get the crystal in there and then use it for
some ultrasonic stuff? I guess what I'm trying to ask is how general are
these devices? (Obviously dimension and quality would be important factors
but I have no idea how much)

Take a porshe and try to haul a grand piano to a new house ...
Take a U-haul truck and try to race on a twisty track ...
Kinda works but not quite optimum ....

The dimensions and shapes (and even the housings and mountings)
strongly affect how well the piezo buzzers will work for a given
application.

Using speakers as microphones and vice versa can work, as can using
stuff in frequency ranges it's not designed for ... but it may work
well, or it may work REALLY crappy, or anywhere in between ...
depending on a lot of factors (some of which I can guess at, others I
have no clue)

FWIW, years ago I bought a bunch of radioshacks cube shaped piezo
super tweeters
when they were discontinued.
I was able to use them as both ultrasonic senders and recievers,
although efficiency was probably low.

Have fun experimenting if you like, but realize that good results are
STRONGLY dependent on matching device characteristics to application.


I've found some piezo film sheets that are about 2-3$/sq. This is pretty
expensive I suppose but I imagine I can cut the things up into smaller
pieces(although I suppose this might dislodge the pieze crystal) and could
get many chips from it(since I suppose the average chip size I would use is
about 1 cm).

I'd rather just find some around the house though as theses things are used
in just about everything.

Thanks,
Jon

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