Cyberpet Project

Hello all,

I was wondering if I could get a little advice. I have to teach programming to 12 year olds and have chosen the CyberPet project kit. My issue is that the piezo sounder is very low(when I have chosen a tune), is there any way of making it louder or is it a case of choosing a higher pitch? Also does anyone know where to find sample flowcharts as BASIC is too advanced for them. Any help welcome

Thank you

how do you mean very low? as I quite, I presume you have attached the piezo to the board with some double sided tape or glue.

also just to make sure we are on the same page, it the kit from picaxe, AXE101D
http://www.picaxe.com/Hardware/Project-Kits/Cyberpet-Project-Kit/

BASIC is too advanced for maybe an 8 year old. I still have my first computer... it taught me a lot of BASIC (well, not PICAXE BASIC, but Microsoft's QBASIC) when I was ten or eleven. I'm still using both computer and language on occasion...

it took me less 2 hours to self teach myself enough code to make a set of traffic lights with a picaxe 28. with a little tuition a 12 year old should be able to do that and more in a very short period of time, don't ever under estimate the ability of a child to absorb and learn new things.

Not sure about the volume, those piezo sounders can be quiet. Perhaps experiment with a flat piece of balsa wood underneath (a mobile phone set to vibrate makes more noise on a desk than on a cushion)?
I may be missing something here, but the AXE101 datasheet seems to give parallel examples of both Basic & flowchart programming for the cyberpet? So they can use flowcharts & the more confident can perhaps try Basic?

The flowchart version of the datasheet is here:
http://www.picaxe.com/docs/axe101_logicator.pdf

The copper disk piezos
http://www.picaxestore.com/index.php/en_gb/spe001.html
need to be on a 'sounding' board to operate correctly.


When used in, for instance, a musical birthday card it is the whole card that vibrates, not just the piezo.
To duplicate this idea use double sided tape to stick the copper disk piezo to the actual pcb itself, this will at least double or triple the volume.
Or stick to piece a of card. Or to the bottom of a paper cup, which works very well as a 'loudspeaker'.

Or you could use the cased piezos instead, these are louder e.g.
http://www.picaxestore.com/index.php/en_gb/spe002.html