Question: Can anyone tell what is wrong with my coqui?

stevie is asking a question about water-quality
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by stevie | April 07, 2019 13:32 | #18993


Hi! I tried building a coqui last night, but can't seem to get it working. I'm getting some scratching noises out of it, but it's not making the chirp I was expecting. Here are a couple photos of the setup:

image description

image description

Thank you!



13 Comments

Hmm, it looks perfect compared to the one at #coqui. Is the little dot/depression on the black chip in the upper left position? Is it possible it's flipped? It's really hard to see, I wish the component we're better labeled. 

On Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 9:33 AM \<notifications@publiclab.org> wrote:

Public Lab contributor stevie just posted a new research note entitled ' Can anyone tell what is wrong with my coqui?':

Read and respond to the post here: https://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/04-07-2019/can-anyone-tell-what-is-wrong-with-my-coqui


Hi! I tried building a coqui last night, but can't seem to get it working. I'm getting some scratching noises out of it, but it's not making the chirp I was expecting. Here are a couple photos of the setup:

image description

image description

Thank you!


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The black dot is in the right place.


I've experienced this before, and generally it's resolved when I went through and double checked and repositioned the wires-- it could be that something somewhere isn't pushed down as far as it needs to be (there are metal strips under the holes, and it's possible if the wire is a little bent or not quite pressed in it miss making the connection).


Hm.. yeah I've taken it apart and put it back together with new wires. Still not working


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I agree that your setup looks good. Of course you could test your battery to see if it's fresh. The only other thing besides making sure connections are secure are the two wires that lead to the water sample--you may want to try regular wires because the ones you are using have posts that sometimes can be loose in the holes of the breadboard. Also, is that coffee you are testing? Curious what that sounds like 😆

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Oh hey, what about voltage? I just remembered that we were using 2-AA batteries which would only be 3V and you are using a 9V. Can the chip handle that @warren? I remember only using 9V for the big speaker setup.

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Oh interesting. This is the only way I have to hook up a battery right now. Switched out the wires into the (yes Haha) coffee, still not working. I'm thinking you're right on a battery issue.


I'm still learning about how to know whether circuits can handle voltage, but so far it looks like the 555 timer probably is fine, but not sure about the piezo buzzer. Need another engineer type to weigh in.


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It was the timer!! I replaced it and it works now

Wow so weird! Sometimes the legs can get bent on those--anyway, so glad it's working. You should post a video so we can hear the sound of the coffee!


Coffee's gone now. I've moved on to salt water 😆


Ah ha! Glad it's working out. We'll make a note that the timer might be the issue if you're getting noise, but not the RIGHT noise. In retrospect it makes sense that the timer would be a likely culprit. Good catch!


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Yeah, it works fine, it's a bit louder which is nice. 

On Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 4:21 PM \<notifications@publiclab.org> wrote:

Hi! You were mentioned by zengirl2 in a comment on the question Can anyone tell what is wrong with my coqui?. You can reply to this email or visit this link:

https://publiclab.org/questions/stevie/04-07-2019/can-anyone-tell-what-is-wrong-with-my-coqui#answer-comment-23746

zengirl2 wrote:


Oh hey, what about voltage? I just remembered that we were using 2-AA batteries which would only be 3V and you are using a 9V. Can the chip handle that @warren? I remember only using 9V for the big speaker setup.


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