Painful sound genorator (555 IC)

[George L.]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if it were possible to make a circuit based on a 555 IC, that would create sounds of painful frequencies (screeching on a blackboard kind of sound). Does anyone know if this kind of thing is possible???

Also, if it is possible, what frequency(s) of sound is painful to humans???

please help.

thanks,

George :wink:

 

[Russlk]

I think frequencies around 3000 Hz would be most painful. Higher frequencies would not be heard by old folks, like me. When I was young, the 15kHz from the TV was annoying, but I don't hear it any more. A sound over 106 dB would certainly be painful, but I doubt that a 555 would have enuf power. With an efficient speaker (and hi-fi speakers are not efficient), one or two watts would be enough. I have a piezo alarm that runs on 1/2 watt that is painful within a foot of my ear, but you probably want more range than that.

 

[George L.]

thanks for the reply,

I am trying to make a sound tha doesn't have to be loud to be painful.

(all LOUD sound is painful :lol: :lol: )

Also, I think there is a frequency that can give poeple nausia ... is there ??? :?


please help.

George L.

 

[audioguru]

Hi George,
On the Mythbusters TV show they tried to make a guy sick by surrounding with many big speakers playing sounds extremely loud. His vision got blurry and he could hardly stand-up due to the vibrations, but he didn't get sick.

I nearly get sick when I hear an awful sounding sound system. Especially when an amplifier is clipping. :lol:

 

[zachtheterrible]

Hi George. I don't think that there is any certain frequency that is painful to humans. Its just how loud it is. Maybe there is a way of making it painful by changing the frequency of the sound very quikly.

I can hear those electronic dog whistles and bird repellers. they drive me nuts :lol: . Im a young whipper snapper so I can still hear 'em.

One thing you might look into is high power ultrasonic. I saw a system on www.amazing1.com once that claimed to disorient and confuse somebody by using ultrasonic sound. Like audio said, the vibrations could screw you up. The nice thing about ultrasonic is that no one could hear it, and you wouldn't need HUGE speakers because the wavelengths (and therefore speakers) aren't as long.

A 555 could be used to produce ultrasonic sounds as they are well within the 555's frequency output range.

I'm very interested in this. Lemme know if you can get anything to work

 

[eblc1388]

I nearly get sick when I hear an awful sounding sound system. Especially when an amplifier is clipping. :lol:

I find many amplifiers sound awful at 0.1W or 0.2W power output.

 

[audioguru]

Hi L. Chung,
Class-AB amplifiers without sufficient bias current produce crossover distortion at low levels. It sounds awful. :cry:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi L. Chung,
Class-AB amplifiers without sufficient bias current produce crossover distortion at low levels. It sounds awful. :cry:

But shouldn't happen on any decently designed (and aligned!) amplifier.

 

[Dr.EM]

What you want to do is create simultaneous ultrasound and sub frequencies, that does some seriously nasty things to you. I saw it used as a burglar alarm, and the guy that tested it had to try and run out the building as soon as it went off, but he could hardly get out he was so disorientated, and he did throw up outside :lol:

Using a 555 to generate the high portion is definately possible, should work well with piezo. The low portion could also be a 555 (make sure its symetrical duty cycle) and then filter it to make it more like a sub. adjust frequencies till it "works" :lol:

 

[Pyroandrew]

a low impedance source driving a speaker with a delta function at the right frequency is very painful. The level and power consumption need not be high. find the frequency that hurts your ears the most, add/minus 5% and sweep that frequency range. The smaller the channel the more effective it will be, but will affect less people. There are other wave forms that are more "painful" but they are difficult to explain. The main idea is that you set up a resonance at the natural frequency of the ear's drum with an anti-node at the drum. A delta function does this quite nicely. Fairly loud noise centred around 11kHz ish (and various harmonics) hurt people eyes. might be of interest!

 

[George L.]

Wow......so much info....thanks everyone

Th point of this project was kind of a prank were I wanted to make some fell very ill or hurt their ears. They wouldn't know what was causing the "pain":lol: :lol.

Could I just use one set frequency, or do I have to make a circuit that will keep changing frequencies???

The ultrasonic sounds like a good direction to go.

I am currently experimeting with a circuit from this site: **broken link removed** It is the astable ocillator circuit (third one on list). It even computes the frequency for you. I just connect a speaker to the output and play around with a variable resistor.

When you guys are refering to ultrasonic, are you talking about frequencies above what humans can hear (22-35 KHz)... how high is the frequency you are refering to???


please help.

thanks,

George

 

[audioguru]

Hi George,
If the frequency is too high to be heard, then why will it be painful?
You are seriously overloading the 555 by having it directly drive a speaker.

 

[zachtheterrible]

What you want to do is create simultaneous ultrasound and sub frequencies

Interesting . . . could you explain a bit more? Do you mean create two frequencies and then connect them with two seperate speakers, one speaker, or what?

a low impedance source driving a speaker with a delta function at the right frequency is very painful.

Do you know any websites that go more into this?

I think I just might have to make a system like this for my security system that Im working on for my house :lol:

 

[Dr.EM]

With the 2 frequencies, I imagine they were being produced by 2 different speakers, it'd have to be a very special speaker to have that sort of range. I should think a piezo and a large cone speaker. Not sure what the magic combination of frequencies is, but you could just try it out on breadboards and fiddle with the pots till it works. I'll just mention from my experience with the 555, you cannot run two at different frequencies from the same power supply. I eventually found out this was because it "crowbars" the supply in its output transition. To run 2 at once, be sure to use the ICM7555, low power CMOS, its faster and more stable anyway.

A 555, or 7555, can drive a speaker through a suitable value resistor (470ohm - 4.7k) with appropriate loss in volume. Also, I think it can drive a speaker if you tie one side of it to ground, and the other to the output via a suitable capacitor.

 

[Pyroandrew]

a low impedance source driving a speaker with a delta function at the right frequency is very painful.

Do you know any websites that go more into this?

I think I just might have to make a system like this for my security system that Im working on for my house :lol:

Not really, I'm afraid, I found out by experiment my self. When I was in Lab at uni one day, the experiment was a metal detector, we noticed that at certain proximities to metal the audio tone was really quite painful. So we got side tracked for about two hours trying to cause pain (as fun of course). After a bit of probing we found that driving a speaker with a delta function caused the most pain per audible power, if you will. We also found that different frequencies affected different people, a fair assumption to make if you didn't even try it. We made a list of the frequencies that hurt different people and then played "musical chairs" (modified). It soon became less fun when someone on the other side of the room figured out how we were doing it.

 

[bonxer]

People on other messageboards post link to pictures which are, ahem, painful to the eyes... :roll: Perhaps we could post links to painful audio clips as a thank-you? :lol:

 

[audioguru]

People on other messageboards post link to pictures which are, ahem, painful to the eyes... :roll: Perhaps we could post links to painful audio clips as a thank-you? :lol:

Those hot teen girls across the street again. Nobody would dare post their pics here, but maybe someone could post an audio clip of them, ahem, screaming or somethin'?