Lost Aircraft Alarm

by mxclouti | March 30, 2014 | (6) Posted in Projects

Here's how to make a lost aircraft alarm out of a cheap door alarm and a brushed ESC.

You'll need:
- a cheap 100 db door alarm from the dollar store. It runs on 4.5V (3 X 1.5V button cells)
- a brushed ESC to trigger on/off the alarm. I'm using an old GWS ICS50 2A ESC.
- foam board to make a sound box for the piezoelectric plate 

It weighs about 16g.

See the wiring diagram below.

Alarm in action:

- Find this article & others like it at www.FliteTest.com -

COMMENTS

ashtodust2000 on April 7, 2014
Brushed esc cost more than buying a lost plane alarm.
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mxclouti on April 7, 2014
Yes, maybe, but I have 10 of them here !! So it's free for me !
I used to have an online store ... years and years ago !
A lost airplane alarm is not as loud as mine (I've tried those).
Mine is around 100-110 db, that's loud, really loud !!!
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rcspaceflight on April 7, 2014
If the door alarm runs off of 5volts, then couldn't you use a servo as the trigger? You would just remove the servo chip and then solder the alarm to the motor leads of the servo. Then you would have a cheap alarm. Especially if you have a stripped out servo.
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rockets4kids on April 8, 2014
These buzzers have been used for quite some time in the model rocketry community for the same purpose. They are easily controlled with a transistor. I have never used them with servo-signals before, but you should be able to turn them on and off using a low pass filter.

I'll see if I can put something together this evening.

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c.sitas on April 9, 2014
Hey,guys just search out the black box on flite test. I can vouch for this unit. I've made a bunch of them . Maybe a very slight bit of heavy but huge on the sound and long as well. I guess I'm stuck on this . I've mentioned this on a couple other sites but,,, they can't seem to get beyond the little lost p[lane things they sell on ebay. Ya they work similar, but not the same. I just fly with a new sense of recovery now. "I fly over a lot of heavy forest. A down plane now is no big deal , less maybe it might take a chain saw. Hee Hee .I love this foam flying.

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Lost Aircraft Alarm