Dog Whistle for Ronja

Ronja is the author’s dog, a beagle-mongrel,  who seems increasingly often to need to be  called to heel either with a shout or with a  whistle. And so the idea came about for an  electronic dog whistle that could produce  two alternating high-frequency tones. A  design like this has several advantages over  conventional whistles or calling.

 

Dog Whistle for Ronja Circuit Diagram

 

• You can continue to carry on a conversation with your friends without having to  stop to whistle or call to your dog.
• Using high frequencies means that  the whistle sound is barely audible to  (especially older) humans and so is less  annoying to other people than conventional whistles or calls. As is well known,  dogs have rather better hearing than  we do and can hear frequencies of up to  40 kHz.
• The two alternating pitches mean that the  dog can more easily distinguish it from  other whistles.

 

The dog whistle is constructed from two  standard 555 timer ICs (or a single 556 IC),  both wired as astable multivibrators. The  first 555 oscillates at around 1.5 Hz and modulates the frequency of the second, which thus  switches between two different frequencies  every 0.7 seconds or so. The output of the second 555 is connected to a piezo sounder. If the  volume from the sounder used is insufficient, a small transistor amplifier can be added  between it and the output of the second 555. The circuit draws current only when activated by pressing S1. An optional green  LED indicates that the circuit is functioning.  When S2 is pressed the output frequencies  are reduced, making them more audible to  human ears for test purposes.

 

R1, R2 and C1 set the frequency of astable  multivibrator IC1. Diode D1 ensures that the  output is a symmetrical squarewave, by making C1 charge only via R1 and discharge only  via R2. Turning to IC2, where there is no diode in the  circuit, capacitor C2 is charged via R3 and R4  and discharged only via R4. With C2 = 22nF  the 555 oscillates at about 10 kHz; with S2  pressed, and hence C3 in parallel with C2, this  falls to about 1.8 kHz. Changing C2 to 10 nF  results in an even higher frequency (about  22 kHz), which can only be heard by dogs  and certain other animals. Setting C2 to 15 nF gives an output frequency of about 15 kHz. IC1 modulates the frequency of IC2 via R5. The green LED D2 is connected to the output  of IC1 via a series resistor and thus flashes at  the modulation frequency. The output from the piezo sounder at 10 kHz  (C2 = 22 nF) should be loud enough to verify  by ear. If desired, a more efficient piezo horn  tweeter can be used instead.

Author : Stefan Hoffmann