Ultrasonic Dog Whistles


Posted on Feb 6, 2014

Many commercial pest repellers operate in the range of 30 to 50 kHz. My aim was, however, to design a slightly different and somewhat more powerful audio frequency/ultrasonic sound generator that could be used to train dogs. Just imagine the possibilities - you could make your pet think twice before barking again in the middle of the night or even subdue hostile dogs (and I guess burglars would love that!).


Ultrasonic Dog Whistles
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

From what I`ve read, dogs and other mammals of similar size behave much differently than insects. They tend to respond best to frequencies between 15 and 25 kHz and the older ones are less susceptible to higher tones. This means that an ordinary pest repeller won`t work simply because dogs can`t hear it. Therefore, I decided to construct a new circuit (based on the venerable 555, of course) with a variable pitch and a relatively loud 82 dB miniature piezo beeper. The circuit is very simple and can be easily assembled in half an hour. Most of the components are not really critical, but you should keep in mind that other values will probably change the operating frequency. Potentiometer determines the pitch: higher resistance means lower frequency. Since different dogs react to different frequencies, you`ll probably have to experiment a bit to get the most out of this tiny circuit. The circuit is shown below: Despite the simplicity of the circuit, there is one little thing. The 10nF (. 01) capacitor is critical as it, too, determines the frequency. Most ceramic caps are highly unstable and 20% tolerance is not unusual at all. Higher capacitance means lower frequency and vice-versa. For proper alignment and adjustment, an oscilloscope would be necessary. Since I don`t have one, I used Winscope. Although it`s limited to only 22 kHz, that`s just enough to see how this circuit works. There is no need to etch a PCB for this...




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