RTTTL Buzzer

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RTTTL Buzzer

The rtttl component allows you to easily connect a passive piezo buzzer to your microcontroller and play monophonic songs. It accepts the Ring Tone Text Transfer Language, RTTTL format (Wikipedia) which allows to store simple melodies.

Image
Buzzer Module

Overview Using a Passive Buzzer

It’s important that your buzzer is a passive one, if it beeps when you feed it with 3.3V then it is not a passive one and this library will not work properly.

The tone generator needs a PWM-capable output to work with, currently only the ESP8266 Software PWM Output and ESP32 LEDC Output are supported.

# Example configuration entry
output:
  - platform: ...
    id: rtttl_out
    ...

rtttl:
  output: rtttl_out
  id: my_rtttl
  gain: 60%

Overview Using a Speaker

The tone generator can instead be used with a Speaker to output the audio.

# Example configuration entry
speaker:
  - platform: ...
    id: my_speaker
    ...

rtttl:
  speaker: my_speaker
  id: my_rtttl
  gain: 0.8

Configuration Variables

  • output (Exclusive, ID): The id of the float output to use for this buzzer.

  • speaker (Exclusive, ID): The id of the Speaker to play the song on.

  • id (Optional, ID): Manually specify the ID used for code generation.

  • gain (Optional, Percentage): With this value you can set the volume of the sound.

  • on_finished_playback (Optional, Automation): An action to be performed when playback is finished.

ℹ️ Note

You can only use the output or speaker variable, not both at the same time.

All Actions and Conditions

  • id (Optional, ID): Manually specify the ID of the RTTTL if you have multiple components.

rtttl.play Action

Plays an RTTTL tone.

on_...:
  then:
    - rtttl.play: 'siren:d=8,o=5,b=100:d,e,d,e,d,e,d,e'

Configuration options:

  • rtttl (Required, string, templatable): The RTTTL string.

ℹ️ Note

If a melody is currently playing, you must call the rtttl.stop action before starting a new melody.

You can find many RTTTL strings online on the web. You can test melodies using the RTTTL Online Player before adding them to your configuration. See the format description below for details.

rtttl.stop Action

Stops playback.

on_...:
  then:
    - rtttl.stop

rtttl.is_playing Condition

This Condition returns true while playback is active.

# In some trigger:
on_...:
  if:
    condition:
      rtttl.is_playing
    then:
      logger.log: 'Playback is active!'

RTTTL Format

An RTTTL string consists of three parts separated by colons (:):

name:d=4,o=5,b=120:notes
  1. Name: A short identifier for the melody (max 10 characters)
  2. Control Parameters: Control section with d, o, and b parameters
  3. Notes: The actual melody encoded as note data

Control Parameters

  • d (duration): The default note duration. Valid values are 1 (whole note), 2 (half note), 4 (quarter note), 8 (eighth note), 16 (sixteenth note), and 32 (thirty-second note). Default is 4.
  • o (octave): The default octave for notes. Valid values are 4, 5, 6, or 7. Higher values produce higher-pitched sounds. Default is 6.
  • b (beats): The tempo in beats per minute (BPM). Determines how fast the melody plays. Default is 63.

Note Format

Each note in the melody follows this pattern: [duration][note][#][octave][.]

  • duration (optional): Overrides the default duration (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32)
  • note: The note name: c, d, e, f, g, a, b, or p for pause
  • # (optional): Sharp modifier, raises the note by a half step
  • octave (optional): Overrides the default octave (4-7)
  • . (dot) (optional): Dotted note, extends duration by 50%

Examples

  • 8e6 - Eighth note E in octave 6
  • 4c#5 - Quarter note C-sharp in octave 5
  • 2g. - Dotted half note G in the default octave
  • 4c#5. - Dotted quarter note C-sharp in octave 5
  • 16p - Sixteenth note pause

Tip: You can experiment with the control values to change how a song sounds. For example, increasing b makes the song play faster, while changing o shifts the pitch higher or lower.

Common Beeps

You can do your own beep patterns too! Here’s a short collection so you can just use right away or tweak them to your like:

two_short:d=4,o=5,b=100:16e6,16e6
long:d=1,o=5,b=100:e6
siren:d=8,o=5,b=100:d,e,d,e,d,e,d,e
scale_up:d=32,o=5,b=100:c,c#,d#,e,f#,g#,a#,b
star_wars:d=16,o=5,b=100:4e,4e,4e,8c,p,g,4e,8c,p,g,4e,4p,4b,4b,4b,8c6,p,g,4d#,8c,p,g,4e,8p
mission_imp:d=16,o=6,b=95:32d,32d#,32d,32d#,32d,32d#,32d,32d#,32d,32d,32d#,32e,32f,32f#,32g,g,8p,g,8p,a#,p,c7,p,g,8p,g,8p,f,p,f#,p,g,8p,g,8p,a#,p,c7,p,g,8p,g,8p,f,p,f#,p,a#,g,2d,32p,a#,g,2c#,32p,a#,g,2c,a#5,8c,2p,32p,a#5,g5,2f#,32p,a#5,g5,2f,32p,a#5,g5,2e,d#,8d
mario:d=4,o=5,b=100:16e6,16e6,32p,8e6,16c6,8e6,8g6,8p,8g,8p,8c6,16p,8g,16p,8e,16p,8a,8b,16a#,8a,16g.,16e6,16g6,8a6,16f6,8g6,8e6,16c6,16d6,8b,16p,8c6,16p,8g,16p,8e,16p,8a,8b,16a#,8a,16g.,16e6,16g6,8a6,16f6,8g6,8e6,16c6,16d6,8b,8p,16g6,16f#6,16f6,16d#6,16p,16e6,16p,16g#,16a,16c6,16p,16a,16c6,16d6,8p,16g6,16f#6,16f6,16d#6,16p,16e6,16p,16c7,16p,16c7,16c7,p,16g6,16f#6,16f6,16d#6,16p,16e6,16p,16g#,16a,16c6,16p,16a,16c6,16d6,8p,16d#6,8p,16d6,8p,16c6

Test Setup

With the following code you can quickly setup a node and use Home Assistant’s service in the developer tools. E.g. for calling rtttl.play select the service esphome.test_esp8266_rtttl_play and in service data enter

song_str: 'scale_up:d=32,o=5,b=100:c,c#,d#,e,f#,g#,a#,b'

Sample code 

esphome:
  name: test_esp8266

esp8266:
  board: nodemcuv2

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

output:
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    pin: GPIOXX
    id: rtttl_out

rtttl:
  output: rtttl_out
  on_finished_playback:
    - logger.log: 'Song ended!'

api:
  actions:
    - action: rtttl_play
      variables:
        song_str: string
      then:
        - rtttl.play:
            rtttl: !lambda 'return song_str;'

See Also

RTTTL Buzzer

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