Beeping can't find the reason

[Mark Lloyd]

There's too many things around here that beep. It can take a long time to find the guilty one.

Computers can beep when overheated.

[hrhofmann]

Disconnecting the load on an UPS doesn't keep it from beeping if its internal betteries are dying.

[The Daring Dufas]

Back in the late 70's I worked at an electronic repair depot and me and one of my coworkers built a little box with a piezoelectric buzzer and a 555 timer that produced a short "beep" every 5 minutes or so. We hid it in a crazy girl neighbor's closet in her apartment. It made her a lot more crazy. We distracted her and retrieved the beeper after several months and of course every time she asked us for assistance in tracking down the noise, we pretended not to hear it. It was in her bedroom closet. :-)

TDD

[ChairMan]

In news:i9Wdnb5Q_Kwhs6PQnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail], Kurt Ullman spewed forth:

you've got mail?

[nickt]

Wieser power deadbolt lock

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: [e-mail] ---

[RobertPatrick]

Kurt Ullman wrote in news:i9Wdnb5Q_Kwhs6PQnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

When you hear the beep go to the room where it sounds like it's coming from. Wait for another beep and so forth and keep moving closer and closer until you locate it. Maybe it's a camera tucked away in a drawer.

BTW, if it's beeping every 2 minutes, that's not a long time frame between beeps.

[Robert Green]

Get a stopwatch or even better, an automatic resetting digital timer. Set

*it* to beep a second or two *before* the problem device beeps. That will make you aware of when to listen for the problem beep. Stand sideways in the doorway of each room, one ear facing in, one facing out, just before the beep occurs.

It'll take a few tries, but eventually you'll be able to locate the rogue device. Works for me and I have a house littered with smoke alarms and gadgets that beep. Electronic devices are usually quite regular in their intervals, so the stopwatch "trick" usually works quite well but it does take a little patience because it's so hard to localize an intermittent noise. Works even better with two people and four ears trying to localize each beep by listening for it just before it happens.

A timer of some sort is essential to track this down. It usually takes me under 10 minutes to find the culprit. The trick is to be standing in a position where you can use your "stereo" hearing to locate the noise source. That's why standing in a doorway sideways is helpful. Makes it much easier to tell whether the sound is in or outside a room.

-- Bobby G.

[Steve B]

Have you tried following the sound? That might work.

Steve

[Earl]

Vic Smith wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I bought a beeping thing. It has a small magnet so I attached it to the side of the refrigerator at work. It really drove people nuts trying to locate the source. No one ever did. One day I removed it, just to make them even more nuts wondering where the beep went.

[HeyBub]

You're a female?

[HeyBub]

Well, you should.

[Frank]

Maybe, at wits end, turn off all house power and if beep continues you can assume something with a battery. You'll also be able to hear better with all background noises off.

[Bob Villa]

to koala bears: food, water, shelter and something to crap on."

Are you over-weight? Maybe this happens when you back-up?! ;-)

[Jim Elbrecht]

The last one that drove me crazy was a Oregon Scientific remote thermometer that sits 4 feet from my head on my bad ear side. It had the very faintest of alarms on it. By the time I heard it, determined it wasn't tinnitus, and went looking for it, it had stopped. After a month or two I noticed that it always happened during the news. Then that it started at 6:18. . . . took a day or two to remember that there was a clock [and calendar] on the damn thermometer. The bottom button turns the alrm on and off--

Crap.

Jim

[LSMFT]

I had the same problem. Turned out to be an oral digital thermometer in the kitchen drawer. Sometimes these things drive you crazy. Sometimes it' the TV.

[Jules Richardson]

That'd be my advice, too. Actually, it is my advice, too. :-)

Last time I did that, it turned out to be an ancient smoke alarm that had once started beeping, then stopped, and I'd thrown on a shelf in the basement about a year before, figuring that the battery had given out and the whole thing was due for replacement anyway.

Quite why it suddenly decided to beep again a year later I don't know, but of course I'd forgotten it was there by then and it took me a while to work out where the noise was coming from (it'd beep once every 5 minutes or so, too, which is an annoying length of time to be standing around trying to pinpoint the next beep! :-)

Amazing how much quieter the house is when there's not the fridge, computers etc. all running.

cheers

Jules

[Mark]

You win the prize of the funniest post of the day.. :-)

Mark

[Thomas]

How about a live cricket?

[IGot2P]

koala bears: food, water, shelter and something to crap on."

Excellent reply!

Don

[Bob Villa]

Don't try to steal my material!