I bought the Pico Explorer back in April of this year (2021) but I’ve only just had time to get around to tinkering with it for a review. The product page states that it comes with “a built in speaker,” which I’m assuming is just a Piezo buzzer between the two breakout connectors.
Problem is, I can’t get any sort of sound to come put of the thing. I’ve tried a few generic scripts, as well as the “noise” script provided by Pimoroni on their github. But no sound ever comes out of it “speaker.” Using the pimoroni “noise” script I get visuals on the little display, but the speaker never plays any of the instructed tons.
Could it just be a faulty piezo buzzer? What would be the best suggestion on how to test if its faulty or not? Has anyone else had any issues with the “speaker?”
Do you have the jumper attached from the Audio on the expander breakout to GPIO 0?
Form the noise example.
#You'll need to connect a jumper wire between GPO and AUDIO on the Explorer Base to hear noise.
# tells Pico Explorer which pin you'll be using for noise
explorer.set_audio_pin(0)
Yes, I inserted a jumper wire into GP0 next to the green breadboard, and connected the other end of the jumper wire to AUDIO (again next to the green breadboard.) But no audio comes out. I also tried changing it to (1) and jumping GP1 to the AUDIO connection. I just get a constant buzz then, almost inaudible, but I can still hear it. This buzzing occurs even if the script is being run or not.
Did you solder the headers on the PICO?
If yes, what is the soldering like?
The soldering is fine. Each pin was checked from connectivity via a multimeter with the pico connected to a breakout board.
Ok, had to ask.;) I guess its the buzzer then?
EDIT: I (try to) make it a habit to check the functionality of new stuff I just got, to find defects during the return period. Like you, I have ordered stuff and it was months latter that I actually got around to tinkering with it. On the plus side, its been few and far between with defects. And getting replacements has been a no hassle deal.