Stop Barking Dogs: Powerful Ultrasonic Dog Bark Control LRAD Sound Cannon! Don't fry your amplifier!

[@dafringe]

Great video. I've bookmarked this in case I need to go this route at some point in the future. For those of us with no experience with this type of equipment, it would be nice to see a video showing all the parts disconnected, and then watch as you put it all together, piece by piece. Nevertheless, I appreciate the time and effort you put in on this project. Thank you!

[@yurij8039]

Thank you for the comment and support!

[@MrGoblue1131]

agree! I would do this if I had "idiot proof" step by step instructions also..

[@yurij8039]

@@MrGoblue1131 Working on it!

[@alltube264]

@@yurij8039 Please report back when you finish it! I've not found any great step by step instructions on this sort of thing.

[@yurij8039]

@@alltube264 Will Do!

[@yurij8039]

Low cost Ultrasonic Dog Barking Cannon for under $500: Posted for those who asked for a low cost solution. MAKE SURE YOUR IMPEDANCE MATCHING IS CORRECT OR YOU WILL HAVE ISSUES! 1. Combined O-Scope and Signal Generator $178. www.amazon.com/dp/B089GG14BP?ref=emc_s_m_5_i_atc&th=1 2. Crown XLi 800 used $200: With the speakers specified start out with 5 to 10 Volt output and don't go much beyond this or you may be at risk of blowing something out. START with running the volume at 1/4 volume on the knob and see if the dogs stop barking. DO NOT increase the volume more than 50% on the knob unless you are calculating and measuring. 3. Skar 600W Super bullet tweeter $30 each: You will need an array of at least two for LRAD. TARGET no more than 50 Watts for steady state operating the system. www.amazon.com/dp/B01N217DS4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 4. Place your cannon as close to the dogs as possible. Use outdoor speaker wire long enough to do this. Use the O-Scope to measure VPP for matching input voltage between your Signal Generator and power amplifier. You will be able to work with a sine wave and see clipping on the O-Scope. The amplifier also has clipping detection and a circuit breaker if something goes wrong. See link in other comments to wire your speakers in series or parrallel as needed. Stay within the manufacturers impedance limits between your speakers and amplifier. This is still a relatively high power system and you will need to test the range or distance you are able to achieve before blowing your speakers out or triggering the circuit breaker on you power amplifier. Build at your own risk because I did not build out one of these so you are responsible to make this work on your own. Wear ear plugs! This is still NOT A TOY and be cognizant to avoid damaging the dog's ears. Good Luck, but yes a low cost unit is possible. I Engineered mine for at least 300 feet range or distance and I don't know the distance you can safely achieve with this type of equipment. I would not try this unless you have electronics experience and know what you are doing. But if you did have electronics experience you would already know this. 😃You could still go lower in total cost but need the knowledge, experience and will need to figure this out on your own. This is just pointing you in the right direction and a good place to reliably stop. 😃

[@MrGoblue1131]

THIS is exactly what I'm looking to do, but I'm honestly not smart enough to put it all together and understand how to tune it in etc. It's not even a money issue. I would buy the stuff but just end up not being able to make it work. I wish I knew someone as smart as Yurij to help..

[@yurij8039]

If you study the information on this video and comments I suggest you take your time to study everything and you can do this. It's all assembly and plug and play. I am happy to give you advice. Let me know and we can figure a way to connect. Glad to help out.

[@MrGoblue1131]

I may take you up on that and appreciate it Yuri. My main hang ups are on the connections and tuning. I'm gonna try a prebuilt unit and see if that does anything first to see if that helps before I would spend any real $. Thanks@@yurij8039

[@angied1128]

This is an awesome video. I need something like this. My neighbors 4 dogs have me without sleeping for 2 yrs now ! So sad I don't have this kind of skills. I am going to subscribe in the hopes you put together a video with a shopping list and step by step instructions.

[@yurij8039]

I just posted equipment that can be used at a much lower cost. It's the same principle outlined in this video and since mine works, I don't have a need to build out another lower cost system. Take a look at the lower cost components I posted and assemble the same as I did in this video. Enjoy!

[@Deeveeaar]

I love it, you mad scientist! 😎

[@yurij8039]

You hit the nail on the head! That's why we are friends! 🙂

[@lowstaar]

you guys know how to FIX IT

[@yurij8039]

@@lowstaar Good one! 😏

[@settym8240]

Hi Yurij, I am glad you invented your own working solution to avoid dog barking. I am Setty from India, I have this same problem here and non of the solutions available in the market worked for me here in India. I would like to get the list of materials that you have used and seek guidance on how to replicate the solution you have developed. Can you please provide some info.

[@yurij8039]

Hi, everything you need to know is included in the comments. Just read through very carefully and you will have all the information you need to build out your own unit. Enjoy!

[@Geekermo]

Would even pay to have diagrams of this.

[@yurij8039]

You can have the design for free my friend. How do you suggest we exchange emails?

[@KennyEvansUK]

This seems to be an excellent solution. I'm wondering now how to trigger this in response to a bark, because I don't want to be flicking switches all day and also I'd like the dog to receive 'training' when I'm not in, or not able to trigger it manually. Also you have a lot of things going on here but can you not massively simplify this with a small tone generator that plugs into a standard amp with standard matched impedance speakers - with Tweeters to carry the higher frequency? You may need to preamp the signal to get best performance but all if your calculations and measuring devices would seem redundant if you use kit that is matched in terms of signal level and outputting at the level you want: 1, 2, 500 watts etc

[@yurij8039]

Great points and questions! As far as triggering the system to automatically turn on and off please see this Raspberry Pi solution a friend of mine shared. I have learned once the dogs are trained you probably don't need this because they do stop barking. www.instructables.com/Dog-Bark-Sensor/ There are other ways to automatically turn this on and off but you need to be proficient with Matlab signal processing module and machine learning. That may be an overkill. As far as kits? I haven't run into any that work this effectively but if you happen to find one please post. When I first tried this I did exactly what you suggested and bought some components, plugged them in and burned out a power amplifier. The problem is most audio equipment post specifications that are not true or confusing. Not pretty! That's why I started measuring and calculated everything. All based on Ohms law. I agree the equipment used is a bit of an overkill but I also have an electronics workbench with the equipment already purchased. This was a prototype system and when I started was working blind completely in the dark. I wanted all the data available and flexibility because you can't hear the ultrasonic sound wave. Without actual Impedance measurements I couldn't calculate the 25 VAC threshold for 100 Watts. There are some very sharp guys I have been communicating with on this thread that have built out a second generation system and have gotten away with just a function generator, O-scope, power amp, and tweeters. If your interested please read lessons learned comments in this thread. Especially lessons learned from 25 South Cycle. Very talented Engineer! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions and post any lessons learned you may want to share. I tried to set this thread up for technical guys to learn from each other to stop the barking vermin from annoying us! 🙂Thank you for the positive feedback and response!

[@KennyEvansUK]

​@@yurij8039I'm thinking a 150w amp with some piezo tweeters, rated at 300w and with a 10w resistor in series for amp protection as the amp will think it's connected to a capacitor. Then rig these with a piece of pipe attached to funnel the sound. Attach a mobile phone to the amp and bring up a signal generator, dial in the perfect frequency, then turn on when the dog starts. I'll let you know... Thanks for the response.

[@tonyseverance7321]

This is so F#$&ing over the top...I Love It!!

[@yurij8039]

Yes it's that good! KZbin blocked my original response. If you read between the lines..... what choices do you have to go to the bathroom? Inside in the silence and comfort of your home or outside where you are going crazy? Never annoy an Engineer! It's who we are... It's what we do! I love it too! LOL!😉

[@ref8893]

This is just excellent, respect!

[@yurij8039]

Thank you! This was a very fun project and happy to share a solution with lessons learned and instructions to build out your own system that works with folks trying to deal with similar issues.

[@gertbenade3082]

Nine years and two neighbours with undisciplined dogs. Or owners perhaps! Countless requests in person and in writing has had no effect... I am thinking about programming an Arduino to generate semi-random pulses of different shapes at different intervals to get the dogs to relocate to the far end of their property. Since the dogs, like their owners, have no sense of consideration, I will not be too concerned about super-low THD figures and would any distortion probably add 'flavour' to the mix… (Until I manage to destroy the tweeters🤣) Thanks for posting this!

[@yurij8039]

Enjoy! It's a fun build!

[@esau999]

@gertbenade3082 Like yuri said, it's a fun build...and it works. My suburban neighbor's dogs shut up within a few minutes of turning it on. I think they have finally understood that their dogs are a nuisance since I no longer hear them outside all day, so maybe I trained the owners. I like to use a sweep, but keep in mind that the DS18 PRO-DKH1 drivers pass a lot of audible half frequencies the more power put to them. Also found out the hard way that their advertised specs are...generous: in parallel, two speakers can't handle more than 20ish Vac for more than a few hours. They're very modular, though, so easy to repair. Have recently started experimenting with piezos. They can't handle the same amount of power, but have much greater fidelity when it comes to asking them to only pass the frequencies they're asked to pass. Next step is to build an AI model that recognizes the barking and automatically activates the system.

[@gertbenade3082]

@@esau999 thanks for the tip about the piezo drivers. Those DS18s are REALLY expensive and I will have to import them into South Africa.. At current exchange rates, I might buy a whole box full of piezos... Or maybe get myself a drum kit. Playing drums is a lot like playing the violin... 🤣

[@yurij8039]

@@esau999 When I called the speaker manufacturer (DS18 PRO-DKH1) that's exactly what they told me. Do not run these speakers at more than 100 Watts which comes out to the 20 VAC I suggested in this video. I'm glad they were correct and as I suggested if you run these at between 20 to 30 VAC there are no issues and it works beautifully. Nice to hear someone else confirmed this is also the case.

[@yurij8039]

@@esau999 I looked heavily into piezos and many pros to using them. They are essentially large capacitors that will need to be discharged using inductors in order to get them to vibrate. So your design will be slightly different, I agree they don't need that much power to work. Enjoy!

[@esau999]

Thanks for this, Yurij! I was looking for a solution to my inconsiderate neighbors who have no problems letting their dogs bark all night, and this is by far the best I've found. It really does work. It is by no means cheap, but how much is your sanity worth? Your video doesn't do justice to how loud this setup truly is. At 1KHz, with the amplifier gain set at less than one, the sound level is 105dB 10' away at horizontal in a 15'x15' room - that's human hearing damage loud! Folks, if you go this route, make sure you have hearing protection when testing your setup. I do have a few questions. While I have lots of familiarity with DMMs and can navigate around a signal generator, I haven't had much experience yet with oscilloscopes. How and where do you hook up the oscope probe(s)? I say "probe(s)" because it looks like you're already pulling a reference signal from somewhere. I see you mention to use the 10x probe, but I don't know where to hook it up. Are you just going to speaker channel positive with the probe and the amp chassis with the probe ground? Don't want to foul my oscope. I guess some of this will depend on how you're connecting the speakers to the amp output. Are you just connecting your speaker wires directly to the bridge output connections on the amp? The oscope piece is all I'm really missing because I can't "see" all of the aspects of the output. Again, much thanks for posting this and for any answers you can provide. You're my hero!

[@yurij8039]

Thanks I am glad you got this to work! The O-scope has automatic mode and is easy to work with. You would hook up the signal on a red or hot wire and the alligator clamp on the black wire on your speakers. Please see the following video that will get you running with an O-scope. Thanks kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5OWmql7j9Rqntk

[@esau999]

@@yurij8039 Much appreciated! And thanks for the scope video series: I'm in the midst of a BSEE program about to head into circuits, so this is VERY useful.

[@yurij8039]

@@esau999 Enjoy!

[@esau999]

@@yurij8039 One more question. Your video shows a 25kHz signal, but it can clearly be heard from the tweeters. The signal generator is producing 25kHz, but output is very clearly at half of that at ~12.5kHz. Are you running your sig gen up to 50kHz to get a 25kHz tweeter output that's audible to dogs but otherwise inaudible to people?

[@yurij8039]

@@esau999 If you set your SG at 25Khz you should get a 25Kz sound wave coming out of your speaker. You should not hear anything at all. Most Signal Generators output at 50 Ohms which will skew the output signal by a factor of two. Try setting your SG to High Z mode which will fix the issue. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJjLnpWPqZyEjdk Have fun!

[@Dazzwidd]

You could do a portable version with 1 horn, a 40W chip amp utilizing 2 bridged LM1875 and an audio geberator based on a few transistors. Power it all from ten 18650 li-ion batteries. Have a momentary switch to hit em with bursts. That would be compact and would be effective from over 100m away

[@yurij8039]

So you are talking about something like this concept? kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4LEhJttrqiam5I Interesting. I think you will need to do some work because the LM 1875 distorts at ultrasonic frequencies. Also, if you are running off a battery you will need to charge often. I played with DC/AC and decided it was just too annoying and made a decision to go 100% AC. But hey, this looks cool! I talked to some guys who used a horn speaker that didn't perform well at ultrasonic frequencies. You can still hear 20Khz. Remember you are working with a mono signal and sine wave. I think you may be able to get this to work but will need to do some Engineering to get it to work. Have fun and Good Luck! Let us know how you make out. Enjoy!

[@Dazzwidd]

@@yurij8039 Hmmm I don't think you quite got what I was proposing. Intermittent completely portable use. I already destroyed some plovers around here with a less aggressive set up using a diversely adjustifiyable siren generation circuit into a single lm1875 on a 8 ohm horn speaker, powered by a 24V vacuum cleaner battery

[@yurij8039]

@@Dazzwidd I have seen running Piezo tweeters with an inductor to discharge the capacitance. Discharging gets the speaker vibrating. These are inexpensive and don't require a lot of power. You have a reference video of the concept I can look at? Interesting stuff. Anyway, more than one way to skin a cat. Enjoy!

[@Dazzwidd]

@@yurij8039 Nah no vids, I just mess around. The series inductance should be used to resonate with the transducer capacitance I think in order to secure the greatest efficiency, if it's an almost purely capacitive load. I'm thinking about playing around with ultrasonic parametric techniques. AM at 40 kHz or so 🤣

[@yurij8039]

@@Dazzwidd I saw a video on KZbin where the guy used a Piezo as a capacitor and used an inductor to discharge to ground. He ended up powering with li-ion batteries and it worked beautifully. Best video I saw on KZbin but I can't find it. I have to say it was a lot of work and since I have already have an Electronics bench I took this route. Lots of playing around to get it to work. You still need to generate a sine wave. Enjoy!

[@jparrie]

Hi Yurij, Thanks so much for posting this, it is an awesome project. As a complete novice to electronics I have slowly been purchasing the equipment, I have 6 Skar speakers and the cheap Oscilloscope/generator but at the moment I only have a 150W or so stereo amp (8 to 16 Ohms). Testing it, I can get the scope to display the waveform and it works a treat at the lower frequencies, it is certainly loud at 7KHz or so. When I turn the frequency up to 23KHz, the scope starts clipping at just under 10v. At that frequency I can hear the speaker sort of crackle a bit. Is this normal? Of course, not being able to hear it, I have no idea how loud it might be to dogs. I can get quite close to them, probably 15m for one set of speakers (I have built three speaker enclosures, each with two speakers in series), but the other speaker set needs to transmit about 50m or so to be effective. I am also using one of the speaker cabinets to deter kids from loitering, at 17KHz, I assume this will work better at that frequency. Would the single channel higher power amp be massively better? Any other info greatly received from a newbie! Thanks.

[@yurij8039]

Hi, First you should be seeing two sine waves on the O-scope. The first sine wave is your baseline that displays the signal coming from the function generator. The voltage coming out of your baseline should be set to match the input sensitivity voltage of your amplifier. The second sine wave should measure the voltage coming out of the amplifier and into your speakers. I assume this is the voltage you are bringing up to 10 VAC when you see clipping. I would guess the volume knob on your amplifier is way above the half way mark which is another sign your amplifier is not powerful enough. If this is the case running at such high volumes EVEN with a clean sine wave still puts you at risk of frying out your amplifier. Look at how all the kids burn out their car stereo systems because they just plug and chug without properly designing their systems. I would also bet your 150 Watt amplifier really comes out with a real RMS at well below 100 Watts. You just have to love how audio equipment manufacturers misrepresent. They are probably not advertising real wattage but something close to peak. I would not be comfortable having an amplifier frying out in my home. As a start this is how your system should be set up and as soon as you see clipping turn your system off because clipping indicates you will fry out your equipment at any time. If both baseline and amplifier sine waves are clipping you have multiple issues and need to get both sine waves displaying without any clipping. Yes, I think your amplifier is not powerful enough to take this above 10 VAC so a more powerful amplifier looks to be a good move. How are you measuring the voltage coming out of your amplifier and going into your speakers? At ultrasonic frequencies a hand held Digital Multimeter (DMM) will not work. You need to measure this voltage with a decent bench DMM. Otherwise you are guessing. Or you can use your O-scope to measure voltage but make sure you are set to High Z mode. Calibrate your O-scope at lower frequencies with a hand held DMM. Also, your amplifier should be capable of operating in mono mode since the signal coming from your function generator is a mono signal and not stereo. Last question, how many watts are your speakers rated for? My speakers are rated at 600 Watts but I can only safely take them up to 100 watts (about 25 VAC) at ultrasonic frequencies. So even if you boost the power on a mono amplifier if you hear crackling you are also at risk of blowing out your speakers. That was by design and you can put a new diaphragm into your speakers for about $10. Still if your speakers are too small this will be a limit on how loud you can run your system. As a start get two sine waves to display as described and verify two voltages. The first voltage coming from your baseline makes sure you are matching the input sensitivity to your amplifier and the second measures voltage coming out of your amplifier to speakers. I would caution you not to use this to deter kids and do not recommend to use this way. This is no toy. Sounds like your system is just under specified to use at anything above 10 VAC. (Maybe 40 Watts?) This may be enough to stop the barking vermin. Have they stopped barking at 10 VAC? Even then you are at risk of burning out if you are still running at high volumes. I hope this helps and enjoy the build!

[@j.g.smitherman]

Thank you so much for this video instructional and your replies to the comments--this is KZbin gold! I'm looking to build a more affordable version and I'm wondering what the potential problems are with using both AC and DC powered equipment together? For example, why is it undesirable to pair the Rolls Testoscillator (DC powered) with the Crown amp (AC powered)? Would pairing the Rolls (or similar) with a DC powered car amp be better? Or is it just the DC-to-AC converters that are the concern? Thanks!

[@yurij8039]

Hi, I was sharing lessons learned with a few people who tried using the Rolls Testoscillator as well as trying this myself when I started the project. Please see lessons learned written by 25 South Cycle below. He managed to build out a lower cost version that works beautifully. What is very important is to get your impedance matching correct. The voltage output of the Rolls is about 2.4 Volts which create real issues when connecting to a power amplifier. Signal Clipping as soon as you turn up the volume! I actually fried a power amplifier using the Rolls unit. 25 South Cycle built out a unit using a signal generator unit UGT900E on Amazon 188$. A pocket oscilloscope, 80$ a nice surplus Crown 1160a amplifier for 68$. He used the O-scope to measure the output voltage (Peek to Peek) of the signal generator to match impedance needed to run the Crown 1160a amplifier. You can adjust Peek-to-Peek voltage in the Signal Generator when it's set at 25Khz. between 20Khz and 30Khz there is minimal voltage float and you will be fine. Also make sure you don't go too high on the amplifier output voltage on the less expensive amp or you risk burning it out. So he was able to get away with not purchasing the pre-amp or bench multimeters. You can also set the signal generator to sweep between a range of 22Khz to 30Khz which will keep the dogs mixed up. With this amplifier he did connect two of the bullet tweeters the same way I built out my unit. (LRAD configuration) However that amplifier maxed out at 140 Watts (Which will run hot) and he did mention it worked so well he was going to upgrade to a Crown XLi2200 which is less expensive than the XLi3500. The XLi2200 will not give you as much head room but it has a circuit breaker and fan if you get too hot. Those Super Bullet Tweeters are rated at 600 Watts but 100Watts is a good starting target. I would avoid a car DC amplifier unless you can get at least 200 Watts out of it. (Real Watts not rated Watts) Also using that much power will quickly drain your batteries, or you will need a AC to DC inverter which just adds cost to your system. So if you stay with the Rolls you will have an impedance matching issue, risk of your amplifier burning and the sine wave will not be clean. When my amplifier fried there were flames coming out and I'm not comfortable having something like this in my home. Also with the Rolls you will need to use a RCA jack but keep in mind you are working with a mono signal. If you need advice let me know and we'll figure out a way to connect. Have fun! Thanks for the comment!

[@j.g.smitherman]

@@yurij8039 Thank you so much. This is making more sense to me now. I will use the Uni-T UTG932E instead of the Testoscillator and either the Crown XLi-800 or a used Crown X3000 I've found. The XLi-800 has about 250W at 6ohm, so I should be able to run one cannon on each channel (each with two tweeters) if I keep below 125 W per tweeter by monitoring the voltage. And I'll keep the function generator Vp-p at 1.4 V and configure the Crown to match that. (I already have an o-scope and lab meter). Please let me know if you see any issues, and I'd love to find a way to connect--please advise how. I'm going to pursue a smart implementation with a barking sensor and I'd like your feedback. Thanks!

[@yurij8039]

@@j.g.smitherman By the way the following link contains open source code to build out a Smart Rasberry Pi solution that you mention. Enjoy! www.instructables.com/Dog-Bark-Sensor/ Also, make sure your O scope is set to High Z mode. Thanks

[@tonyseverance7321]

I need a solution for my next door neighbor's 6, yes 6, chihuahuas that start barking the second they hear our back door open. My wife and I cannot even sit on our back porch and enjoy a cup of coffee.

[@yurij8039]

I think this would do the trick my friend!

[@Warpedsmac]

Wow , I thought my 30watt approx. 19kHz was "the best in the world". I now realize I am a rank amateur!!!! Does your unit actually DETECT the dogs barking, or do you switch it on at night???

[@yurij8039]

Hi, this worked so well I didn't have to build a bark detection circuit. After about two weeks the dogs stopped barking completely. Every now and then I turn it on for a few minutes and basically it's crickets coming out of these dogs. 😃

[@Warpedsmac]

@@yurij8039 Hello again from Australia. Thanks for such a rapid response Yurij!! I think both you and I are particularly tuned to the irritating sound of dogs barking. And we are both engineers! The dogs over the fence from me (suburban setting) are Alsations which, at least to me, are THE MOST irritating barkers!! This is the reason I have a Greyhound. I love your set up and like you I have found it works. I also bought one of the hand-held ultrasonic emitters...I carry it with me when I clean the pool right near the fence...it works at close range very well. Cheers from Australia!!!

[@yurij8039]

@@Warpedsmac I am glad you built one out and got this to work! Enjoy fellow Engineer!

[@marceloovg1873]

Hey mate, how can I contact you? I'm gonna get fired from my remote job, my neighbor has 4 dogs who bark all day and night... I bought 4 devices on amazon en Ebay already and they don't work at all. I involved police, tried talking to him , etc, nothing has worked! and I'm at my wits end, please help!

[@yurij8039]

Email? This is less expensive than taking your neighbor to court and getting no where.

[@k.f.9875]

So how does this precisely work? Does it automatically give out the ultrasonic sound whenever the dog barks, stopping the dog from barking, and then it automatically turns off? Or it is always on giving out ultrasonic sound all the time?

[@yurij8039]

I just go down to my basement when the dogs start barking and turn it on. Ten minutes later when the dogs stop barking I turn it off. I didn't have to automate this because the dogs are fully trained in less than 10 days. I may need to turn it on once a month to keep them trained. It's that effective. Some guys I spoke with connected the speakers to a handheld remote control and kept the remote under his pillow. So when they started barking in the middle of the night he just turned it on for 10 minutes and then you hear crickets. I did post a dog barking Rasberry Pi solution in the comments but didn't need to build one out. Dogs are trained quickly. This is no toy and works. Here is a link to a remote control you can use instead of turning on manually. Enjoy! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SVJHPWQ/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=A39KK3JMT5S2I5&psc=1

[@MrTitanAutoglass]

Hi Yurij. Thank you for the video and all the info in the comments. I have a question regarding measuring the AC voltage going in and out of the amplifier. On my first attempt, I was using a good quality DMM to measure these voltages. I got them where I wanted based on the info you provided… and then blew up my amp. I then read where you said voltage can’t be accurately measured with a handheld DMM above 8 to 10 Khz. So on my second attempt with a different amp, I used the VPP from my oscilloscope. With the scope reading 20 volts peak to peak going to the tweeters, my setup seems to have zero affect on the dog across the street. (and I also ran it up to 28 VAC VPP on the scope) When I measure with a DMM, I’m getting a very tiny .018 VAC. But again you had said a DMM is not usable at higher frequencies. I’ve been trying 22 to 25 Khz. Could you tell me if the way I’m currently using the scope peak to peak to set things up is correct? If so, I maybe just can’t get the range I need. It’s also very difficult getting a straight shot at the offending dog due to tree branches.

[@yurij8039]

Hi, I have noticed some people have issues getting accurate voltage measurements between Function Generator and O-scope. Sometimes the voltage coming out of the function generator does not match what you are seeing on your scope. This could be due to a mismatch caused by the output impedance of the signal generator which is automatically set to 50 ohms. You need to set your Function generator to High Z mode in order to fix this. See video in link.kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnTPdmupa7eNmsk Also, try setting the function generator to 5Khz or less and measure the output voltage with your DMM. There will be a slight drift between 5Khz and 22Khz but it won't drift orders of magnitude off. This is a good way to confirm you are in the right ballpark. Going from your signal generator to your amplifier you need to set the voltage to match the input sensitivity of your amplifier. This is usually either 0.775 or 1.4 VAC. So if you are inputting 20 VAC from signal generator to your amplifier input I understand why you blew out the amp. Did you see any clipping on your O-scope of the sine wave? If so stop immediately and figure out what is wrong. The second voltage you measure is the output volume of the amplifier. At the speaker terminals strip the speaker wire and measure the voltage going from your amplifier to speakers. Again start at 5Khz and make sure everything matches on your DMM and O-scope. Once you confirm take it up to the ultrasonic frequencies. I hope this helps and feel free to reach out if you have other questions. Also, please post how you resolved the issue to help others who run into similar issues. Thanks again and enjoy!

[@yurij8039]

You should be monitoring two sine waves on two different channels on your O-scope. The first sine wave comes from your Signal Generator on channel one. This is your baseline and the peak to peak voltage should equal the input sensitivity voltage that you connect to your amplifier input terminal. The second sine wave you monitor should be connected to channel two of your O-Scope and connected to the speaker wires that you run from amplifier to speakers. By turning up the volume knob of your amplifier thats the sine wave you bring up to 20 VAC to get a 100 Watt output to your speakers. Hope this helps.

[@yurij8039]

This set up will get through some light leave/branch coverage. But if you have thick leaves and heavy branches try moving it around to get a straight shot. Good Luck!

[@MrTitanAutoglass]

​@@yurij8039 Hi Yurij. On the first attempt where I fried the amp, I was Just under 1.4 VAC from the generator to the amp, and at the amp output to the tweeters things seemed ok at 10 VAC but when I pushed it up to 20 VAC things went 'pop' and I let the smoke out shortly after. It ejected the housing off one of the capacitors. The sine wave was good with no clipping. On that attempt I was strictly using the DMM for voltage settings and only watching the sine wave on the oscilloscope but wasn't paying attention to the scope peak to peak voltage. On the 2nd attempt I used solely oscilloscope peak to peak voltage for voltage settings and again had a clean sine wave. Using that set up is when I had extremely low voltage readings on the DMM but ignored that once I'd read what you said about inaccuracies with the handheld DMM at high frequencies. I'm going to try doing what you said here and measure with a DMM at 5 Khz to get my base settings dialed in. Then move up to 22 to 25 Khz. Thank you for the advice.

[@MrTitanAutoglass]

​@@yurij8039 I was doing as you said here, except I was only monitoring one thing at a time using the first channel. For round two (round three actually), I'll watch them together using separate channels. If I get a huge difference in voltage readings between the scope and the DMM like I did the last time, (when I try it at 5 Khz this time) what could cause this? (Both were measuring in VAC and on the scope I'd been using VPP as stated earlier)

[@dhoutdoorvids6674]

Hey. I’m going on 5 years of issues with my neighbor. I have about 4 failed attempts at building an lrad. I need to reach 300’. Would you consider selling a plug n play unit?

[@yurij8039]

Hi, Please see my responses to comments where I share all equipment/connectors/wires you need to build this out. I understand the five years of torture you have been through and happy to coach you at no cost to build out your unit. The system posted here can reach well over 300 feet. I pointed this at a coyote about 400 plus feet away and it bolted with it's tail between legs using 35 volts and two cannons spaced 10 feet apart. But this was on open grass terrain with no trees, fences or other obstructions. This works on birds, rodents, insects and most critters but for some reason deer are not affected. Note: I don't use it for insects when people are around because it's not good for our ears. I don't know whether you are blocked by trees, fences etc. but this system is no toy and works. If you are interested in free help let's figure out how we can connect offline. No need for purchasing from me because it's all plug and play, it's all here and just needs to be assembled. The only thing you need to build is the speaker enclosure. I used 3/4 inch plastic boards purchased in 24 inch wide planks. Your call. Thank you

[@josephaldrich4023]

Please do a tutorial on how to build this

[@esau999]

Everything you need is in the comments and the video.

[@ragdollcat7512]

I may be mistaken, but per the tech specs, I note that the tweeters you are using (PRO-DKH1) have an upper frequency limit of 18.5 kHz, but you refer to 25+ kHz in the video? Are the tweeters reaching these higher levels?

[@yurij8039]

Great question! When I called the manufacturer all of these super bullet tweeters can handle at least 30 Khz. The reason for this is at the lower frequencies the sound quality is better, so speakers are overspeced. The same goes for the amplifier. Note, the Amplifier is designed to be used as a PA system and can process a mono-signal in parrallel and bridge mode. The other advantage of using this amplifier is that it also has an internal circuit breaker which will be triggered if you experience clipping or issues with your input volt sensitivity. With all these safety features in place you have close to zero risk of frying any of your equipment. Trust me when I fried the first amplifier I thought I was going to have a fire and did not want to risk something like this happening in my basement. I also considered putting all this in a fire protected rack but after finishing the prototype decided this will not be necessary. It does not run hot at all and the volume to achieve 100 Watts is about a quarter on the volume control of the amp. Note: Ultrasonic sound waves are very narrow and do not cover a wide area. That's why I went with four cannons. It's not any louder but I cover more area at ultrasonic frequencies. If the ultrasonic sound waves hit a tree the sound will never reach the dogs. Also note I measured the impedence using a meter because at ultrasonic frquencies impedence is a function of resistance, Capacitance and inductance. Just checking resistance on a DMM will not give you an accurate impedence reading. These are 8 Ohm speakers wired in parrallel so my impedence should have been 4 Ohms which is the minimum impedence the amplifier can handle. When I measured the actual inpedence I came in at 6 Ohms which is safe for this system. Knowing the exact impedence allowed me to calculate the exact voltage needed to get 100 Watts from the bullet tweeters. Otherwise you are guestimating. This is important because you can't hear what is coming out of the speaker and to understand how loud an ultrasonic sound wave really is I would have to build a Rasberry Pi circuit to measure loudness of an ultrasonic wave at various distances from the speaker enclosure. The microphone to build this is expensive so a decibel reading is an approximation. The top range of impedence for this amplifier is about 18 Ohms so wiring the speakers in series would have worked but I would be just using more power which I wanted to avoid. Putting more volts into these super bullet tweeters will put you at risk of blowing the speaker diaphram, however the diaphram can be replaced for about $10. Bottom line, per manufacturer at 100 Watts these speakers can handle ultrasonic frequencies but exceeding the 100 Watt threshold will put you at risk of blowing the speakers. Remember at about 100 DB raising the volume to 105 plus DB will require using 30 to 40 Volts out of the amplifier and thats when things get hot. Not worth thowing an additional 20 Volts of power to gain 5 db in volume. I had this thing up to close to 50 Volts at 25Khz and I did get dizzy. The speakers did start to crackle but I have not blown a diaphram or blow the tweeter even at these voltages. I would not suggest doing this. Two possible upgrades, first it's summer and I am monitoring the temperature of the speaker enclosure. I may end up installing a cooling fan to keep the speakers from overheating due to beinng out in the sun. Second, I picked up a Rasberry PI and considering building a circuit that will sense a dog bark that would trigger the device to start and remain on until 30 seconds after the dogs stop barking. This is all about training the dogs to stop barking and not torturing the dogs. See picture of speaker enclosure mounted to a tripod. I will probably follow up with part 2 of this video once I collect all lessons leaned. By the way, the cheap signal generators give you a sine wave on the oscilliscope that is horrible. I would stick with a real signal generator that produces a very clean sine wave. The white sine wave in my video is my baseline and is very clean. I blew the circuit on the SPA1010 pre-amp at least 5 times and glad I put it there as a safety precaution. The SPA1010 has a 10x setting but I keep this at 1x. At frequencies below 10 Hz my crown amplifier gives me a warning that my input sensitivity is too low. The voltage reading on my DMM confirms this. Note each crown amp weighs 40 pounds and my speaker enclosure weighs close to 30 pounds. Lots of inertia here and when this thing is running you feel the power you are safely putting into this system. This is no toy. Hope this helps.

[@Jcombetta]

A lot of information it would’ve helped if you could’ve demonstrated

[@yurij8039]

I didn't want to make the video too long. I did demonstrate 5 Volts used in human audible range and 10 Volts at ultrasonic range. The difficulty is you can't hear this and that's why I demonstrated the sine wave on the O-Scope at 25 Khz. Maybe I'll make a part 2 showing how this works on dogs but a little concerned because I could be liable since this is stealth and my neighbor is not aware of the device. The "Dog" would be let out of the bag! LOL! Imagine how a part two video will look. Crazy barking vermin dogs followed by the vermin shutting up right after I turn the system on. Maybe a confused look on the vermin's faces as they leave the yard? That's how it looks friend. Thanks for the comment.

[@JesusTheWayTheTruthTheLife]

Hey mate, Thanks for the video I really appreciate you sharing this solution. I’m having major problems with my neighbours dogs, have been for the last 2 years now tried everything to resolve it even offered to pay thousands for equipment to no avail. I truly hope this might be an effective remedy. I’m a real novice when it comes to all this tech spec & engineering related info so could you please confirm if the products listed below are all that’s required? Product List 1. Siglent SDS 1104X-E (x1) 2. Siglent SDG 1032X (x1) 3. Siglent SPA1010 - 10 Watt Amplifier (x1) 4. Siglent SDM3045X (x2) 5. Crown XLi3500 - Two Channel 1350W Power Amplifier (x1) 6. DSL8 PRO-DKH1 Tweeter speaker 600W (x2) Do you also need two of the crown XLi3500 power amplifiers & two of the Silglent SPA1010 pre amps or is one of each enough? I’m just wondering if a second of these is necessary & if so why that is? Curious as well if I need to purchase additional cables / equipment to connect everything? You mentioned you’re an engineer & I’m definitely not so is it easy enough to put together oneself? If not I’ll look into hiring someone once I’ve got everything sorted. My brother is a sparky so perhaps he can if I’m unable. Apologies for any amateur questions also, this is not in any way my area of expertise. I wouldn’t even have to do this if I didn’t have neighbours who keep entirely unexercised cattle dogs in a ridiculously confined space.. do the math. Again I really appreciate you sharing this you’re a legend. Thanks.

[@yurij8039]

Hi, I think you can get away with the following: Product List 1. Siglent SDS 1104X-E (x1) If you are on a budget you don't have to buy and trust the signal generator. Also, the Crown amp has a circuit breaker, clipping and low input signal detection and will blow the circuit before anything bad can happen. But having an Oscilliscope is cool especially if you start modulating the wave. Remember you can't hear this and from my perspective wanted to see as much data as possible for something I can't hear. So if the Oscilliscope shows no signal then thats really the only way you can tell if something is wrong since you can't hear this. You will see voltage out of the DMM but will not have a complete picture without an O-scope. Note there is a simple calibration process for the O-scope probes and use the probes in 10X mode. There is also an auto-setting button on the O-scope so you can use this without learning much about electronics theory. 2. Siglent SDG 1032X (x1) Yes you will need this 3. Siglent SPA1010 - 10 Watt Amplifier (x1) Yes you will need this. the SPA1010 also has a protective circuit breaker which I triggerrred about 5 times. Lessons learned, use only bnc to XLR cables or BNC to RCA to bare wires. Also I was playing with attenuators to get to 1.4V and the equipment didn't like them. Luckily at the SPA1010 set to 1x anything above 10Hz to 35Khz plus will be in the 1.4V range. Note: The higher the frequency the more narrow and focused your audio wave will be which means your range (Not Distance of the wave) will decrease. So it will be more difficult to get to the dogs because of hitting trees, fences, etc. I try to keep the frequencies lower with a wider audio wave for this reason. 4. Siglent SDM3045X (x2) Yes you will need two of these. Note: The inexpensive hand held Digital Multimeters DO NOT measure VAC accurately above about 8 Khz. At 20Khz the hand helds give you a zero VAC reading. That was an interesting lessons learned. 5. Crown XLi3500 - Two Channel 1350W Power Amplifier (x1) You can probably get away with a Crown XLi-800. This has two channels and you can run two cannons off of this one amplifier. Set the amp in parrallel mode with input sensitivity of 1.4V. Start with a 10V output and work your way up until the dogs shut up. Put it this way, the Crown XLI-3500 weighs 45 pounds and the XLI-800 comes in at 20 pounds. You get what you pay for. :-) The only reason you would need multiple amplifiers is if you want to add more cannons. You can only safely have two cannons per amplifier. Keep in mind ultrasonic sound waves are very narrow and focused, so more cannons let you cover a wider area if the dogs are hard to get to. Theoretically at super high frequencies you will have something like an audio laser which will just dissipate if you hit a big thick tree. 6. DSL8 PRO-DKH1 Tweeter speaker 600W (x2). These speakers are so powerful I suggest you build an enclosure for each and run two cannons with one speaker each. You will lose the LRAD effect if you only use one tweeter per cannon. (At least two tweeters needed for LRAD). Another option is to purchase some cheaper bullet tweeters. DO NOT use any tweeter with a cross over circuit. Ignore the Capacitor. This will only make your tweeters less effective. 7. Use a bnc to XLR male adaptor to connect the SPA1010 to the Crown amp. 8. Pick up a bnc male to 3 female Jack coaxial connector and plug this into the output of the SPA1010 9. Get a bnc to RCA adaptor with two bare speaker wires attached. Connect the DMM to the bare wires to measure output voltage of the preamp. Connect the Oscilliscope here if you get one 10. Connect the second DMM to speaker wires coming out of the amp. Connect the Oscilliscope here if you get one. Note you only need to connect to one channel (Channel A) coming out of the amp since in parrallel mode the output voltage is the same for both channels. Just strip your wires leaving enough bare wire long enough to connect the devices right where you plug the speaker cables into the output of your amplifier. 11. If you are leaving the cannon outside and think it will be caught in the rain, spray the outside of the enclosure with a thin layer of silicone spray. Mist the bullet tweeter also. The diaphram on these are titanium but they are not officially declared water proof. Silicone spray will water proof the tweeters. Don't spray too much silicone, it just takes a little mist for additional water protection. This is above and beyond any water proofing needed to seal the speaker enclosure. (Silicone all internal interfaces of the speaker enclosure) Test the speaker enclosure by pouring a smalll cup of water on it. (NOT the Tweeters) You should see the water from the cup bead up on the top of the enclosure. One more thhing: Please check out this simple article about wiring speakers in parrallel and series. Try to keep your impedence level to the minimum. For Crown that would be 4 Ohms. DO NOT go below 4 Ohms or above 16 Ohms. You will be fine. audiovolt.co.uk/blogs/av-insight-background-audio-advise/how-to-wire-speakers-in-parallel-series-and-how-does-it-affect-impedance#:~:text=Parallel%20Wiring,-Parallel%20wiring%20is&text=All%20it%20involves%20is%20combining,by%20connecting%20the%20speakers%20together. Let me know if you have any other questions, I know the agony of Chinese dog barking water torture and happy to help. The beauty is your neighbors will not know why their dogs will no longer go into their yard. Set aside where they decide to go to the bathroom! Hopefully in your neighbors's kitchen! LOL! You can't hear this! Lol! Yes this is a bit of revenge for A-hole neighbors that don't care, but I did keep the dogs safety in mind. It's not the dogs fault, just the A-hole neighbor. The moral of the story? Don't piss off an Engineer! Lol! By the way I stressed tested this system and had it up to 50 volts. After about 30 seconds I got light headed and the speakers started to make a cracking noise. It took me a few hours to get over the dizzyness. For a little while I thought I was going to go deaf! Lol! This is no toy! Per specifications suggested here I do not recommend taking this thing above 20 Volts outside and 10 Volts for inside testing. Within human audible range at frequencies above 1Khz once you hit 100 DB it's hard to believe you will keep cranking up the volume. Very loud and very quick! :-) It's very safe to stay below 100 DB and 20 Volts based on calculations and specifications stated. This is where my impedance measurements became important. DMMs just measure resistance but at ultrasonic frequencies impedance needs to be measured. Per my specifications, there you go! You have it. I hope this helps. You can probably get away cutting some corners, but when I fried the amplifier my Engineer antenna went up and this is all I am comfortable with to be safe and effective. Final note: Never leave any audio system on and unsupervised for hours at a time. I suggest you turn this on when the dogs bark, leave it on for a while until they stop barking and turn back on once they start barking again or bother you. I usually don't leave this on for more than an hour which is plenty of time to get the barking under control. They stop within 5 to 10 minutes or less. Enjoy!

[@ragdollcat7512]

Hey Yurij, do you have any feedback on the best frequency (or combination of sequential frequencies) and waveform to use to deter the barking? Have you tried other waveforms other than a sine wave? TY.

[@yurij8039]

Hi, I tried sine, square and pulse waves and honestly the sine wave worked the best at 25 Khz. Honestly anything above 22Khz worked fine and the dogs shut up almost immediately. Below 22Khz you get into the human audible range and both dogs and people get annoyed. The amplifier doesn't seem to like pulse waves. As you increase the frequency above 25Khz the sound wave just becomes more narrow and you risk having the sound wave dissipate if you hit a fence or tree. That's why using multiple cannons increases your range. Being able to move the cannon around on a tripod gives you flexibility to reach the dogs. You will immediately know when the dogs hear the ultrasonic sound wave. They shut up and run away. LOL! Also start at 10 volts and slowly work your way up without exceeding 20 VAC. Sometimes 10 to 15 volts is all you need depending on how far away the dogs are from the cannon. I had this cranked up to 50 VAC and the speakers started to crackle. At 50 VAC I got dizzy. By design the speaker diaphragm is the first point of failure. This is no toy and I would not exceed 20 VAC for speaker, animal and human safety. Both preamp and power amplifiers have internal circuit breakers. I haven't triggered the breaker on the power amplifier that can detect clipping and low voltage input sensitivity. Nice feature and great equipment fit given the problem being solved! By the way, I have fruit trees and works beautifully to get rid of birds. LOL! I get to eat the fruit before the birds. I hope this helped.

[@antoniof0nty]

Hi. Sorry for the bad English. I use translator. What is the best frequency to scare dogs? I have seen 1khz in your video, but that is audible and annoying to people. I have annoying neighbors dogs and I need them to stop barking. It seems like you use bullet tweeter, right? What power and frequency do I need? Thanks

[@yurij8039]

Hi, once you get this working I suggest using the Signal generator Sweep function and vary your frequency between 22Khz to 30Khz. If you go above 30Khz the sound wave becomes very narrow and it becomes more difficult to hit the dogs. Yes I demonstrated 1Khz within human audible range at 100 decibels (about 5 VAC into the speakers) for illustrative purposes, but I did set this up and demonstrated how this works at 25Khz running at 9.45 VAC. That is the purple sine wave you saw in the video. Obviously you couldn't hear anything because it was running at an Ultrasonic frequency. The white sine wave is my baseline coming out of the Signal Generator and should match the purple sine wave. As far as power? The speakers used were recommended by the manufacturer to run at 100 Watts at a speaker impedance between 6 and 8 Ohms which equates to running the volume of the amplifier between 20 and 25 Volts. Use ear plugs because this is not a toy. I hope this helps and enjoy building out your own.

[@antoniof0nty]

@@yurij8039 Thanks for replying so quickly. I guess I should buy a magnetic bullet tweeter that can play up to 30Khz. The ones I've seen only go up to 18/20/22Khz. I'll look for one that can play up to 30Khz. Thanks!

[@yurij8039]

@@antoniof0nty Good idea! You may find an inexpensive Piezo tweeter that may work if you don't have the bucks to buy the super bullets I used. The DS18 PRO-DKH1 works perfectly. Have fun!

[@sergiobrito8524]

​@@yurij8039Just curious, I looked up the specs for the DS18 PRO-DKH1 tweeters and it says: Frequency Response: 800Hz - 18.5KHz, so how did you reach the 30khz on those tweeters?

[@yurij8039]

@@sergiobrito8524 I called the manufacturer. In order for you to get good sound quality the tweeters are over specified and can operate at 30Khz in order to get better sound quality at lower frequencies. The manufacturer told me not to exceed 100 watts at ultrasonic frequencies for the use intended.

[@MistaPringles]

Ok....the reality is most people don't have thousands of dollars to make their neighbors dogs shut up. Lol

[@yurij8039]

What I built out was an Engineered prototype. Others who have seen this design have built out their own version for less than $600, One guy built out a system with this design for about $200

@@yurij8039can you put me in contact with the $209 guy?

[@yurij8039]

He used the following: 1. Uni-T UTG932E Function Generator 2. Inexpensive O-scope 3. Crown Xli 800 or 2500 (Bought used) 4. SKAR 600W Super Bullet Tweeters Impedance matching is key here otherwise you will fry your amplifier. Use the O-scope to measure the peek to peek voltage to match the input sensitivity of your power amplifier. I would not build this out without more measurements so build at your own risk. If you experience clipping TURN OFF YOUR SYSTEM AND FIGURE OUT WHY! Clipping causes electrical fires. When it comes to energy balance 1 + 1 must ALWAYS equal 2. In this case with proper impedance matching a more powerful amplifier gives you more head room and will not run hot. In laymen's terms DO NOT try to run 600 watt speakers using a 100 watt power amplifier. That's why these kids that build out car audio systems end up with electrical fires. They don't do the calculations and just plug and play. Audio equipment manufacturers also do not publish correct specifications because they just want to make money and sell garbage. So having electronic equipment with circuit breakers can save you an electrical fire. Unfortunatly that costs money. The Crown amplifier is a commercial amp and not selected at random. It was selected because it's a work horse, has a cooling fan and protective circuit breakers. Note: If you take your neighbor to court you will spend up to five times as much with zero results. Honestly you can build out a very effective system for less than $1000. You also need to understand electronics. If you are really knowledgeable you can get away with a system for under $500. Keep in mind this is absolutely NOT A TOY and I can't suggest cutting corners because if you don't build this out correctly you risk an electrical fire. The folks I interacted with that built out cheaper versions were experts and built out their systems at their own risk. We talked but in the end they understood the risks and were successful. If you know what you are doing building out an inexpensive system is very doable. Based on the questions you are asking I would not suggest you play with a system like this. This solution is not for everyone and there is nothing I can do other than show you what I did in a very safe manner. Also be careful because you don't want to blow out your eardrums or damage any dogs ears. Also not to be disrespectful but most of the other videos on KZbin that build out an Ultrasonic LRAD cannon were built by cowboys that don't know what they are doing. Nothing more to say about it. Note: I built out this system to run the DS18 speakers at 100 Watts. My range is at least 300 feet which you may not need. For $200 you can select speakers and a 100 Watt amplifier that will work with no issues. Just don't run your amplifier at more than 50% volume. You won't get the distance or range I get but maybe all you need is 20 to 30 feet running at 40 Watts. It all depends on your requirements and how far you are from the barking dogs. Thank you

[@coolspot18]

What frequency are you using? Is it better to go >20khz for dogs?

[@yurij8039]

If you have a signal generator with a sweep function, configure it to sweep starting at 22Khz to 30Khz and then back down to 22Khz. If you have multiple cannons set them to sweep out of sync and point all cannons in the area the dogs are barking. If you can't sweep anything above 22Khz works fine. Every week, change the frequency to set between 22Khz and 30Khz. Honestly after a month the dogs are fully trained and do not bark. If they start barking again turn the system on to remind them of their training. HOpe this helps!

[@Dognme]

Really good idea, but not good for us average homeowners

[@yurij8039]

Referring to cost? Next Engineering step is to make this very inexpensively and safely. I looked at how these guys develop commercial products and think this can be Engineered down to about $150 to $200. Solar powered wich means I need to build a circuit to go on when dog barks and go off when dog stops barking. . I don't have plans to do this because the commercial market is saturated. But I might come up with a list of inexpensive components without all the fancy electronics for average use. Some of the devices out there are pure garbage. I'm semi-retired and having fun! Right now I understand why the amp blew and could do this for a few hundred bucks. But that could be a liability if I posted on YOutube. What I have seen are Cowboys on other posts and won't comment further. NO offense intended. If you guys want me to come up with an inexpensive system and list components to assemble please let me know. Iooking at $200 max: Poll what's it worth for you guys to assemble a unit to shut the dogs up? Will help me go to next step

[@Dognme]

@@yurij8039 That would be great because so far I’m out of about $100 and my neighbors dogs are driving me insane

[@yurij8039]

What have you already tried? I've seen some very inexpensive DC signal generators that run off of 12 Volt batteries or 12 volt power supply. The issues they have is the sine wave they generate are horrible and you can barely recognize the sine wave they produce. Also the output voltages are not published and you will still need a pre-amp and bench digital multimeter to at least connect to an inexpensive power amplifier without risk of frying anything. Why don't they publish the output voltage? That would be a legal liability!😉 Look at all the kids who fry their car amplifiers because they just plug and play. Try Calling Rolls and look at their Testoscilator MO2020 unit. I hear they are good to talk to and may be able to offer you an inexpensive solution. rolls.com/product/MO2020se I played with the Rolls for a while but decided not to develop a DC unit. Also the sine wave it produced was not as clean as a signal generator. The Rolls is powered by a DC power adaptor that plugs into an AC wall outlet. Need to deal with that. Transducers or tweeters can be purchased for around $30 (for a decent one) Pyle makes a car power amp for about $70 USD. Without the ability to measure voltage between devices you risk a fire. In the end if your sine wave stinks the thing won't work well anyway and you are out about $200. Note: Handheld volt meters just do not measure VAC accurately over about 8 - 10 Khz. Another option is to get a hold of a high frequency recording and play it over your stereo system. Two issues with that approach, First you can hear the high pitch noise they put out and it gives you a headache. I don't even think that's healthy for people or animals. Second, these are mono-signals so playing a mono signal over a stereo system doesn't make much sense. The cheapest way I would suggest safely building one of these is to use at least a decent signal generator, measure with a bench DMM, pre-amp if needed and some cheap tweeters and car amplifier that can be plugged into an AC socket. ASK YOURSELF: Do you really want to put something in your home that can cause an electrical fire? My answer is NO WAY! Now you are into bouncing between VAC and DC which is Kludgy and risky because you may fry it out. If you stay with DC and add a solar panel with a Clapper on/off switch you may be able to get somewhere. This would all be located outside of your home. The Clapper switch could turn it on and off when the dog barks and save your battery. That's how the cheap commercial products work. (Or not work 🙂) Some guys glue PVC pipe to the tweeters but honestly it's a crap shoot without having the capability to measure anything. Yes they make noise but the goal is to make it work at frequencies we can't hear. Decibel readings are only good in the human audible range but you are guessing unless you can measure the power you are using at ultrasonic frequencies. (Power = Watts, Volts and understanding your system impedance) Engineers always follow the rule 1 + 1 must always equal 2. In the end you may still fry the thing out. That Crown was not purchased by mistake. It was designed and built for PA systems that use mono signals and perfect for what is needed to build a dog cannon. Don't forget about all the protective circuit breakers the Crown has built into the unit. Food for thought: Ultrasonic sound waves are very narrow and focused. They can't travel well when bouncing into things like fences and trees. So you need range which translates to multiple cannons. So the Crown XLi-800 is a perfect amplifier choice because you can build two cannons with just one amplifier. Read my posts and watch the video. If you cut corners you can get away with a system for under $1000 or better if you buy used on Ebay. The Crown will let you build two cannons and you don't need such expensive tweeters. I just can't come out and say you will be safe because I don't know how you will put this together and only sharing what I did. Before I went all out with this system I purchased a $15 dog whistle and tested at close range. Yes it worked beautifully so I decided to move forward. In my opinion you are better off with a $15 dog whistle compared to a $100 electronic one. Hope this helps and good luck! Please see some links I ran across that might help with some inexpensive solutions: Personally I put enough time into this to build out a very effective and safe DIY solution. But go for it if you are technically inclined and also Rasberry Pi knowlegable. www.adafruit.com/product/4755 www.parts-express.com/Low-Voltage-Mono-Audio-Amplifier-Board-NJM386D-LM386-320-612?quantity=1&gadid=664887574757&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5f2lBhCkARIsAHeTvlgdL-8kh_GLbIRpvBsCOWfY5RanyBu2MofWuiNkz-JbdJG5VsgT1qUaAnbHEALw_wcB www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-DTA-1-Class-D-AC-DC-Amplifier-15-WPC-300-380?quantity=1&gadid=664791375060&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5f2lBhCkARIsAHeTvlhjI8AoCdUALKbyt9LJeiICQ-GDWpOFlRWQgYnSrj1hqpJAjU9tf8gaAiEUEALw_wcB www.canakit.com/clap-on-clap-off-relay-switch-kit-ck252-uk252.html

[@ragdollcat7512]

I'd like to see how you incorporate the bark activated raspberry microphone solution when you have designed it. 👋Thank you.

[@yurij8039]

@@ragdollcat7512 Hey! I was talking to a good friend this weekend and he showed me this. It's funny with all the open source available for Rasberry Pi someone has already developed a solution you could modify to work with. Please see the following link with the solution you asked to see. 🙂 Best to you and enjoy! www.instructables.com/Dog-Bark-Sensor/

[@vtr-vegasteslarides569]

Question, read a lot here. Can I take an Amazon unit that's battery operated and hook it with longer wires to a car battery in my yard and then stealth place the unit close to where the dog barks further away? Or can i have said unit direct the sound into a microphone and speaker set up and simply amplify the volume and range? Sounds like the sin wave is what comes out of any of those units, so does that travel into a microphone and can be made louder with any home speaker set up? Or does it end up getting distorted or can not be captured at all and amplified? Thanks.

[@yurij8039]

Hey, there are plenty of videos on KZbin that try what you are talking about. I think you would need a microphone that can accept ultrasonic frequencies. Those microphones start at $2000 and up. Otherwise you will get silence. Yes the sine wave will be distorted and probably not recognizable due to noise. As far as running off a battery? I think you will run out of electricity very quickly. I kind of liked this dudes solution which he claimed to work for under $20.00. I never tried it so can't endorse or claims it works. As an Engineer all I can say is 1 + 1 must always equal 2. If your dogs are very close? Go for it! For twenty bucks what can you lose? What he built was the Amazon unit you just described powered off an extension cord. You can always replace a battery with a DC power source connected to an extension cord. So you could take your Amazon unit and replace the battery with a DC power supply that has an extension cord. If you are close enough to the barking vermin? Well you may have an inexpensive dog whistle solution that may just shut them up. Enjoy! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIbbZKeNo9KNrNU

[@vtr-vegasteslarides569]

@yurij8039 so a regular mic doesn't even accept or hear the ultrasonic frequency, and if, even the expensive one, would distort the wave that it doesn't sound right to the beast anymore? Looked for such videos, will try harder. Testing that 9V replacement right now as we speak, just to a 120V DC transformer, and see if that works. Place the unit closer to where it hangs its head out, run some wire along the outside wall and to my yard where I plug it in to an outlet. Cause it eats thru batteries really fast otherwise. Am I supposed to hear anything if this device goes off? I hear some hissing sound, kind of like air puffs, di di di di when I make a bark sound. Wonder if this unit works at all. I have the dog conditioned enough that I have to just rattle my yard furniture and it runs inside, but doesn't help when I sleep. This has become an animal control issue already and I'm tired of these renters. Both days this weekend cut my sleep short again. Why are people so inconsiderate. Blame the ignorant dog owners, but hate the dog by now. Thanks for your reply.

[@yurij8039]

@@vtr-vegasteslarides569 You need a 9 volt DC adaptor. Please unplug right away and try this. If this is not what you are using. There may be a knob on your device to adjust frequency to human audible. I don't know. Forget about using a microphone because you still need to amplify which is to risky and complicated. You won't get anything that will help you. Good Luck! www.amazon.com/PK-Power-Adapter-Supply-Charger/dp/B074M2JRV4 You can also try playing this through outdoor speakers but it gives me a headache. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpO6oImnrdBkr7s

[@67mag]

Awesome video brilliant! I had a few questions for you setup wise. I have a Rolls MO2020 Testocillator and I have the same tweeters you had used as well as a few 100 watt amps here. Do you think the Rolls would do the trick? If so Sin or Square wave? Thanks again!!!

[@yurij8039]

Please check the output voltage of your Rolls. When I measured and read other lessons learned the Rolls outputs about 2.6 VAC which is a mismatch to most every power amplifier sold. If this is the case with your Rolls, once you turn up the volume you will experience clipping and risk frying your amp and an electrical fire. Also, I understand the MO2020 is discontinued and the newer version supports Mono signals. Not sure but please check. Sine wave works best! Thanks for posting and best to you!

[@67mag]

You nailed that on the head! It was clipping I think testing could get sound for awhile but turning it up would clip. WHat do you reccomend?

[@yurij8039]

@@67magMany people, including myself, have made the same mistake. I don't know why Rolls builds a Function Generator they know is not compatible with power amplifiers. As others I have shared lessons learned with I suggest you replace the Rolls with a Uni-T UTG932E Function Generator. Similar price range as Rolls on Amazon. Many advantages to switching to a real FG. Please filter comments to newest first and have a look at lessons learned. My original comments also give a detailed list of connectors you can use as well as links to wire your speakers correctly in parallel. If you are handy you could try to solder in a 50 or 100 Ohm resistor that will lower/attenuate the input voltage going into your amplifier from the Rolls. Check the input sensitivity voltage for your amplifier and make sure you have a match. Soldering a resistor to attenuate is a band aid fix that gives off heat and makes for a very unclean sine wave. You would need to play with this until you get down to the correct voltage. Some ceramic covered resistors stay cool but gets pricey. I tried this and gave up because it's not practical. Also a 50 cent resistor could fry at any time and you will still be at risk of an electrical fire. Note: If you are using the same tweeters I used they are rated at 600 Watts each. Although you are targeting 100 Watts you will need an amplifier rated for at least 200 Watts to safely get this to work at 25 to 30 volts volume output. You mentioned you are using a few 100 Watt amplifiers, but that's not enough for these tweeters and another potential failure point. With these tweeters connected to a 100 Watt amplifier you risk frying your amp if you max out on the volume. You will not be able to safely get to 20 volts volume with a 100 Watt amp. If your dogs are close you may only need 10 volts to get them to stop barking and maybe get away with the 100 Watt amps. I don't know. It all depends on your situation. I specified my system for 100 Watts but you may be able to get the dogs to stop barking only using between 30 to 40 Watts which is loud at closer distances. Since you already have the 100 Watt amps try shutting up the dogs at 50% volume (10 Volts or 30 - 40 watts). If it doesn't work consider upgrading your amplifier. Never run any amplifier at maximum volume and as a general rule of thumb, never turn your volume up more than half way on an amplifier. This is difficult because you can't hear what is going on. By Ohms law, 20 Volts going into your speakers from an amplifier is equal to 100 Watts. I was able to calculate this because I measured the actual speaker Impedance with an Impedance meter. (6 Ohms for anyone using two exact same speakers wired in parallel) Otherwise you are guessing. That's why I measure voltage and monitor the signal on an O scope. Be careful because if your equipment is in your home you are literally playing with fire. You could also try calling Rolls and ask them to suggest a compatible amplifier to use with their unit. If you have additional questions let me know and we'll figure out a way to connect. You seem close to effectively and safely shut up the dogs. Enjoy!

[@67mag]

Wow that is terrific thanks so much for the breakdown!!!!I think I may actually have some large ceramic resistors maybe 5 watters or so. Where would I tack those resistors in? I will defintiely look into the Uni for sure!

[@yurij8039]

@ You would need to solder the cable coming out of the Rolls. Please see attached brief article. Honestly I don't think this will work and will screw up your sine wave. I spent two weeks working with attenuating signals and they all blew out my pre-amp. Luckily the pre-amp works with a built in circuit breaker so no big deal! Thanks www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Articles/How-to-reduce-voltage-with-resistors.php

[@haydenbecker2213]

My neighbors dogs bark from inside their house. They look out the window and bark all the time. Will this penetrate through their window. They are only about 40 feet from me

[@yurij8039]

Unfortunately ultrasonic sound waves cannot travel through walls or windows.

[@tramujarie]

Are they getting trained to it? i mean you still have to press the button every time you hear them or they just learned not to bark?

[@yurij8039]

It took about a month and they rarely bark anymore. Every now and then they need a reminder but they are now trained not to bark. If that ever changes I'll add a Rasberry Pi switch to automatically turn on when they bark and turn off a minute after they stop. Not needed at this time.

[@tramujarie]

Thank you very much for the nice and fast answer i also have 5 houses arownd me with big loud dogs, I asked my neighbours respectfully by letter proposing them to buy training collars but they haven't done anything, then i called the police but there is no use, they bascily deflect and ignore my petition even if the law is on my side. I hope this works and if it does i will feel in debt with you. You seem to be the only real solution i have found so far, the products of amazon have not enough range and therfore not usefull. A pair of questions, you say in the video that it works up to 400 feet, do you mean circular or in the direction the speakers are pointed at?Also with this setup how many boxes of 2 speakers could you add on without changing anything else?@@yurij8039

[@yurij8039]

@@tramujarie Thank you for the comment and I appreciate your situation. The garbage they sell in stores can't work. If you think about it a 12 volt DC source has zero power compared to this solution. And shutting up dogs is all about power and range. Ultrasonic sound waves are very narrow and directional. So the sound waves will travel at least 400 feet in the direction you point the cannons. That's why it's important to build multiple cannons to increase your range. Also, watch out for fences and trees. If you hit a tree the sound wave will not reach the dogs. That's why I have these mounted to a tripod and can move them around to get to the dogs. Townships just want to see you waste money in court and this solution is far less expensive than hiring a lawyer and still getting no-where. After playing with this system for five months I think the XLI-3500 power amplifier can support four cannons. Two cannons on each channel. You need to make sure you stay between 4 Ohms and 16 Ohms for impedance and I posted links in other comments about how to wire speakers in series and parrallel without blowing both speakers and power amplifier. Don't worry about getting an Impedance meter. I tested and confirmed this is not an issue with identical equipment. But do check resistance on the DMM to make sure you didn't do something wrong and in the correct range. The crown XLI-3500 is a beast! If you don't need that much power the Crown XLI-800 is more cost effective. Both have circuit breakers that protect you from burning out your amplifier. The O-scope has four channels and can see the sound wave from four sources. The signal generator has two channels but works with 3 way bnc connector cables. So you can plug into 6 amplifiers which is more than anyone would need. Two bench DMMs will support all equipment because you are using this for set up and can switch between devices as needed. One more point, be very discrete and try not to make the cannons visible. I painted mine green and put them under a tarp. The less your neighbors know the better off you will be. If your neighbors see the cannons you can prove you are only generating 100 Watts which is not harmful to anyone. Heck it's probably less loud than dog barking! LOL! 100 Watts at 400 feet is no different than playing a loud stereo system. Note: I had this system up to 50 Volts for stress testing with no issues! If you blow a speaker a new diaphragm is about $10 so no worries. This is no toy! 😉

[@tramujarie]

So the cannons have to go directly to the dog zone?. This is a handycap where i live everyonehas fances with trees, the only way for it to work is to shoot from ther roof or a tree from avobe right? Luckyly i have some big trees in my house... (Sorry for my english i am from spain)

[@yurij8039]

@@tramujarie The fewer obstructions you have the better this will work. Best Case you want nothing between the cannon and the dogs. Worst case the sound waves will not pass through a concrete wall, heavy fence or big thick tree. I have some bushes and trees, but since I have multiple cannons able to position them to get around these obstacles and hit the dogs. Every case is different but I would make sure you have a direct line of access from cannon to dogs. Otherwise too risky to spend the money because ultrasonic sound waves are narrow and very directional. Lower frequency waves, in human audible range, are different and sound just travels around obstacles like this. If you have a direct line of site to the dogs from roof, side of house or tree then you can make this work. My cannons can get through tree leaves and bushes as long as they are not super dense. That's one of the reasons I keep the frequency as wide as possible but still in ultrasonic range. Also pointing multiple cannons at different locations in the yard where the dogs bark helps significantly. If you do not have any of these conditions, this may not be the right solution for you. Hope this helps.

[@NickDonnetelli]

So you just have to be an engineer & spend 20,000 thousand bucks to stop the dogs from barking?

[@yurij8039]

Not really Nick. I already had an electronics workbench and using the instrumentation to develop a prototype helped out quite a bit making it easier to develop. The information I posted made it possible for some guys to build out their own from anywhere between $200 to $500 depending on how much they are budgeted compared to how much they want to fuss around. In my case, I already had the equipment and since you can't hear ultrasonic sound waves, I took advantage of having the capability to measure everything using all the data to prove the prototype works. I met a lot of very smart guys here and had the pleasure of brainstorming with them as they built out some very innovative inexpensive solutions using the Design concept, data and calculations from this prototype. That in itself was much fun and enjoyable. This video helped a lot of guys shut up vermin dogs for under $500. If you're interested in building out a low cost version of your own, please read through the comments. It's all here and the purpose of this video was to share with some smart guys and provide viewers with a low cost solution that works. That's Engineering! Prototype first and then lower costs. Let me know if you need any advise if you decide to build out your own. Happy to help out! Enjoy! By the way, if you have a dog barking problem try taking your neighbor to court. Taking that route you will be out at least $10,000 and nothing will result of the lawsuit! Townships just love taking your money and lawyers just love wasting money with no results. 😂

[@TexasTrucker-nx8dd]

What's the magic frequency to make the yap dogs shut up?

[@yurij8039]

I use 25 Khz. Dogs will shut up between 20 Khz through 30 plus Khz. If you use anything 20Khz or below you get into the human audible range which is annoying to both dogs and people. If you go above 25Khz the sound wave becomes too narrow and it's more difficult to get around trees, fences etc. For these reasons I think 25Khz is optimum. The dogs may get used to one frequency so bouncing between 22Khz to 30Khz will work just fine. Please don't forget to like the video which helps spread the word. Enjoy!

[@TexasTrucker-nx8dd]

@@yurij8039 I don't have a way to test ultrasonic frequency. I don't think my amp is passing that frequency from the Kemo tone generator.

[@yurij8039]

@@TexasTrucker-nx8dd I suggest you measure the frequency coming over the kemo with an oscilloscope. I originally started with Kemo but parked it because it did not generate a clean sine wave. If you can't afford an O-scope there are some apps that let you use your phone as an O-scope but I don't know how reliable they are. Use that as a baseline to compare what is coming out of your amplifier. I would also suggest you measure the output voltage from the kemo using a Digital Volt Meter (DMM) Note at frequencies greater than 8 - 10 Khz hand held DMMs don't work. The output voltage from the Kemo MUST match the input sensitivity voltage of your amplifier. Also to use your amplifier you need VAC volts coming out of the kemo. This should be either 0.775 or 1.4 VAC. NOTE: KEMO IS A DC DEVICE THAT RUNS OFF OF DC BATTERIES or DC POWER SUPPLY. In order to connect to an amplifier you will need to install a DC to AC Power Inverter. Are you converting from DC to VAC before connecting to your amplifier? I used a signal generator to avoid having to bounce between DC and VAC voltage. I don't know what the power inverter will do to the Kemo frequency. It may just screw things up big time. Make sure the output voltage from the kemo is 0.775 or 1.4VAC. Does your amp have clipping detection or can it detect incompatibility for input sensitivity? The higher end amps will give you a green light if they are picking up a proper signal. Good feature to have. If you have a mismatch I agree your amplifier is not passing the kemo frequency. Your amp should also be able to process mono-signals but not the end of the world if it's stereo only. As a final test connect the O-scope to the output wires of your amplifier. These are the wires that you connect to your speakers. The output frequency of the amplifier should match your baseline coming out of the kemo. If not something is wrong. I struggled with this because you can't hear anything at ultrasonic frequencies. That's why I measure everything because you can't hear this. I hope this helps. Summary: You need to confirm output voltage from the kemo and amp. You also need to compare the frequency coming from kemo and amp to make sure things work. Question: At lower frequencies (10Khz) do you hear anything coming out of the amp? That would be step one before you get into the ultrasonic range. Check out what this guy did. He used a Kemo instead of a signal generator but did manage to connect the DC Kemo to a power amplifier. Note he had to build an attenuator using resistors to keep his amplifier from frying. I would not do that because it's too risky. If that 50 cent resistor fails your amplifier frys and you risk an electrical fire. You don't want to fry your amplifier at any cost. Not worth an electrical fire in your home. Too Rube Goldberg for me but looks like he got it to work. Remember the Power you put into this needs to be compatible with wattage of your tweeters. Otherwise you may be wasting power and not really know the true range of your system. That's why I measured the impedance and calculated 20 volts is needed to get to 100 Watts. Otherwise you are just guessing. Most of the videos I have seen on youtube mismatch power you put into this with speakers and just make noise. At ultrasonic frequencies without being able to measure it's a crapshoot and you risk frying your amp.kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpuQm6traMmMfJY I hope this helps.

[@TexasTrucker-nx8dd]

@@yurij8039 I recently discovered that KZbin has a high pass filter around 15kHz. So these dog whistle videos etc won't work. I messed with Kemo a couple days. I noted the extreme warble in the audio. Either I am misunderstanding their logic or it's junk. I saw the clipping on the audio and then recalled mixing DC/AC inputs and decided that wasn't a good idea. The amp was going into protection mode. I got a couple 130W super tweeters, not as fancy as yours. I found a sine wave generator online and set it for 20kHz. I'm running volume around 40-60%. As soon as I started the generator, the yaps turned to whimpers and then total silence. Let's hope this is all it takes. I might be able to take an arduino and generate the 25-30Khz. I've not looked into it deeper yet. I'm trying to keep the whole project under $100. I'm at $85 right now. If I go that route I will build a dB check with timer for the whole thing. Love your videos. Ty for the assistance!

[@yurij8039]

@@TexasTrucker-nx8dd Glad to hear you are getting the annoying yappers to shut up! The best part is your neighbors don't know what's going on because they can't hear it! Note measuring Db at ultrasonic frequencies isn't very helpful. If you know your system impedance use Ohms law to understand how many volts you need to get to 130W. Should be around 25 Volts, VAC. That's why I use power/voltage to run my system and ignore everything else. If you blow your tweeter it's just a $10 fix to replace the diaphram so no big deal. If you don't have an impedance meter use a multimeter to understand your resistance to get you in the ball park. Note: Hand held multimeters just don't work once you get past about 10Khz. Glad to hear you are having success! Let me know how you make out. I agree the DC Kemo is not very effective! I have the Kemo I started with laying in my spare parts pile! I fried my original amp using the Kemo! LOL! Be well!

[@user-kf5zw8uq7r]

Hi Yurij. Stellar build! -We are constructing a similar system. We have a few questions for you. Email?

[@user-kf5zw8uq7r]

I emailed you. Did it go through? @@yurij8039

[@yurij8039]

@@user-kf5zw8uq7r I haven't seen an email. When did you send? Nothing in spam either. Please send again and let me know the day you sent. Thanks

[@TheProjectMan-ko1xe]

@@yurij8039I also have a few questions. Will you check your email? I sent 1 last Wednesday. Thanks dave

[@yurij8039]

@@TheProjectMan-ko1xe Found your email in spam folder dave and responded. Thanks

[@Muchsinmohammad]

Speaker apa yang anda gunakan?

[@yurij8039]

PRO-DKH1

[@sergiobrito8524]

wow! thanks for posting this! this is what I've been looking for, but i need to build it on the cheap. one of the viewers, @TexasTrucker-nx8dd, mentioned he had spent under $100 for an working solution. this sounds more like it. are there then 4 components for a basic setup: power supply, singe wave generator, amplifier and tweeters? I'll ask him for details as well. thanks a lot!!!

[@yurij8039]

Hi, please see my post where I list out components and method to build out a low cost version for under $500. The closer you get the cannon to the dogs the cheaper this will be to build out. If you are about 10 feet from the barking vermin you probably only need a 20 watt system to shut them up. Whatever components you choose I would make sure your impedance matching is spot on and don't mess with the inexpensive DC signal generators that claim to be good for dogs. For some reason the output voltage on those devices are not compatible with any power amplifier on the market and you will fry your amp. Have fun!

[@sergiobrito8524]

@@yurij8039 unfortinately, I'm between 30 and 40ft away fro the dogs, so i guess I would need something a bit more powerful. thanks again!

[@yurij8039]

@@sergiobrito8524 Think of this as a straight forward energy balance. 1 + 1 must always equal 2. The challenge you have is if you spec this out for not enough power/Watts/volts you will waste money and build out a system that doesn't have the range you need. I haven't played with data that measures effectiveness of the LRAD cannon based on total Watts vs. distance and ended up specifying my system based on 100 Watts or 20 Volts the speaker manufacturer recommended. How can you save money? Some guys I spoke with were able to use a less powerful amplifier compared to the Crown I used. Keep in mind the Crown has a circuit breaker, cooling fan and designed to take punishment. It's a commercial beast! Start with one speaker and if you have an old amplifier laying around you can try this. Make sure your impedance matching is spot on and stay within the input sensitivity range of your amplifier. While testing keep your amplifier outside in case it fries. Whatever you use make sure you can detect clipping and if you see clipping stop immediately. Start with 10 Volts on your amplifier and increment up until the dogs shut up. Some guys told me they had issues with bringing these speakers above 20 Volts or 100 watts. I stress tested my system and was able to get to 50 Volts for about 30 seconds with no clipping and a clean sine wave. But the speakers did start to crackle and would never run this above 20 Volts for long periods of time or unsupervised. The speaker diaphragm was designed to be the first point of failure to protect the electronics. The diaphragm can also be easily replaced for about $10 USD if it fails. Maybe you will get lucky but if you do get it to work? Make sure you are 200% sure nothing will fry before you bring anything into your house. This is no toy and protect your ears. Please share your experience and lessons learned to help others interested in building out their own. Enjoy and good luck!