If you’ve ever lived through a cicada summer, you are familiar with the deep penetration their cries will inflict on your brain. For the blissfully unaware, this sound will follow you throughout your day and into the dusk hours, the drone eventually integrating into the white noise of your mind. But there’s something fascinating about the sound cicadas produce for me, especially having lived in the southern United States most of my life. I’ve got through summers where the cicadas were so prolific, I had to sweep them off of my windshield before driving to work each morning. So when I saw the Cicada 2.0 Solar Sounder, a PCB for reproducing the sound with a digital twist, I was intrigued, to say the least.
This is an unpopulated PCB with some gorgeous masking artwork and enough components labels to feel like an achievable DIY, you have the chance to make your own cicada calls with this project. If you’ve got a drawer full of spare components you’re looking to clear out, this project is an excellent opportunity to do so, as you’re encouraged to try different values to play with the signal. And an element that rings so creative and thematic is the inclusion of a solar panel as the power source. The fluctuation of light over the day will change the signal, much like how the pitch and volume of the cicadas change as the day goes on. For extra flair, try sticking the panel under some meandering shadows cast by a nearby tree, and see what sound a partially obscured solar panel makes.
If you already yearn for the summer months and what sounds that may bring, pick up this project and bring those summer months to you. It’s made by Graham’s Gear Bazaar, based in the United States. They also provide a detailed BoM with the package, if you’re looking for a bit more guidance in your cicada signal project build!
