trigger pi pico buzzer remotely

[siennamediatest]

I work in a retirement home and have built a 'dementia proof' media centre for residents. I've also built an IR remote using pi pico w, which only has 2 buttons and it much simpler for them to use. The remote has an onboard buzzer, and I want to be able to trigger the buzzer from a gpio button on the media centre to make the remote easier to locate. I have done a few web server tests to remotely turn on an led, but I'm having difficulty modifying the approach to work with the buzzer. Ideally I would want to remotely run a micropython code that I wrote so that the buzzer plays music.

[peterhinch]

As a first step just play a tone using PWM. You're already using uasyncio so have the code that flashes the LED issue create_task() as below.

from machine import Pin, PWM
pwmpin = Pin(16, Pin.OUT)
pwm = PWM(pwmpin)
async def beep():  # Use asyncio.create_task(beep()) to run this
    pwm.init(freq=440, duty_u16=32768)
    await asyncio.sleep(1)
    pwm.deinit()

[robert-hh]

uasyncio is an alias to asyncio, or the opposite. You can use either one.

[peterhinch]

Yes. My code is a follow-up to this post so I knew that the OP is using this alias.

In general I use this code style:

import uasyncio as asyncio

because it facilitates writing code which is portable between MicroPython and CPython:

try:
    import uasyncio as asyncio
except ImportError:
    import asyncio  # Running on CPython

[siennamediatest]

I figured it out! I used a basic tutorial to set up a web server to control an led. Then I changed the code so instead of the led it would activate the buzzer, and then removed the website part so the buzzer beeps once the client connects to the IP address. Now I just need to change it so the buzzer plays music instead of a loud beep.

[peterhinch]

You need to define what you mean by "music". The simplest option is a sequence of tones at different frequencies. Synthesising polyphonic music (chords) is tougher. If you want true audio rendition of stored files (e.g. .WAV) you need to investigate I2S. For MP3 you'll need extra hardware VS1053b.

[siennamediatest]

I created a simple library of tones so the buzzer plays 'ob la di'!