Hearing Aid

Portable and easy to built, Uses 1x3v battery

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Commercially available hearing aids are quite costly. Here is an inexpensive hearing aid circuit that uses just four transistors and a few passive components.

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Circuit Diagram:

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Parts:

R1 = 2.2K
R2 = 680K
R3 = 3.3k
R4 = 220K
R5 = 1.5K
R6 = 220R
R7 = 100K
R8 = 680K
C1 = 104pF
C2 = 104pF
C3 = 1uF/10V
C4 = 100uF/10V
C5 = 100uF/10V
Q1 = BC549
Q2 = BC548
Q3 = BC548
Q4 = BC558
J1 = Headphone jack
B1 = 2x1.5V Cells
SW1 = On/Off-Switch

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Circuit Operation:

On moving power switch SW1 to ‘on’ position, the condenser microphone detects the sound signal, which is amplified by Q1 and Q2. Now the amplified signal passes through coupling capacitor C3 to the base of Q3.
The signal is further amplified by Q4 to drive a low impedance earphone. Capacitors C4 and C5 are the power supply decoupling capacitors. The circuit can be easily assembled on a small, general-purpose PCB or a Vero board.
It operates off a 3V DC supply. For this, you may use two small 1.5V cells. Keep switch S to ‘off’ state when the circuit is not in use. To increase the sensitivity of the condenser microphone, house it inside a small tube.

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