You found the bug!

Someone hid this tiny beeper and you tracked it down by ear. Maybe it was a game, maybe it was a prank. Either way, you win this round.

Bugger PCB - top view showing components and QR code
I found this thing I'm hiding one

What It’s For

Bugger is a tiny electronic bug on a coin cell. It stays quiet, beeps every now and then, and can only be found by ear. It’s also a simple kit: five parts that really anyone can solder, so you can easily build a whole box of them at once. The schematic, board and firmware are open source.

Fox Hunt
Radio orienteering where your ears are the receiver. Hide it in the woods or in a building and let everyone track it down.
Search by Sound
Short-range pinpointing, as in an avalanche beacon drill. Bury it in leaves or snow, or blindfold whoever is searching.
Scotland Yard
Like Mister X, it gives away its position every so often. Clip it to whoever is running and give them a head start.
Where’s That Beep?
You know when a smoke alarm battery is dying and you just can’t tell where the chirp is coming from? Same thing, only much smaller, and just as loud. If one ever got left behind somewhere, you’d be looking for it for a long time.

Choose Your Weapon

1

Cricket

A summer night, all year round

  • 20s – 2min quiet
  • 2-4 bursts of chirps
  • MAX
  • Real crickets go quiet when you sneak up on them. So does this one.
~months
2

Gaslighter

You remember it wrong.

  • 10 – 30min quiet
  • 3-5 x 1s beeps, 2s gaps
  • Regular
  • Waits just long enough, then starts beeping again; different every time
~months
3

Chaos

Maximum disruption

  • 10-30s quiet
  • 1-3 x 200ms-1s beeps
  • Loud
  • Some men just want to watch the world burn
~weeks
4

Smoke Alarm

The hallway sound

  • 40s quiet
  • 600ms chirp
  • MAX
  • One sharp chirp at a fixed interval
~weeks
5

Tinnitus

Is it just me or can you hear it too?

  • 3 – 8min quiet
  • 1-3min high whine
  • Faint
  • Continuous, high-pitched sound that gets on your nerves
~weeks
6

Haunted

They’re in my walls

  • 3 – 15min quiet
  • Different effect each time
  • Regular
  • Long press to select just one effect
~months

Getting Started

1

Insert the Battery

Pop a CR2032 coin cell into the battery holder on the bottom of the board (the side opposite the QR code and components).

Make sure the positive (+) side faces up (away from the board) — line it up with the + marker on the battery shield.

Bugger PCB bottom view - battery holder side
2

Choose Your Mode

Press the button to switch. Number of beeps = mode number. Wait 5 seconds to select.

In mode 6, hold the button to pick a single effect.

Bugger PCB top view - components and button SW1
3

Hide It

Pick a hiding spot: the woods, a building, a pile of leaves, or the backpack of whoever is running.

Where exactly is up to you :)