OT: piezo speaker vs jack input

[ethrbunny]

two things - as if learning basic box building wasn't enough now I have a jones to use a microcontroller in one... so Im reading the specs for the ATMEL AVR. Looks like quite a party. Do these require that I be able to solder an SMD part or do they have a DIP socket? What is the recommended way to get started with these?

Oh yeah - my question: there is a spec for a tuner made with the AVR chip. Unf it uses a piezo speaker for the input. Obviously Id rather use a jack instead. What is the input from a piezo speaker?

Also - with all the large brains here - I want to understand whats involved in driving an LCD display. I have no clue what to google for to RTFM. Suggestions? (rationale - the 'nice' tuners show the note in a display. It would be exciting enough just to light some LEDs but why stop there?)

[Nasse]

http://www.spelektroniikka.fi/kuvat/7bbappl.pdf

Reminds when I visited a component shop and told the salesperson
"I want a piezo buzzer without an amplifier"

(looks me as I am an idiot)
What is that? We don´t have such.

"Okay. Do you have a piezo mic?"


EDIT Oops not much anything said in the pdf but such piezo elements are often used as contact microphones. I think they have high impedance and quite high output