Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Home Brew Analog Computer System
GK:
--- Quote from: baljemmett on April 25, 2013, 03:01:52 pm ---I think you need to chuck in an Arduino, a blinky LED and some obvious design errors if you want real discussion ;)
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;D Well, this project has now grown to the extent that the digital section of this hybrid computer (along with the display unit) will have to be built into a seperate 19" rack which I have acquired. There will literally be hundreds of blinky LED's indicating the status of the logic elements; but definitely no Arduino.
chickenHeadKnob:
--- Quote from: GK on April 26, 2013, 06:18:18 am ---Hmmmm..........Problem is if it is un-damped you some how have to maintain a loop gain a precisely 1, otherwise the oscillations will either grow until the amplifiers saturate or decay altogether. To do this with an real world analog computer you will then need level detector controlling a multiplier to act as a servo loop to regulate the amplitude of oscillation. However the feedback contribution of the servo leveling loop(s) may corrupt the experiment. At this stage I really don't know. Perhaps this is a reason why they did it on a digital computer?
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Considering active devices was giving me a headache for another related reason. The system to be modelled is adiabatic (I think!), that is once it is charged with its initial energy it neither dissipates nor consumes power, only transfers it loss-lessly among the masses. Obviously real components can't do this and I don't know how to fix that. Some kind of sealed chamber-calirometer controlling the power input would be my only guess. That is why I started thinking about RC networks with the only servo loop controlling power in vs power out, but I am no engineer :P so I just hit the brick wall |O. While digital computers can evade most of these road blocks even the digital simulations run into the limit of finite precision due to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
GK:
Thinking about a bit more with my limited mathematical insight, having skimmed the links that you provided, I think this is an abstract mathematical problem not realizable in a functional analog constructed with real world electronic components and operational amplifiers. It's probably, for all sakes and purposes from a practical perspective, just as feasible as cold fusion in the HAM shack :P . Moving along now to the next challenge please................... ;D
GK:
Here is the signal preamplifier for the display unit. Two of these will be incorporated into the display unit; one for the X-axis input and one for the Y-axis input. This module gives an oscilloscope-like front-end with a 1M input, an AC/GND/DC input coupling switch, an 11-position 1/2/5 sensitivity switch, a 1-to-0.4 variable sensitivity control, beam/trace positioning pots and a signal inversion switch.
These boards along with the revised PCB's for the horizontal and vertical deflection coil drivers will be going into the etch tank tomorrow morning...........
GK:
The two signal pre-amplifiers are almost done..... one is complete and the other still need to be wired. I've assembled the complete pre-amplifiers into their own sub-chassis, which will mount behind the display units from panel. This makes assembly a great deal easier as the wiring to all of the controls does not have to be done inside the case.
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