Surf simulation

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

A couple of decades after last using it, I dusted off the Surf Simulator I built in the later 90s and have been trying in vain to get it working again. I'll probably build a much simpler version for Arduino, as I'm now discussing in a parallel thread of same subject in the Project Guidance category:
https://forum.arduino.cc/t/surf-simulation/1124684/2

But I'm still hoping to get the legacy stuff working again, mainly as a challenge.

It was still working very well, the only flaw being a faint but still audible 'click' within the crashing breaker stage, not good for a 'sleep inducer'!

But I then made the stupid mistake of fiddling with several of its nine presets and physically replacing some wiring... and after a couple of days I still have not recovered that '95% OK' status. And I'm darned if I can still fully follow my own design from the limited stuff I documented in late 2000. A big ask I know, but I'm hoping for advice on a few specifics. Here's the block diagram I also posted in the other thread:

SurfBlock
SurfBlock740×984 119 KB

Q1:
I've got the 3340/380 attenuator/amplifier section working (it's on a separate veroboard strip). But I dispensed with the dual supply that I'd apparently used originally. Works fine from a single supply of around 12V. Does that look as if it was used anywhere else?

Q2:
Assuming I can identify it amongst the very crowded main veroboard, I wonder if I really needed two 'Rumblers'? As I now see it, the sound has the following elements:

  • Gentle surf slowly increasing
  • Breaking with a sudden but rapidly decreasing crash
  • Deeeper 'rumble' as it recedes on a pebble shore, fading to virtual silence. No 'mid rumbler'.
    (All with some randomness over the cycle's duration.)

Q3:
Any other ideas or advice welcomed. Here about circuitry, or in the other thread re Arduino.

MainVero
MainVero1920×1440 332 KB

2

You’ve given yourself an almost impossible task .
That board is a complete rats nest ( sorry ) and impossible to follow the wiring , so almost impossible to fault find .
If you have a circuit diagram , I think I would start again and layout parts and wires carefully , documenting as you go .Do this in your Arduino version too. !!!!!
Use a basic colour coding for your wiring and label the circuit diagram with those and where major parts are located .
As you see a careful build at the start helps when you go back later .

Good luck

3

Thanks, agreed about the rats nest - I have improved somewhat in the 23 years since!

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