Vector Imagery

[Jules Richardson]

Tim Shoppa wrote:
> As a practical matter you can get nearly the same chaotic behavior with less
> expensive circuits that have the right kind of nonlinearities.  In
> my implementation the most expensive components were the ten-turn pots
> and the turn-counter knobs to set the parameters. I think MPY634's are
> $10 a pop, but that there are some AD parts that are equivalent and slightly
> cheaper.

I did wonder how critical those components are - or rather, what the nature of 
it 'not working' is when bits of slightly lower tolerance are used.

> There are some even simpler circuits that produce chaotic behavior using
> just diodes and inductors and capacitors. One of these is often called
> "Chua's circuit" or "Chua's diode" if you want to go googling.

Will do! Later on we can make a 'proper' funded project out of this - it'd 
definitely be justified - but prior to launch and opening of the new museum 
we're probably pretty much stuck raiding bits from the junk box :-)

>> It'd look nice on a Tek 555 'scope sat on top of the Elliott 803 at the museum :-)
> 
> I highly recommend it!
> 
> Historically a lot of chaos research even in the 80's was in fact done
> with analog computers. It certainly is more fun to move wires around
> a plugboard and tweak knobs and see the result on the scope, as compared
> with editing computer code or point-and-drool with a mouse and then
> running it and then seeing the picture!

If anyone has any circuits...

We've got a nice Pace TR-48 analogue computer that I suspect would lend itself 
well to this (conveniently with a Tek 555 and a large XY display currently 
parked on top!) as well as a fairly large Solartron that could probably also 
do the job. Unfortunately we only have one person who knows anything about the 
analogue machines, and he doesn't get that much time to ever do anything with 
them :-(

cheers

Jules