The Analog Thing Simulator Brings a Patch-Panel Analog Computer to the Browser
Analog Computer Simulator in the Browser
A browser-based workbench simulates THAT, the analog computer, with an editable patch panel, virtual oscilloscope, and eight coefficient potentiometers. Drag cables between 196 connector hotspots, load preset setups like radioactive decay, and run REPF traces at a 0–100 ms OP-TIME range. The scope reads physical output jacks X/Y/Z/U, and a trace summary reports samples, triggers, and overload state.
Loading this setup replaces the panel wiring and front-panel control preset. It does not recompute the trace unless auto-run is enabled.
- JKCalhoun
Just playing with it a bit, the default setup (a decaying value/voltage)…
Lower left, "-1/+1" are your source voltages representing the smallest allowable value (-1) and largest (+1).
Upper left "COEFF" are the coefficient multipliers—potentiometers, that take a voltage/value in (circle) and output (triangle) an attenuated value/voltage. You change the potentiometer values with the "COEFFICIENT POTENTIOMETERS" section on the right side of the split view.
The top section of the analog computer represent the all-important "INTEGRATORS" (5 of them). Circles are inputs (a few 1x and 10x each) and the output are the triangles.
A lime green wire connects from the +1 source voltage to the #1 coefficient multiplier, that attenuated voltage/value feeds "IC" on the first integrator. ("IC" represents the initial condition of the integrator—the value/voltage it defaults to when the machine is reset.)
That first integrator's output (triangle) is being fed into a second coefficient multiplier where the output from that is fed back into the input of said integrator. In short, the integrator is feeding back a portion of its output back into itself.
Another wire (purple) from that integrator goes first to an inverter in the "INVERTER" section (probably obvious what this operator does) and then connects to the "X" of the "OUTPUT" section. The oscilloscope is displaying "X" on "CH1" (channel 1). We see the decaying voltage/value of the integrator on the oscilloscope.
Playing with the coefficien […]
- JKCalhoun
I took a deep dive for 12 months on how analog computers work(ed) and the result was a little kit and book that represent a kind of analog computer primer [1]. In short I took what I learned over the year and made something that would fast track others (you can probably go through the manual + kit in about two weeks and know as much as I do now).
I had originally wanted to get one of those Analog Things but was a little put off by the price (so of course I spent close to an order of magnitude more to develop my own analog computer).
(The ESP32 I added for the backend, to display the voltages/values [2], is, I think, the coolest thing I contributed to the hobbyist analog-computer niche.)
[1] https://www.tindie.com/products/jcalhoun/anna-analog-compute...
[2] https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Anna-Analog-Computer/tre...