Edition 1: ChaOsz

4/23/2018

Chaos Oszillator designed by Uwe Schüler (Kulturgüterschuppen Dusslingen, Germany) for Circuit Control DIY Soldering Festival at Ostpol (Dresden, Germany) June 2011.

Description of the circuit by the designer
A square wave generator consists of 2 CMOS inverters with variable frequency ("tone frequency") and is connected to an adjustable stabilized voltage of about 1 to 5 volts ("supply voltage control") and a variable internal resistance of 0 to 100 kOhm ("bad battery") and an adjustable filter constant ("power supply filter"). This results in feedbacks on the operating voltage, which lead to unstable and chaotic oscillations.

Background
"Normally, measures are taken to keep electronic circuits stable, including stabilization of the operating voltage, decoupling capacitors, and low-impedance leads to the consumption points," says Uwe Schüler, and if these rules are disregarded, then you can freak around with the most vital sounding synth you can imagine. I got experienced and jammed with the Chaosz for weeks. I soldered some more units with different modificatios. Best is the original version, the Ostpoti by Uwe. Why Chaosz sounds so great is easy to explain: Uwe has spent a lot of effort to produce a maximum unstable and dirty power supply instead of developing a clean standard oscillator. This reverse path strategy masters the studied electronics engineer Uwe Schüler perfectly and tempts the possibilities to the maximum.

I created 90% of the sounds for "2nd Movement" ("Analoge Systeme", CD, base, 2016) with the Chaosz, also the drum sounds. Only the the polyphonic soundscapes come from another analogue synth. The live session with the Chaosz took approximately 2 hours, the editing of the sounds 2 days and the music was finished in 4 hours.

ChaOsz schematic, added to article on May 4, 2018

Wolfgang Dorninger

The series "The Circuit Controllers" continues monthly on Electronic Cottage. I will only present sound devices that I have soldered myself and of developers I know personally and appreciate as friends.

Next edition: FlipFloater Delay from Claude Winterberg (Basel, Switzerland)

Uwe Schüler
Wolfgang Dorninger

4 Comments

Wolfgang Dorninger

Soldering is the new hometaping
:)

I live and work in Linz, Austria as musician, producer and sound artist. I compose music for movies, theater and sound installations to make a living. Sound is the main focus of my artistic work, as musician (The Smiling Buddhas, Wipeout, Dorninger, ...), label-owner (base), sound artist or lecturer at the Art University of Linz. In the 80s and 90s I ran the cassette label DIE IND.

My sound works oscillates between musique concrète and digital sound-production in a range spanning sound installations, multi-media performances, music for theater and techno.

Now I am working on the exhibition Cassette Culture Node.Linz.
Feel free to send me stuff!

email
Wolfgang Dorninger site
base[records]

Dave Fuglewicz link

4/26/2018 00:16:32

While I have some commercial synth units, I am a firm believer in low cost, diy modules, units. Low cost does not equal "junk". It would be very helpful if a schematic is included for future hardware posts. Thanks for doing this.

Wolfgang Dorninger link

4/27/2018 16:31:51

Hallo Dave,
thanks for your interest. Uwe is on holidays. When he is back he will send me the latest schematics of ChaOsz.
End of the week you can start soldering.
Best Wolfgang

5/4/2018 03:23:58

Uwe has sent me a description in english. I will ask Hal to add the aschematics within the article.

Happy soldering!

ChaOsz

Chaos Oszillator for Ostpoti-Festival Dresden 21.-24.6.2011

Circuit Description:

A square wave generator with adjustable pitch made of 2 CMOS inverters has an on board power supply with adjustable voltage and current limit, plus an adjustable supply filter. These 3 power supply controls simulate a „bad battery“ which, in contrast to a clean, electronically well designed power supply, causes instable and chaotic behavior of the oscillator.

CMOS chip CD4085 is a bit exotic and has only been choosen because the author received a donation of some hundred of these. More common CMOS gates like 4001 or 4011 can be used
instead for the oscillator.

Mods:

- additional „Bruce-Willis-die-hard“ capacitor of 47uF as power supply buffer right after the
ON/OFF switch (see schematics)

- body contacts at input of the 1st inverter (pin 10…), GND, output

- extern modulation of power supply: replace potentiometers with LDRs or vactrols .

- last but not least : experiment !

5/4/2018 14:31:03

Thanks for the schematic and description. Hopefully I'll build one later this year.

Edition 1: ChaOsz

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