This was my first attempt at creating an oscillator from scratch using a bread board, and so adapted the circuit shown in this video to create a simpler design to start off with.

I created the circuit diagram below to simplify what is being described in the video. Technically you only need 3 components to create a square wave oscillator meaning it’s the simplest waveform to create. What was happening was I was using an IC(Integrated Circuit of the C40106 variety) which is basically 7 inverters in one IC. This means the voltage will alternate between high and low depending on the capacitance of the capacitor and the strength of the resistor. If these values are low enough an audible square wave will be heard. I wanted to have control over pitch so I used a potentiometer which changes the resistance and thus the frequency of the oscillator. I also used a resistor with low resistance along side the potentiometer so the circuit wouldn’t short as that’s what happens if the potentiometer is set to 0 resistance.

I created the circuit diagram on the bread board pictured below. The square wave was in audible range, however, their wasn’t any difference in pitch when I changed the parameters of the potentiometer. There’s a couple reasons to why this might have happened. Firstly, the capacitor and potentiometer I was using were the wrong values as I was using the components my dad gave me. He unfortunately didn’t have the right resistance potentiometers and resistors that is outlined in the video above. The potentiometer I was using was ten times the resistance of the potentiometer I was supposed to use. Furthermore, the capacitor I was using had a capacitance 20 times more than what I should have been using. I’ve ordered the right value components so I’m sure once these components arrive `I’ll be able to construct this oscillator and move on to more complicated designs using multiple oscillators and cross modulation. Another problem I struggled with was the breadboard I was using. It’s my dad’s old one from the 70s so I’m sure many of the connections might be faulty and so I’ve bought a new breadboard in the hopes of removing as many variables that could’ve affected the issues I had with frequency control as possible.