On this blog I’ve described a few “sleep” noise-generators in the past. White noise is too hash, and needs to be “softened” by attenuating the higher frequencies. I had described pseudo Brown noise generators in a previous post using an RC (resistor-capacitor) low-pass filter. RC filters are not “true” Brownian noise , but they are eminently sufficient for their intended purpose.
Brown noise reduces output at all frequencies, whereas an RC filter is a low-pass filter.
RC filters are usually implemented electronically. Ostensibly they use just a resistor and a capacitor, but I think things are more complicated than that. They assume that the output from the RC circuit has high impedance, i.e. that there is a large resistance in the output circuit to ground.
But this is not necessarily the case. You can’t just attach a speaker at the output of the circuit, because speakers generally have a low resistance. You therefore won’t get the output you expect. You could put an opamp to configured in as a buffer between the RC circuit and the speaker. This introduces extra problems, because with something like a 714 opamp you need to supply an negative voltage owing to its limitations.
What a palaver!
An alternative is to use a uC (microcontroller) to process signals digitally, and then just spit out the result. No electronics (although of course you’ll still need a speaker), just code.
Arduino Unos are unlikely to have enough grunt to handle the processing requirements. Fortunately, I found the Raspberry Pi Pico to be up to the job, at least for use as an RC filter.
The differential equation to determine the voltage across a capacitor is given by:
vc(t+dt) = vc(t) + 2*pi*fc*dt*(va(t)-vc(t))
where vc is the voltage output, fc is the cut-off frequency ( parameter), dt is the time interval, t is time and va is the input voltage.
va can vary over time, if you like. In my implementation I use a random number generator to generate white noise for va.
Normally, one would choose va to be uniformly distributed over some range. What I did in my code is to make it either fully on (value of 1), or fully off (value of 0). I calculate vc from that, and set the pin high if vc>=0.5, low otherwise.
Connect a speaker to GP19. You can use an audio jack if you like, or just use a simple small speaker.
As an added bonus, GP20 acts as a switch between white noise and the filtered noise. Under normal mode of operation, the filtered noise is produced. Press down GP20 to hear the underlying white noise.
Sweet dreams.
