The Wave Maker is a scientific instrument designed for our Emriver models. It is placed at the end of the model and rests partially submerged in water. The controller makes the stepper motor move in a precise manner to simulate waves at regular intervals. This causes coastal erosion processes to take place. The Wave Maker runs off of 48V DC power, supplied by a desktop adapter. This voltage is supplied to the stepper motor driver, and the circuit board uses a SMPS to take it down to a usable 5V DC. I designed the controller and it has many interesting features. There is 2x16 character display and a optical encoder with a knob and built-in button for navigating the menu and changing parameters. The operator can adjust the power/speed of the waves, the time between waves, and the degrees of travel of the paddle that creates the waves. They can start and stop the wave action and also send very strong waves manually by entering tsunami mode. The software also manages acceleration and deceleration of the paddle to prevent splashing as it starts, stops, and changes directions. The enclosure of the controller for this instrument is aluminum, with a custom fabricated clear lid. The stepper motor draws a lot of wattage from the driver and generates much heat. I approached the heat dissipation using a passive method of applying thermal paste between the driver and the enclosure. This doesn't compromise the water tight seal of the enclosure like other methods would. Also, I designed the Big Muddy Control Board for this device to have two microcontroller working in parallel to be able to simultaneous control the motor and accept user input on the optical encoder without interruption.