Ribbon Controlers

[gearfixer]

I just found this http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/ ... 500mm.aspx it should be great for making a ribbon controler. Has anyone made one using this?

[pricklyrobot]

Yes, I've made one. I wired it up to a TRS jack, with three switches in between: one turns a 9V battery on/off (so it can be used as a CV controller, or a passive expression-pedal type controller), the second has a resistor to cut the battery voltage in half (for stuff that runs on 0-5V instead of 0-10V), the third switches the pot's wiper from the Tip to the Ring connection of the TRS jack (to allow it to be used with the two different standards for expression pedal inputs).

It works pretty well. I wish it was a bit wider though, it's easy for your finger to slip off off the actual pressure-sensitive area if you're not paying close attention. I may try to make some kind of weighted stylus for it. Might help with the surface area issue and it would also allow you to take your hands away without it dropping back to the default resistance (without having to build some kind of sample and hold circuit, the conception of which is beyond my very limited current electronics knowledge ).

I discovered after I made this that the same company has a similar product that works by magnetism, rather than pressure: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=9072 A bit pricier for the size, but it could make for a neat controller as well.