repeate after me....r i b b o n c o n t r o l e r

deknow

i had forgotten i sent for a sample of this late one night. i came home tonight to find one of these in my mailbox.

http://www.spectrasymbol.com/linearposition.html

the sample they sent me is just over 6" long, and is totaly flexible (you could mount it on a curved surface) with an adhesive backing. it's a simple potentiometer, with leads you can solder to. i think they make them up to 20". you could either use them with direct finger contact, or, if you wanted them to hold position like a slider, you just have to put something mechanical ontop of it. ...of course, there is no inherent advantage to this over a traditional slide fader...well, unless you also add this:

http://www.tekscan.com/flexiforce/specs_flexiforce.html

....that would be a good setup for a soundlab. but what about a g2?
scroll down just over half the page to find "green lunchbox"
http://www.jordanautomations.com/basicstampmidi.html

...also, there is this:
http://www.spectrasymbol.com/xypad.html
and this:
http://www.spectrasymbol.com/sensors.html
...note that these are the sensors for the p5 glove.

...i'm mounting this one on the flute.

deknow
deknow

bugbrand · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:27 am Post subject:

I've still not gotten round to using my SpectraSymbol (damn cool name!?! Reminds me of Lomo cameras) samples.. Yes, Ribbon controlling, check:: http://paia.com/LabNotes/index.htm

jksuperstar · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:05 am Post subject:

I've got the same sample Smile

But mine also came with some finger bending sensors, and some other panel related samples.

One problem I've run into is that the G2 control input (I'm assuming you want to use this) expects a center-tap potentiometer, which the G2 connects one end to ground, one end to some form of power, and the middle is a voltage divide depending on where you touch.

However, the problem is that the touch ribbon controller we have has 3 conncetions, but one is the inverse of the other -- ie: it only acts as two variable resistors, one going from 0 - 1 (for example) in a given direction, while the other goes from 1 - 0 in the same direction. Also, it's only 5Kohm, not the usual 47kohm expected by the G2 (and most other control inputs).

Because of this, you have to add (at least) another resistor, more like 2 (one on each end), to create the "voltage divider". Even then, because you don't get the full sweep, you'll need to do some offset and gain stages inside the G2 to get the signal to a full "Blue" level (bipolar).

I've mounted mine on my G2 keys for now, on the left side of the modulation wheel, then routed the wire *inside* the G2 then out through the heat-vents to the back panel.

toppobrillo · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 7:13 pm Post subject:

yeah dudde!! xy pads ttoo cool!

dude i was just about to make a post about my keyboard controllers, one of which is a membrane pad type. that would be a swell match.

so yeah you could use a mechanical way, or design a circuit that allows for the position to be held, or, returns to a designated point when not pressed.. [like a joystick returns to 'zero']

cool Cool

toppobrillo · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:04 am Post subject:

heya

how long'd it take to get those samples?

josh

deknow · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:04 am Post subject:

...it took a long time. i had forgotten all about it until it showed up.

deknow

mi_dach · Joined: Dec 17, 2005 Posts: 133 Location: Sweden

Is it actualy useful though? What do you find yourself doing the most with it? Im wondering if its possible as a transport, or cue controller type thing, do you think it would be good for scratching samples?

dnny · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:57 am Post subject:

toppobrillo · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject:

i got mine in a bout a week. i live in the midwestern US. so i got one ribbon about 8 inches long measuring about 7k linear taper, and a circular
one about 1.5" diameter measuring about 10k lin. cool. no XY pad as i requested though Sad

for those of you who are interested in making a 'ribbon controller', look at john simonton's at PAIA.com. it can generate multiple CVs from multiple finger positions simultaneously. this, of course, could be applied to any voltage divider configuration with multiple tap points. ARP has a patent on the 3620 duophonic keyboard in a way like this.

if you make stuff with these, please post some photos.. it would be cool to see how people use these.. there are many many ways!

josh

dnny · Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:35 pm Post subject:

hi there - i found a few reels of PEM 469 and PEM 468
Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

and measured their resistance:
PEM 468 has 1M ohm /10cm (approx)
PEM 469 has 700K ohm /50cm (approx)

so i figured that this could be a good material to be used in ribboncontroller.

so here is the offer - you send me your address and i send you some meters of tape.

dnny