Modular patch system

[Tim Walters]

At 12:39 AM 6/18/96, Paul.Maddox at bew.co.uk wrote:
>        I dont know fo anywhere still makeing
>or selling patch pin boards anymore, I tried to get
>one for a synth I wanted to build. No Luck.

[interesting stuff about switch matrices deleted]

Actually, Barry Bernard e-mailed me a beautiful, lo-tech idea today.
Instead of using a pin matrix (which requires as many holes as inputs *
outputs), use a female multi-pin connector (Centronix, Nubus, whatever) and
connect your inputs and outputs one to each pin.  Your "preset" is then a
male connector with wires soldered from pin to pin as appropriate.

This has four great advantages:

1.  You only need as many pins as inputs + outputs, rather than inputs *
outputs.

2.  You can insert resistors between pins to mimic knob settings.

3.  The connector takes up a very small amount of panel space, leaving
plenty of room for standard jacks in parallel, so you can operate it
ergonomically in "normal" modular mode, then "copy" your patches to the
connector.

4.  The patch can be added to during use, unlike the
card-over-the-pin-matrix idea.

Can anyone spot any flaws in this idea?  Does anyone know what type of
connector has about 120 pins and is easy to solder by hand?  (Nubus is the
closest I've found, but only has 96 pins.)



-----------------------------
"Ever wonder what it sounds like *inside* that trash can icon on your
desktop?  Tim Walters knows."  -Jim Aikin, _Keyboard_

Tim Walters  --  walters at digidesign.com  --  http://www.slip.net/~coredump