AW: diy ribbon controller

[Stopp,Gene]

I played with the rubber stuff last night - it's actually about 36 ohms
per foot. However, it does not seem linear, and is seems that pressing
harder on it (thereby squishing it) causes a change in conductivity.
Also, the roll that it comes on is not labelled, so I have no idea who
manufactures it. I should probably set up a simple test and see how it
behaves.

 - Gene

 ----------
From: Haible Juergen
To: DIY
Subject: AW: diy ribbon controller
Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 9:39AM


	>Another possibility is the material that is used for
FCC-compliance
	>chassis gaskets in card-cage rackmount equipment. This stuff is
like a
	>small black rubber rope, about 1/8" in diameter, cut to length
and
	>stuffed into a slot in a metal panel so that it seals the gap
between
	>other panels in the unit. It's resistive, and it's a low
resistance -
	>something like 10 ohms per foot. I haven't tried this for
ribbon
	>controller experiments, but it looks promising.

Sounds good! Who makes these?

Another idea (*not* tried): There are shielded cables that don't use
a braided metal shield, but conductive polymer instead. (Together
with a wire that runs parallel in contact with the polymer).
Remove insulation and the GND wire, leave the signal wire and insulation
inside for stability, but don't connect it. Now you should have a quite
sturdy
and elastic conductor.
Anyone tried this?

JH.