optical pots

[Thomas Hudson]

Paul Perry wrote:
> 
> At 03:20 PM 6/05/99 +0100, Paul (aka Mr XeoN Freemail wrote:
> 
> >I was thinking about a digital emulation synth with high resolution
> >infinite rotary knobs. The knobs would work just as a computer mouse
> >does but with far better accuracy. Put a special "FOCUS" mode into the
> >software.
> 
> there is a similar technique where the software looking at the pulses
> from the knob decides whether the knob is turning 'fast' or 'slow',
> and runs the parameter up or down by singles or eg 10s acordingly.
> This is suprisingly intuitive & not hard to set up in software.
> 
The volume control on my car stereo is similar. If you turn it slowly,
it probably takes four revolutions to go from full off to full on. If
you turn it quickly it seems like a half revolution (or 3/4) is needed
to cover a large portion of the range. 

The important thing is that it FEELS perfect. My wife thought I was 
crazy; we buy a new car and all I can do is rave about the feel of
the volume control. Of course the amount of fine control is probably
overkill in an automobile.

This seems like the perfect way to save panel space (coarse and fine).
If each click was say a quarter tone or smaller, but a quick yank o'
the knob would jump several octaves.

I would love to see a large panel of these rotary encoders, perhaps
software configurable or directly interfaced to a PC. 

Thomas