optical pots

[Gene Zumchak]

    My last employment was at a big company that typically threw out anything
that they weren't using, or didn't know what it was.  One day I saw several
hundred Grayhill digital pots go into the dumpster.  I grabbed a couple of them,
but when I realized what they were and what they could be used for the dumpster
was gone.  I've been mourning those pots for a couple of years.

Gene



Jim Patchell wrote:

>     If you look in digikey, these controls are not cheap.  The Clarostat
> part, which does have a very nice feel, is ~$40 each (128 pulses per rev/512
> counts per rev),  the Grayhill part (32 pulses per rev/128 counts per rev) is
> ~$20,  both of those are optical.  Going mechanical, you are down in the $3
> range.  I have never used a mechanical encoder.  Anybody ever have problems
> with the mechanical encoders (life, etc).
>
>     -Jim
>
> Thomas Hudson wrote:
>
> > 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