[sdiy] Piezo keyboard

[Peter Grenader]

Jeez ...don't all you guys answer at once or anything...

wimper wimper.


- P


Peter Grenader wrote:

> All,
> 
> I was poking around looking for some parts yesterday and came upon ten
> sample piezo switches from a place called PIEZO Development I had and forgot
> all about (goto http://www.piezoswitch.com/about_switches.html).  The ones I
> have are really slick - they don't have a ridge around the perimeter like
> the ones in the photograph on their site -- they're basically these flat
> polished clear anodized aluminum disks, about the diameter and height of a
> quarter and not only pass a signal that's put through them, they do so with
> pressure sensitivity.
> 
> These are designed for underwater use.
> 
> So I've got some faceplate space coming up and I thought I'd do something
> with these.  I've laid out a ten position keyboard, which is also going to
> house my Smokin' Joe (joystick) and so far I've included:
> 
> a tunable voltage level per key and an output for that
> a pressure sensitive output per key
> and a trigger/gate output per key (switch selectable between the two).
> 
> As far as the ganged outputs, I was thinking of a MSB output of:
> 
> the tuned voltages
> an output of linear preset voltages (each key increments  X volts)
> a ganged pressure out (with sensitivity pot)
> a lag output (with glide time pot)
> a gate out 
> a separate trigger out (with pulse eidth pot).
> 
> Anything else I should consider while I'm at this critical 'put it on the
> faceplate or you're screwed' stage?
> 
> My only complaint is it takes a bit more pressure than I would like before
> they short, but these things are so cool and I can forgive this.  But I
> won't be able to simple run my hand across and get a reaction like I would
> with touch keyboard.  Possibly however in time I could use these just as
> contact plates and not incorporate their internal switch at all - there's a
> possibility this will work.  But if not, I'm OK with it.
> 
> So, any feature creep you guys can think of?
> 
> - P
> 
> 
>