[sdiy] touchplate keyboard - works!

[Peter Grenader]

Believe it or not, those switches are made for wet weather applications.
They make plastic ones for underwater use.  No moving parts. The company is
called Piezo, Inc, or something like that,  They cost a fortune - ten bucks
each.

  Romeo Fahl wrote:

> Are those elevator switches?  Where the heck does one buy something
> like that, anyway?
> 
> Romeo
> 
> On Feb 4, 2005, at 8:35 PM, Peter Grenader wrote:
> 
>> All,
>> 
>> I've been working on something for myself on the weekends (i'm allowed
>> to
>> work on my own stuff on the weekends!) for a while now and I've
>> finally got
>> a camera to shoot a picture for you guys.
>> 
>> It's an adaptation of a Serge Programmer circuit which appeared in
>> SYnasple
>> some three million years ago, with five stages instead of four and
>> incorporating touchplates using those extremely cool piezo switches
>> I've had
>> laying around for a couple of years now, waiting to find the time to
>> make
>> this thing.  I also gave Smokin' Joe a proper home and slapped him in
>> the
>> corner (he being my joystick controller).
>> 
>> Each key (stage) has the following inputs/outputs/controls:
>> 
>> Send input (from the Sergecircuit - a pulse pulls the stage active)
>> 
>> Gate output (remains high until another stage is selected)
>> 
>> Pressure Output
>> 
>> Voltage output (from the voltage level pot)
>> 
>> Voltage Level Pot (sets the voltage output for that stage)
>> 
>> LED indicator (lights when stage is active)
>> 
>> 
>> The Summed Outputs consist of the following:
>> 
>> Trigger out (marked gate on faceplate)
>> 
>> Tuned Output ( the voltage pot outputs of the active stage)
>> 
>> Linear Voltage  (outputs 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 volts out of stages 1, 2,
>> 3, 4
>> and 5)
>> 
>> Lagged Output (adds an adjustable slew to the tuned output)
>> 
>> Summed Pressure output
>> 
>> Lag Time/Pressure Sensitivity Pot (I used one dual pot for both
>> features as
>> I was out of faceplate real estate).
>> 
>> Then there's Smokin' Joe - my Laughably Simple Joystick Controller
>> flisted
>> on my DIY page
>> 
>> Wanna see a pciture?...
>> 
>> http://www.buzzclick-music.com/motiv1.jpg
>> 
>> This is one thing my system I was constantly wishing I had - a means to
>> create manual independant triggers and voltage levels.   For those of
>> you
>> doing bug music that don't have a Serge Programmer or TBK or a Buchla
>> Touchplate, you're kidding yourself thinking a keyboard with a Midi to
>> CV is
>> sufficient.  What I appreciate about this arrangement now is I can
>> (finally)
>> trigger independent events from each key.  Reaktor allows you to do
>> this
>> because it you can select a midi note number range for each module's
>> input,
>> however I was sick and tired of tying up my Event Timer in order to
>> create
>> Voltage threasholds to do this with my Midi to CV.  Now I don't have
>> to.
>> Yipp!
>> 
>> And in that I retained the Serge 'send' input to each stage, this
>> module can
>> become a arbitrary voltage generator or a sequencer if driven form a
>> pulse
>> sequence.
>> 
>> Here is a close up of the piezo switches I used for the touchplates:
>> 
>> http://www.buzzclick-music.com/piezo.jpg
>> 
>> I'm glad this one is completed, it was a ton of work!
>> 
>> - P
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Along with the touchplates, I added a linear voltage output (gives 2,
>> 4, 6,
>> 8 and 10 volt outputs out of the five keys), a tuned output, which is
>> the
>> summed output of the voltage pots, a lagged output which slews between
>> those
>> tuned voltages
>> 
>