[sdiy] electronics goldmine blowout....optocoupler and joystick--mystery solved?

[synth at oldmail.charlielamm.com]

As promised, I bought a few (20pcs) of the blow out
audio coupler listed in electronci Goldmine's latest flyer. 
At $1USD each, I figured what the heck.....

Here is what I found out.....

We are talking about Goldmine's part number: G15396
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G15396&variation=&aitem=1&mitem=1

It appears to me (from size, length of leads, markings, etc) to be this
part: http://www.silonex.com/datasheets/specs/104536.htm or something very
close. 

No idea of the linearity....but here is a closely related part, I believe,
with linearity chart on the spec sheet:

http://www.silonex.com/datasheets/specs/104058.htm

So....this is silonix audiohm stuff I believe. Not sure about the
"sorting" aspect of this--ie, did Goldmine get one huge matched batch or
just a bunch of different ones. I will be a happy camper indeed if these
parts match up.  But I don't know yet. I will know more when I test a few
of them. I am going out of town tomorrow so this isn't going to happen
real soon. But here is what I do know.  Of the 20pcs I got, some of these
are marked, some not--all have the polarizing dot on them for marking
which lead is cathode. The ones that are marked say R3G--reading the
sheet, that's about 550 ohms on, 25M off. Rise and fall is 5 msec rise,
10msec fall, under their test conditions....

Joystick/switch time: I also got this part:
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G14071&variation=&aitem=1&mitem=1

This part works exactly as advertised as far as I can tell.  Very small 
and appears very well made. The D type shaft is itty-bitty.  Must be good 
for something, I just don't know what yet.

--CL