MOTM

Considering the interest in ribbon controllers I thought I'd pass this
along.  Electronic Goldmine has an inexpensive XY resistive touch pad on
sale for $5.00 each.  Here's the link:
http://sales.goldmine-elec.com/prodinfo.asp?prodid=4364.  This is a nice
clear resistive touch pad mounted on a plate of glass.  The useable area
is about 6" x 8". It is designed for a computer touch screen, but who
says you can't use it with your synthesizer?

For more information on how the touch screen works, go here:
http://www.elotouch.com/products/accutec/default.asp. The Accutouch
product manual is here: http://www.elotouch.com/support/dwnldmnls.asp.
By hooking the touch screen's 5 pin connector to +5V and ground you
could have a simple one direction touch pad.  This beats manufacturing
one yourself for a ribbon controller, even if you use it only in the X
dimension.  

To do both coordinates will require some active circuitry.  By my
reckoning, an oscillator, minor control logic, muxes, sample and holds,
slew/filter and comparators could generate both XY coordinates and a
gate signal. I hope to cook up a circuit in the next few weeks, assuming
I can get "unburied" from my other projects. 

John Loffink
jloffink@...