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(OT) Penny+Giles Endless Belt controller


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Yes, this was posted before.

A while ago I had my hands on a mixer with this P+G belts in it.

I didn't like the "feeling". It's quita a big difference, if you have a Fader-Knob between your fingers or if you slide a belt.

It felt like mixing with the mouse. And thats what we don't want, or?

greets

Doc

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I found the following prices for this on another board, I quite like the thought of these instead of MFs for my DMX controller but as I was looking at maybe 32/48 of them this really puts the price up (bulk order anyone???). For a DMX controller though, the fact that you can only move as many faders as you have fingers could be an issue (I always have a pencil handy for this!)

D460377 PGF7000 series Red LED (green or blue led also available)

1 off £35.00 each (46.9984 EUR / 69.0307 USD)

10 off £31.50 each (42.3017 EUR / 62.1285 USD)

100 off £24.50 each (32.9013 EUR / 48.3222 USD)

Edit: as you can see from the exchange rate this was some months ago  :)

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A while ago I had my hands on a mixer with this P+G belts in it.

I didn't like the "feeling".

I second Doc's notion, they do not feel nice. I would even say that there isn't any point in using them unless you have to control a parameter that has an "endless" range, e.g. an angle from 0 to 360 degrees as in surround panning - but then, you wouldn't want the linear belt to scale to an angular position...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've seen them used on quite a few lighting desks, but rarely on audio mixers. I'd rate them for level or parameter setting, and they're definitely more robust, "out on the road" than most motor faders. I agree with Doc they don't feel right somehow for audio - perhaps it's having to watch an LED column, rather than end stop distance that does it.

I did a rough try out of an endless belt controller with the LED stack off to one side, using a standard shaft encoder and a toothed belt inside out. So dog-rough I'm not posting pictures. The belt ran around two idler wheels, and drove the encoder from it's opposite side. Mechanics are nasty. You really need an opto encoder not a mechanical one, and unless you are very skilled in the mech department, they end up quite wide. All in all, the P&G price is realistic.

A wheel controller is easier. I made one from a peanut butter jar top, glued to a plywood core, fitted onto a shaft extender between two simple bearings - it worked but again looked very rough. I need to have another go at some of these 'ghetto style' controllers and do some pix. Recycling mouse parts is easier in many ways!

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  • 2 weeks later...

... well I would be satisfied by being the one behind the one in yellow  :D

EDIT:

Not to be too off-topic - The one in yellow is the endless belt and the one behind her is the controller... or so... or somenthing similar...  ???

I think "I was just adjusting her parameters officer" wouldn't quite cut it as an excuse for running your fingers over her though.

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