x/y touchpad controller

[AndAway]

Hi

Look at the flex sensor. I see 5 sensors, each for one finger, that gives me

an idea of midi-glove. That would be nice :)

Andrew

[Wisefire]

check ouy the p5 glove on google.. thats what they made with those exact flex sensors..

ive actually got 2 lying here. they are great.. and cuz of the fact the company has cease to be. very cheap if you can still find them..

mine were about 10 dollars.. without shipping..

edit:

here are some links:

repository for p5+music making combined..

http://www.audiomulch.com/simulus/p5glove

i didnt look to hard.. but here you can buy them reasonably cheap:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?dest=9999999997&product_id=2073360&sourceid=0100000012231185702498

the yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/p5glove/

edit2:

btw i ordered a sample for those xy pads and softpot.. i would love to make a midi kaoss pad type thing.. you say that it wont remember position..

but couldnt you program in that the position the resistance is in when not touched is ignored? and that it would repeat the last measured value before that? just imagine.. for live use.. your own kaoss pad, for a fraction of the cost.. and controlling your own choice piece of hardware.. im dreaming allready..

[AndAway]

Hi List

As moogah said:

>For the softpots I was thinking of software that ignores the absolute position and only listens the the change in signal, so that If you slide >up it increments the value, sliding down decrements the value, reguardless of where you touch the pot. 

I think that this solution is used in laptops. And the soft would be easy (for somebody with basic prog. skills :) ). Also some sensitivity value should be taken into consideration...

I've made a very simple circuit which changes the output of the pad to values 0-5V but I don't have a place to post it. I have schematics and pcb in the eagle format (my first drawing). If someone is interested i can send it to him.

[bosone]

i jjust received my free samlpes... i admit i used the name of my institute to get them... i hope they will not come hear and look what i'm doing with their samples...  :P

anyway.. did someone figure out how to connect the xy pad to make it work like 2 pots??? i,too, didnt have any schematics enclosed... and there are a lot of pins!!

[robotfunk]

did yours also look like 2 seperate pads with 2 wires in the middle seperating them? are we supposed to fold them together before they work? do we fold the sticky sides together or apart? i'm a bit concerned folding it at all since the connecting wire on plastic bit doesnt bend all that nicely

[bosone]

well, i didn't understand precisely what you meant...

i will make a photo and post it...

[robotfunk]

well the one I got looks like this:

so do i fold them with the black (non sticky) parts outward like this:

(notice the little wires won't bend totally flat)

or with the sticky part outside like this:

[AndAway]

Each of these "2 pads" - the first picture (it is one in fact) has two connectors, one for +vcc and the other to the analog input. You would be able to connect it to the analog in if R=10Kohm, but they are max 1,5 Kohm, so You have to use a voltage divider with an impedance buffer (or play somehow with software).

So You have 4 pins: two for +vcc and one for x-output and one for y-output.

Btw. I don't think You should separate those 2 layers...

[bosone]

my touchpad is this one

there is a matrix for the buttons like the one of the computer keyboards.

the one thing i don't understand is that is see only 4 contact that go to the whole touchpad:

two on the X axis (one left one right), and two on Y axiS (up,bottom).

i imagine i have to power by 5V-gnd the X and Y axis, separately. but then, i will need two more wires to take the signal....

it's hard to understand how this thing works... i bet i will never be able to use this!!! :-(

[AndAway]

That is the bigger one :)

It's ok to have 4 contacts. Imagine one axis. You connect +vcc on one side (left), and the other side(right) is signal. The same with the other axis. And the matrix is also nice...

[bosone]

It's ok to have 4 contacts. Imagine one axis. You connect +vcc on one side (left), and the other side(right) is signal. The same with the other axis.

and the ground?

an analog pot has 3 contacts, gnd, Vcc, signal..

[AndAway]

No, You don't have to connect the ground here... You won't get voltages from 0V to 5V, but from something above 0 (on the left you have +5V ane when You press on the farest point to right)  to something under 5V, that's why You need to change the software...

Take normal pot - when You turn max to left You have a short-circuit between the ground and signal. Turn it max to right - a short-circuit between +5V and signal. With touchpad You'll never have such a short-circuit (but You can match a voltage divider to give You 5V output). Still You need more than 5V for such voltage divider...

[kokoon]

i got the package today. i got a 3x membrane switch (meh), 1 linear sensor and 6 (yay!!!) flex sensors.  anyone got the flex sensors to work directly with AIN?

[AndAway]

The resistance is different than 10KOhm, but You may try... I thought about something like a midi glove with flex sensors...

[Wisefire]

andaway.. you can buy them for about 10 or 20 euros.. p5 glove.. ive got 2.. great things..

[kokoon]

where can you buy midiglove for 20 euros?

[Wisefire]

ask your friend google for the p5 glove.. or look around this thread.. ive posted some links earlier to some cewl sites about the p5 glove

[goule]

Hello crew,

Just received my XY pad from SpectraSymbol : did any of you finally succeed in integrating that baby into an MBHP project ??  :)

Laterz,

Goule

[Wisefire]

its on my to do list..

[goule]

I received this datasheet with my XY pad :

Does anyone know where to apply +5v / ground ?

I tried to solder a cable on the conductive surface but it did not work. Did anyone succeed in connecting a cable to this thing ?

Thanks for helping, I'd  ** L O V E ** to integrate it into my MBHP !!  :D 8)

Goule

[stryd_one]

I received this datasheet with my XY pad :

Does anyone know where to apply +5v / ground ?

I tried to solder a cable on the conductive surface but it did not work. Did anyone succeed in connecting a cable to this thing ?

Thanks for helping, I'd ** L O V E ** to integrate it into my MBHP !! :D 8)

Goule

Those ribbon connectors have special sockets ... I think the cable is referred to as FFC or Flexible Flat Cable ?

Like this for example: http://connector.almita.com.tw/ffc-connectors/01.htm :)

Or this: http://www.toby.co.uk/content/catalogue/products.asp?series=ZF1-xx-xx-T-WT-xx

Googling for "FFC socket" (WITH the quotes) seemed to get the best results

[goule]

Thanks ! It seems like there couldn't be some best answer  :D

By the way, have you also tried to play with that xy pad thing ?

Have a good week-end !

Goule

[stryd_one]

No worries mate... I recognise the connectors from inside laptops from when I was a hardware tech :)

Unfortunately, I got my samples, and I got two potentiometers only, no XY Pad :( I'll still see if I can get them to work, but I wish they'd sent me one sample of each type, like I asked ... I might re-order later on.

[MRE]

Looks like they have recently limited their samples section to a button, a pot, and an overlay.

On a side note, the 'rotary' pots look sweet. They look like they would act just like the control on an Ipod. I could imagine a several of these circles used to make a totally 'flat' midi controller.

[stryd_one]

Too slow mate, I already ordered a few sizes of concentric circular pots :)