modified 12 years ago

Question for faceblast.

01:12:05

Pardon my ignorance, but can you tell me what an encoder strip is? I'm an old guy & just beginning to study this stuff. I have muscular dystrophy and have lost function of my legs. Trying not go insane. Oh yea, you "build" some awesome stuff , by the way.

published 12 years ago

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Encoder strips are used conjunction with an optical sensor. Usually found in printers. They're used so the cartridge can tell where it is at, and how fast it's traveling, as it moves left/right. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130224064902AAN0Saw I'd like to hear more about @faceblast's plans to use them on your bass. It sounds interesting.

joefranklin

12 years ago

Ah, thank you very much !!!

faceblast

12 years ago

Yeah what kurtz said. Get a cheap all in one scanner/printer/copier and gut it for parts; people are always chucking them put because they cost less than the ink cartridges. It will have an encoder strip running the length of travel on the cart, it'll be about 8mm wide and 0.2mm resolution. There should be five or six photo interrupters around the unit too, some on the cart carriage and usually a couple more to detect if the lids are closed

faceblast

12 years ago

also if I ever lose my legs, i plan to replace them with robotic Klann linkages

joefranklin

12 years ago

Awesome. I have a stack of printers. You guys can build me some legs.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

I still to hear how you're gonna use this stuff to illuminate an LED for each string when it's touched. It sounds interesting, and I can't figure out exactly what you have mind.

faceblast

12 years ago

I reckon if you tie a piece of encoder strip around a string and dangle it through a photointerrupter, it should move far enough to make a detectable signal without having to attach any other mechanisms; It just needs to move far enough to interrupt the beam.

faceblast

12 years ago

then I reckon an edge detector will make a signal if there is movement; feed this to an integrator and that can illuminate a LED

joefranklin

12 years ago

Cool. It may not be possible at all, but I'm gonna fool around with it later. Also. I accidentally bought this app on my kindle fire. Can't seem to get it running on my laptop. Any suggestions?

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Hmm that's going to be tricky. I suppose if you have some busted printers lying around though, it would be worth playing around with.

joefranklin

12 years ago

Do any of you play around with arduino?

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Sure.

joefranklin

12 years ago

I just discovered it a few months ago.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

They're fun. And handy. I don't do anything too crazy with them, but they're capable of really cool stuff. I've got an Uno I use for general use and prototyping. Plus I've built three projects that have ATMega328s built into them. It's great because you can build a clone like that for about $8 in parts. One of them cost a little more, because I needed a FTDI to USB breakout board. Anyhow, yeah, they're great.

joefranklin

12 years ago

Cool. I've been thinking of trying to clone my R3 UNO to run a small pepper garden. I've built one of those LED cubes,works well. Do you mind if I ask you how old you are?

joefranklin

12 years ago

Oh yea, sorry I'm not trying to turn this into a chat room.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Chat it up. Who cares? It's your thread lol. :) I'm 30.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Btw, I can't get the Chrome version to work, either.

faceblast

12 years ago

Arduino will make it super easy to detect movement with interrupters! Connect the 5v to a 10k resistor. Connect the 10k resistor to the interrupter collector. Ground the emitter. Then connect any digital pin to the collector and read it

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Very true. I think you could also connect the collector to an analog pin, then only if that analog pin is within a range will the signal be sent to on an LED. That might help with "noise", such as small movements from vibrations, etc. That way the vibration of the strings, or simply bumping the instrument won't set of the LEDs. Maybe. It's just a thought. I'd really prefer to the stuff hand play with, but I think we're on the right track now.

faceblast

12 years ago

Thought of another idea; use the tiny coils out of the front wheels on cheap tiny Chinese RC cars. They're used as electromagnets to steer the car. they're only 4mm in diameter so they might work as a rough pickup for individual strings if mounted close enough.

faceblast

12 years ago

Small speaker coils might work too

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

I think you mentioned coils before. My biggest concern would be mounting them without irreversibly damaging the bass. But if those 4mm coils would work, they probably wouldn't be difficult to mount in an non-intrusive way. I'm not sure if that'd work what Joe is looking for, but it very well my. Where the optical sensor could simply detect if the string is moved (say by pressing down on a string at a fret), the coil would pickup on vibration of a plucked string. Both ways have their ups and downs.

faceblast

12 years ago

The coils in little toy remote control cars are all epoxied onto plastic mounts; some careful dremel work will get them out

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

I couldn't care less about the RC car lol. My worries would be mounting them to the bass. But being that small, it shouldn't be too difficult.

joefranklin

12 years ago

Thanks a lot guys. Very helpful. Also , thanks for not being jerks to me. I've learned quite a bit from you. I'm 40 years old, getting a late start learning electronics. I'll let you know if I figure it out. Thanks again.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Glad to help. I didn't get started until a few years ago. I tend to be a sarcastic asshole, but don't take it personally. I'm a smartass to everyone, equally. ;)

joefranklin

12 years ago

That's cool man. Some of my best friends are assholes. Actually, I think it's great. My wife is an asshole. It comes in handy at times.

rbrtkurtz

12 years ago

Just don't tell her you said that, right? :)

joefranklin

11 years ago

Exactly : )

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