[sdiy] Don't Touch

[Steve Ridley]

> Actually, I think a mercury switch type controller could have some very
> interesting real possibilites. If you set up a series of switches each
> activating at a slightly higher angle, and then wired them to a standard
> resistor divider, it could play different notes based on angle. I think
that
> I may have enough mercury switches to try this some time. The tune-tilter
> is born!

A friend of mine did something similar in the early 80s with a guitar body,
some mercury tilt switches and a simple oscillator. He used it for mock
guitar solos until he got bored with it.

Many of the cheaper tilt switches aren't mercury switches - just a ball
bearing in a tube with some contacts, so if you use cheap tilt switches,
expect to have to think about debouncing them.

I've uses some cheap tilt switches in a woodwind controller - they have
four pins at one end and the conections make in several combinations
depending on the angle.  Got them from Rapid electronics.


Steve Ridley