[sdiy] DIY Optical organs.

[philicorda]

Hi.
I'm a fan of the old optigan organs, and after despairing of finding one in Wales, have decided to have a go at building one. The principle looks straight forward, and I can code a little, so I think I can make something similar using a computer to generate the tracks.

Rather than attempting to make circular records, I think it will be possible to print the waveforms onto transparent acetate with a laser printer, and roll the resulting sheet around a clear plastic tube about 6" in diameter.

I will then put the light source inside the tube, use a motor to turn it, and use a single hand held photocell to select the tracks.
With a 1400 dpi printer I reackon I could get about 2 seconds of 7k bandwidth with a pretty low amplitude resolution with about 10 tracks per sheet.

Anyone tried laser printing waveforms onto acetate? I'm not expecting hi-fi results. :)
I guess the only way is to try it, but I would be interested to see if anyone else has had a go, and if they had any advice.
This list looks like a good place to ask!

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