Hi Glen
There isn't much application for things with this spacing.
Remember, you will most likely be connecting this to a
uP. You really don't need to space then in a straight
line. You can stager them and reassemble the entire
byte width afterwards.
Another though would be to use one of the linear arrays,
used in scanners. Most of these are about as wide as
a paper tape. You could use a collimated source and
drag the tape directly over the array. You'd need
to do a little image processing but it shouldn't be too
difficult.
There are some mechanical options that might work as well.
Like I said, use some imagination.
Dwight
From: "Glen Slick"
<glenslick(a)hotmail.com>
I was hoping there might be some sort of preassembled optical sensor array
available with the right spacing for paper tape holes, but maybe that is
hoping for too much. If you build one with discrete sensors, is it easy to
find ones that are narrow enough to stack side to side with the correct
spacing?
Hi
Ahh, such concepts as make one come to mind. You could
scrap a number of mice for the optical sensors ( two for
each axis, 4 total per mouse ) or you could buy photo
transistors from Jameco. In a pinch, the clear lensed
LED's make reasonable detectors.
Use a little imagination.
Dwight
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