Programmable switches?

[phundie]

Hello all,

For fun (obviously not profit I am designing (and will soon start
building)
an analog computer. Currently, the design has 78 inputs and 52 outputs.
This includes connections to a DAQ card in a PC.

While I am prepared to bring these connections to a plug board and wire
it up with banana cables (to think that some people actually complain
about UNIX's shell interface I'd rather devise a way to enable the
PC to supply the required connections.

But how? I loathe the idea of wiring up a bucket full of transistors.
I'd rather use relays at that point -- at least I'd get a satisfying
click-clack when setting up the analog machine.

Analog Devices sells digitally programmable arrays of DPST switches.
4-per array. So I'd need 1014 of them, at about $1.60 a piece. Ouch.
(I'm thinking DPST here so that ground can be routed to the analog
computer inputs instead of leaving them open, otherwise I could has an
8 switch array of SPSTs...)

Is there some other type of cheap analog switching solution that I'm
not aware of? Something like this has to exist for the AV guys, no?

As a last resort, if the price is unbearable, I could have only a
fraction of the analog connections under PC control, but this isn't
nearly as sexy.

Ideas? I really want to make the best hybrid I can, but this is new
waters for me -- I've never used an analog computer before (which is
basically why I'm building one).

 

[Don Lancaster]

phundie wrote:

Hello all,

For fun (obviously not profit I am designing (and will soon start
building)
an analog computer. Currently, the design has 78 inputs and 52 outputs.
This includes connections to a DAQ card in a PC.

While I am prepared to bring these connections to a plug board and wire
it up with banana cables (to think that some people actually complain
about UNIX's shell interface I'd rather devise a way to enable the
PC to supply the required connections.

But how? I loathe the idea of wiring up a bucket full of transistors.
I'd rather use relays at that point -- at least I'd get a satisfying
click-clack when setting up the analog machine.

Analog Devices sells digitally programmable arrays of DPST switches.
4-per array. So I'd need 1014 of them, at about $1.60 a piece. Ouch.
(I'm thinking DPST here so that ground can be routed to the analog
computer inputs instead of leaving them open, otherwise I could has an
8 switch array of SPSTs...)

Is there some other type of cheap analog switching solution that I'm
not aware of? Something like this has to exist for the AV guys, no?

As a last resort, if the price is unbearable, I could have only a
fraction of the analog connections under PC control, but this isn't
nearly as sexy.

Ideas? I really want to make the best hybrid I can, but this is new
waters for me -- I've never used an analog computer before (which is
basically why I'm building one).

See http://tinaja.com/glib/hack83.pdf for a tutorial
http://www.aptix.com for products

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: don@tinaja.com

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[James Waldby]

phundie wrote:

I am designing (and will soon start building)
an analog computer. Currently, the design has 78 inputs
and 52 outputs.
[snip re plug board vs programmable connections]

Analog Devices sells digitally programmable arrays of DPST switches.
4-per array. So I'd need 1014 of them, at about $1.60 a piece.
Ouch. (I'm thinking DPST here so that ground can be routed to the
analog computer inputs instead of leaving them open, otherwise I
could [have] an 8 switch array of SPSTs...)
....

I don't know what AD part you are thinking of, so don't know its
specs. If +/- 7.5 V is a wide enough range you could use CD4051
parts. ["precision low-voltage CMOS analog multiplexer/switch, eight-channel single-ended mux"]. Attach the commons of 8 of them
to one output, and attach each of IO0...7 to a different input
line. Repeat for each output. 8 x 53 = 424; about $157 if
you pay $0.37 each at http://www.web-tronics.com/cd4051.html.
I wrote 53 instead of 52 because you want to be able to ground
inputs. You would also need 53 each 74LS138's and 74LS164's.
-jiw