instructables

Make a Ribbon Controller

by lonesoulsurfer

Ribbon controllers are a great way to control a synth. slide pot.

They consist of a touch-sensitive strip that lets you
control pitch continuously. The electrically conductive
strip called 'velostat' that responds to changes in
voltage or resistance caused by moving your nger
along its surface. These changes in voltage can be
applied to any number of voltage-controlled
oscillators, lters or ampli ers in analog synthesizers.
The basic design of a ribbon controller is fairly simple.
It acts as a linear potentiometer that generates
di erent control voltages depending on where it is
touched. Think of it as a rotary knob that has been
“unrolled". You could also think of it as a striped down
Making your own is pretty simple and you'll only need
a few parts to do it. I've also included a schematic for
a small synth that I have made that will allow you to
test and play the ribbon controller. I haven't explored
fully yet what it is capable of but I will de nitely be
including an output for all the synths i make going
forward so I can plug this into them.
Hackaday did a review of the ribbon controller which
you can nd here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzylmjtmIkI

Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 1

Step 1: PARTS & TOOLS

Pa rt s : 7. Clear plastic A4 Binding Cover - eBay or any o ce

supply place
1. Copper Strip 19mm wide X 215mm long - eBay. Most
hobby shops will have it too in 300mm lengths 8. Jack input - eBay

2. 3 X Copper Strips 6.3mm wide X 300mm long - eBay. 9. Length of wood to mount the ribbon controller on.
Again, most hobby shops will have it in 300mm Not necessary but gives a nice nish.
lengths
To o ls :
3. Velostat Sheet - eBay or Core electronics if you are in
Australia 1. Stanley and/or exacto knife

4. Masking Tape - eBay 2. Double sided tape

5. Aluminium or copper tape - eBay or eBay 3. Good pair of scissors

6. Polystyrene Tube 3.2mm - eBay or hobby shops 4. Soldering Iron

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Step 2: The Basic Design

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Below is a drawing of the basic design of the ribbon Next there is some masking tape to isolate the ground
controller. Take some time and look at the image so from the velostat and the other copper strip. It's
you get the gist on how this is put together. important that the ground is fully isolated from the
rest of the build or your ribbon controller won't work.
You will notice that there is a main copper strip and 3
smaller ones. The smaller ones form a point where you To separate the velostat from the ground, a couple
can attach wires. The main copper strip and the 2 small strips of plastic are used which are also stuck to
smaller ones shown attached to it form the ground. the ground via masking tape.
The 2 smaller ones are connected to the main one via
some aluminium tape which ensures that they form
one complete ground plate

Step 3: Measuring & Cutting the Copper for Ground and Wiper Connectors

The rst thing that you need to do is to cut 3 small
pieces o the thinner copper strip. 2 of these will be
connected to either end of the larger copper strip and
will act as the ground. As in any potentiometer, you
have 2 xed ends which in this case we'll call ground
and one variable end which we'll call the wiper. The
image attached will help you visualise what I am
talking about.
1. First, place the smaller strip of copper (terminal)
against the larger piece (ground) and mark its about
5-10mm longer then the width of the ground plate.
2. Cut 3 of the terminals of the same length and if you
want to round o the edges like I did.
3. 2 of these will next be attached to the ground plate

St e ps :

Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 4

Step 4: Attaching 2 Terminals to the Ground Plate
The easiest way to attach the 2 terminals to the
ground plate is to use some conductive adhesive. I
went with aluminium tape as it's what I had around.
You could also use copper tape as well. Just make sure
it's good quality tape.
St e ps :
1. Firstly, you might have to trim the main ground
strip. Mine is ...and this gives you from 10K too 100k
resistance. The longer the ground plate, the higher
the resistance.
1. Cut a couple of strips of the aluminium tape. It
Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 5
needs to be as wide as the ground plate and wrap
around both sides as the images show below.
2. Place a connector on the ground plate and tape
down. Make sure that's it's taped down well and the
connection is strong.
3. Do the same with the other end of the ground plate
4. Next you need to isolate the bottom section of the
ground plate. To do this just use some masking tape
and cover about 70mm on each side.
Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 6
Step 5: Adding the Wiper Terminal

Next step is to add the last terminal. This will be your
wiper terminal so needs to be isolated from the
ground. That's one of the reasons why you added the
masking tape at the end of the ground plate. I made a
small mistake here and placed the wiper terminal at
the wrong end. It meant that I had to have the
terminals on the bottom of the build and not the top.
No big deal but I would add the wiper terminal on the
left so it is on the top of the ribbon controller.
St e ps :
1. Place the terminal next to the ground terminal
making sure it isn't touching any section of the
ground plate.
2. Use some more aluminium tape to secure it into
place, again making sure it doesn't touch the ground
plate at all.
3. Place another piece of aluminium tape at the other
end of the ground terminal. Again making sure it is
isolated from ground.

Step 6: Polish Up the Ground Plate

This isn't really necessary but I wanted to get the best connection as possible so removed any tarnish from the

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ground plate.

St e ps :
1. Grab some metal polish

2. Add some to the ground plate and give it a good polish

3. Wipe o the excess polish and give it a clean

Step 7: Adding Some Small Strips of Plastic to the Ground Plate

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The small plastic strips that are located top and
bottom on the ground plate help to isolate the
ribbon. You don't want the ribbon to be touching the
ground at all.
St e ps :
1. The rst thing to do is to cut as couple of thin strips
from the plastic. If you have a guillotine handy then
use this, if not, cut a couple strips with a stanley or
exacto knife..
Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 9
2. A plastic strip will need to go across the top and
bottom of the main copper strip. Place the rst one
one the strips against the main copper strip.
3. Bend the ends around the copper and secure with a
small piece of aluminium tape on the back. Do the
same for the bottom one
4. Lastly, add a little masking tape to each end of the
copper. This will ensure that the ribbon doesn't touch
the copper strip at all unless you push down on it.
Step 8: Adding Some Conductive Plastic (Velostat) to the Copper Strip.

So what's velostat? Well it's a pressure sensitive,
conductive plastic that is really the heart of the
ribbon controller. The velostat is attached at each end
to the terminals via some aluminium tape
St e ps :
2. Place the velostat on the strip and bend over the
ends.
3. Add a piece of aluminium tape to one end of the
velostat. When sticking it down to the back of the
strip, it shouldn't touch the copper ground strip at all.

1. First, you need to cut a strip of the velostat as wide 4. Do the same for the other end of the velostat,
as the main copper strip and 30 mm or so longer making sure you pull it tight before sticking down.

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Step 9: Adding Some Edging Via Some Polystyrene Tube

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You don't have to do this step if you don't want to. I
just thought it gave a great nish to the controller. I
couldn't nd C channel that would work so I went
with a rectangle piece of polystyrene tube and cut it
in half.
St e ps :
1. So to cut the tube in half and straight, I had to
make a small, simple jig with a clamp and a piece of
stare copper strip. You can see what I did in the
images below. I secured the poly tube into place and
carefully made a cut with an exacto knife along the
tube. Take your time and don't rush as it is easy for the
knife to pull away from the copper edge.
2. You will have 2 C channel pieces once cut.
3. To ensure that the plastic was a tight t all along
the copper strip., I added another small piece of the
Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 12
copper strip to the back and secured down with some
masking tape.
3. Place the bottom one on rst by sliding it along the
copper strip. Make sure nothing catches and take your
time.
4. For the other one, you will need to make a couple of
small slits in the top of the C channel in order to t
the terminals through. I just used as dremel to do this.
5. With this channel, you won't be able to slide this
due to the terminals. To t it, place the terminals
through the slots in the channel and carefully push
into place. You may need a small screwdriver to help
wedge the velostat and tape under the channel.
6. Add some superglue to the back of the channel
once you have tested and know everything works.
Step 10: Making a Base and Adding an Input Jack.

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The input jack was a last minute thought but I'm
glade I did add it. It allows me to plug the ribbon
controller into synths via a 3.5mm jack. I also mounted
it on some wood to nish it o . If you want to
incorporate the ribbon controller into a synth, then
you wouldn't need to do this step.
St e ps :
1. First thing to do is to prepare the piece wood that
will be used as a base. I used a piece of hard wood
that is slightly larger then the width of the ribbon
controller.
2. Trim and add a stain to the wood and stick the
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controller down with some double sided tape
3. For the input jack, rst you should connect the left
and right legs together which I did with a resister leg.
Trim the legs once you have them connected.
4. Solder a couple small wires to the ground and
left/right solder points on the jack and add some
double sided tape to secure into place on the wood.
5. Lastly, solder the ground wire to the ground
terminal on the ribbon controller and the other wire
to the other terminal
Step 11: So Now What?
If you are looking to use the ribbon controller but
don't know where to start, then you could build this
synth made from a 4049 CMOS chip. I've included the
schematic in case you want to get s PCB made. I tried
to upload the gerber les for the PCB but the
Instructable website didn't like it. If you want them
then please DM me.
It's a pretty simple circuit and allows you to play the
Make a Ribbon Controller: Page 15
ribbon controller like a keyboard. You can check out
the video at the start of this 'ible on how it sounds.
One of the reasons why I made a ribbon controller is
because of a comment left on another 'ible I made
which was a moog style synth. I've created a PCB for
this circuit and and look to hook-up the ribbon
controller
 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FDY/YJRT/K9G9G3TX/FDYYJRTK9G9G3TX.pdf
…

Interesting. Simple. Effective.

Cheers

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