Cat's whisker setups

As in the early days of semiconductor development, the mounting of cat's whiskers and semiconducting crystalline material is a difficult and ongoing development.

The original setup we used for the Organised Atoms workshops, crocodile clips mounted in blocks of balsa wood with long/coiled wire so they could be removed for larger chunks of crystal. The cat's whiskers are mounted on thicker, twisted wire so they can be positioned. All the wiring is inside the cardboard box.

This was an attempt at mounting the crystals on PCBs which didn't work very well. The main problem was holding the crystal firmly. This could be fixed by using a thicker copper ring with screws to hold the crystal (which seemed common in the 1920's). I also experimented with wood's metal which melts at ~60 degrees to avoid harming the crystal, but it's quite toxic. Other low temperature alloys exist but are a little expensive.

The other issues with this were that the cat's whisker setup uses a lot of space on the PCB and having them permanently fixed together made it harder to experiment with different setups.

In the crystal log synth the crystals are mounted in crocodile clips raised above the circuits on copper pipe that slotted into holes in the wood. This means they are easily accessible and visible in performances. Little bits of pyrite and galena end up on the circuit boards, which adds to the chaos.

The latest setup using a similar approach, more streamlined (no need for the dowel rod) and mounted in granite instead. This is the approach us used in the Variscan Coast Synthesis setup.