Have you ever wondered why the new OASYS, Nord Modular
G2, etc.
have digital rotary knobs with the LED lights on the base
of the knob? The knobs have a problem: when one does not look at
the knobs from top, the LEDs are hidden by the knob itself and
thus the value may go unseen.
It appears that Euphonix (
http://www.euphonix.com) has a patent
on the knob where the LEDs are on the top of the knob (instead
of base). LEDs are always visible.
Why I wanted to tell all this is that prior the patent, when
we had an electronics club at our elementary school, we came
up with this patented knob design -- and we thought and laughed
that it already must have been patented multiple times. Wrong.
I have made an alternative design by now.
Juhana
When something as simple as that kind of functionality can be patened,
you know something is wrong with the patent process.
Rick B