Mondo Technology http://www.mondo-technology.com/touch.

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Touch Switch
After several experiments with touch sensors, this one works
really well. One pin on the PIC is used to create a short pulse.
Any number of other pins act as touch sensitive inputs. Here is
what a snipet of the code for 4 inputs looks like...
bsf rb,4 ;start pulse
movf rb,w ;read port b
bcf b,4 ;end pulse
andlw 0Fh ;select input bits

The 10k resistors shown seem to work well with a 20mhz clock.

The circuit works like this...

With no additional capacitance (body contact) with the touch sensor, the input goes high
by the time the port is read by the instruction after the one setting RB4 high. If just a bit
of capacitance is added (by touching the contact), the input is still low when it is read.

Because there is no tactile feedback or positive 'action' on this type of switch, it is a good
idea to do a software 'debounce' of the signal - read it several times in a row to be sure of
the state of the switches.

For the sensors themselves, I like to use silver colored thumb tacks ($1 for box of 100)
from the local office supply. These work well on plastic panels and can be easily
soldered.

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