Quote Originally Posted by Spelljammer View Post
Good stuff. Maybe use more aluminum. I know the salt water high voltage capacitor, aluminum foil wrapped around a plastic bottle, is 1800pF. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make...p10/Completed/

And a typical Leydon jar made of glass had about 1000pF capacitance. That is an easy value to work with. Something like 30 square inches of foil, minimum would be needed.

I like this whole idea as well. A sound card can pickup 20-20khz. A quart jar has about 1000 ml in it and 20 ml per drop, that is 20,000 drops per quart or liter. This might be accurate enough to distinguish a 1 drop height change. In real world, it would be less, but 1/10th of that is still accurate enough. For instance, 2000 steps (up to 20,000 possible) in about 4 inch (100 mm) height change in water, would be 0.05 mm Z axis accuracy. That is a 50 micron accuracy, with a possible 5 micron accuracy.
What about a laminate of several layers of aluminium and kapton, would that work?