Most of the sites discussing piezoelectricity mention that sugar crystals can be used, but I have not found any examples of them being used. I've just tried it with about a 1cm chunk of low quality (conglomerate of small ~3mm crystals) crystal, and got a good 100mV wave when tapped with a pencil. I've not tried applying a signal to it yet, and some better single crystals are growing at the moment, so I was wondering how well it works compared to commercial piezoelectric compounds.

I've not done anything like this before, so if anyone knows where I can find information of the best way to mount and apply a signal to the crystal, it would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.