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The Joypad That Became A Rotary Controller

Posted by timothy on from the chaka-khan dept.

jaromil writes "Speaking of human/computer interface, so simple, so neat, a usb knob to switch among desktops can give us quite some feeling about operating a machine... how about such controls around the monitor?" The knob in this case is switching between different effects possible with EffecTV. This make me wonder what creative uses people are putting Griffin's PowerMate to.

14 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Wait a minute by ravenspear · · Score: 5, Funny

    knob...can give us quite some feeling...

    I think I already have one of those.

    1. Re:Wait a minute by uberchicken · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah. I'm suspicious. The caption for LifeTV reads "My seeds flow on the net". Uh huh.

  2. Very bad idea by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "how about such controls around the monitor?"

    As any mouse user can tell you, taking your hands off your keyboard is damaging to your productivity.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
    1. Re:Very bad idea by flakac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As any mouse user can tell you, taking your hands off your keyboard is damaging to your productivity.

      My wife is a mouse user, and quite frankly, I don't think I'll ever convice her that the mouse is a productivity killer. While I mysef, having grown up with command line interfaces (MS-DOS 3.1 anyone?) on the PC, I really doubt that Joe User has any sort of shell installed (Cygwin or MinGW MSYS) at all. I may prefer to use command-line tools, but that doesn't mean that all people do. So to answer your point, most mouse users, just like my wife, need the mouse to function. Just because you or I may be able to work more efficiently without one doesn't mean that the vast majority of people could function without one.

  3. iPod... by eobanb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you think about it: weirdly, the iPod is a rotary controller that became a joypad. The first iPods had the mechanical scroll wheel and then they moved to the touch wheel....but the latest generation also rocks left, right, up and down. I personally love these kind of interfaces. Scroll wheels on mice are similar, as are just plain old dials, but they requre you to lift up your finger/hand repeatedly to scroll far enough in either direction. The iPod doesn't. What if that kind of interface was more widespread?

    --

    Take off every sig. For great justice.

  4. Move the rabbit ears a little to the left... by Matey-O · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think Solitare is on channel 4...

    --
    "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
  5. De-Evolution? by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We went from knobs that were attatched to our televisions to buttons that evolved by having remotes and such.

    So today I look at this and I see, the knob but for computers of today and I ask myself, is this proof that old but simple technology is still useful today even though we evolved and changed the standard from knobs to buttons/touchpads/screens

  6. Some notes on USB interfacing... by enginuitor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The fact that the author used a USB game pad as the electronic base of his device brings up an issue which increasingly plagues electronics hobbyists... Manufacturers are beginning to see many useful protocols (such as RS232) as obsolete and completely remove support for them from their products. While the average American consumer, who uses arbitrary metrics and units-of-measurement-become-buzzwords (megapixels... gigahertz... etc.) to judge the worth of a device, would not care much about seeing those ugly trapezoidal plugs disappear from the back of their computers, it presents a huge problem for us hobbyists who rely on good-old '232 and similar "old" interfaces for easy communication with a computer. Anyone who's ever written (or tried to write) USB interface code knows that's Hell to work with. Fortunately, though, there are solutions... including handy interface chips which handle all the nasty USB work and provide a simple asynchronous serial interface on the project end. However, I still will never buy a motherboard without RS232!

    1. Re:Some notes on USB interfacing... by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've written USB firmware from scratch for the 68HC908JB8 microcontroller...yes, it is tough. But once you get everything working, you don't have to do much to change from one type of device to another. The problem is that there isn't a huge amount of free USB firmware out there for all the various USB microcontrollers. That's because most people, like me, finally got around to writing firmware when it became their job to do so.

      However, USB is powerful and should be adopted by hobbyists. If you really need a serial port, there are many premade serial-to-USB converters and chips.

  7. Re:PowerMate any good? by spinlocked · · Score: 4, Funny

    The PowerMate is rather pricy at 40 dollars. Is it any good?

    It's OK. Nicely machined, sexy looking, works under Linux but certainly not worth $40. I've bought more useful gadgets for a lot less.

    It's one of those things you initially think will be great, but one day, in an idle moment you look at it and think: I haven't touched that device in 6 months. And then you think about selling it on eBay, but never quite get round to it.

    --
    # init 5
    Connection closed.

    Oh... ...bugger.
  8. Re:Oh right on! by MoonBuggy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if Griffin would consider starting building keyboards with integrated knobs, alongside or in place of numeric keypads?

    Y'know what'd be better - Apple putting the (presumably patented, since we haven't seen it on anyone else's hardware) iPod scroll wheel into a keyboard or even on a standalone USB panel. As several have said, it's more usable than anything else because you can scroll long lists without repeatedly removing your finger. Physically grasping and moving a Griffin Powermate involves reconfiguring the way you're moving your hands and they can't be continuously spun as easily as the iPod wheel.

    The Apple mouse continues to live without a scroll wheel though, which is, IMO, a much needed addition (FYI, I was under the opinion that moving from the 5 buttons of my Razer Boomslang to the 1 button Apple mouse would never work, and I've got them both hooked in now - I never use the Razer and the only bit I miss is the scrollwheel. All the other functions can be achieved more quickly with one hand hitting hotkeys on the keyboard as I click). I really miss a useful scrolling tool on my mac, and a nice little touchwheel on the edge of the keyboard would be quick, simple and fluid to use while I'm typing.

  9. Pong by wkitchen · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh man, that would be perfect for playing Pong.

  10. Haptic interfaces, kinetic perception. by torpor · · Score: 4, Informative


    In the field I work in (synthesizers), the perceptive nature of our customers (musicians) when relating to a user interface is indeed a tricky and wonderful force to behold. Rotary knobs, and the general 'feel' of a system as a result of simple interface kinetics, is fairly well-established in this field.

    I've always viewed the standard computer interface (keyboard/mouse) as being curiously unburdened by progress and change; you cannot say the same for the synth business, where there is no one standard for how you ought to use knobs.

    I've got two PowerMates, both on each side of an Apple extended keyboard, they are without doubt among the most precious peripheral I have on my desk. I've also got a couple of faderfox boxes, an LV1 and an LX1, which are also awesome primary/secondary interfaces, as well offering endless rotaries for various nefarious uses..

    The attempt by Microsoft to commodotize their 'peripheral assets' (MS Natural keyboard) while providing pitiful support (beyond HID) for application authors, and the tendency of other interface mfr's to vector off into 'cool but ultimately useless plastic hack' (anyone remember the Cyberman?) is fairly common. Once again, its all about the operating system.

    But you know, if you want to know more about endless uses for rotary knobs, look no further than the audio/synth/pro-media tool markets. Especially of the 80's and 90's .. a veritable wasteland of proprietary hack after propietary hack, all with their own individual utility lifespan, designed to give muso's a haptic kick or two.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  11. Physical User Interfaces by Tony.Tang · · Score: 4, Informative

    Phidgets (http://www.phidgets.com/) is something that has recently become extremely cheap and accessible to software guys like me who HATE hardware. Phidgets make it really easy to build physical user interfaces (think nobs, switches, pressure sensors, etc.) without needing to do any hardware stuff yourself.

    They are extremely easy to use, as you can see by these undergrad projects (http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/phidgets/gallery /index.html).

    Full disclosure: I am a member of the lab from which this stuff was developed.