Category Archives: Hardware

Logitech’s Force Feedback Flight System

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a long long while since anything new has come out for military flight sim enthusiasts, and this looks like it is just what the doctor ordered. Since Vista dropped support for the gameport – and thus for my F-15 inspired Suncom set up (no longer for sale, but definitely the best stick / throttle setup I’ve ever seen!) there’s been not much, excepting the odd Thrustmaster setup.

Allthough not based on a reall stick, the setup looks solid. It’s fully programmable, has about the right amount of buttons and offers force feedback as well as toe brakes on the rudders.

Mcor 3D printer

Posted on by
Reply

Mcor Technologies has a 3D printer which is remarkable in that it uses paper and glue to make the models. This makes the models themselves a whole load cheaper to produce, so you can print MOAR! The printers themselves are going to be sold for a “reasonable” price, whatever that is… They do have the following in their FAQ though:

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The total cost of ownership (TCO) offers a final statement reflecting not only the cost of purchase but all aspects in the further use including materials and maintenance of the machine.
For example:
Regardless of the initial capital price point of the various machines, the maximum build (9.4litres or 316.33oz) of the Mcor Matrix costs under €94.00 ($135.00) to build, while a competitor having a cost per cc of €0.4 ($0.58) would be €3760 ($5,416.00). Any differential that might have been saved on the capital price of the machine is quickly lost.

What is the cost per cc of the Mcor Matrix?
The cost per cc for the Mcor Matrix is €0.01 or $0.0144.

How does your cost per cc compare with your competitors?
Our cost per cc is up to 40 times less expensive that our rivals.

Laser Cinema Projectors

Posted on by
Reply

Previously lasers weren’t used for projection as they had a speckle effect. The Chinese Academy of Science has found that fusing three lasers (RGB) into a single white laser and then using traditional DLP technology to break the beam up into RGB again and the mirrors to put the picture onto the wall cancels this speckling. The resultant image can display around 80% of the human visible colour range compared to traditional wet film, which only catches 60% and is considered the ‘gold standard’ in these things. So. We have vibrant colours. But we also have a power consumption of only 35% of traditional xenon lamps in these projectors. Only the initial cost is very high.

Tablet PCs

Posted on by
Reply

Tablet PC’s come in all shapes and sizes. This is a quick look at tablet PCs on the market without keyboards and without potentially breakable hinges.
Electrovaya Inc. has the Scribbler SC-3100

Ace Asia Co., Ltd. has the T201

Fujitsu has the Stylistic ST5100

Itronix offerts the rugged Gobook Series

Motion Computing offers 3 different types of tablet PCs

of varying sizes and accessories

tabletkiosk offers a selection of tablets – they’re actually more UMPCs but come in varying degrees of price and capability

[Update]TabletKiosk is upgrading their line in 2008 with a modular unit and more grunt.

DRS-TS has a few imaginitively named portable tablets, such as the Hammerhead Xtreme

Then there’s the ulimate in ruggedised: the Xplore Technologies iX104C3Plus series

Then Amtek has this iTablet T221 going for around EUR 1,552.

The Axiotron Modbook is a modified Macbook. It’s the only tablet mac and the specs look very good – it’s fast and sensitive and has a 12800*800 resolution, so it’s useable as well. Of course, you should be able to install Vista on it too…

TabletPcTalk.com is a good site to keep track of what’s happening in this market

7″ Tablet PC running Windows CE has some fair specs. Would be good to see it running Linux!

ASUS Eee PC

Posted on by
1

It looks like ASUS is onto a winner here: it has all the hype on its side, it has weight and formfactor on its side and most of all it has price on its side. Running from around $300 – $ 400 this is a very cheap laptop with a 7″ screen and a Linux interface that allows any idiot to do the most rudimentary things you need to do. OK so at 900Mhz it’s slightly underpowered, but for the price you’re getting a seriously good deal. The market is undeveloped nations, but considering the size, I wonder how long it will be before it becomes an accessory for westerners who are finished pulling around huge laptops. All the components are solid state, so it’s also very reliable.

Forbes has a nice story on the history of this machine.

USBmicro Controller

Posted on by
Reply

USBmicro is a USB electrical device interface. It comes in two flavours: the U401 and the U421. The main difference is the form factor.


There’s quite a lot of documentation on the site how to program and install them

Kadtronix sells the unit with interface software, making the programming quite a bit easier

They also have a good tutorial, with instructions how to fit it to a motion detector

Home Domination has the controller and bundles it with several types of sensors, such as temperature sensors and it’s own software

But if you just want to buy the units themselves, they’re not expensive at around EUR. 28,- at dontronics