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Leobodnar Electonics
Le Chuck:
Anybody familiar with Leobodnar Electronics? Came across them surfing. Looks like they have some interesting interfaces at reasonable prices. UK folks, any knowledge of them?
Here's an interesting one: http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=204
You can do a direct hook-up or matrixing. Andy, Randy, any professional opinions on this stuff?
BadMouth:
Never dealt with him, but his stuff shows up on a lot of the sim racing boards that I come accross researching driving cab stuff.
Seems to be a fair number of people in those communities using his stuff. The posts are from years ago to recent.
Seems legit. I even have a link to some of his products in the driving cab thread (with a disclaimer that I've never ordered from there)
MonMotha:
Looks like a typical "minimal BOM" device. Basically just a MCU and some connectors. Hardware wise, it appears pretty much comparable to the Ultimarc or GGG devices offering similar functionality. Obviously that doesn't speak to the software or customer support at all.
I always like to see real input filtering (for HF, ESD protection, etc.) and stronger pull-up resistors to increase the loop current (provides more noise immunity), but those features increase the BOM and cost, so you don't tend to see them on the hobbyist type devices. They're common on higher end commercial-grade equipment, but those are typically low-mid 3 figures.
rCadeGaming:
This is an extremely interesting product that's been a big deal on the Shoryuken and Shmups forums:
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89&products_id=212
I won't be buying anymore flat screen monitors or TV's without testing them at the store with this.
RandyT:
--- Quote from: Le Chuck on March 20, 2013, 06:03:03 pm ---You can do a direct hook-up or matrixing. Andy, Randy, any professional opinions on this stuff?
--- End quote ---
If your focus is analog stuff, and the most number of inputs for the least amount of money, they may be worth a look. Honestly, I would never recommend anyone take the matrixed encoder approach for their gaming controls, especially in a case like this one where the diodes aren't even in place to prevent ghosting. Matrixed encoders have their place in a number of applications, but this isn't one of them. You can use the one you linked to in a non-matrixed configuration, but then the input count goes way down. I also get a kick out of some of these devices which tout 12/14 bit analog. For some applications, this might be useful, but it's overkill here. The majority of analog joysticks can't even hold perfect mechanical and/or electrical stability at 8-bit, and typical games don't need anything more than that, even if they could. It also appears to use a 4mhz oscillator, which means that even if the processor is clock-doubled internally, it's still a slower processor than what you'll commonly find on similar products. If the code was written in optimized assembly, like we do with ours, it's probably fast enough. But if it's done in compiled C, as most microcontrollers seem to be nowadays, I'd have some concerns. But that's an unknown.
So it really depends on the application. If I was in the market to buy one (which I am obviously not :) ) I don't think it would top my list, just from a value standpoint. I have some import interfaces here (I've yet to add to the store) which do analog and digital, have a much faster microcontroller, about twice the number of non-matrixed inputs and include wiring for not an awful lot more than what these cost.
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