Main > Main Forum
Ultimarc Spinner details...
TPB:
--- Quote from: patrickl on July 21, 2008, 03:03:43 am ---
The original SpinTrak came out before the TT2 and at that time it had the highest resolution.
--- End quote ---
True.
But the TT2 was released shortly afterwards, which was at least 18 months ago.
You'd think that 18 months is a sufficient period of time in which to "update a superceded claim" on a webpage.
Having said that, Ultimarc has never had a flashy website. They instead focus their energies in better placed areas, such as on the quality of their products, customer support, and new product innovations.
No-one would argue with those areas having a higher priority and focus, than their website.
patrickl:
--- Quote from: TPB on July 21, 2008, 02:58:04 am ---
Based on this insight from Andy, I had thought the new SpinTrak might turn out to be an Enhanced and Re-badged TT2.
Andy talks of a new agreement with a "manufacturer with an off-the-shelf product". Possibly the manufacturer could have been GGG ? :
--- End quote ---
Or maybe Andy buys the same off-the-shelf product that GGG buys?
RandyT:
--- Quote from: patrickl on July 21, 2008, 03:20:03 am ---
--- Quote from: TPB on July 21, 2008, 02:58:04 am ---
Based on this insight from Andy, I had thought the new SpinTrak might turn out to be an Enhanced and Re-badged TT2.
Andy talks of a new agreement with a "manufacturer with an off-the-shelf product". Possibly the manufacturer could have been GGG ? :
--- End quote ---
Or maybe Andy buys the same off-the-shelf product that GGG buys?
--- End quote ---
I sincerely hope you are just trolling with that statement. The TT2 is a 100% GGG product, invented and developed by yours truly. The metal body is done in a little shop in PA by a very skilled machinist, who depends on jobs like the ones I send him to make his his living. And the rest is manufactured / assembled by us in order to help make ours.
RandyT
AndyWarne:
The reason why our Spintrak webpage was not updated was because we discontinued the original unit some 8 months ago. So it was not available for purchase, out of stock in the store all of this time.
Our original Spintrak was designed before SMD reflective quadrature sensors were available, to enable the sensor to be made sufficiently small, and also much cheaper than before. This is why we discontinued it, because technology had advanced and we wished to take advantage of it. There was no reason to continue using a two-element transmissive sensor when one single SMD chip would work.
From the look of the TT2 I would think it uses a packaged sensor module from www.usdigital.com. When this package became available it made absolute sense to use it in this application. But in fact we did find a manufacturer who was already making a complete compact encoder unit using an SMD reflective sensor chip. They are an "offshore" company (Not China) and our unit has their part number with a suffix for the type of connector we specified.
I do not consider adopting new technology "sleazy" just because another supplier is also using this technology. The KeyWiz uses the same chip as the I-PAC, no problem with that.
On the subject of USB 2.0 vs 1.1.
Using USB 1.1 gives a maximum data packet of 7 bits in each direction (8 bits total) ie 127 increments. The "poll rate" unless it is artificially increased is approx 7ms.
This means with 1200 pulses per revolution, that is 9.5 data packets per revolution which (in an ideal situation) would take 66.5 ms. This equates to a maximum speed of 15 revs per second. In testing we found it is easy to exceed this in gaming especially on "transients". Twisting the knob quickly easily exceeds 127 pulses.
USB 2.0 uses 15-bit data in each direction (in this case) and a faster poll rate and so there is no realistic restriction at all. The counter in the interface is 16 bits wide so can count any possible transient "twist".
As far as PS/2 goes, we dumped this altogether. Its quite difficult to calculate a maximum supported speed with PS/2 as there are so many factors, including the fact that the interface has to send each bit individually while trying to deal with the pulses from the encoder. The data rate will be limited to much lower than the theoretical maximum packet rate on the interface. For PS/2 its best to simply test performance. Adjusting mouse speed to lowest in Windows, and spinning at increasing rates. The speed limitation can be observed.
The 127-pulse transient limit also applies in PS/2.
Andy
TPB:
From Andy's explanation, a USB 2.0 interface is beneficial with a high resolution spinner.
Let's face it guys, you've both "adopted" the spinner "concept" from the arcade game manufacturers. No-one has a monopoly on the spinner.
Both the SpinTrak and TT2 are great products.
Andy - given this is a SpinTrak thread, can I ask a question :
>> The SpinTrak appears with a nice-looking Red knob (SlikStik style) on the product webpage. However, the Red knobs are not available on the order page. Will they be made available ? ???
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version