From: jlb31348@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jim Brain) Subject: TECH: U of I Powerglove Update 6-26-92 Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 20:16:43 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Well, the last pice of the manufacturing puzzle fell into place today. I can get the cable necessary to hook up the PowerGlove to the interface. That means my worries for parts are over. I will buy the units next week, but the lady said they had 1000 units available. We have started work on the stickers to be placed on the case. I have con tacted a LASER printing facility in Champaign that will do the labels with 24 bit color and laminate them so they do not fade easily or crack. All at a very reasonable price. We got a sample today, and I was again impressed by technology. I got a record LOW message count yesterday. Only 4 messages all day. It's not that I hae messages, but its has been 1.5 months since I had that few messages in one day. This is just an aside. Gotta put these in once in a while, lest everyone think I am too serious. Does anyone know if silk screening can be done well on black plastic and be economical? I really lie the LASER printer, but the sticker space I have to work with is only 1 inch square times 4 places for stickers. I thought maybe silk-screening might be better. You tell me if you know. I did not get any flames back on the tax and handling thing, so I am glad everyone did not get upset. Now, heres another problem. We were originally going to offer just the box, with manual and disks, and let the user buy an inexpensive brick power supply (or find one in his or her home) and plug it into the supplied AC/DC power coaxial jack (You know, the plug that has a hole in the middle and is straight). Well, the box will not hold that type ot jack, so I have been forced to go to a 2.5 millimeter micro-headphone plug, (You know, the one that looks like an 1/8" stereo plug, but has only two bands and is smaller). Do people have those they can buy? Should I try to supply that? Should I just opt for a plug with a 9 volt clip on the other end? Should I worry? I am not sure this other type of plug is in such wide use, so this presents a problem. Also, I would like to kep the cost low, so if I add this, the cost may be forced to rise. What should I do? I want to provide the user with everything they need, and nothing they already have. As another interesting aside, does anyone know any company that does the silver holographic images like the ones on VISA's and MASTERCARD's? I was thinking.... Well, with the news today, the question of the PGSA II changed from IF it would ever arrive to WHEN it will arrive. I think it is time to commit to the patient folks out there and put my pride where my mouth is. I am still a week or two away from sending out the order forms, but that is tonight's project. I greatly appreciate the users that have forwarded these posts to GENIE, CS, the WELL, and other places. In the beginning, I was afraid I would not have enough to get 50 units sold; now it looks like 100 may be too little. Thanks for the interest. I am making up the buyer list tonight, so I will have a good figure by Monday. I can assure you that, in the unlikely event that demand exceeds supply, I will sell in chronolgical order, to be fair to early buyers. I will say more when Monday rolls around. SEGA support is DONE! If you have Dave Stampe's code, it will work. If you have things written for Glen Harris's circuit, it will work. If you cannot access pins 4 and 20 on your serial port through software, there are new commands on the command set to allow software support of the glasses. I will post the updated list of commands if someone could please give me my original to update. I got one copy of it from someone, but all the words were split and tabs messed up. Can anyone tell me how to get my pgsa.doc at KARAZM to get from /pub/Incoming/ VR to pub/VR/Source ? I would sure like to get it or another copy moved over. To all those aspiring writers who would like to put something in the user manual. Please send me the stuff you would like in there. I am taking anything dealing with theory or application of the Glove or the glasses. I need to have the stuff in the next week, as the manual gets put together then. At least a tentative one gets put together for review. I wonder if anyone hsa been saving these messages for review. I would like to know if so. Ahhh, the AGE of computers excites me. Jim Brain -- Nothing is better than Eternal Happiness. jlb31348@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu A ham sandwich is better than nothing. Jim Brain Therefore, a ham sandwich is better than eternal happiness.