Back in stock (20180305)

SpaceOrb drivers and software discussions
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vputz
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Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » March 05 2018, 13:07 PM

After a prolonged absence and interstate move... well, I still haven't found all the tools and such, but at least we made a small batch of Orbotrons yesterday and they all tested good, so there's a little stock left and we should be able to keep them going now! [url]http://store.thingotron.com[/url]

Tehrasha
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby Tehrasha » March 15 2018, 19:40 PM

Page updated! http://spacemice.org/index.php?title=Orbotron_9000
[color=#BF0000][b][url=http://spacemice.org/]Spacemice[/url] -- Input Devices for a 3D World[/b][/color]

Greezon
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Joined: March 19 2018, 16:19 PM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby Greezon » March 19 2018, 17:06 PM

Hey!



It has been a LONG Journey making it this far, and I cannot thank everyone who got me here enough.



I would like to purchase 2 of the Space Orb 360 Adapters. I went to the website and it says you dont have any in Stock, and I am not talented enough to make them myself. What is the verdict on availability?



Thanks In advanced.

vputz
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » March 21 2018, 9:33 AM

Greezon:



Sorry about that--what's happened is we moved, and everything's still disorganized. I still can't find my favorite soldering iron, and I've lost some of the equipment and parts. We were able to cobble together about 8 a few weeks ago--a small batch, more to say "well, I guess we need to order X, Y, and Z"--and then went on a two-week trip we've had coming up. We're back and reasonably stable now, though.



I'll try to do another small batch this coming weekend, so that should take care of short-term demand. Truth is, as you can imagine there aren't TOO many SpaceOrb users out there, so I try not to buy too much inventory at any given time :) But fear not, more are coming soon.

Greezon
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Joined: March 19 2018, 16:19 PM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby Greezon » March 22 2018, 11:51 AM

Take your time sir/madam! Overload is coming out, and that's what a friend of mine and I want it for. I appreciate your hard work, and the fact that you have them is simply TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME! Put lightly.



Let me know when you have one or two, I will check here periodically and hopefully wont miss out.



Thanks again for your hard work and getting these to work with the spaceorb!



The Greez

Greezon
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Joined: March 19 2018, 16:19 PM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby Greezon » April 02 2018, 16:39 PM

Any updates on inventory?

godfreylarry
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Joined: April 13 2018, 18:37 PM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby godfreylarry » April 13 2018, 18:46 PM

Hi,

I knew I kept my spaceorb all these years for a reason! Decent was my favorite game and it was awesome with the spaceorb controller. I just purchased the latest descent and wanted to get my name in on getting an adapter when you get some made. No hurry.... I have been waiting too many years so waiting a little longer won't hurt. Thanks for all you are doing!

Greezon
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby Greezon » April 19 2018, 17:10 PM

Decent: Underground? Nooooo, its all about Overload. Overload is the real new Decent. The old Decent Devs are making Overload, and Decent: Underground is being made by Devs from star citizens.



Nonetheless, any updates on inventory yet?

vputz
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » April 21 2018, 15:50 PM

Yes, we have a few in stock! https://store.thingotron.com



AAAA A MONTH LATE I'M A HORRIBLE HUMAN! :) Okay, SUPER sorry for the delays; I had a couple business trips and while back... well, this isn't exactly an excuse, but we're almost to the 9th month of my wife's pregnancy which means she doesn't generally like taking a few hours on the weekends to make boards (and we've had blizzards here; ridiculous). Also naturally doesn't want to deal with the solder paste at the present time. So production has... slooowed.



BUT we did make another run of 8 boards. I ran out of spacers for the cases for two of them (more on order) and I need to swap two with someone who ordered from the last round, so right now the shop only shows 4 in stock, but there really are 4 more.



One thing--the fellow I mentioned above who bought from the last run didn't like the chording (I really like it)--in other words, the 'edge' buttons(A/B) by default choose the "page" for the face buttons (CDEF); this gives you 16 virtual buttons to use, which is really nice for games that use more than 6. But not everyone likes this. Ordinarily, you can install the Arduino environment and a few drivers and reprogram it to do all kinds of stuff, but we had real trouble so I'm sending him "preprogrammed" versions without the chording and with higher sensitivity.



If anyone is pretty tech savvy and uses Windows 7 and wants to take a crack at programming theirs, let me know--otherwise if you know from the start you won't want chording, tell me in your order and I'll reprogram it ahead of time (if you're in doubt, I'd say try it ... once you get the hang of it it's not bad at all).



Anyway, sorry for the delays. More parts on order and I'll try to do another batch in the next couple weeks now that we're all set up.

vputz
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » April 21 2018, 15:55 PM

...and by the way, that "let me know if you want preprogramming" counts if you have one of the desktop models...



...and if you didn't know, yes, the Orbotron works with the old desktop serial Spaceballs like the SpaceBall4000FLX, the 5000FLX, and the Magellan SpaceMouse! And I will say this--you run out of easy buttons without a serious gaming mouse, but a desktop spaceball in the left hand and a mouse in the right is a decent combination; you get the coarse-but-intuitive movement of the spaceball combined with the fast precise aiming of the mouse; pretty nice!

vputz
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » April 30 2018, 16:45 PM

New firmware!



The old "BasicJoystick" was good, but it required people to install Arduino, drivers, and learn to program just to turn off chording or set gain/sensitivity. So I've taken advantage of the much greater memory of the SAMD21 and now offer real-time configuration of a few settings using the "reset" button on the back of the SpaceOrb360!



Look at [url]http://wiki.thingotron.com/doku.php?id=products:orbotron9001[/url] to get the long form, but the short form:



Hold A+C, press reset: chording off

Hold A+D, press reset: chording on

Hold B+C,D,E, or F, press reset: Set sensitivity curve 0, 2, 4, 5 (4 was the old spaceorb default)

Hold A+B+C, D, E, or F, press reset: Set gain 100%, 130%, 160%, 190%



Unfortunately it resets the next time you plug it in, but at least it's fast to set the way you want. And I'm glad; the chording thing is one of the more frequently asked questions, and I didn't have a way to turn it off without reprogramming the whole thing.



If you're running the old firmware, I don't know any solution other than a full reprogramming, sorry :( Feel free to coordinate with me if you want to try, though!

neumaennl
Posts: 2
Joined: August 01 2018, 1:08 AM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby neumaennl » August 01 2018, 10:01 AM

Hi Victor,



you published the KiCad schematics and board files for the Orbotron 9000 on GitHub. Could you please also publish the schematics and board files for the Orbotron 9001?

That way people who have the necessary skills and tools don't have to wait until you have them back in stock and can build them themselves.



Apart from that I'm interested in buying one of these, but unfortunately they are not in stock.



Best regards,



Martin

vputz
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Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby vputz » August 14 2018, 13:06 PM

Martin:



OK, this is embarassing... I actually thought that had been done, and I've been so heads-down with baby that I haven't even looked at this board in a while. Martin, I got your email; I'm so sorry for the delays.



So minor updates: just made a new batch, and I should have 8 more for sale by the end of the week (got a few problems to fix). Whew.



But the bigger issue is that this is meant to be an OSHW (open-source hardware) project, and that means that I have an obligation to publish those; thanks for calling me on it. I'm just REALLY short of time at the moment, so keep me honest here, but also be a little lenient... this whole new-parent thing is pretty much destroying my life ;)

neumaennl
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Joined: August 01 2018, 1:08 AM

Re: Back in stock (20180305)

Postby neumaennl » August 14 2018, 15:17 PM

No worries. Take your time. There's no reason to rush. Your child is definitely way more important than this. Just keep me updated and I'll gladly throw some money at you for an Orbotron once you have one ready :wink:


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