P3D Simuleyes at Costco...

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998
>From: Charles A Miller writes:
>
>
>I bought a pair of Simuleyes at Costco today ($49.95). Unfortunately they
>don't seem to work correctly. I tried playing the games that came with
>them and they just screw up. I opened up the battery case and played with
>them. If I jiggled the batteries, the glasses would work momentarily then
>freeze again. As an experiment, I took out two of the batteries that were
>parallel to each other and then connected the + and - together with a pair
>of scissors. The glasses worked (but not as well as when I jiggled the
>batteries back and forth (breaking the connection). Anyway, I can't figure
>it out and really don't care to do so. I'm going to return them and get my
>money back. I just thought I'd post this as a reference for anyone else.
>ACtually, I'm annoyed that they would use 4 AA batteries as opposed to an
>adaptor or something. It makes it seem VERY cheap. 
>

*****  Actually the batteries idea is not necessarily a sign of cheapness.
There is a demand from the market to avoid having wires strung all over the
place. The only way to have active glasses but no wires is to put batteries
in them. But to work the batteries must be properly connected.

I have NuVision 3D-Spex which are wired. I'm constantly tucking the wire out
of reach of stray feet, and more than once, they've taken a flying leap
across the room because of stray feet... Compound that with multiple viewers
and batteries look better and better. The Total3D card supports up to five
pairs of glasses. That's a lot of wires stretched across the keyboard, over
my shoulders, and all around. I can't move till the glasses are all
retrieved and wires accounted for.

If someone can figure out how to radiate the power to the glasses so they
don't need batteries, that might be nice, but with visions of Tesla coils
blowing sparks all over the place, I'm not so sure... ;-)

Of course you can opt for the passive polarized glasses coupled with an
active LC panel mounted to the front of the screen, but that will set you
back a lot more than $50!!!! 

You could remove the batteries, and get a DC power supply that correctly
replaces the batteries and attach wires to the glasses. Then they would work
just fine, just like they'd work if you repaired the faulty connection...

LCS glasses are worth having if they work. I'd think more than twice about
giving up too easily. Not long ago, they cost a lot more than $50, if you
could find them at all, and you still had to deal with connection problems.
Of course that doesn't justify sloppy QC.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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