Hacker News Reader

Comment by amne | Hacker News Reader

I was so disappointed as well when I saw he just grabbed a screen and called it a day.

I was really expecting some mechanical tricks around the play/pause buttons liked I had on my old cassette player to make them xor-like .. so disappointed. And frustrated I just don't have the skills or time to make one but would love to see someone actually do it.

View on HN

There’s a reason xor interface buttons are called “radio buttons“.

I definitely remember reading some folk etymology that claimed they were so named because the buttons affected each other despite being physically separate, "as if by radio".

"Like buttons on a car radio" seems more plausible to me however.

> xor-like

Radio buttons?

I mean .. brain fart?

yes, I meant radio buttons. of course!

I'm laughing so hard at myself now.

I quite like 'XOR buttons'. I wasn't intending to correct you; just to point out that those buttons have a name that originates precisely from the application we're talking about (well... Winamp's not a radio per se, but close enough).

"... and I'll take three floating point controls too"

"You mean sliders?"

What html calls range, like in deranged.

Since this is like ten of the top ten comments here, complaining that it's not physical, I'd like to point out that physical controls are expensive. Slide pots are about a dollar: https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/bourns-inc/PTA2... ; if you want a motorized one, that's way more.

Pushbuttons are similar. The XOR system is literally "radio buttons" or "ganged switches", but I can no longer find that exact item on catalogues. It works by having a bar hooked around all the switches so that when one is halfway-pressed it triggers the unlock across all switches, so the unused one pops out.

Then you need to hook all that up to your microcontroller as inputs, do panel cutouts, etc. The switches tend to be through-hole, complicating manufacturing. Then you discover that you end up needing two boards, one full of inputs and display parts which are through-hole so there isn't space on the back for the actual MCU.

>I'd like to point out that physical controls are expensive.

Do you guys not have money?

Not enough, no.

I can provide you with a PayPal username of you wanna get rid of some 8-)

This will cost $15 in materials for seven buttons, two sliders, and two screens. The "they're expensive!" argument makes sense when you're making a mass-produced item, but for a one-off art piece, $15 won't break the bank.

> I'd like to point out that physical controls are expensive

More expensive than a touchscreen? Especially if we also calculate the energy-costs for usage..

I agree there's a lot that would go into it. Which is why I was so disappointed with the implementation.

As someone who watches content from This Old Tony, Inheritance Machining, GreatScott!, Marius Hornberger and so on I would watch a series of someone building this. That's how I see you can subsidize a project like this these days.

The complaints stem from the fact that the title says it was physical. If the title was "winamp made of diamond" but it was made of plastic instead, it wouldn't help to tell us diamond is expensive. We know physical is more expensive/difficult, that's why we got excited when the title promised it, and then felt let down.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com