Received duff Iliad - Page 4

scotty1024 · 09-14-2006, 09:31 AM

I swapped, I wiggled, I even jiggled.

On the way home I tried to calculate just how high the per unit failure rate would need to be to enable a randomly selected customer to encounter this many serial failures.

After I got home I noticed that the USB connector in the Travel Hub flexed inwards a tiny bit more than it should. I inserted the USB cable, flexed the connector back out into the proper position and then wrapped the USB cable around the hub and secured it with those clips built into the travel hub. Now we know why the clips are there. :P

iRex is ever so happy to have to only ship me a travel hub this time.

Me, I'm still waiting to see if the unit survives its first few charging cycles before I really trust it.

:

NatCh · 09-14-2006, 10:25 AM

I've been watching your saga, and feeling your pain, scotty1024, I'm thrilled that they only gave you a bum travel hub this time!

DHer · 09-14-2006, 10:34 AM

Yeah, the travel hub is really a failed design. At the moment it stops charging as soon as i look at it the wrong way. Or doesn't start charging at all.

I'm afraid they have to send out another travel hub. :\

scotty1024 · 09-14-2006, 03:37 PM

@NatCh

I'm hoping its only a bum travel hub... So far so OK. I'll be taking it day by day for awhile, a bit of trepidation each morning as I go to see if it will still boot up.

And each time the xpdf software bugs my heart leaps into my throat. On the bus this morning Unto The Breach (which I'm now back to trying to finish) went from 1865 pages to 2 while I was reading it. I pressed the menu button, the back to top button, the books/docs buttons, nothing got me out of the book!

Pressing the iDS button and then when it failed I was able to press books twice and get back to where I was, with 1865 pages. But for a minute there I'd thought the battery rolled over dead on me.

@DHer

Sounds like another bad connector, a little cord wrapping and a velcro cable tie might improve your situation while you wait for a new hub. (I added the velcro strap to mine this morning)

scotty1024 · 09-20-2006, 11:47 AM

Yesterday saw the arrival of a USB Travel Hub direct from iRex headquarters!

I'm now the proud owner of a prototype USB Travel Hub!

Being quite the hardware geek I am tickled pink to have a piece of their lab equipment and it certainly makes up for some of the pain their poor quality control has caused me.

My wife though is still warming to it. "Honey, it has no sticker." "Its a prototype Dear, they don't put stickers on them." "But its falling apart Dear." "Well they don't often put the screws back in prototypes because they take them apart so often."

vranghel · 09-20-2006, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotty1024

My wife though is still warming to it. "Honey, it has no sticker." "Its a prototype Dear, they don't put stickers on them." "But its falling apart Dear." "Well they don't often put the screws back in prototypes because they take them apart so often."

LOL...
I wonder if you would mind posting some pics of the new travel hub for the rest of the mortals in this forum

TadW · 09-21-2006, 08:44 PM

Yes please do...

scotty1024 · 09-22-2006, 12:32 PM

Here you go.

Photo of the current surviving iLiad, its The Pouch case and the two USB Travel Hubs. The production Hub has the sticker and "stumpy" cord.

yvanleterrible · 09-22-2006, 01:04 PM

[QUOTE=scotty1024]

the current surviving iLiadQUOTE]

Your courage and determination amaze me!

You must really love that thing!

vranghel · 09-22-2006, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Here you go.

Photo of the current surviving iLiad, its The Pouch case and the two USB Travel Hubs. The production Hub has the sticker and "stumpy" cord.

Yay! at last they decided to make that damn connector cable longer! the short rigid cable bugs the hell out of me every time i have to charge or upload the iliad.

scotty1024 · 09-22-2006, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Your courage and determination amaze me!

You must really love that thing!

Thanks. I'd happily carry around a 12" e-Ink device if there was one.

For my eyes e-Ink is like a tall glass of cold ice water on a 45C day.

My wife is going to grad school and we ride the bus together part of the way in the mornings. She's got a LE1600 Tablet PC out studying and I've got the iLiad out. Its like the old Apple 17" PowerBook ads because she's 140cm/45Kg and I'm 180cm/120Kg.

She casts covetous eyes on the iLiad but the lack of production software, production power management, and the LE1600's audio recording ability keep her hands off it.

Personally I see the iLiad as a wonderful potential tool for the legally blind and look forward to producing tools to help enable that market for it.

NatCh · 09-22-2006, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotty1024

I'd happily carry around a 12" e-Ink device if there was one.

I'm hoping nextgen includes some A5/letter sized devices, myself. I think that would get a lot of corporate & academia interest.

What's good for e-ink is good for e-ink users!

scotty1024 · 09-22-2006, 05:45 PM

@NatCh

With the help of a bit of Java code I put together I'm surviving, if not exactly thriving, with the iLiad's screen and Letter sized PDF's...

The code takes a letter sized PDF, rotates each page 90 degrees (I prefer that to 270, page bar makes more sense to me) and then duplicates each page and sets separate crop boxes onto each duplicate so you get a top and bottom page. The two pages are added to the new output file, prefixed with "iLiad." and the process repeated for all pages.

If you feed it a Postscript PDF, you get Postscript in the new PDF.

I'm working on adapting a bit of code I have for auto-cropping the page before doing the above but haven't gotten it updated to the latest PDF spec yet. Thus the margins are still in the documents after conversion... soon though...

scotty1024 · 09-22-2006, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vranghel

Yay! at last they decided to make that damn connector cable longer! the short rigid cable bugs the hell out of me every time i have to charge or upload the iliad.

Not to pop your balloon or anything but its also possible that they decided to make the cable shorter when they went to production... this prototype doesn't feel "new" (as my wife keeps reminding me, at this point I think she's amused by how happy this scruffy old hub makes me.)

I agree though, that longer cable takes some of the sting out of getting three bad units in a row.

DHer · 09-23-2006, 06:49 AM

this java script you are using to split pages - does it work with protected pdfs?

i've got a fast python hack to do the same, but it won't work with "Der Spiegel" pdfs.

If someone wants, i can upload it here somewhere.

09-22-2006, 12:32 PM	#53
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	Here you go. Photo of the current surviving iLiad, its The Pouch case and the two USB Travel Hubs. The production Hub has the sticker and "stumpy" cord. Attached Thumbnails

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09-14-2006, 09:31 AM	#46
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	I swapped, I wiggled, I even jiggled. On the way home I tried to calculate just how high the per unit failure rate would need to be to enable a randomly selected customer to encounter this many serial failures. After I got home I noticed that the USB connector in the Travel Hub flexed inwards a tiny bit more than it should. I inserted the USB cable, flexed the connector back out into the proper position and then wrapped the USB cable around the hub and secured it with those clips built into the travel hub. Now we know why the clips are there. :P iRex is ever so happy to have to only ship me a travel hub this time. Me, I'm still waiting to see if the unit survives its first few charging cycles before I really trust it. :

09-14-2006, 10:25 AM	#47
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I've been watching your saga, and feeling your pain, scotty1024, I'm thrilled that they only gave you a bum travel hub this time!

09-14-2006, 10:34 AM	#48
DHer Addict Posts: 261 Karma: 156 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: iliad	Yeah, the travel hub is really a failed design. At the moment it stops charging as soon as i look at it the wrong way. Or doesn't start charging at all. I'm afraid they have to send out another travel hub. :\

09-14-2006, 03:37 PM	#49
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	@NatCh I'm hoping its only a bum travel hub... So far so OK. I'll be taking it day by day for awhile, a bit of trepidation each morning as I go to see if it will still boot up. And each time the xpdf software bugs my heart leaps into my throat. On the bus this morning Unto The Breach (which I'm now back to trying to finish) went from 1865 pages to 2 while I was reading it. I pressed the menu button, the back to top button, the books/docs buttons, nothing got me out of the book! Pressing the iDS button and then when it failed I was able to press books twice and get back to where I was, with 1865 pages. But for a minute there I'd thought the battery rolled over dead on me. @DHer Sounds like another bad connector, a little cord wrapping and a velcro cable tie might improve your situation while you wait for a new hub. (I added the velcro strap to mine this morning)

09-20-2006, 11:47 AM	#50
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	Yesterday saw the arrival of a USB Travel Hub direct from iRex headquarters! I'm now the proud owner of a prototype USB Travel Hub! Being quite the hardware geek I am tickled pink to have a piece of their lab equipment and it certainly makes up for some of the pain their poor quality control has caused me. My wife though is still warming to it. "Honey, it has no sticker." "Its a prototype Dear, they don't put stickers on them." "But its falling apart Dear." "Well they don't often put the screws back in prototypes because they take them apart so often."

09-21-2006, 08:44 PM	#52
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Yes please do...

09-22-2006, 01:04 PM	#54
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	[QUOTE=scotty1024] the current surviving iLiadQUOTE] Your courage and determination amaze me! You must really love that thing!

09-23-2006, 06:49 AM	#60
DHer Addict Posts: 261 Karma: 156 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: iliad	this java script you are using to split pages - does it work with protected pdfs? i've got a fast python hack to do the same, but it won't work with "Der Spiegel" pdfs. If someone wants, i can upload it here somewhere.

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