Message-ID: <1893@iddic.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 09:08:46 EST
Article-I.D.: iddic.1893
Posted: Wed Jan  2 09:08:46 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 00:47:37 EST
Organization: home on vacation
Lines: 52

>>><<<
 
   I bought a PowerPad several weeks ago, on a whim, from my local Toys R Us
for $29.95, with software packages at $9.95 each. It has appeared in several
magazine ads recently at the same price, "when purchased with a software
package at $15 each". The company (Chalkboard) has apparently died, so the
remaining stock of pads seems to be available at bargain prices. Though I
don't know the details, my guess is that the company went belly-up because of
overpriced hardware (orig. cost for pad- $99.95), and lousy software.
 
    The powerpad itself is a rather large digitizer tablet, with an active
surface of 12 by 12 inches and 120 by 120 resolution (ie. 0.1 inch/point).
It apparently works by means of a wire grid (I haven't taken mine apart yet,
for fear of messing it up), and allows sensing of multiple touches simultaneous-
ly, something that the Koalapad won't do. It connects to a joystick input on
the 64, and sends data by serially shifting in 16 bits for each point read
on the surface (aargh). There are no pushbuttons (like the K-pad). The
hardware seems to work okay, thogh I have no idea about long-term reliability.
 
   Now the software. Ahem. I bought 3 packages with the pad (MicroMaestro
(music), Leo's 'Lectric Paintbrush ([what a stupid name] drawing), and the
Programming Kit (tells how to interface with the pad). The software seems to
have been written to be so simple that even a child could use it. In
fact, it's so simple that only a child would WANT to use it. The music program,
for example, lets you play a tune on a large 'keyboard' printed on an overlay.
You can they play it back, and save it on tape/disk, but not much else. No
editing facilites are available, and the save to tape/disk is so crudely
done, it's too painful to describe. One almost-nice feature is that it allows
you to press up to three keys simultaneously for chords, but it is almost
impossible to simultaneously press two or three keys without generating
spurious single notes (a software problem, not a hardware one.) The graphics
program lets you draw on the screen in (only) eight colors (in multi-color),
fill areas on the screen with solid colors, has a copy function, and saves
pictures to tape/disk (with the same type of crude user interface as above--
filenames like 'RED GREEN BLUE' for instance). It's painful to use, as it
seems to sample the pad rather slowly, so you must move the stylus
s-l-o-w-ly to draw continuous lines. A complete abortion, compared to
Koalapainter. I've heard that Micro-Illustrator (aka Koalapainter) is
supposed to be available for the powerpad; I've never seen it, and doubt its
availability.
 
   So, in brief, if you want an extremely low-cost digitizer, and are willing
to write your own software, the powerpad may be a good buy. Get the
Programming Kit software package to find out how to talk to the pad, and avoid
the other packages. I'm going to keep mine, but it will probably be about 1991
before I get to writing any usable software for it. Anyone out there got
some they'd like to send me?
 
       Gary Hanson   Tektronix IDG  {biggies}!tektronix!iddic!garyh
 
>Dear Lisa and Mac: Sorry, but no mice allowed in my house; that's why I have a
cat.<