Griffin Technology PowerMate 1040-PMT USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device (Aluminum, PC/Mac) by Griffin Technologies
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Digital camera reviews of Griffin Technology PowerMate 1040-PMT USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device (Aluminum, PC/Mac)
Digital camera Review: good hardware, flakey software
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought the Powermate a week ago and am very happy with the hardware. It looks great, it feels great, it works great. It is a little light -- tends to move around on the desk a little more than I'd prefer. But overall, I'm happy with the hardware. However, the software had been a problem.
In looking through the web, it seems that a lot of other people have software problems with the Powermate. In my case, the Powermate isn't seen at boot-up and requires unplugging and replugging the USB cable. This action (re)loads the driver which didn't get loaded at boot-up. But sometimes it does. Hit or miss...
To see if it was a driver issue, I downloaded the latest driver from the Griffin web site, version 1.5.3D for Windows. Other than the unplug/replug problem, everything else seems fine. I'm using the Powermate to control my HTPC so I use volume up/down, Mute, the long click for DVD Pause (space bar), and click+turn to change the channel up/down on my HDTV tuner in my HTPC.
Note that I am running WinXP SP2 and other people have reported problems with the Powermate and WinXP.
Also note that Girder is a popular remote driver for many classes of devices. However, I couldn't get the Girder driver to work with the Powermate using Girder4 and latest Girder Powermate plugin. Other people also reported similar problems with this also.
I've emailed the Griffin support people a couple of times but so far they have not replied. It appears that other users have had similar experiences with Griffin's poor customer service.
What I would like to do is have 2 Powermates, one on each side of the couch, so that my wife and I can control the muting of our HTPC. Macs were shown with 2 (and even 4) Powermates using the new version 1.6 driver, but Windows is still at version 1.5.3D of the driver on the Griffin web site.
So I found the iMON Knob which is a similar device, but not as nice looking. It is also available here on Amazon. I don't know if I can have two iMON Knobs, but at this point I'm pretty sure that I can have one iMON Knob and one Powermate. Anyway, I'll post those results once I have the iMON Knob in-hand.
The bottom line is that the Powermate will either work great or it won't work at all.
= = = = UPDATE
I've now had the Powermate for 2 weeks and the iMon Knob for several days (see my iMon Knob review here on Amazon). The Powermate and the iMon work fine together. I am much happier with the iMon's software quality, but I still like the Powermate hardware better. But for now, one of each is working fine attached to my HTPC. The Powermate software is still flakey at boot-up and I have to unplug/replug the USB cable. Also, Griffin's support has been nonexistant -- I've tried emailing and telephoning. SoundGraph (the iMon folks) have much better support.
So if you need two knobs attached to one computer, 1 iMon Knob and 1 Powermate works fine; wth the known problems with the Powermate's driver at bootup.
Digital camera Review: needs work
Summary: 3 Stars
This could be a great product but I am having problems with the driver recognizing the hardware, half the time it works, half the time it doesent, and I have to disable and re-enable the driver for it to work, other than that, this thing rocks, I use it as a volume control only.Digital camera Review: powermate limitations
Summary: 1 Stars
IF THE POWERMATE 2.0 SOFTWARE WAS SIMULAR TO SAITEKS SST SOFTWARE SO WE CAN CONTROLL THE KEYSTROKE TIMING THEN I'TS USE CAN BE USABLE FOR ALL KEYBOARD CONTROLL PROGRAMS REGARDLESS. AS OF NOW I CAN USE THEM ONLY FOR ONE PGRM. THE KEY DEPRESSION IS TO BRIEF FOR MY OTHERS.
THANKS, ANDREW CORIATY.....