I just got back from the plastics manufacturer once again, and have some new bits and pieces to play with.

The fascia has now been corrected so that the volume knob is seated centrally within the surround, eliminating problems with them rubbing. We'll send out replacements to "mini batch" Mk.2 owners in the next couple of weeks.

We've chosen the tints for the four main colours, and have worked hard to come up with dyes that maximise the display brightness. The blue screen is now a lighter shade, more towards cyan than pure blue, and is about 50% brighter than the screens that shipped in the mini batch. The green screen is brighter than the Mk.1 version, a slightly lighter shade, and hopefully a better match for most green illuminated dashboards. The amber is a close match to the Mk.1 shade but is at least 20% brighter. The red has an orange hue, as promised, for a good match with BMW and Audi. It's the least bright of all the colours, but is still brighter than the original blue screen.

Because the VFD has a blue/green tint, we've had to use a relatively low density dye to get acceptable brightness on the red and amber panels. As a result you can see some of the components behind the screens in daylight, but there's not much we can do about that. We don't want to print a mask because it will reduce the viewing angles, but if you're a techie type you might like the effect :-)

I'll get photos of each of the screens onto the web site soon, probably tomorrow.

Rob

fascia has now been corrected
We've chosen the tints ( . . ) to come up with dyes that maximise the display brightness

Won - der - ful
I knew you guys wouldn't be sitting still. Thanks for taking in our comments and further improving an already wonderful product.
(To all the Mark1 owners: though Mark defintely looks good on the web; it's GREAT in real life. Though it (still) behaves much like Emma, it's much smoother and faster in operations. The rotary knob too is a significant improvement - great for quickly shifting between visuals and info, and then there's all the xtras to unleash . . .


Henno
mark2 nr: 006

Good news about the new facia, the down button was always stuck until i
loosend the scews a bit, now it still rubs, but it never sticks ...
It would be so cool to have metal knobs, and a metal facia, i would pay for
it, please give it a thought !

I talked about that with the designers today. Metal buttons and knob are at least possible (in cast aluminium) but it wouldn't be a cheap undertaking. Maybe we'll do a special edition after we ship 50,000 of these things :)

Rob

Maybe we'll do a special edition after we ship 50,000 of these things

Well, with 5 knobs per player that's 10,000 empegs: not impossible



Henno
mark2 nr: 006

Rather than metal, how about rubberized plastic? Several car stereos I've seen do this with the knob and it has a very nice feel.

I agree with the rubberized plastic knob idea. This makes a really nice feel for knobs. The first company to come to mind with these knobs is Eclipse and also stock Volvo stereos.

I looked into this some time ago. Unfortunately it's not a very viable process for low volume.

Rob

I wonder if you've tried a textured front panel, that would help out with glare? The display is impossible to see in the sunlight, and I'm wondering if there's something that can be done about it...