I'm sorry, I was actually kind of hoping for "'me too' spam". It seems to serve alot of purposes.

I was planning to tally up everyone that wanted buttons when (if?) they are available.
It also helped show the current interest for certain colors.
It helped solicit color matching info (which we could use more of, perhaps).
It's bumping in General will help notify people that buttons are (and better darn well be) coming.
The "in Projects" part of the title lets people know to check there for the details.
The poll stopped when the BBS upgraded (but I never did figure out polls...).

::shrugs:: Sorry, I thought it would be helpful. I've also seen it used in the past and nobody seemed to mind... unless I missed it. Sorry folks.

Me too for blue etc...

I like a set of blue as well.
I'm staying away from green and red for I never know when color blindness strikes me.

I'd like a set - don't mind what colour, really, as long as they match each other.

I've just changed my faceplate from amber to blue, but I don't know what colour I'm most likely to have long-term (maybe smoke would best match the new car, but I'm not planning on buying new lenses in the near future).

A 'variety pack' would be my preference if that's available - 3 or 4 sets, in different colours.

Put me down for a set of smoke. Thanks!

Hm... what color blue are you all interested in? One that matches Filener's Translucent Blue raised lense? Or a more rich blue like these? Or are there any other ways you can make a reference that I can colormatch from?

I'm trying to get this colormatching info now because casters and molders have asked me for it right at the begining of the process. I'm talking to three different companies now; still early in the process. And darn, there's one RIGHT down the street from me that I want to get to also, but they haven't replied. Heck, I might just stop in.

Thanks all.

The blue that most people are chasing is the original lens as shown in your link.

You may find these of use depending on what form the color information is requested in.

http://www.greatideasinc.com/pms-pantone-chart.htm

http://noz.day-break.net/webcolor/

Ugh, SO many casters and molders to contact... so little time. My latest batch of contacts has yeilded 7 interested injection molders so far. Let's see what they quote the project at and hope it's feasible.

Mach, thanks for the color matching info. Yeah, I imagined it was dark blue that everyone was after. Now, I just need an original dark blue lense and some scraps of that color to send away for color matching.

Other than that, things are trucking along quite nicely! Since my early-July contacts to hand-casters only yelided me one (extremely expensive) quote, I pushed the deadline back to October. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for all your hard work!!!!

Sean in NC

So, how crazy would it be for me to try and track down the original empeg button steel injection molding tool, lost somewhere in England?

First, good news. Things have been moving forward at a very constant pace. Constant e-mailing, frequent phone calls, and now, price quotes. I have finally struck gold by contacting "prototypers" who provide a service somewhere between hand casting (using short-life molds) and injection molding (molds created by machine and parts cast by machine). I'll should have a firm grip on services and prices from this nice middle ground by September 1st.

Then, the crazy news: Though the injecetion molders that I've contacted have been very professional about the job, their price for creating a mold ("tool") is roughly three times what I can afford. For that price, I might as well take a month off work, fly to England, and search for the original tool. So, what about that original tool? I've seen scattered slight references to it through the years on the BBS. Does anyone have any leads on it? Such as:

- Who did the original injection molding.
- Who designed the fascia and buttons (that's on the geek site, right?).
- Who would I have to pay off because they actually own the tool.
- Would copyright laws even allow me to set my hands on it.
- Has the ownership of the tool been lost in all the empeg company changes.

I'd be more than happy to use some of my weekly button project time to chase some international leads on this elusive block of steel. Any hints would be great. Thanks all.

The tool was a soft tool and is probably worn beyond use. The fascia one is definitely gone. Read this post.

I'd like one set of every colour...
clear
blue (original factory lens matched)
smoke
red
green

So I guess you will be offering each colour as a different set?, Rather than a single set which inlcudes all of the 5?? or so colours?

tman, thanks, that was exactaly the post I was thinking of. How he mentioned "rusting away" burned into my memory that it may be a steel tool (since I can't imagine urethane or silicone rusting). But oh well, it's probably long gone.

JaBZ, thanks for the reply. Clear isn't totally intended to be one of the five colors, but I'm going to try and have some made if it's not too much more of a cost. The five colors are factory-empeg-lense blue (not the stock one, but their blue replacement), and Filener's flat green, flat red, flat smoke, and raised amber.

Now, to just find enough time at work to make these phone calls to molding shops... It's working out though, no worries!

First pardon me for bumping an old thread.

I would be interested in a crystal clear set of buttons and knob.

The reason why is I've seen multicolor leds in small T type packages don't know if there is an SMT version. Using these LEDs would allow software controll of the color selection.

Hes got a web site up for you to order the buttons from.. click Buttons up at the top of the page in the Addons section

A potential LED selection for the knob can be seen here

EDIT: A better option for the knob and buttons is SUNLEDS they are be far the smallest RGB LEDs I've found to date.

mlord

If I make the multicolor buttons can you add a little version of Simon says to Hijack?

This is an insanely complicated scheme. If I wanted to this then I'd hang a chip off the I2C bus inside the empeg. A user land app to do the controlling as well instead of wedging it into the kernel and wasting memory.

I shouldn't say this, but I'm in an incredibly foul mood right now.... If I had a pound for every person who joined this board, came up with a 'great' idea for empeg hardware and software mods and then delivered sweet FA then I'd have at least a tenner.... and just to stop you moaning I'm actually included in this list as I will never have the time to build my DAB tuner.

sorry about the confusion, Ok if the I2C bus is easy to get at then it will be used.

another thing I'm pondering is if I should make the 4 RGB LEDs for the knob a single addressable location or seperate.

n2toh perhaps I'm in a foul mood also or just being a bit b*tchy... but for the last few weeks I've read as you dig up all these old threads and say you can do this or that and you know how to do it. Which is fine... but it seems like you've said the same thing about so many things and spread yourself thin. It seems like if you truly can do this magic that you would take ONE thing and bring it to fruition and work from there. Maybe you are trying to cover all bases for the masterpiece of a redesign you have planned... I have no clue. I know I've read everything from rainbow lights with one controller to USB master with another controller and a Serial hard drive controller and it seems by the time you do all of this, call it a PC and play Doom or whatever on it.

I'm a mechanical engineer and my skills are VERY limited in the electrical realm. And I've been known to dream of some crazy things, but generally I can do a small cost and feasibility study to figure out if any of them are worth pursuing. If one is, I devote all of my energy into it and COMPLETE it... I don't keep spending every day dreaming of some new crazy possibility to keep me from ever finishing ONE of them... I fear that maybe reality hasn't hit you yet in that you have mentioned 10 projets on here and you claim to be able to handle hardware and software for both... I have no reason to doubt you... but once it'd be nice to FINISH one of your ideas and not to keep dreaming up the next... if you never start then it definitely never gets finished.

Wasn't trying to be harsh, it's just that some of this has been so outlandish that I just shake my head and wonder why? I think maybe I've worked for you in a company that went out of business because they spent all of the time coming up with the product but never developing it...

you are 100% correct.

This project is by far the simplest, and is the one I'm going to devote my time to.