Post by fettucinibroOh well...glad you like your Aerotech stuff, David. Let
me know how it's still
working for you after a while... please. Because if they ever "get it
right", I'd like to know.
I'll do what I can Steve. I've only had the new ones for a while, so it
will probably be a bit before I can give a full report.
I can give you a history of my experience with the prior versions though.
I purchased 6 Red / Blue programmable, 2 Solid Green, and 1 Strobing Green
Aerotech ball back in 2001.
The Strobing Green was the first to give me problems. It didn't always
like to take a charge and eventually just died. I'd guess that it died
less than a year after purchasing.
As of today, 4 of the 6 programmables are still going strong, and both
solid green ones are working fine. I thought it was more that were having
problems, but it turned out that both my 5 point chargers were dead. So I
ordered a new 7 point charger and things have been good. If that charger
goes though . . . well . . . I'll probably be retiring them anyway, now
that I have 6 new ones.
The two programmables which stopped taking a charge both died about the
same time (approx. 1.5 years ago). They have taken quite the beating over
their life though.
I've had a lot of fun with them, and they served me quite well. At the
IJA in Portland I did a routine with 4 of them and they worked great.
Marco was in the same show with the K8 balls and he was having issues with
them backstage, even having one die on him as he was going onto the stage.
These weren't old ones either, having watched him take them out of the
package just moments before. Figured at that point, I probably made the
right choice.
The nice thing about the new ones is that there is an "upgrade path" that
gets you a bit of a discount for moving from the old to the new :-)
I don't know if the software they use to do the programming and such
supports Mac at this point. I'm a PC user, so unfortunately I can't help
you out there. You do have to have a laptop and powered USB multi-port
hub to get things going though. There were some learning curve issues
with initial setup between the computer and the balls. Plus some trial
and error with what software to use to help make the programming a bit
easier (currently using Notepad and Audacity).
I have my first "official" show with the new ones on Saturday, March 28th.
Will be fun to see how they perform under "stage" situations. The only
tricky part which I have some minor concerns about is getting the timing
right with the start of the music and the start of the balls.
The new ones have so much potential and are a lot of fun when the timing
and programming works (when it doesn't it's my own fault anyway and
usually easily fixed . . . heh heh). I really do hope they last and
continue working years down the road.
David Sallee (Giving you more than you ever wanted to know . . . :-)
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