The unit came in a big box when compared to the very small device size. The box contains the device itself, a usb cable, an installation and documentation cd and other papers. It has very compact size. There are four plastic feeth.
Installation :
Installation is very easy. Just fallow the instructions located in the installation guide. First install the application and then connect the device to the usb port. While installing the device at work windows ( XP ) found a new driver so i needed to point the driver location to finish the driver installation. But at home, i did not face any "found a new driver" window, it was just installed.
When you use the autorun.exe to install the application, it runs, in fact, start.html. So you select whatever you want to install ( or view ). So when you want to install application and click on it, the archive file is being copied into your local drive. It would be better the application directly runs and installs whatever you want.
Documentation :
Documantations are well enough to understand how the device ( orientation and motion sensor ) works, what capabilities it has, what there are inside it and so on. But, while reading the device pin description, it can be seen that pin 1 is reserved and left unconnected or connected to ground, pin 10 is also not used and can be left unconnected but recommended to connect to ground. So, i expect to see, in the sample application schematics, especialy pin 10 to be tied to ground but it is left unconnected. If something is being recommendated then it should be used as recommendated.
There is also a video to explain how the device works. A woman speaks in the video and gives detailed information by using the application program. But the video is terrible( at least for me ). Video is not steady. I think someone took it with a handycam.In the meantime, the voice of the speaker is so much less that it can not be heard so much easily. I maximized the sound level of the windows media player and my speaker but no use.
Application :
The application is well enough to see how the device works. You can test every feature the device has. You turn it to the left and you see it on the screen. But to see the right orientation you should place the device in the right position. The sensore chip name is on the upper part of the sensor board and the freescale label is at the bottom. then you turen left you see left message, you turn right then you see right message and so on. But to test the shaking feature, you have to make a bit sudden movement. slow movement do not detect it.
And i could not see anyway to reprogram the mcu on the mother board to play with it. there is no any software development package in the cd. If it were, that would be great.
Conclusion :
I like it. I have always been interested in such kind of chips. I have a few projects in mind to give a life. Something finding approx slope of a subject such as a photo frame while trying to hang it on the wall
or maybe route tracking with a car by the help of a speed sensor. Just ideas... Are they realistic, we will see...FIRAT KOCAK
