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Although many of the hard-core modding
community would rather not have it happen, sometimes one of their
innovations is good enough to go to mass market. I don’t really understand
their reasoning along these lines, as I shudder to think what today would be
like if the light bulb, electricity, and telephone hadn’t gone to the public. Even Matthew Schooley and Johan Vaaler’s early patented work with the simple
paper clip is the subject of major mass production today, and for a simple
piece of bent wire, it has done very well. I have seen some wild remote
starts from the modding community for some years now, even one including a
capacitive touch switch! Today’s review item, the Remote Multifunction Panel
from our friends over at Logisys computer, clearly draws some inspiration
from this early work. This particular unit has Dual Analog temperature
displays, front USB/Firewire, and some limited fan control. Let’s check it
out!
Packaging & Contents
I actually received this sample in the same
box I got the 20-in-1 Multifunction Panel I reviewed some time back. At the
time, it was still in preproduction, and consequently the box is a simple
white affair. The only thing immediately visible was the small remote, not
all that different from the ones most people use to unlock their cars.
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Pulling all the contents out onto a table, we can see the unit itself, plus
installation instructions, the remote, a 20 pin pass through adaptor, and an
antenna/PCI cover assembly.
**click to enlarge**
The
unit essentially works the same way the VL Systems Zepherus does, borrowing
voltage from the 5V standby line on the standard 20 pin ATX connector.
Unlike the Zepherus, this unit’s pass through assembly is a much more simple
and elegant solution to tap this line.
The Antenna was a little ugly, as these things go. There was a lot of
exposed wire, which I would have preferred to see covered with a rubber boot
or shrink wrap. Still, this may be different on the production models, and
I’ll make a post in the forums if I find out this is otherwise.
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The Remote Multifunction Panel itself is pretty busy to look at…not nearly
as elegant as the Musketeer, for example. The analog dials are a little
smaller than those found on the Musketeer series, but otherwise closely
resemble the dials on the Musketeer 1. Just to the left of the dials is a
slide that controls the fans, and to the left of that are a pair of USB 2.0
headers and a single 1394 port. There are two LEDs directly above the ports
– a red one to indicate power, and a green one to indicate that the remote
signal is being received. I think we could have done without the red
LED…seems to be a bit of overkill.
**click to enlarge**
The
temperature sensors are also worth a mention here because they have large
thermister type sensors, and will be difficult to place in some situations.
They can be easily unplugged and replaced if this is a major issue.
**click to enlarge**
The remote itself is an even simpler deal with
only two buttons on it…one for power and another for reset. There is also a
small red LED just above the power button to indicate that it is
transmitting.
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