Author Topic: RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three - UPDATE: He's Alive!  (Read 5180 times)

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Offline aggiejy

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three - UPDATE: He's Alive!
« on: Wed, 03 August 2011, 16:07:47 »
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I remember it like it was yesterday... I was infatuated with the full-size Optimus mockups that came out around 2005.  By early 2006, mockups of a more realistic 3-key version were floating around.  I sent my money off to Russia the day I could and waited.  I'm not sure how long I waited, but it wasn't a group buy 3 wait or anything... but it was fairly long.  Then it happened... I received a padded envelop with 6 or 7 various sized and color postage stamps from Kong Kong.  By the look of the package, the poor little guy had quite a rough journey to Texas.  I loved this guy!  Very programmable, and aside from the first-run production problem of a high-pitch power supply... he was perfect.

The last 5 years were great years little mini three.  When you didn't turn on this morning, I thought... "****".  

I'll miss you greatly. :sad:
« Last Edit: Wed, 03 August 2011, 17:40:51 by aggiejy »

Offline mtl

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 03 August 2011, 16:43:32 »
How many keystrokes did it take?
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Offline khanable

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 03 August 2011, 16:48:40 »
Oooooh... I always wanted one of those... rip

Offline aggiejy

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 03 August 2011, 17:19:10 »
Quote from: mtl;392447
How many keystrokes did it take?
I wasn't counting.  

Napkin math says 10k-20k based on my usage pattern.  Not too many... but it was a first run product built by a design shop. :)

Offline aggiejy

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 03 August 2011, 17:38:49 »
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated

Sorry folks, false alarm...

I had upgraded to Lion recently and I hadn't tried it until this morning.  When that didn't work, I did think of Lion, so I tried on my windows machine.  Nothing.  But then while reminiscing I noticed that their site says it's only compatible with the 32-bit version of Win7.  

So I tried on my wife's Macbook Air which I've neglected to upgrade, and BAM!



Unfortunately, that does me little good.  He's all but dead to me now.  Might be time for the classified or eBay.

Offline IvanIvanovich

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 04 August 2011, 12:47:30 »
Find the Prolific serial to usb com bridge driver for x64. The driver for that controller should get it working on win 7 x64. After that is installed you should be able to install the optimus configurator package to change its settings.

Edit: my friend says it's this one: http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?id=31 Looks like they have an updated Lion package as well.
« Last Edit: Thu, 04 August 2011, 12:55:15 by lysol »

Offline BiNiaRiS

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 04 August 2011, 16:27:53 »
how much did this cost when you got it?

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Offline aggiejy

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #7 on: Thu, 04 August 2011, 17:30:42 »
Quote from: lysol;392963
Find the Prolific serial to usb com bridge driver for x64. The driver for that controller should get it working on win 7 x64. After that is installed you should be able to install the optimus configurator package to change its settings.

Edit: my friend says it's this one: http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?id=31 Looks like they have an updated Lion package as well.

Thanks for the link!  I actually did download one of their drivers as linked on the Art Lebedev site, but I think it may have been for XP or something.  (It did install, but didn't work.)  I'll give this a try.

Quote from: BiNiaRiS;393098
how much did this cost when you got it?

I wan't to say it was ~$150-200, I don't remember exactly.  I know my credit card company stuck me with charges for the conversion though.  And shipping was additional.

Offline aggiejy

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #8 on: Thu, 04 August 2011, 17:54:41 »
Quote from: lysol;392963
...they have an updated Lion package as well.


Offline shrap

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RIP: Art. Lebedev Optimus mini three
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 04 August 2011, 19:06:27 »
Awesome that you got the sucker working - bet most of us aren't as concerned about our keyboards' forward compatibility.