EWPro Design Sketches

My apologies if this is already here somewhere, but while doing a search for the EWPro, I ran across the Sandbox web page:

http://www.sandboxid.com/work/etherwave

They apparently designed the enclosure for the EWPro.  Here are a few pix I snagged:

Some of the early concept pix look rather like the Theremini.

It's pretty, but I'm not a huge fan of the EWPro design.  The controls seem poorly angled, particularly the lowest ones.  Style is fine, in its place, but it often displaces function, something the style guys seem fairly oblivious to.

A lot of what attracts me to technical products, particularly musical ones, is in how well the form enables the functionality.

The vertical configuration of the EWPro guts, with the power supply located in the base and the vent at the top, seems like it places the sensitive oscillators at the top of a heat chimney?

Hi Dewster,

Fascinating stuff!

Must admit that I dont get the curved front! - It just looks like its going to add huge cost to the instrument and actually make user access more difficult.

I have heard that the PSU is a pig - that its a bog-standard SMPS used in the Voyager, has way too much capacity, and is dirty... ( this is hearsay )  And yes, one would imagine that its placement could cause horrible convections.

I thought recently that perhaps the pitch antenna aspect of the design may be clever and deliberate - a way of distancing the antenna from the ground sources in the theremins body so as to improve linearity..

But looking at these pictures now I doubt that.. Its probably a case of "art" over science.. I dont have anything against "art" - but the design on the right of the picture above the final picture (straight angled control face) looks a lot more functional and a lot lower cost..

As I understand it, the E-Pro was discontinued due to cost / difficulty in making the curved facia ?? !!

Fred.

LOL ;-)

Just looked at the source of those pictures - the company who designed the housing. A while back there was talk about gobbldy-gook generators producing papers for scientific journals ? ... Well, ....

Why do people do this? Why do they take their concepts to people like this rather than to the users for comment? - Once management is sold on some stupid idea (particularly if they commissioned it) then engineers saying things like "but the heat from the PSU goes up.." will just be brushed aside - been there!

It this where the E-Baguette was "conceived" I wonder.

"As I understand it, the E-Pro was discontinued due to cost / difficulty in making the curved facia ?? !!"  - FredM

This on top of paying Sandbox in the first place to saddle them with an expensive to manufacture and somewhat impractical to use design!  Theremins must have been selling like hotcakes to even consider approaching a design house to botch it up...

"I thought recently that perhaps the pitch antenna aspect of the design may be clever and deliberate - a way of distancing the antenna from the ground sources in the theremins body so as to improve linearity.."

However it came about and for whatever reason, like you I think it seems rather innovative.  It does get the pitch antenna away from the noisy stuff with the EQ coils in between.

"Why do people do this? Why do they take their concepts to people like this rather than to the users for comment? - Once management is sold on some stupid idea (particularly if they commissioned it) then engineers saying things like "but the heat from the PSU goes up.." will just be brushed aside - been there!"

Those who seek money / power / influence often have only that at the end of the day.  We are governed by relatively clueless minds who are convinced their artificial positions of authority automatically translate into superiority in all things.