Griffin 1100-PWRMTS PowerMate/USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device

by Griffin Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.7 x 7.9 inches ; 3.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000RZO482
• Item model number: 1100-PWRMTS
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,698 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

The quintessential volume knob for all USB computers (instant mute for phone calls) and much more! Comes with presets for a wide range of applications. Programmable to control practically any Mac or PC application.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK product, but doesn't play well with others, July 1, 2008

By 

R. Jacobsen "Bob" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Griffin 1100-PWRMTS PowerMate/USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device (Personal Computers)

The PowerMate is mechanically excellent. It feels and looks great. The included software is basic, but OK.

I only give two stars, though, because they've really messed the USB interface up. If you try to use it with other macro software, it doesn't work. Even if you write your own code, it doesn't work.

The problem is that the PowerMate's internal configuration information claims that its wheel is an "absolute" device, sending a value that's a number for the position of the wheel, but what it really sends is _how_ _far_ the wheel has turned since the last time. That makes it a "relative" device, sending relative information. It seems like a small difference, but on Windows, MacOS X and the Linux varients I've checked, that means that it basically won't work right with any software other than Griffin's because the system suppresses redundant readings. If it really was absolute, a second reading with the same value would just be saying the wheel is sitting in the same place, but since it's sending _movement_ values, the system is suppressing info about the wheel _moving_ at a constant speed. A program can't even keep track of the position manually.

It's really too bad; it could have been a great product. If you want to use it for _exactly_ what the included software does, it probably still is a pretty good product. But if you're a power user or have some other package for handling inputs and automating operation, this is not the device for you.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars great hardware, but the driver software still needs work, February 6, 2008

By 

S. Nelson (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Griffin 1100-PWRMTS PowerMate/USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device (Personal Computers)

I've had a PowerMate knob for about 2 years. But now that Griffin has released their 2.0.1 driver software for Windows that allows multiple knobs I bought a second PowerMate. I disconnected my existing powermate, uninstalled the previous software (version 1.5), installed the new software from the Griffin website (version 2.0.1 for Windows), then plugged in both knobs.

With the 1.5 driver software, I had a problem with the knob not working on boot-up and the powermate knob needed to be unplugged then replugged to get it to work. The net is filled with other people that have the same problem so it is not just isolated to my specific hardware. And it seemed that I needed to do this USB unplug/replug most of the time. I was hopeful that they had fixed the problem with the 2.0.1 software, but it also has similar problems (more details below).

From a hardware standpoint, the powermate is great and is why I purchased a 2nd unit. Both knobs are connected to my HTPC and so I use it as a volume and mute knob for watching HDTV or DVD's in the computer. Each knob is on each end of the couch so it is easy to just turn the knob to change the volume from either end and it works great. The knobs are solid, have a blue light in the base that changes brightness according to the volume setting, and is weighty so it doesn't slide around on the table. The knob also can be used to control other applications in various user-defined ways, but I just use it to control the computer's volume.

But the driver software continues to be a problem though, so I looked into more details about how to kludge a solution to avoid the unplug/replug issue using Microsoft's free devcon.exe utility to control the DeviceManager from the command line (or batch files). Griffin apparently has been working on solving this unplug/replug problem for years without success so I've given up expecting a solution from them.

The bottom line is that this is a nice piece of hardware. But the driver software has problems. On the plus side, Windows users can now install multiple powermates, but we have to either unplug/replug at boot-up or use the devcon.exe kludge to disable/enable the knob's USB entries in DeviceManager at bootup.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nice knob, useless software, May 21, 2008

By 

J. Ganley (Maine) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Griffin 1100-PWRMTS PowerMate/USB Multimedia Controller and Input Device (Personal Computers)

I bought the Griffin Powermate to use as a simple volume control for my desktop PC. The knob itself is built fine, although the movement could be smoother. However the functionality of the knob is rendered useless by the poorly written drivers and buggy application included. Instead of using the included CD I downloaded the latest version of drivers from the Griffin website, and they installed fine. But every time the computer hibernates or is restarted the drivers are lost, or in one case caused a blue screen. This makes the knob worthless.