A dial box is a

computer peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...

for direct 3D manipulation e.g. to interactively input the rotation and torsion angles of a model displayed on a computer screen. Dial boxes were common input tools in the first years of interactive 3D graphics and they were available for

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

(SGI) or

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

and sold with their

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workst ...

s. Currently they have been replaced by standard

computer mouse A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional space, two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer (user interface ...

interaction techniques. Standard dial box has 8 dials mounted on a plate. The plate is set upright with the help of a stand and usually located next to the computer screen for convenient access. The connection to a computer is made via the serial port (

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' ('' data terminal equipment'') suc ...

). One of the fields of application for dial boxes was molecular graphics.

Dial box models

At least two different models of dial boxes were sold with the SGI brand. DLS80-1022 (SGI part number 9980992) was made by Danaher controls, has 8 large dials and a single

DE-9 The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems. Description, no ...

connector which contains both the power and data pins. The connection to the computer serial port the dial box power supply is made with a special DE-9 – DE-9, DIN-5 splitter cable. Essentially the same dial box was also sold as the

DLS80-1012, part number 370-1223-01. The Japanese made SGI SN-921 (type number 9780804) has somewhat smaller dials. It has a separate 5 V power supply connector in addition to the DE-9 serial connector, but it also needs a serial cable with a custom pinoutbr>
File:Sgi dialbox sn-921 front.jpg, SGI dial box model SN-921, type no. 9780804 File:Sgi dialbox sn-921 back.jpg, SGI dial box model SN-921, type no. 9780804 File:SGI dialbox DLS80-1022 front.jpg, SGI dial box model DLS80-1022, part no. 9980992 File:SGI dialbox DLS80-1022 back.jpg, SGI dial box model DLS80-1022, part no. 9980992

External links

Configuring SGI Dials for OSX

Xorg input driver for SGI dial box

Python code for reading values from a dial box

* Computer peripherals Molecular modelling {{Compu-hardware-stub

Dial box models

See also

External links