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Mark W. Shead has chosen the perfect lead photo for his article on software design. Feinwerkbau’s Piccolo air-powered pistol which requires you to stare at the business end of the barrel to read the pressure gauge.
I’m sure the pistol has plenty of safety features to ensure it doesn’t accidentally go off. But come on, nobody’s perfect, people forget, and I’m sure the engineers could have worked a little harder to find a safer place to put the gauge. I mean this is just bad business sense. How do you expect to get repeat business if your product is prone to eliminating your customers who just want to know how many shots they have left? [Mark W. Shead via BoingBoing]
Hah I shoot 10m target air pistol. All the Steyr guns are like that as well (I have an LP10E) and I’ve always thought it was pretty silly.
Its really awkward trying to check the pressure while at the same time keeping the muzzle out of your face and not pointing at anyone else either
To be fair, those cylinders carry gas pressurised to 200bar, 300 in the case of the Walther guns so I suspect the designers stuck the guages on the ends rather than creating weak points on the sides
Couldn’t they put the pressure gauge on the back end where the “hammer” would be or a normal pistol?
There’s a lot of stuff between the reservoir and the back of the action, so it would bulk up the area above and around the grip. Of course, it’s not beyond the whit of man to come up with a solution for that problem; but if one practices proper weapon safety, the gauge being there isn’t an issue.