CLO Systems' "X-arm" robotic plasma mount

We've seen several motorized options for manipulating your flat-panel display before, but none as high-tech and versatile as the X-arm by CLO Systems. Aside from extending and retracting your 42-, 50-, or 60-inch plasma an entire foot with respect to the wall, it also allows for as much as a 32 degree swivel left or right, and 7 degree up/25 degree down tilt, all done with the included remote. Even better, you can extend, swivel, and tilt all at the same time, configuring your TV in completely useless but totally awesome positions. This one-size-fits-all solution features a programmable LCD which lets you tell the X-arm what size display it's carrying so it can provide the proper amount of support and servo power. CLO claims that the X-arm will be available for under $2000 sometime in February.

[Samuel McConnell @ Jan 15th 2006 11:40AM]

Totally useless, but wicked cool. I'm in for 3!



Oh, this isn't Woot...

[Kamui @ Jan 15th 2006 11:41AM]

I wonder if you can stick an unwanted guest on there and swivel'em around.

[scott @ Jan 15th 2006 12:35PM]

That looks like an accident waiting to happen.

[Simon @ Jan 15th 2006 12:50PM]

In my Evil Lair I'll have them all around, combined with lots of cameras and motion analysis / face recognition, so I can display huge eyes on them that follow everyone as they pass one of these ... talk about creepy :)

[mizu @ Jan 15th 2006 6:39PM]

needs to rotate too

[TheCash @ Jan 15th 2006 8:40PM]

So what exactly about this thing makes it 'robotic?'

It's a swivel on a motor... that's not robotic unless the thing has sensors and the ability to move itself of it's own valition. What, is robotic the new catch phrase? What are we back in the 50's now when everything was 'roh-but-ik' and atomic powered?

[session @ Jan 15th 2006 9:20PM]

It's butt ugly. I'm a designer.. clearly a designer didn't do this. It looks like an old baffle style camera. Why would you stick that behind your (hopefully) attractive flat panel tv? The baffle should telescope and the mount itself should be paintable so that it blends in to the wall.. (it may be.. I didn't read that far.)

[Spencer Wagner @ Jan 16th 2006 12:13AM]

I think it is useful and a good idea, but not worth $2000.

[DC @ Jan 16th 2006 2:34AM]

Ick.



Now if theres a reasonably priced mount that lets you rotate the screen 90 degrees easily to play Ikaruga I'd be all over it.

[justin thyme @ Jan 16th 2006 10:35AM]

Accident waiting to happen is right. OK you have a motor capable of swinging the heft of a 50" display. Kids fingers get up in that baffle in the scissor arms of that mount (given the degrees of movement they are going to have to use a scissor). Then Child B hits the control for the TV. Great ideas guys.



Sometimes low tech is the best solution. There are a few heavy construction manual swing arms out there, that swing x,y&z (yaw, pitch, in&out). I use one from Chief Manufacturing (chiefmfg.com) which is extremely heavy duty steel but I suppose there may be others by now. The kids can swing on it fully extended- not that I would let them but even if they did it's not going to come off the wall or bend under the torque.

[Kater @ Jan 16th 2006 1:08PM]

How about hooking one of these up to a DVD with force feedback? Making your TV go all shakey when something explodes.

[Brian Stewart @ Jan 18th 2006 12:23PM]

This would be amazing for watching stuff at a strange angle! The possibilities are endless...

[Kelly @ Jul 6th 2007 3:14PM]

Chief manufacturing's version (CM1W18) is cheaper. And looks a lot better.
This CLO is on our wall right now for R&D. It's decent. It is listed which means it can actually hold 720 lbs in worst case scenario without causing injury, and stays on the wall.
I'd buy chiefs first.

[Alan @ Jul 12th 2007 2:36AM]

The Chief mount is way more expensive, not too mention uglier, harder to install, and has less features. The X-Arm has really dropped to an attractive enough price now. Just did a search and this place even sells it for $685 http://gwmac.com/