A short-trip to Greece


EvilDragon

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Well, I've been in Greece for the whooping time of 20 hours - but we managed to find solutions for the remaining annoyances I had when assembling the units.

Here are all the issues I encountered while I was assembling the first 200 units:

a) It was hard to close the top lid. We needed to be extra careful and cracked a few screens :(
b) The DPad hit the case on the opening when pressing down
c) The nubs got stuck
d) The lower shoulder buttons didn't work properly (they got stopped before they properly pushed the button)
e) The battery cover was almost impossible to open

Here is what I had to do to fix them:

a) FormAction added some tiny supporting pegs to keep the display in position... their idea might've been good (even though they didn't ask for permission on that), but the problem is that single pegs lead to an extra force applied to the display. This is not a problem when the display is correctly inside the case, but while assembling, it easily cracks the screen if you're not careful. Therefore, we did cut all these manually with a knife.
b) We had to manually mill the case to prevent that from happening.
c) This was the most annoying thing... again, we had to mill the area around the nubs to make the plastic a bit thinner and ensure the nubs won't hit the plastic.
d) This also was a bit of work - we needed to manually cut the case a bit more open to make sure that the button can be pressed and doesn't hit the case first.
e) Aaaand another area where we had to manually cut plastic with a knife. If we cut too much, the cover can't be closed anymore. So we needed to cut, test, cut again, test, and so on, until it was properly working.

How has this been fixed now?

a) The pegs have been removed from the mould, the machine temperature has been optimized to ensure the case is not too tight. Opening, closing and especially assembling the lid is now a lot easier and faster.
b) The mould has been modified so that the DPad doesn't hit the case anymore.
c) This was one of the things we investigated together during my last Greece visit. The solution: The nubs are now transparent. Yes, really. I'll explain further below :)
d) This also was one of the things we worked on. We carefully increased the height of the peg that pushes the button step by step. 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm until we reached 0.4mm, which seems to be the value that makes the shoulder button feel good. Increase it too much - and it's not fixable anymore. That's why we did it step by step.
e) The battery cover has been completely redesigned, as you already know :)


Okay, how does making the nubs transparent fix things?

Well, this was a surprise to me as well. In case you don't know: Plastic is usually transparent. Color is added with pellets.
These pellets change the plastic physically. This usually isn't such a big problem as the plastic is 1mm strong. But the nubs have a very thin disc. And if you put the black ones on the table, it can be seen that this small disc is warped a bit on the black one whereas the transparent ones are fully flat.
This warp was enough to make the nubs get stuck inside the case. We tried the transparent ones inside different black cases - and they always worked.

This was also the reason the battery cover was too tight with the black case - whereas it worked fine with the transparent ones...

On a side note: If you twist and turn a black case, it will break - that doesn't happen with the transparent one. So yes, the color DOES change the case physically.
Don't worry - it only breaks if you REALLY twist it with force... that's not possible with an assembled Pyra.

So, I can now continue to assemble the remaining cases I still have here - using transparent nubs and the new shoulder buttons as soon as I receive them.
In the mean time, we'll produce more cases which will then go to the painting company.
 
Thanks for the update!

I have no qualms with having all clear plastics, I know many people like blacks and silvers as colors, but I'm more than happy with transparent parts!

If the cases get painted anyways, couldn't you just make all the plastics clear for quality/strength purposes? That way you could sell them as clear, black and silver at no extra cost.
 
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Thanks for the update, ED. Did learning the plastic gets a bit weaker/more brittle with the colors added lead you to ponder whether there’s value in reconsidering a clear case option? Would that mean the entire Pyra is a bit more resistant to torque or trauma? And also, solves for the imperfections the paint is supposed to hide?
 
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If the cases get painted anyways, couldn't you just make all the plastics clear for quality/strength purposes? That way you could sell them as clear, black and silver at no extra cost.
The idea of having the case the same colour as it's painted is so that if that paint ever gets scuffed off, the colour underneath won't show up too badly. That'd be lost if that actual case was transparent.

Thanks for the update, ED. Did learning the plastic gets a bit weaker/more brittle with the colors added lead you to ponder whether there’s value in reconsidering a clear case option? Would that mean the entire Pyra is a bit more resistant to torque or trauma? And also, solves for the imperfections the paint is supposed to hide?
Transparent cases still show stretch marks if they're there.
 
Thanks for the Update, allthough the Early Mass Produktion Cases where not the best, espacialy for Assembly, i can confirm there where allready quite sturdy: I had my Pyra in my Pocket where my Leg, and the Frame of my 25 kg E-Bike fell on last March, and the only "inshury" on the Pyra where that some Pegs on the Screen Frame where lose, but i got them back by just clicking..

The Pyra is allready a lot more sturdy then the Pandora, and allthough the LID dosnt hold that well as it should, its not that flimsy than on the Pandora..
 
Transparent nubs sounds pretty cool to me. Anything that makes the Pyra a little more unique yet more practical is a big plus for me.

Also interesting to read about the differences in the qualities of plastics, and may be an interesting anecdote to add when someone takes an interest in my Pyra (when I eventually get one).
 
Some times I think all the time we would have saved, and all the time plus money ED would has saved, if ED would have chosen CNC milled aluminium case or milling plastic (like those used in Nokia N9 and some Lumia).

Som times going for cheap results much more expensive ending.

With CNC you can have samples and modifications in little time and little cost.

By the way I could be wrong as I know near nothing on CNC.
 
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Some times I think all the time we would have saved, and all the time plus money ED would has saved, if ED would have choose CNC milled aluminium case or milling plastic (like those used in Nokia N9 and some Lumina).
It wouldn't have saved anything... Mass production of the Pyra case via CNC would have been an expensive boondoggle that would have likely killed the project entirely... As for why it works on phones, they're typically a single piece design, basically just the back and fairly simple in shape, something a huge manufacturer can setup in mass and just produce the same part. Samsung and the Apple can afford to setup a multi-billion dollar facility to produce in bulk, smaller outfits that ED could hire likely couldn't handle the bulk work without setting aside much more profitable work.
 
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If you place a pyra preorder this year, will you receive one with the new case, battery cover?
As far as I remember, Ed had some 500 cases ordered initially of which 300 something remained usable after coating due to problems with the thickness of the coating. As there are more than 1000 preorders already, it is unlikely that you will still get an old case if you preorder now. But that's just my two cents.
 
Quick update: Final samples should ship later this week and then I can (hopefully) give the go :)

However, I just caught Covid today, so I won't be able to go to the office for at least a week. So far everything is good, just feeling a little feverish :)
 
For viral infections my doctor/mother would recoment getting a vitamin C infusion and taking a massive dose of vitamin D - like 20,000 units. Then inducing a proper fever while drinking lots of tea. All to the end of cutting the infection short, the boogyman there being chronic fatigue syndrom.
Get better.
 
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