About Replacement Styli

[Elton]

To everyone who has his eyes on this thread regarding to the Xstyle.

Samples have been sent and received by ED, but until now he has no comment on them. I guess the team is too busy on the production and I am not dare to bother them now.

 

[WizardStan]

For the record, if the NDS stylus fits as well as a regular NDS one (they're close, not perfect, but good enough for me) I'll take 2!
A couple little tweaks and they'd be more perfect, but I wouldn't expect you to make those tweaks for only a few thousand potential customers.

 

[Grench]

I use a stainless steel sculpted stylus in my Tapwave Zodiac. A stylus with a little bit of weight makes it much more controlled and a more positive 'feel'.

I like stainless steel - good heft and looks like a surgical instrument.

Make it fit right and I would be interested in a stainless steel one (or two if not outrageous $$).

 

[fusion_power]

To everyone who has his eyes on this thread regarding to the Xstyle.

Samples have been sent and received by ED, but until now he has no comment on them. I guess the team is too busy on the production and I am not dare to bother them now.

ED already tested the Xstyle but I guess he was to busy to contact you. He PM't me because I've asked about this Stylus a while ago. He finds the idea interesting, but the current Xstyle he've recieved looks a little bit cheap. But it already fits into the Pandora without falling off, he told me.
So I guess a little bit polishing here and there, a real, Model for the Pandora and the Xstyle could be an alternative to existing Styli.
But thats only my Opinion, I'm not releated to the OP-Team.

 

[Elton]

I use a stainless steel sculpted stylus in my Tapwave Zodiac. A stylus with a little bit of weight makes it much more controlled and a more positive 'feel'.

I like stainless steel - good heft and looks like a surgical instrument.

Make it fit right and I would be interested in a stainless steel one (or two if not outrageous $$).

Since you find your Steel sculpted stylus, can you tell me what is its weight?

 

[quartercast]

Interesting, I never cared to check this thread before.

Maybe a mod can create a new thread titled "Introducing the X Stylus" and move all X Stylus posts starting from Elton's video post to that thread. It's really nice to see 3rd party hardware developers interested in the Pandora, and Elton seems to be approaching us in good faith.

@Elton: Regarding a name change, you could start a contest here and send an OP stylus to the winner (we love contests).

@Elton again: Have you thought about using any other sort of material, like a hard rubber? Or maybe flexible bamboo? Just throwing ideas up in the air here..

 

[Elton]

To everyone who has his eyes on this thread regarding to the Xstyle.

Samples have been sent and received by ED, but until now he has no comment on them. I guess the team is too busy on the production and I am not dare to bother them now.

ED already tested the Xstyle but I guess he was to busy to contact you. He PM't me because I've asked about this Stylus a while ago. He finds the idea interesting, but the current Xstyle he've recieved looks a little bit cheap. But it already fits into the Pandora without falling off, he told me.
So I guess a little bit polishing here and there, a real, Model for the Pandora and the Xstyle could be an alternative to existing Styli.
But thats only my Opinion, I'm not releated to the OP-Team.

Thanks fusion_power for letting me know your conversation with ED. And it is great to know ED finds it interesting. I have told him in advance that the samples that I offered to him is for testing purpose only, it is totally not up to the production level. I am sure we can do a lot to improve its look.

Since I don't want ED to feel I am pushing him too hard to sell him my Xstylus, it would be nice if any of you guy is interested in it, send a PM to ED and let him know there are ppl out there looking for it.

 

[Elton]

Alright guys, thanks for waiting and checking out this thread again.

Ed has agreed to send me a Open Pandora case so I can start designing a stylus for specifically for it. I have also lined up a rapid prototyping firm to build some prototypes for testing after the design is finished. All I need is to get my hand on the case. Still waiting for it.

If anyone of your still thinking Xstylus is sound too good to be true, here is a good news that I would like to share with all you guys. I just came back from the INST 2010, Taipei Invention show three weeks ago. The Xstylus has been demonstrated in the show and has awarded the BRONZE MEDAL AWARD. Here is a picture of the medal.

Elton

 

[-Tj-]

Awesome! Congrats, Elton.

Looking forward to the stylus.

 

[fusion_power]

Awesome! Congrats, Elton.

Looking forward to the stylus.

+1

Good luck with the Pandora Stylus. If the Quality is right, I think you will find your customers. ^^

 

[Elton]

Finally, finally, finally.
I was contacted by ED 10 hours ago, he said he is sending the Open Pandora case to me, so I can start working on it.

Although I haven't receive the case earlier, I didn't let myself lay back too much. I modified the design of the stylus and now it tolerates man-made mistake during the transformation. The old design will just snap and break off but the new design won't.

I even take a video clip to compare the old and new design:
Old VS. New

Elton

 

[-Tj-]

Thanks for the video, Elton. It would have been hard for me to understand what was changed without that.

It does beg the question: how many flips can the plastic take before it fatigues and either doesn't hold closed or breaks? I'm sure this is a matter of choosing the right plastics, but I'm just playing the devil's advocate here.

I'm the type of consumer who is easily frustrated by products that fail, and I seem prone to buying products that fail me quite often, either by being defective on delivery, or simply not lasting as long as it should. Since I'm definitely a potential customer to you and your product, it's good to see it's being constantly improved, and I hope you don't mind me asking the hard questions.

 

[fusion_power]

Thanks for the video, Elton. It would have been hard for me to understand what was changed without that.

It does beg the question: how many flips can the plastic take before it fatigues and either doesn't hold closed or breaks? I'm sure this is a matter of choosing the right plastics, but I'm just playing the devil's advocate here.

I'm the type of consumer who is easily frustrated by products that fail, and I seem prone to buying products that fail me quite often, either by being defective on delivery, or simply not lasting as long as it should. Since I'm definitely a potential customer to you and your product, it's good to see it's being constantly improved, and I hope you don't mind me asking the hard questions.

And I'm wonder if Metal could have such a flexible ability like the plastic. ^^"
Would make the Stylus nearly indestructable I guess.

 

[Elton]

@TJ: Alright, if my professor and the factory guy are not bullshiting me. The idea of plastic & metal fatigue go like this:

Every material has a yield point, theoretically, if you bend a piece of plastic/metal and the bending is within the yield point. The piece can go back to its original form without damage and you can do as many time as you want. Once the yield point is reached, the piece will not be able to get back to its original form. Sometime the damage is hard to spot with the bare eye, the area around the bending is very likely change color (become white).

Since we are making Xstylus in high quality PC or POM plastic (some people ask why don't we use ABS plastic which is 1/2 - 1/3 the cost), until now we don't see any sign of fatigue on the sample we made yet. The samples are either break by man-made mistake by people (bad flip direction) or they still look perfect.

@fusion power: use of metal may or may not be a good idea, it may not be as flexible as plastic to archive our design need.

 

[-Tj-]

Makes sense... I was just wondering mainly about the mechanism that causes the stylus to snap into place, since I'm sure that part will wear down over time. It's just a matter of "how long." I can only guess from the videos how much friction is caused by the snapping action. Thanks for addressing my concern.

In any case, for a metal version, might spring steel be flexible enough? Not sure how you could engineer it to be both flexible enough to bulge as necessary and nice to hold, and be cost effective at the same time. I can only think of layered springs (like a leaf spring on a car), but that doesn't sound very comfortable.

 

[Elton]

Makes sense... I was just wondering mainly about the mechanism that causes the stylus to snap into place, since I'm sure that part will wear down over time. It's just a matter of "how long." I can only guess from the videos how much friction is caused by the snapping action. Thanks for addressing my concern.

In any case, for a metal version, might spring steel be flexible enough? Not sure how you could engineer it to be both flexible enough to bulge as necessary and nice to hold, and be cost effective at the same time. I can only think of layered springs (like a leaf spring on a car), but that doesn't sound very comfortable.

Well, cost is also a issue. In modern society, very few people would be interested in spending on a metal stylus that will last forever but with a high price tag. We are all trying to find a balance point for consumer goods.

I don't think leaf spring would be comfortable for the hand.

 

[Emnasut]

This looks cool, I would want one.

 

[Elton]

Great news, a sample from ED has just arrived. Will start working on it!!!!

 

[WizardStan]

Woohoo! I'll take 4!

 

[-Tj-]

Take photos.