Aluminium Case being made!


For me WiFi is essential and BT isn't.


I'll get one anyway as if the wifi works it will be a sweet case I'm sure.


I'll wait for others who have it fitted to confirm WiFi then if good I'll swap out ny case, if it fails I'll just sell it on here or eBay I guess.


I like the idea of a hole cut into the metal and plastic beneath it. Sounds like would look good as well as functional. Even better if that cut out hole was a little Pyra logo shape
 
Metal shoulders may not do anything to protect the inside of the board from jarring damage, but well, the shoulder buttons themselves would be more resistant to scratches.  
Rubber coated (plastic) shoulder buttons would be also very nice imho. :) I even could imagine an entire Alu case design with rubber corners like these from the Toughbooks. ^^
 
I think IDV has said the plastic window will simply be a little square.  I'm also the sort of crackpot to who wouldn't want a plastic window for wifi, but I had to design one it would probably be a vent of holes cut in the metal case with recessed red plastic beneath them, like the N64's expansion pack kind of.  You know, something difficult and showy.
That is a great idea.  I don't think it would be difficult.  It might require some testing, so may not work for these cases.  
Recalling wave theory from school, it seems to me that with a 2.4GHz wifi signal having a wavelength of about five inches, any aperture it meets that's smaller than that will cause it to be broadcast on a semicircular (well, semihemispherical probably) wavefront,  Given the Pandora's antenna doesn't seem to be geared up for any special directionality, that's probably not a great problem.

However, what happens to the signal that hits the space in between the holes is.  On an N64 RAM pack cover the holes cover probably less that 30% of the surface, so 70% of it would be aluminium in our case.  What that does probably varies depending on whether it's grounded or not, but given all metal-covered phones I've seen recently have glass or plastic sections to allow the signal out unfettered, I suspect the difference may not help us especially, so a plastic window is the only sensible thing to use as a first trial.

That reminds me that the grounding or insulation of the case will need some attention.  I don't know if the outside of the USB and ext ports are grounded or not, and on top of that there are whacking great battery contacts on the edges of the board which you'd be well not to short out.
 
My quick black alu case Blender-Render. I know it's not correct and the surface may be to "noisy" but I hope it is not that far from the right material. ^^" (Blender and it's Materials/Rendering, an science of it's own).

p1alub9lqyl.png



EDIT: the material hardness seems to be wrong (looks to soft), I basicly did all values freehand, sorry for that. ^^""
Bro!  I appreciate you tried to provide a render to help the community, but you know that if your render is not accurate, I recommend you not post it here as it may confuse people as they thought that this is the material and this is how it looks.  I would let the pro (IDV/ED) produce the image.  No hard feelings :)
 
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I also thought about this. ;) Even if it's clear that this is just fanmade and even if I only rendered the Keyboard area, I may mark the pic more clearly. ^^"  I recommend that you alter your quote too, I change my original post.
 
Im really excited about this and ordered right away.


I wanted a metal case ever since i saw the first pandora prototype.


Id still like the manufacturer to show me what the black material he will use will look like.
 
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