Aluminium Case being made!

[pmprog]

I presume you will get your plastic case back of course. Just in case anything goes wrong with the aluminium case. After all you already payed for the plastic case when you brought your pandora.

I didn't when I replaced my black case with the silver one

 

[FaeMinx]

Hmm... I would like to keep my old case if at all possible... who knows, I might want to experiment with some mods one day. Surely we can keep it if requested... ED?


=~. O =

 

[fusion_power]

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).
 

EDIT: the material hardness seems to be wrong (looks to soft), I basicly did all values freehand, sorry for that. ^^""

 

[EvilDragon]

I presume you will get your plastic case back of course. Just in case anything goes wrong with the aluminium case. After all you already payed for the plastic case when you brought your pandora.

I didn't when I replaced my black case with the silver one

Hm, usually, we include it... must've forgotten to do that with your unit for some reason.

And yes: We'll include the original case when we send it back.

 

[Askarus]

I presume you will get your plastic case back of course. Just in case anything goes wrong with the aluminium case. After all you already payed for the plastic case when you brought your pandora.

I didn't when I replaced my black case with the silver one

Hm, usually, we include it... must've forgotten to do that with your unit for some reason.

And yes: We'll include the original case when we send it back.

Some black  cases are in a really bad shape and completely unusable.

In that case I sometimes don't include it.

(Even if the case might seem to be in a good shape there are some that are a lot worse than they seem to be.

Don't worry for the silver one.

They're much better and I'll always include them.

 

[elwing]

thanks for theses renders, but honestly, that's not what interest me, what I'd want to see would be some information about this plastic windows. I know that the model is not done but couldn't we get at least some hand drawing on what you will try to do for this plastic window?

 

[rygD]

@thatgui

A prototype would cost around 4000 Euro extra, which means a single case would be 150+ Euro then. And I will not make any prototype unless I get paid for it. I already bear the risk for the whole lot as I do not get any money in advance.

Wifi Window: It is very unlikely that wifi will not work afterwards. Possibly you have to leave the lid open for best wifi performance.

Hinge: The hinge is part of the redesign. There are many possibilites to design a well working and durable friction hinge also on hard coated aluminum.

Display cable: I will have a fully equipped Pandora to check components and cables. I will have an extra eye on the LCD cable channel

Keeping things together: It is close to an insult to assume that an engineer might be unable to place some screws properly. I will use TORX screws or hexagon class 8 or higher. The thread length and dimensions will be accoding to DIN / ISO standards.

Weight: The raw material blocks will be around 3 kg, so the Aluminum case will not be more than 400 - 800 g

Handling: The surface will be very smooth and skin friendly (hypoallergenic, easy to clean).

it is just too much unclarity for me, to justify it.

You are not forced to order one. At more than 4000 Pandoras out in the field, you might not be as important as you feel.

@rygD

AW7075 (540 N/mm²) is even stronger than standard construction steel (360 N/mm²). I am pretty sure that the new Pandora case will be strong enough that a person can stand on it without causing any damage to it. Perhaps I can make it even strong enough to withstand a passenger car rolling over it (lid closed).

@ FaeMinx

If this project works out well, I would be interested in manufacturing an Aluminum case for the Pyra, too.

Thanks for all the awesome communication.  These points make me happy.  

The car resistance is a bit extreme (I like extreme), but it would be a talking point if I was sharing info about the case.

I also greatly desire shoulder buttons made of the same splendid AW7075, so the closed case wouldn't have any weak spots.  I hope that you're still considering making them too.
Of course, I would like all of the game buttons and d-pad made of this, and my bones and teeth and eyes, but I'm sure that's too much to hope for.

I think the shoulder button switches would still be vulnerable, possibly more so with the added case weight, regardless of the button material.  

I still want them though.  I was thinking the same thing about all game controls, but I didn't want to bother others with my crackpot ideas.  It is good to know others want them too.

I know that the model is not done but couldn't we get at least some hand drawing on what you will try to do for this plastic window?

I am in either way, but I am very curious about this too. 

 

[Tenka]

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.  The outside of the closed Pandora case being completely metal besides the plastic shoulder buttons makes me feel uncomfortable, that's most of it.

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.

 

[rygD]

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.  

What might make it easy and interesting looking is putting the holes in the metal and putting the plastic behind it.  It might give us durability and wifi.

 

[Fzero]

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

 

[fusion_power]

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. ^^

 

[levi]

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.

 

[elwing]

don't worry, shorting li-ion battery is not dangerous...

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

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).

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

 

[fusion_power]

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.

 

[KickAss]

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.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

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.

Check here.

 

[KickAss]

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.

Check here.

thank you, good sir

 

[Creature XL]

+1

or in this case (pun intended) -1