Aluminium Case being made!


Of course it will be heavier because this thing is metal and stronger than steel. Considering we are going from a whimpsy plastic case where we're all afraid to even let sneeze on it for fear of cracking to a case where you can stand on without any issue. I think it is worth it.
Thats just use case depended. If you consider durability beeing of more importance than portability, then the Aluminum case may offer a good deal for you. I'm more interested in keeping my Pandora as portable as possible - and as it looks like, I am in the rare situation where an original black case is still fine after more then three years of use (except the battery lid, but thats due to me dropping the Pandora on a stone tiled floor).
 
I remember the large shipping charge being mentioned but I can't find it in this topic now.  I wonder why that's so high for such a small and durable item, it makes the total price about 68 € more than I can personally afford right now. 

(Edit: Oh I can change the shipping option, I've found it)

But besides that problem I'm completely sold.  The strength IDV has described of the new case actually satisfies me, with this I could finally stand to carry my Pandora around at all.  Thanks for answering everything everyone has asked.  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.
 
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Of course it will be heavier because this thing is metal and stronger than steel. Considering we are going from a whimpsy plastic case where we're all afraid to even let sneeze on it for fear of cracking to a case where you can stand on without any issue. I think it is worth it.
Thats just use case depended. If you consider durability beeing of more importance than portability, then the Aluminum case may offer a good deal for you. I'm more interested in keeping my Pandora as portable as possible - and as it looks like, I am in the rare situation where an original black case is still fine after more then three years of use (except the battery lid, but thats due to me dropping the Pandora on a stone tiled floor).
OK.  You should get one just to shut those who told you that your pandora plastic case suck and to support PYRA aluminum case development in the future  ;)
 
Just pre-ordered one grey aluminium case, I guess.

I was ordering some case parts in addition, keymat, face and shoulder buttons etc. -- just in case I will need some. And the more ED sells, the better for him and the project. But the cart showed some weird numbers.

The second time it was nearly fine - cart showed icon of black case instead of grey case and some minor other issues. So i wrote a message and got an error saying the message could not be saved.

After finishing the order anway, the shop wanted me to login again when I was clicking on order history. after logging in again, the cart was full but the history empty. At that point I got scared and was writing en e-mail via contact form.

So I guess I pre-ordered an aluminium case, but I'm not sure.
 
Yes, that's a stupid bug in the checkout page.

It will register the way you ordered though.
 
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).
I am no engineer, but from a quick google it seems that that 540 Nmm-2 is the minimum tensile strength of the material. For the test of standing on it, I'd have thought the young's modulus and elastic limit of the material would be more concerning - or is that something that tends to increase with the tensile strength as well?
 
Yes, that's a stupid bug in the checkout page.


It will register the way you ordered though.
At least I got a confirmation e-mail saying the message by contact form was successfully received. Payment method: bank transfer please. thanks. :)
 
Of course it will be heavier because this thing is metal and stronger than steel. Considering we are going from a whimpsy plastic case where we're all afraid to even let sneeze on it for fear of cracking to a case where you can stand on without any issue. I think it is worth it.
Thats just use case depended. If you consider durability beeing of more importance than portability, then the Aluminum case may offer a good deal for you. I'm more interested in keeping my Pandora as portable as possible - and as it looks like, I am in the rare situation where an original black case is still fine after more then three years of use (except the battery lid, but thats due to me dropping the Pandora on a stone tiled floor).
I am inclined to agree with you, but I want to try the aluminum case with the Pandora in order to preview what it might be like on Pyra and enjoy the extra feature of extreme durability as my Pandora becomes "legacy" in my life. I'm assuming the weight will make my unit too heavy to remain comfortably pocketable, so I will probably go with aluminum for my Pandora that will be bag-portable and carbon fiber/plastic on the Pyra which will be my phone/laptop replacement. If the aluminum ends up being light enough on my pocket, I will consider upgrading my future Pyra as well.
 
@IDV : Thank you very much for your answers in detail.

First of all I want to wish you good luck with this project of yours.

@All :

But I am sorry to say this :

At its current state, Im not convinced to send my money into this.
Dont get me wrong again, I would really like to see this project come to live.
A very well made, milled, high tensile aluminium case at low weight would be a blast for the Pandora.
What I just dont want to see is a very poor made brick of Aluminium,
barely able to be carried around with, due to its dimensions and weight increasment.
A barely fitting PCB, Display, Displaycable and Keymat is the worst you can create here.

For my taste there are just too many unsolved variables left.

To sum it up :

        No reworked / redesigned CAD-Models available yet.
        No proper calculation of the production costs possible due to the lack of reworked CAD-Models.
        No assurance of a functional working Al-Case at all.
        WiFi = ?,
        Bluetooth = ?,
        Weight = ?,
        Dimensions = ?,
        Hinge = ?,
        LCD-cablemanagment = ?,
        PCB-fixation = ?,
        Keymat-functionality = ?,
        LED-functionality = ?,
        How does it really look like in the end = ?,
        (Any drilled holes left on the surface caused by clamping = ?)
        and so on...
        

Im even not sure if that 9.000 / 12.000 rpm max (only) milling spindle provides you with enough circumferential speed
for the kind of tool-diameters you are going to require for our tiny little Pandora casings.
I do not expect a 1:1 copy, but there are several tricky corners around this current case-design which might be
required in aluminium redesign as well.

For me everything starts and falls with a fully functional prototype.
Everything else is far off the paths of engineering.
 
 
Yes, that's a stupid bug in the checkout page.

It will register the way you ordered though.
ED, When I preordered the aluminium case, I ordered the "let you change it for me" option, would it be possible to send back the plastic case with the pandora in the metal case when changed?
 
Yes, that's a stupid bug in the checkout page.


It will register the way you ordered though.
ED, When I preordered the aluminium case, I ordered the "let you change it for me" option, would it be possible to send back the plastic case with the pandora in the metal case when changed?
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 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
 
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 =
 
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).
 
p_case_alublack2z7r2m.png


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