Craig's Hinge Testing

[shunun]

I'd probably be most worried about the ribbon cable breaking, i hope that its okay. The Original DS had a pretty bad hinge, my friend managed to break two of them without trying. I hope all goes well and there are no setbacks.

 

[craigix]

The ribbon cable is working fine, and the MP Pandoras have a stronger one again.

 

[MarkoeZ]

i just had a couple of beers, if i could just (hold and) open and close a near finished pandora for hours in a row now i might be perfectly happy

bit of water inbetween though

 

[matzesu]

How many Boredome (langeweile) needs a Man, to open and close a Pandora 1000 Times? Are you snowed in today? :unsure:

Great to hear that the Hinge works, it is the most important Part on the Pandora

bey the way: if you play whit the Pandora, you must go once in 4 Hours to the Water Closet, so you close the Pandora and open it if your ready to play behind this, so you must open and closed the unit 6 times a day, so you can use the pandora, if it hold 6000 times 2500 Days, thats ca 6 Yeahrs of execive using..

 

[gadgetoid]

I'd be totally breaking out the Lego technic and building a hinge testing machine about now. It would also have a V8 engine (Lego) in it, just for show!

 

[Vitel]

craigix, you need a special robot. Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d3Zj_8blbA

 

[coldfish]

Sunday Sunday Sunday...

Pandora hinge breaking - vs - developing a repetitive strain injury.

/places 1 bet on RSI.

 

[Bosbeetle]

How about just giving the pandora to a two year old, they can break anything

 

[mali]

Yep, but they try to eat everything they break :blink: :lol:

 

[Bosbeetle]

Yep, but they try to eat everything they break :blink: :lol:

hmmm nubs yummie

 

[Monk]

craigix, you need a special robot. Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d3Zj_8blbA

That looks great - I'd hope that such a machine made out of lego (as suggested above) would break before the Pandora does.

Given that it uses a touchscreen, something like this would be brilliant too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCOfxZRHc3A&NR=1#

though all this mechanising of testings doesn't sound as Heath Robinson as the project is supposed to be, so could easily lose charm

Seems laptops almost always break at the hinge first (if you treat it well). But then again their hinges have to hold up a lot more weight and it's usually the plastic around the hinge that breaks, not the hinge itself (sometimes it gets loose and separates the corner of the laptop)

The Pandora screen will also have to suffer mindless jabbing at the screen which will put additional stress on the hinge (I'm actually mildly surprised it doesn't "lock" several times at regular intervals - every 15 degress or less) and joints TEND to be where things break/are weakest in general.

 

[fusion_power]

How many do you think is a reasonable amount to try to do? I'm thinking a well used Pandora might be opened and closed 15 times a day.

Hmm, good Question. I have no comparable tests in mind because I don't know if there is a standard and professional "hinge test".
I think you should find out, how Nintendo tests the DS Hinges and how are the results so you can do the same and check if the Pandora hinge is better or worse than the NDS(lite) hinge.
Here in germany we have the "TÜV" - the 3 letters of doom, when it comes to Product quality and security tests. People who want to pimp their cars usualy have intense nightmares before the required TÜV Tests for a granted Car-Conversion. :lol:
"Stiftung Warentest" is also a serious testing Foundation, but they do more compare Products and name the best of each cathegory. ^^

 

[computarman]

It does have metal in it.

I expect the plastic to break first, but it actually seems to be more stretching on the Pandora when forced, I can see stress marks starting to appear if I force the screen past the final click now. I'm just sitting here flipping the Pandora open and closed (holding the base and violently flicking the top part up and down) as it's the easiest way to force it back past the final click. I occasionally force the top part back hard and hold it there too as far as I can push it.

It still works perfectly. The stretching has not got any worse in the last 500 or so slams.

I keep seeing these DS hinge replacement parts for sale, it worries me that Nintendo can't even get their hinge 100%.

How many do you think is a reasonable amount to try to do? I'm thinking a well used Pandora might be opened and closed 15 times a day.
[/quote

You reminded me of something I noticed. After taking a couple of Nintendo DS's apart I noticed a difference in the older hinge design and a newer DS lite. The left hinge has a small metal bushing that fits between the lower hinge socket and where it connects to the top lid hinge socket.(The ribbon cable from the top LCD ribbon cable has to come through it). Anyway I'm unsure if this was the cause of the original problem but that little bit of give could have cracked the plastic around the hinge due to less uniform force.

 

[DAP]

The ribbon cable is working fine, and the MP Pandoras have a stronger one again.

Are you electrically testing the ribbon cable? The usual way for ribbon cables to fail is for the copper traces to fatigue and break. Making the ribbon thicker (stronger) usually just makes this situation worse as the copper traces get stretched and compressed more on a thicker flex circuit as the cable is flexed.