Well, you learned about the PCBs and displays in the last post, time to update you on the rest.

Let's start with...

The case --------

I received an update a while ago which has been adapted to the display and all our other components (PCB, the battery, etc.) It's nigh finished and the shoulder buttons received a new design as well (yep - they do look familiar. The idea for those came from the community - thanks for that!) If you want to see pictures, check the blogpost linked at the bottom of the mail.

However, to fit the display, they increased the width of the device by 1,4cm... something we don't want (right? :)) They tried to keep the screws in the lid, but I rather want them removed and have some other way to fix the lid (i.e. with clips - but better ones we had on the Pandora) and keep one screw in the middle area.

This is now being worked on. It will change the shoulder buttons a bit as well, but hopefully, not too much. I'll update you once I got the next design - which will then also be printed for a test with the prototype PCBs.

Nothing moved ahead with the keymat, as they need the final case design first. However, the keymat is simple, and the first sample (with correctly sized keys) took two weeks, so I guess once they get the final design, it'll take about the same time.

The battery -----------

As you might remember, the 6000mAh battery is a bit wider than Pandoras battery, so the battery compartment had to be changed to fit that. This change has now been added to the case, so we knew exactly where to place the contacts of the battery. And because of that, we could now order the battery. We will receive 20 samples about end of February (hopefully ;)) and when we confirm them to be working fine and fitting well, 3000 batteries will be produced and shipped about end of April (so we'll get them in June / July).

The LCD Cable -------------

The last missing component is the LCD cable - and prototypes are being produced now as well. I don't know yet when we'll receive them, but hopefully it'll be end of February as well. They're a lot more simple as the Pandora cables, as they have less traces, only use one side (not two), have less edges (and all of them are rounded) and no electrical components on them. All traces are redundant as well, so if one trace breaks, the cable still works fine. Two traces of the same signal would have to break to make the cable go bad - and that should not be that likely.

So... did I miss something? I don't think so, but if you think I did, let me know and I'll reply to you :)

We should now also start to think about the packaging (what items we'll include, what package design we'll choose), etc. I'll probably start a poll about the items as well.

Discuss about that post and view the shoulder button pictures on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17717-of-cases-and-batteries/

Follow me on twitter for short news inbetween: https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717