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-- Aluminum or Ti Replacement Casing? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=1211)

Would it be remotely possible to make a cast of the Visor's casing, and make a Titanium or Aluminum replacement case for the Visor? I'm talking about the plastic casing that surrounds the electronic 'guts' of the unit. And who could perform this type of task? What would be the approximate cost? I guess you would use some type of plaster to make a cast.. I'm pretty sure I remember a Palm IIIx owner doing this to his case successfully. This would be VERY cool!!!

I'm currently in the process of forming an anodized (blue) sheet metal hardcover for my Blue VDx. Instead of the top clip that many complain about, I will be not including that and instead the cover will have to rubber coated arms about an inch and a half down each side which will grab onto the sides of the visor and use that little ledge on the back-sides of the visor case (it runs down both sides). Hopefully this will work because it will not only stop the stress on that little tab/lip thingy that seems to be cracking on everybody's visor, but it will allow me to have the cover on with a module that sticks out the top of the visor and covers that tab/lip thingy.

If anybody creates a metal body for the visor, let me know and maybe we can exchange products and build a PalmV 'killer' prototype!

Did some research on metal casting. seems to be quite a bit of work. The only thing I'm trying to think of is how to get the starting form off the casing itself.. hmm. I'm pretty sure I could pour plaster of paris around the casing, crack it, pull the casing out. put the plaster of paris back together, pour casting wax into the mold. pull it apart again. then make a ceramic mold from the wax positive. melt the casting wax out from the ceramic mold. which would then be used to make the final metal casing.hmm... now how to get molten aluminum....

Handspring has released CAD files of the Visor and the cradle. I have loaded the surface files into my CAD system, but it comes up with 'stitching errors' so I haven't been able to reconstruct it as a solid model yet. I'm still working on it, because if I can make it work, I can machine a aluminum case from solid using the equipment we have at work.
If anyone has access to Pro/Engineer and can use it to work on surfaces, they might have better luck than me - I'm trying to import the surfaces into SolidWorks.

Molten aluminum is easy. It melts fairly low at around 660.37� C. And it's cheap to get at less then a dollar a pound. The only problem with it is that it bends fairly easily unless compacted really well. The only problem with that is that it would hold in quite a bit of heat which could be bad. It also absorbs heat readily which means that your body heat will heat the visor.

Titanium is insanely hard to melt (1,660� C) and it costs around 4 dollars a pound. But it's as strong as steel and looks cool You'd have problems finding places to make it also. You cant make a mold of it because it's so hot. Or so a metal worker told me when I tried to make something out of titanium. Also you cant engrave into it without cobalt tools which are really expensive.

Altogether this probably wont work unless you're mass producing cases. The cost for small metal work where you have to make a mold is hideous not to mention if you have a place nearby that can even do it. The reason is because the have to make a mold out of plaster, make a ceramic mold that can withstand the heat (have to use special material for Ti) and then pour the metal. It's probably not worth the effort.

Bring it on! If any of you engineer-types produce a metal casing, I'd definitely be interesting in one of them.

Let's keep this thread alive.

fubar, if you can get an aluminum case done, I would definetly be interested in buying. It could just be kinda rough cut (not finished?). Not sure what this would cost, any ideas?

Hrm.

After breaking my visor screen the other day (the thing did a belly flop out of my pocket as I was bending down, landed on carpet and cracked. I couldn't believe it.) I've decided that over spring break and summer I'm going to design and build a ruggerdized visor unit. I think aluminium milled is probably not a bad idea. The difficult part, of course, is mounting the touch screen properly so that it's protected from shock and drops...

-=- SiKnight

PS: Anyone know anything about charging cycles of a Li Ion battery? Prism cell Li-Ion batteries used in minidisc players can be a rather promising replacement for the 2 AAAs. Since they are avail. for individual wholesale (www.minidisco.com) they might just be the best of both worlds between a Palm V design and a design that uses standard cells...

How about a brushed stainless steel case? Granted, it's not as 'chic' as aluminum or Ti, but it does look pretty cool and the production issues with Ti shouldn't be an issue with SS, ditto for the heat issues of aluminum.

I don't know how to generate a "brushed" finish in stainless steel. Also, Al is much easier to machine, which is why I chose it as a material. Corrosion resistance is also a consideration as I want this device to be usable in a hostile enviroment (Chem lab, marine biologist, etc). And, being a chemistry major myself, I can easily acquire the prerequisite chemicals for anodization (sulfuric acid and aluminium wires/rods) as well as the HV power supply (for DNA gel electro separations).

-=- SiKnight

If anyone creates a replacement case, I'd pay real $$$ for one.

SK,
Li-Ion batteries should be charged when they get around to 30-40 %. I had a similiar discussion on a minidisc board in fact about this. They referenced an article from a battery consortium talking about this. They found Li-Ions last longer and hold a better charge if you recharge at around 30-40 left, instead of running them down to zero.

Now more importantly, are you thinking about using the minidisc li-ion "gum pack" batteries in your visor? I don't think that'll work, aside from not having the connectors for it, you would still need a separate charger (i think sony has the only stand alone charger). So there are a lot of problems with that.
Until Li-ion AAA batteries come out i think NiMH batteries are the way to go. I've been using them in my Digital Camera for a few months and they're great. I need to get some for my visor, currently I need new alkaline batteries every two weeks, so I need some rechargeables. btw the best deals for NiMH batteries seems to be www.nimhbattery.com, I've bought from them before, and will again.

Minh

Ah, nope. The Sonys and the Aiwas also take NiMH gumpack cells. (Sony part number: Sony NH14WM).

Since we are machining a "ruggerdized" case for the visor from aluminium, I figured that machinging a battery box is not going to be a problem. I believe that the NH14wm is a 3.6V cell, which implies 3x cells inside the shrink wrap. I intend to buy 2, slice them open, and resolder the cell into 3 smaller gumpacks. My friend and I are building 2 ruggerdized units...

When I sketched up the design I forgot a little "problem", LiIon cells are 3.something volts per cell... that would throw battery calibrations all off..

We also dissected a visor, as well as a display unit. Once finals are over I'll post the information and the pictures, as well as illustrate the design approach that we are doing.

SiKnight

Another thing i was thinking of doing was asking anybody out there who's ruined their Graphite visor to sell me their shell and hardcover.

I like the idea of having a Graphite back and cover with the Blue front.

It might look pretty cool!

How about plastic replacement Visor casings; in other colors besides the factory translucent colors? For example, brushed metal colors, or possibly other metalic colors (gunmetal, for example would be really nice). I'm sure these would be much easier to manufacture than actual aluminum or Ti. It would be similar to the replacement casings for the Nokia phones. It would definitely be a nice alternative to the factory colors.

Check out this new, theoretically-soon-to-be-released, Palm III replacement case:
http://www.dave.com/page3.html


And check out the price!! It's cool, but $150?! No thanks...of course I have a Visor anyway.

tyler

P.S. Gosh the button design looks familiar...

[This message has been edited by tyler (edited 03-30-2000).]

That's the page I was referring to.. It's been 'soon to be released' for months.. It's just some guys garage experiment anyways..

Personally I don't care for the smooth all around clunky look of it either. I'd be very happy with an aluminum case replica of my original GVD's casing. I'd pay around $100.. That seems like a realistic price to me..