Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 19

Pictures

Send me an E-mail at [email protected] and I'll E-mail you what I have from Dave.com

Lars R. Noldan

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The difficult we do as a matter of routine. The impossible takes only slightly longer.
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[email protected]

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 57

I don't get it

I don't get the obsession with a high-priced replacement case for the Visor. For the Palm IIIx I understood. It was butt-ugly and needed some help. However, the Visors are nice looking and have a great feel to them. Part of the Handspring mystique is the Visor case, I think. The case represents what the company is about: decently-priced Palm OS PDAs that also look cool and feel just right when cradled in the palm of the hand. Remove the case and you no longer have a Visor.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 19

That's funny

I would have bet my left hand the Visor was all about Upgradability IE SPRINGBOARD. You'll notice there isn't a single palm OS device out there that has it besides Handsprings. Hmmmm..... What makes the Visor case better then the sony clie. Personally I think the Palm V,Vx are much more professional looking then the Visor with it's trendy clear plastic. Don't get me wrong I like the clear plastic, but it's not exactly "Professional" having a metal visor takes your point of "Fun or whatever" to a whole new level. Imagine being one of maybe 40 people in the WORLD with an Aluminum or Titanium Visor case.


To each his own. I personally can't leave well enough alone. One look at the PC under my desk at home would show you that.

Lars R. Noldan

__________________
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The difficult we do as a matter of routine. The impossible takes only slightly longer.
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[email protected]

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 64

Visor Case Quality

I have been a PDA user since the first week the Palm Professional was released. I kept that unit, along with the 2 Meg upgrade card wich basically turned it into a Palm III, up until my first Visor, the Prism.

Compared to the Professional, the Prism has a much better feel. It fits in my hand better than the box the Pro was and the case is much sturdier. Since I've been using the Prism I can't believe how cheap the pro feels.

Although it feels cheap, I have never had a single problem with the Professional loosing it's color or cracking. Both of these issues I have had with my Prism. Why? The design of the case itself is smart even down to the little lip on the back that makes reading long documents even more comfortable. Something about the quality of Handspring Prism cases must be wrong.

From what I understand, there are very few problems with the transparent cases of the Visor Deluxe. Why then can you go through the forums here on Visor Central and find hunderds of complaints concerning the painting process and cracked cases for the Prism?

I for one, love my Prism, and take it everywhere I go. I am not about to let the cheap plastic shell that covers it's powerful, intuitive, brilliant little heart, stand in my way. I am more than willing to shell out a premium for a spanking-sharp aluminum or titanium case to let my Prism shine. Truthfully, these should have come in a metal case and Handspring knows it.

Kamalot

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 99

I've been bugging Dave for over a year, I'm glad to see we'll have a case coming out soon - I know have the confidence to take apart my VDX and paint it knowing that in a few months I'll be able to buy a real replacement case.

If they were priced at $150 I'd buy one in a heartbeat, at $200 I'd have to think long and hard (afterall, you could get a Visor Edge for that price! $199 for VDX + $200 for the case) At $250, it's more expensive than the Visor Edge, and I'd rather get a second, slimmer all metal Visor than just replace the casing on this one...

-jr

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 45

$250 !!!!! Jeez, you could get another Visor Deluxe in a different color for special occasions.

I think the max I would pay would be ~$150, but I would expect a matching cradle.

After all, we are talking about aluminum. Drink a few six-packs, smelt the cans, pour into sand casting. Polish, anodize, viola! I realize I am oversimplifying things a bit, but how much could the engraving cost?

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 118

Cast, polish, etc.

I think that the previous poster isn't aware that the Dave chassis are CNC milled AL, not cast and polished. The price has more to do with programming a CNC mill to bore out a single piece chassis.

However, handspring does have on its developers site the specs and 3-d models of the chassis designs. Somebody posted the link in one of these forums before. I dl'd the forms, and if I could find somebody who does CNC milling, I would be very interested in AL, or other hard metal cases - I'm just worried about shorting out something. The VDX was never designed for a metal case, unlike the Edge.

Tucson Sailors

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 45

Yep, I was unaware. That would increase the price. I would question whether the quality difference would be appreciable, noticeable, and/or necessary in this situation. No disrespect, I'm sure that Dave puts out a quality product, but would casting not be a better choice in this scenario?

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Champaign, IL
Posts: 200

$250 for a replacement case for a $200-$300 device is pretty hefty. I think Dave should offer three-packs at a discount, so we can all get in on the m100-series and cellphone faceplate craze, but with nice stuff and not just snap-on plastics.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 8

Visor aluminum shells

Hi,

I'm the "Dave" from Dave Design. Several have commented on the high cost of our cases, asked about
casting and other alternative manufacturing techniques, etc., so I thought I'd comment.

With casting there are a couple of critical limitations. A common aluminum casting method is sand
casting. Unfortunately, this process is completely inappropriate for thin wall parts like our cases.
A local foundryman with about 50 years of experience suggested a minimum cast wall thickness close
to 1/8" (3.2mm), our cases have a wall of .04" (1mm), well below the practical limit for sand
casting aluminum. Die casting is a more complex process, involving a permanent mold made of die
steel. With this process, it's possible to approach our target thickness with hot runner dies (a
system of heating elements to allow the metal to flow into narrow cavities), but this would be
prohibitively expensive for our product. Jewelry is often made with still another process,
investment casting, which might be made to work and is very economical in small quantities, however,
I think the wall thickness limitations are the same as sand casting. Finally, surface finishing
options with any aluminum casting method are usually limited to paint or powder coating. Due to the
porosity of the cast material, it's virtually impossible to achieve the same luster as we can
achieve with color and clear anodizing. There are certainly many examples of cast products in
aluminum and even magnesium and titanium. The Nikon Coolpix camera is a mag casting, various
notebooks by IBM and Sony and the HP Jornada PDA I believe use a similar process (I think it's
called Thixomolding), but they are all painted. If we could achieve the volumes necessary to justify
the upfront tooling cost, there might be methods, such as stamping or forging that could get us the
wall, mechanical properties, and appearance we want, but having just about finished our 500th case
after a year of production, we don't really have the resources to pursue these, and frankly
speaking, our thing is machining!

Dave Ruigh

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Deep Space.
Posts: 76

So can I sign up for one?

How do you insulate the inside of the case? How difficult would it be to drill some narrow holes through the front and back of the case? (for a LED in front, and for a rechargable battery contact on back)

Thanks,
Explorer1

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Re: Visor aluminum shells

quote:

---

Originally posted by daruigh
Hi,

I'm the "Dave" from Dave Design. Several have commented on the high cost of our cases, asked about
casting and other alternative manufacturing techniques, etc., so I thought I'd comment.

...<snip>...

Dave Ruigh

---

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 8

Dave here again,

We're not quite ready to take preorders yet, but soon I hope. The order for Tanomi.com will
ship on about the first of June, then I'm to wait a couple weeks before selling them direct, and
2 months for Japanese customers. So theoretically, they will ship here by about the middle of June.
Assuming of course everyone hasn't given up and bought M505s or Edges! Regarding cost,
I'm hoping to keep the price under any of our current products, though I don't want to ruffle any
feathers at Tanomi, so let's leave it at that...

Anodize is an insulator, though there are few places where exposed circuitry can touch the case.
One exception is the battery clips, but this area will have insulation. We can certainly do custom
work, but the user must take responsibility for any mods.

Regarding the Prism, I think if we do a case, it won't be until at least late summer. We are at
capacity on the manufacturing side, so unless I can farm some of the production out (lot's of
complex issues there) it may be a while before we could do a case for that model, but if folks
start beating down my door...

Dave

quote:

---

Originally posted by Explorer1
So can I sign up for one?

How do you insulate the inside of the case? How difficult would it be to drill some narrow holes through the front and back of the case? (for a LED in front, and for a rechargable battery contact on back)

Thanks,
Explorer1

---

Last edited by daruigh on 03-30-2001 at 08:36 PM

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Cambridge, MA 02155
Posts: 18

Case problems

Don't know about others, but I have had consistent problems with hairline cracks to outright crumbling of the case plastic on my VDX. I'm on my fourth replacement for just this problem now. Today I called Handspring, since it's getting ridiculous, now my warranty is out, and I don't feel like using my insurance to replace it every month! Clearly a design flaw.

I'd like to know if others are suffering this problem. Could it just be the green VDX's? The particular weakness is around the power button. I'm a very gentle but frequent user.