R
Reza Naima
Well, after about a year of R&D, a friend and myself have built a
small device we want to sell to the various niche markets. Now that
we have the hardware done, we need to deal with fabrication of a case
for the device such that it looks good and will make the product more
marketeable. This is where I need help. First off some specifics
about the unit :
- Powered by 1 or 2 AAA batteries so it needs to have a battery
compartment
- Needs to be as light as possible
- Will be exposed to the elements; needs to be water resistant
- Needs to have an LCD display exposed (if the case is
transparent, this is a no-brainer)
- Will have a mini-b USB connector
- it needs to attach to external sensors. For example, it needs to
get speed and cadence information from a bicycle. So either we make
our own sensors and connector, or we have the device compatible with
existing bike computer harneses. This would require metal contact
points to be exposed outside of the case.
- it needs to have 4/5 buttons on the device.
I really havn't a clue where to begin. We have working prototypes
that are fairly large, and we can reduce the size and change the shape
as necessary before PCB production/assembly. However, I'm not sure
what our options are regarding materials, methods, costs, etc.
Ideally, I want to optimize on the following factors (in order)...
1) Cost (we're doing this out of pocket)
2) Aestetics
3) Durrability
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Reza
small device we want to sell to the various niche markets. Now that
we have the hardware done, we need to deal with fabrication of a case
for the device such that it looks good and will make the product more
marketeable. This is where I need help. First off some specifics
about the unit :
- Powered by 1 or 2 AAA batteries so it needs to have a battery
compartment
- Needs to be as light as possible
- Will be exposed to the elements; needs to be water resistant
- Needs to have an LCD display exposed (if the case is
transparent, this is a no-brainer)
- Will have a mini-b USB connector
- it needs to attach to external sensors. For example, it needs to
get speed and cadence information from a bicycle. So either we make
our own sensors and connector, or we have the device compatible with
existing bike computer harneses. This would require metal contact
points to be exposed outside of the case.
- it needs to have 4/5 buttons on the device.
I really havn't a clue where to begin. We have working prototypes
that are fairly large, and we can reduce the size and change the shape
as necessary before PCB production/assembly. However, I'm not sure
what our options are regarding materials, methods, costs, etc.
Ideally, I want to optimize on the following factors (in order)...
1) Cost (we're doing this out of pocket)
2) Aestetics
3) Durrability
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Reza