MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Kent Walters · 09-17-2009, 11:23 PM

Grimulkan,

Regardless of contributing factors, the major factor does seem to be the flexibility of the case--I was actually shocked, last night, at the amount of flex on my ‘Crash Test’ DR (again, everybody; this DR already has a broken screen--Don’t Try This At Home!) I didn’t mean to suggest that the DR couldn’t be broken in normal use outside of the case, or that iRex couldn’t possibly have a bone-headed executive making decisions at some level; my comments were based on experience, observation, and my estimation of likelihood. A reasonable (if not forgivable) explaination for a failure (at iRex) to find the problem during testing would be that a design change was made after pre-production testing, followed by a rush to meet a deadline--A lot of good people, products, and companies have fallen, due to over-anxious bankers and investors pushing for immediate gratification; and they seldom know as much about the product as any potential customer, let alone the design team. And there are all kinds of other forces at work.

What we do know, with reasonable certainty, is that the case will allow enough flex to damage the screen, and that we can do something about it to reduce the risk.

Also:
In my post yesterday, I didn’t mention that one of my intended goals for a backing piece was to keep overall thickness to a minimum, both to avoid undue strain on the cover (of whatever type), and to minimize the bulkiness. A piece of 1/4 inch cabinet-grade plywood (5 ply), for example, would provide adequate support, but would be (slightly) more than 4 times thicker than the .060 alloy sheet, making the DR more cumbersom to handle, and possibly damaging the cover where it holds the DR, and stretching out it’s hinge. The same could be said for a piece of 3/8 inch thick plexi-glass. The thinner the better, assuming adequate rigidity.

I intend to explore ways to stiffen the case from the inside (see the caveats in the earlier post) for anyone interested. This will maintain factory appearance and thickness (but please, don’t anyone wait for that: put something behind your DR now). This will benifit those who have no warranty or don’t care about it, or those who have already voided it--replaced a USB socket, anyone?

‘Nuff fer now,
Kent Walters

09-17-2009, 11:23 PM	#28
Kent Walters Connoisseur Posts: 79 Karma: 92 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Northern California, USA Device: iRex DR1000S, Astak EZreader (Hanlin V3)	Clarifications Grimulkan, Regardless of contributing factors, the major factor does seem to be the flexibility of the case--I was actually shocked, last night, at the amount of flex on my ‘Crash Test’ DR (again, everybody; this DR already has a broken screen--Don’t Try This At Home!) I didn’t mean to suggest that the DR couldn’t be broken in normal use outside of the case, or that iRex couldn’t possibly have a bone-headed executive making decisions at some level; my comments were based on experience, observation, and my estimation of likelihood. A reasonable (if not forgivable) explaination for a failure (at iRex) to find the problem during testing would be that a design change was made after pre-production testing, followed by a rush to meet a deadline--A lot of good people, products, and companies have fallen, due to over-anxious bankers and investors pushing for immediate gratification; and they seldom know as much about the product as any potential customer, let alone the design team. And there are all kinds of other forces at work. What we do know, with reasonable certainty, is that the case will allow enough flex to damage the screen, and that we can do something about it to reduce the risk. Also: In my post yesterday, I didn’t mention that one of my intended goals for a backing piece was to keep overall thickness to a minimum, both to avoid undue strain on the cover (of whatever type), and to minimize the bulkiness. A piece of 1/4 inch cabinet-grade plywood (5 ply), for example, would provide adequate support, but would be (slightly) more than 4 times thicker than the .060 alloy sheet, making the DR more cumbersom to handle, and possibly damaging the cover where it holds the DR, and stretching out it’s hinge. The same could be said for a piece of 3/8 inch thick plexi-glass. The thinner the better, assuming adequate rigidity. I intend to explore ways to stiffen the case from the inside (see the caveats in the earlier post) for anyone interested. This will maintain factory appearance and thickness (but please, don’t anyone wait for that: put something behind your DR now). This will benifit those who have no warranty or don’t care about it, or those who have already voided it--replaced a USB socket, anyone? ‘Nuff fer now, Kent Walters