[Arm-netbook] SPI-based LCDs, 3D printing, RISC-V

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Adam Van Ymeren <adam at vany.ca> wrote:
> On April 27, 2017 6:50:39 AM EDT, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
>>ok so a quick status update:
>>
>>* Frida, in Shenzhen, have a customer currently ordering their 2.8in
>>FRD280J3703D SPI-based LCD.  this means it's possible to place an
>>order for less than the normal MOQ of 1,000 so we go with that one for
>>the 15in laptop.
>>
>>* i calculated that for the microdesktop i have an ENTIRE MONTH of
>>3d-printing to do, and a YEAR for the laptop.  there's an update going
>>out about this soon but basically i need help.  ideas or actual
>>practical help.
>
> Are there companies that you could hire to do the bulk of the 3d printing?

 there's a network-3D-printing company called mohou.com which i
previously investigated.


>  Any idea what the quality and/or cost would be?

 QTY 2000 of the microdesktop corner parts.

 QTY 150 of each of the THIRTY FIVE laptop parts.

 uploading QTY 1 of the microdesktop corner part is 10 RMB per part
(so that would be 20,000 RMB or about $USD 3300).  putting them in a
batch of 60 and its 95 RMB per "part" (so that would be around $USD
500).


> Is there any feasibility of producing the laptop parts via injection molding, but preserving the design in a way that end users could still print replacement parts?  Seems like this would require a large redesign investment but could save time and money manufacturing.

 it wouldn't be a large redesign (i hope) because as i am using a
parametric design in python it *should* be possible to just write an
alternative backend for pyopenscad that outputs STEP instead of
SCAD-which-gets-turned-into-STL.

 that's in theory.  in practice i really really don't want to spend
the time going down that route, even if there exists a STEP library
(in python).

 why STEP?  because that's the standard that injection molding uses,
because it's a geometric standard (not a triangles-and-faces standard
like STL).

l.