tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56819976969600581332024-02-20T10:25:17.157-08:00VIUDThe quest for the World's Toughest USB drive.Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-10423626671429138132020-02-19T06:15:00.000-08:002020-02-19T06:22:11.368-08:00Burn-In Speed TestingA prospective VIUD buyer recently asked me this question:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
How well are the read/write times in comparison to market stock times? I have a SanDisk, but for the life of me they don't post read times, and it slows down in the middle of large projects. ... When it gets hot my progress slows down by a whole addition hour.</blockquote>
An interesting question that I didn't have the exact answer to. I've done a lot of basic, short-term <a href="https://blog.viud.net/2016/08/updated-usb-specifications.html"><b>speed testing</b></a> and a couple of very long (weeks) burn-in tests for error checking, but no tests to see if the USB speed varied over a long term or to measure how hot the VIUD gets.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Testing</span></h2>
The basic setup was to just continually write to a VIUD over a period of about a day (continually copy a 4GB file to the drive) and do a couple of speed tests over that period to see if there was any variation. The continuous writing to the drive was paused while the speed tests were performed.<br />
<br />
Since the original question may be related to drive temperature I also measured the temperature of the case. The tests were done for both an Aluminum (32GB) and Titanium (256GB) drive.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Results</span></h2>
Results are shown the below tables.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Case Temp</th>
<th>Read Speed</th>
<th>Write Speed</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0 hr</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
23°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
155.4 MB/s</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
98.1 MB/s</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.5 hr</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
27°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
2.5 hrs</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
33°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
5.7 hrs</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
8.5 hrs</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
37°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
157.0 MB/s</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
89.2 MB/s</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
21.3 hrs</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
37°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
156.8 MB/s</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
89.3 MB/s</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
28.3 hrs</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
36°C</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
155.1 MB/s</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
87.2 MB/s</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Burn-In Speed Test for Titanium 256GB VIUD</b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><th>Time</th><th>Case Temp</th><th>Read Speed</th><th>Write Speed</th></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
0 hr</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
22°C</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
142.1 MB/s</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
28.5 MB/s</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
4.2 hrs</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
30°C</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
142.9 MB/s</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
28.6 MB/s</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
17.5 hrs</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
28°C</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
143.5 MB/s</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
28.3 MB/s</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
27.3 hrs</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
29°C</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
141.2 MB/s</div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
18.1 MB/s</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Burn-In Speed Test for Aluminum 32GB VIUD</b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
In read/write speeds are the sequential speeds obtained from the CrystalDiskMark benchmarks. While there is some variation in the read tests it is within what we would expect the normal variation to be. The write tests show a small drop (9%) in the write speed for the Titanium drive. For the Aluminum drive the last write speed test shows a significant (36%) drop in write speed although I'm not sure I believe that data point or not as the HD Tune Pro results showed no significant speed decrease in any test for either VIUD.<br />
<br />
For the temperature testing the ambient temperature was around 20<span style="text-align: center;">°C for all tests. The temperature was measured where it was the highest value on the drive which tended to be the USB connector.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">I also did some quick tests on a Sandisk Extreme 16GB USB drive. Temperatures were similar to the Titanium VIUD and no speed degradation was observed.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">In terms of qualitative results, the Titanium VIUD gets very warm but not uncomfortable to the touch, similar to a normal USB drive. The Aluminum VIUD gets just a little warm to the touch.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Theory</span></h2>
The potential reason a typical consumer USB drive might overheat and a VIUD might not can be explained by looking at the thermal conductivities of the relevant materials.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Material</th>
<th>Thermal Conductivity</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Air</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.025 W/mK</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Epoxy</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.3 W/mK</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Titanium</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
20 W/mK</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Aluminum</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
205 W/mK</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In a consumer USB drive the circuit board is surrounded by air trapped inside the case which has a very low thermal conductivity thus trapping the heat near the board and causing to it to reach a high temperature. In a VIUD drive the circuit board is surrounded by epoxy which has 10x the thermal conductivity than air which enables it to direct the heat away from the board and into the metal case and air. In addition, the VIUD drive has the USB metal connector in close contact to the metal plug which further helps conduct the heat away from the USB.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Discussion</span></h2>
Compared to a normal USB the Titanium VIUD reached a similar temperature on the USB metal connector (37<span style="text-align: center;">°</span>C). How this translates to the interior circuit board temperature is unknown...we would expect the epoxy encased VIUD to be somewhat cooler than an air encased USB but by exactly how much would require more advanced temperature modeling.<br />
<br />
The Aluminum VIUD was noticeably cooler on the USB metal connector (30<span style="text-align: center;">°</span>C) and would be the choice if long term reading/writing and overheating of the USB was a concern.Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-62240914009190660172016-09-05T12:41:00.001-07:002016-09-05T12:41:20.039-07:00The VIUD Store is Now Open!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After a month of preparation and worrying about all the little details I'm happy to announce that the VIUD store is now open at:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://store.viud.net/"><b>https://store.viud.net</b></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So go and check it out and even if you don't decide to buy anything feel free to leave me comments and suggestions!</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-51303753190077910142016-08-15T14:10:00.000-07:002016-08-15T18:53:00.802-07:00Updated USB Specifications<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Last week was spent updating the VIUD specifications on the new store site which includes a number of values related to the USB (read on for an explanation of each benchmark):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color: #cccccc;">
<th></th>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">16 GB</span></th>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">32 GB</span></th>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">64 GB</span></th>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">128 GB</span></th>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">256 GB</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Usable Capacity</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">15,961,546,752 bytes</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">31,651,479,552 bytes</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">62,911,414,272 bytes</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">125,818,503,168 bytes</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">253,121,003,520 bytes</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">File System</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">FAT32</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">FAT32</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">exFAT</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">exFAT</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">exFAT</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="6" style="background-color: #cccccc;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">HD Tune Pro Benchmarks</span></div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">106.5 - 116.7 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">114.2 - 127.9 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">119.9 - 130.7 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">181.2 - 193.3 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">56.0 - 146.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Average Read</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">111.7 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">121.9 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">123.5 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">187.7 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">142.1 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Access Time</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.889 ms</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.973 ms</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.16 ms</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.747 ms</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.811 ms</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="6" style="background-color: #cccccc;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Crystal Disk Mark Benchmarks</span></div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read Seq Thread</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">121.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">130.1 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">133.3 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">208.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">149.2 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read Rnd Thread</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">16.4 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">14.3 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">14.1 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">6.03 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">22.1 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read Seq</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">119.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">127.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">131.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">205.4 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">146.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read Rnd</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">15.0 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">13.3 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">13.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">5.47 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">19.2 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write Seq Thread</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">24.2 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">34.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">38.2 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">132.5 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">94.1 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write Rnd Thread</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.051 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.097 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.69 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.224 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.37 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write Seq</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">22.4 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">25.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">17.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">129.8 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">22.6 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write Rnd</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.054 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.055 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.81 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0.0048 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.07 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="6" style="background-color: #cccccc;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">USBFlashBench Benchmarks</span></div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">116.70 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">124.93 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">127.54 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">206.48 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">131.13 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">22.72 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">29.40 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">32.89 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">133.83 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">55.93 MB/s</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Link</span></div>
</th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/157023"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">157023</span></a></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/157008"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">157008</span></a></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/157022"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">157022</span></a></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/157018"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">157018</span></a></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/157011"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">157011</span></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="6" style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4GB File Copy</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Copy</span></th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2:38.3 (24.1 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1:49.5 (34.8 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1:42.1 (37.3 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:30.2 (126.3 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:44.8 (85.2 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Read</span></th>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:33.4 (114.1 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:31.2 (122.1 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:30.6 (124.6 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:18.4 (206.9 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">0:28.8 (132.7 MB/s)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The VIUD's usable capacity is slightly less than the stated capacity which is typical of just about any mass storage device. Part of the overall device's drive space is taken up by the file allocation table which takes more space on larger drives. The other part, however, is just due to the USB board manufacturer using a slightly smaller size than stated. Perhaps this is due to a technical reason or, more likely, an economic one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.hdtune.com/">HD Tune Pro</a> is a basic disk benchmarking and testing application. Unfortunately the write tests don't seem to work on newer operating systems but the read and error tests do give a nice visual display. I'd like to point out the low minimum read speed for the 256 GB VIUD which can be easily seen in the following graph:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yIXMRpiWdkRSqpMy9lmVe_Xlh5_dzCJ4zxiR3NOmtSH3xQhFYc-iYN6sH5W5by-CnFLPvI7NpDQgWJvDs3Sn2f-x01jGkrsD50-FiHFKr24szovWKXjBcKVT9H0ueS6jCgspqQ2uGEch/s1600/256GB+-+HDTunePro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yIXMRpiWdkRSqpMy9lmVe_Xlh5_dzCJ4zxiR3NOmtSH3xQhFYc-iYN6sH5W5by-CnFLPvI7NpDQgWJvDs3Sn2f-x01jGkrsD50-FiHFKr24szovWKXjBcKVT9H0ueS6jCgspqQ2uGEch/s640/256GB+-+HDTunePro.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>VIUD 256 GB HDTunePro Read Benchmark</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All other VIUD capacities have a roughly flat graph for the blue line but the 256 GB model has much slower read speeds at exactly 32 GB intervals for whatever reason.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html">CrystalDiskMark</a> is another basic drive benchmarking tool that outputs several read and write tests:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seq Thread = Sequential read/write, 128 KB block size with multiple queues and threads</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rnd Thread = Random read/write, 4 KB block size with multiple queues and threads</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seq = Sequential read/write, 1 MB block size with single thread</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rnd = Random read/write, 4KB block size with single thread</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://usbflashspeed.com/">USBFlashBench</a> is a simple tool that tests multiple block read/write sizes and then uploads the results to a website and creates nice graphs like:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4AgkRyQkSfZ1MFhfIPk1jnSGDBN0RxA_QPbxwYIOjxRoYlA5PfZvzSWOTQqNsd7d4QPR7uUYj7IZ53d0JDogj3JzQi3HY_2Cqrg0MCZclGKbb03AaE-lbtOy_LkEDbQT627bqhZ3lJdX/s1600/256GB+-+USBFlashBench2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4AgkRyQkSfZ1MFhfIPk1jnSGDBN0RxA_QPbxwYIOjxRoYlA5PfZvzSWOTQqNsd7d4QPR7uUYj7IZ53d0JDogj3JzQi3HY_2Cqrg0MCZclGKbb03AaE-lbtOy_LkEDbQT627bqhZ3lJdX/s640/256GB+-+USBFlashBench2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>USBFlashBench Results for the 256 GB VIUD</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally, the 4GB file copy test is simply the time it takes to copy a 4 GB (4,000,000,000 bytes) file composed of random content to the VIUD and the time it takes to read it back. Due to caching we have to make sure to unplug the VIUD after the write test and then plug it back in to do the read test.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-80272772252401816642016-08-09T08:05:00.001-07:002016-08-09T08:06:46.401-07:00Product Shots!<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Work on creating the VIUD store started last week and I'm already well on my way to getting it finished. I decided to go with <a href="http://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a> as it seems to be a good sized Canadian online e-commerce system with the features I need.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've spent the better part of the last week taking and preparing product shots of all the various VIUD models for use in the store. There are a lot of good online guides for taking product shots but to summarize what I've used:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Niken D90 camera with SB-600 flash</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Small light tent</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Piece of white paper over the flash to disperse flash and soften shadows</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A few extra lights to get better shadow and reflections (some "real" camera lights would be very nice but I've made do)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">About half-zoomed in on the lens</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Auto color balance on the camera</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Manual mode on the camera with a high aperture (F20) for a larger depth of field</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Adjust the exposure time and bias to get a good picture (white background without too much shadow)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Adjust the picture's brightness, contrast, and saturation afterwards to get a realistic and good looking image</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The shots turned out pretty good and I think they can speak for themselves!</span></div>
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Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-84970296910248661382016-08-03T10:11:00.000-07:002016-08-03T10:11:34.537-07:00Getting Closer...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So my summer vacation is unfortunately over and I'm getting back into the finishing stages of the VIUD preparation. All I can do before actually selling them is to do the coating of all the USB boards I currently have.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Through all the various testing I've done, mainly the shock testing, I've narrowed down a good combination of coatings and epoxies that seems to maximize the durability of the USB. I start with two layers of Silicon conformal coating.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCmxzoqPOTuLQ1h-FOE3e8B55hXJFtE5JBIMal3LTY-av97ScjyUr7gsYZrmpXBPerq5x1RHXPiWtHYONFh77-2IEH6Nr_xk2Sb6hd0Vk7t05OVbHfv87XbhnGt70zQ_pY2_ln5av-xcW/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-08-03-12h53m21s508a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCmxzoqPOTuLQ1h-FOE3e8B55hXJFtE5JBIMal3LTY-av97ScjyUr7gsYZrmpXBPerq5x1RHXPiWtHYONFh77-2IEH6Nr_xk2Sb6hd0Vk7t05OVbHfv87XbhnGt70zQ_pY2_ln5av-xcW/s400/vlcsnap-2016-08-03-12h53m21s508a.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Silicon Conformal Coating</b><b> a USB</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is thin, flexible coating that gets into all the small nooks and crannies on the circuit board and even by itself seems to help a lot in minimizing damage caused by shock. Each coat requires at least a day to dry out.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EvMM0AP1_P7XvtaVW3X-NXcwA_grt4ZKdtrbojuiioAX9aU4dQF94ouHXXWTEvCYUpFMVG0VwNI9kbdduL5Oe2k3p9O7V8T2PpcoL-uE7qU6OKkLNycn63j0C5HRJkcuKkZBmjIOGiwc/s1600/CIMG1551a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EvMM0AP1_P7XvtaVW3X-NXcwA_grt4ZKdtrbojuiioAX9aU4dQF94ouHXXWTEvCYUpFMVG0VwNI9kbdduL5Oe2k3p9O7V8T2PpcoL-uE7qU6OKkLNycn63j0C5HRJkcuKkZBmjIOGiwc/s400/CIMG1551a.JPG" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Drying Out the Conformal Coating</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once the two conformal coatings are dry it is time for another two coatings of a thicker and more flexible insulating coating.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODcmCIxsHdCCPrElzWUAbTENRSJbb0NK8BofEgXKadIc92JW1z7BBizQy_MA4UNJ2nPYlWi27otWjVw5iQ7Uce2tBNV_Jkvu8tQ9x19mJ5baHSF1_5fyBzrN2GIApH3zaHF5NewDPjJm-/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-08-03-12h54m16s779a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODcmCIxsHdCCPrElzWUAbTENRSJbb0NK8BofEgXKadIc92JW1z7BBizQy_MA4UNJ2nPYlWi27otWjVw5iQ7Uce2tBNV_Jkvu8tQ9x19mJ5baHSF1_5fyBzrN2GIApH3zaHF5NewDPjJm-/s400/vlcsnap-2016-08-03-12h54m16s779a.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Coating a USB in Insulating Varnish</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This gives the USB circuit board a considerably thicker and flexible coat to help absorb even more shock. It also helps prevent epoxy from leaking through the USB connector and making a considerable mess which is difficult and time consuming to clean up. Like the conformal coating each insulating coating takes a day to dry.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbK61tXtrJyNxJQUke8-RAOJKYhTDhJqhqL0YWk_jRYK3470lW9ZJswOSNEfLLz5SE6pTJwiSlp2Ag1oX7ReriVmJ6eRqSMaD_5sgdNYpq-DcP_TBbCovMRHaj_ktALpqH2UgKPLO0zH-m/s1600/CIMG2338b.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbK61tXtrJyNxJQUke8-RAOJKYhTDhJqhqL0YWk_jRYK3470lW9ZJswOSNEfLLz5SE6pTJwiSlp2Ag1oX7ReriVmJ6eRqSMaD_5sgdNYpq-DcP_TBbCovMRHaj_ktALpqH2UgKPLO0zH-m/s400/CIMG2338b.JPG" width="362" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Drying Out the Insulating Coating</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next step is to just create an online store and actually start selling things! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-33889103146884808852016-04-29T12:52:00.000-07:002016-04-29T12:52:03.001-07:00Week(s) in Review: 29 April 2016<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the past month or so I've finally managed to complete finishing the Titanium bases and have all bases laser engraved with the VIUD logo and serial number and they're looking great!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0sLonlMipws2IgxapVVibcVamkVlCMW-6ROvFqVKj2TteP6IlSB39UZ3xP0xUEngMvaLHcNSdWynoSHXlOE8O7DeiVPVC7DYy5QrLYGwAa4ogMX0mEsgqWuR0OXt53aLuwLm6wkmzFE0/s1600/DSC_5310a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0sLonlMipws2IgxapVVibcVamkVlCMW-6ROvFqVKj2TteP6IlSB39UZ3xP0xUEngMvaLHcNSdWynoSHXlOE8O7DeiVPVC7DYy5QrLYGwAa4ogMX0mEsgqWuR0OXt53aLuwLm6wkmzFE0/s640/DSC_5310a.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIKzQUaPS7fCpweQA3m0y_sOfA-4pL3wfgO9vfv_IJd344qHpBk_UIR9xUm4Q7m0sdzYkjJZ8YceIrBnxKZgejIdOz9Rlw1iNEnSPpNNoNPQ6Gc36f-WcuHCNfyV5XZwcAaYKjbIggpyx/s1600/DSC_5312a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIKzQUaPS7fCpweQA3m0y_sOfA-4pL3wfgO9vfv_IJd344qHpBk_UIR9xUm4Q7m0sdzYkjJZ8YceIrBnxKZgejIdOz9Rlw1iNEnSPpNNoNPQ6Gc36f-WcuHCNfyV5XZwcAaYKjbIggpyx/s640/DSC_5312a.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I also experimented with custom logo/text and it worked out very well but the price point to have it done is unfortunately large enough to make it only worthwhile for larger quantities (say 10 or more).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTvfKHbe-2iaEFdsEZcL3tJcxMNdlkS8yHptefdvqWlRedB2qm1tfjjSzDXKMoX9-bliL2Ky0TW8DUy5Jv6VmSeIjlo7SuSd4RFnEo4PH-iJI-bKTETUadVdrWoZcz92IBJfQOzxRiWsl/s400/DSC_5316a.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Custom Logo and Text Example</b></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTvfKHbe-2iaEFdsEZcL3tJcxMNdlkS8yHptefdvqWlRedB2qm1tfjjSzDXKMoX9-bliL2Ky0TW8DUy5Jv6VmSeIjlo7SuSd4RFnEo4PH-iJI-bKTETUadVdrWoZcz92IBJfQOzxRiWsl/s1600/DSC_5316a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There's not much left to do! I can conformal coat all the USB boards and then find, design and setup an online store. Unfortunately, it looks as though I may be away all summer which will put another delay in the VIUD progress but it won't be long now!</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-58332054745489113852016-03-14T14:35:00.000-07:002016-03-14T14:35:38.311-07:00Week(s) in Review: 14 March 2016<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Its been a busy month for me in other projects, particularly with the release of the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Thieves_Guild">Thieves Guild</a> DLC for <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Online">Elder Scrolls Online</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Besides a little bit of label preparation the only other news to note is that the anodized cases have arrived and they look great!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWThVAXXbXxA2lcjp2qZlh4fn00BY7I2XSefWSUOxN5iEQk_IIFc9QTw72PJFt9B-mHwkcP-I1i7A504sKWsB7J70Z-cRAvQnVVHURs9to34tnz2am0qbyvgTLMrxayjhqIj5FNL5F-XF/s1600/DSC_5258a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWThVAXXbXxA2lcjp2qZlh4fn00BY7I2XSefWSUOxN5iEQk_IIFc9QTw72PJFt9B-mHwkcP-I1i7A504sKWsB7J70Z-cRAvQnVVHURs9to34tnz2am0qbyvgTLMrxayjhqIj5FNL5F-XF/s640/DSC_5258a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Titanium VIUD (Left) and 4 Anodized Aluminum Colors</i></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSyXusXUXzDFKW5lMTAdraBPWMO39hnzkGYALTDP4pzZwCdE_FQhCzrNT6pKHnl1q6-IUSgTvF_4KysvF1ealji_zQZ2l82EifXSmVzkDbjT8tr3H40fNG_-cWuKJKbJuMkSDoWJCvZKYc/s1600/DSC_5278a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSyXusXUXzDFKW5lMTAdraBPWMO39hnzkGYALTDP4pzZwCdE_FQhCzrNT6pKHnl1q6-IUSgTvF_4KysvF1ealji_zQZ2l82EifXSmVzkDbjT8tr3H40fNG_-cWuKJKbJuMkSDoWJCvZKYc/s640/DSC_5278a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next steps are to polish the Titanium bases so I can have the VIUD logo and serial number Laser engraved. After that we are ready to start actually selling things!</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-65279657536235825312016-02-16T07:31:00.000-08:002016-02-16T07:34:50.890-08:00Week(s) in Review...16 February 2016<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Its been a very busy week or two for me with both VIUD and non-VIUD related projects....</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Aluminum Anodizing</span></h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAql8BAGSunKYAxQlquFJYNrA5u-WSOP_1dbTSArcdIQ8nZu3kOZVcg-qGv-xNX15CS9z84o3ex4XooxkyfMqvEFSYAk7lkLeiO_kVJhelwqz_UXNPKbOEgp6gt0_x6JWthtdzxj0abV9/s1600/DSC_5223a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAql8BAGSunKYAxQlquFJYNrA5u-WSOP_1dbTSArcdIQ8nZu3kOZVcg-qGv-xNX15CS9z84o3ex4XooxkyfMqvEFSYAk7lkLeiO_kVJhelwqz_UXNPKbOEgp6gt0_x6JWthtdzxj0abV9/s320/DSC_5223a.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm happy to say that the 150 Aluminum VIUD's are finally off to anodizing! The polishing of the bodies went well with no unforeseen issues. The preparation of the plugs took a little longer than expected. Originally I was looking into buying or making a broaching set for squaring the rounded inside corners of the plug. However, I decided to simply file the corners by grinding a small square file to be the exact width of the hole and making a</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> simple handle to hold the file. Filing the Aluminum plugs took some time but was relatively easy and we'll see if the same holds for the Titanium plugs. I wasn't going to polish the plugs but the filing created a sharp edge which was good to get rounded with a quick buffing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Next step was cleaning everything. The buffing process caked a considerable amount of debris in all the nooks and crannies of the parts so I soaked everything for a day in Mineral Spirits and then brushed/wiped each part and left it to dry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For this production run I'm doing four basic colors for the Aluminum VIUDs:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Black (already done)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Red</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Blue</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Green</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are a large number of potential colors I could use but there is a large minimum charge for the anodizing so we'll start with these four colors and expand in another production run if there is demand for any more.</span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Little More Impact Testing....</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I did another run of impact testing with a new set of USB circuit boards and a modified epoxy filling technique to ensure everything works as expected and there are no premature failures. Fortunately, the VIUDs fared better than my new stone target which broke clean in half while testing the Titanium VIUD at speeds above 200 km/hr.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCPJe9zM-OB8NJ03VfsxxlrBkPM8tK65ACQ6yG052YhhtIofyTPSClY54WoYKkSlCWHjKA8l9hkvOo4aPVV_ZGi87-Yqt_h064XvH4WAj2qKfoI-1syt2A3oqcsCo29NP-Dd_ehgeSI14/s1600/CIMG1515a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCPJe9zM-OB8NJ03VfsxxlrBkPM8tK65ACQ6yG052YhhtIofyTPSClY54WoYKkSlCWHjKA8l9hkvOo4aPVV_ZGi87-Yqt_h064XvH4WAj2qKfoI-1syt2A3oqcsCo29NP-Dd_ehgeSI14/s400/CIMG1515a.JPG" width="395" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Another Broken Stone Target</i></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fortunately I think I'm done with impact testing for now as I don't know what I can actually use for a stone target that won't break on me...perhaps a really thick custom made concrete pad with rebar reinforcement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Aluminum VIUD managed to survive up to impact speeds of 230 km/hr on the stone target which seems to be the typical failure point for the modified epoxy technique. The Titanium VIUD broke a new record by surviving impact speeds up to 250 km/hr on the stone target which is rather incredible when you think about it let alone experience the violent event itself.</span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Cap Magnets</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've always been trying to figure the best way to secure the magnets in the cap. Initially I tried superglue which works reasonably well but is a little messy and tends to fail at low to moderate impacts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I then tried denting the metal around the magnet on the inside using metal point punch. This works pretty well in Aluminum but in the much harder Titanium it is very difficult to hit the punch hard enough to secure the magnet but not so hard as to crack or break the magnet. This method also tends to fail at moderate impacts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the last set of impact tests I tried another method: covering the magnet with a small amount of epoxy (the same stuff I use to fill the base). I didn't think this would work very well as you can only fit about 0.05" (1.3 mm) of epoxy above the magnet and still leave room for the USB connector. Fortunately I was completely wrong and the epoxy didn't start cracking until very high impacts, far surpassing the other two methods I tried.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7eXMJnwu-YGztxOoAfjF_Uv71tlEZbzeflf_t-N_ZvbgKtfZ2awqKB22B9MEUo_Z4NYjlStdnZXvVn5aBwhyphenhyphenqikvx783Z85a9uMYz2paP2PUGZbkJH1ltvoZL6I-__ZXizf8KqUOIFaY/s1600/DSC_5231a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7eXMJnwu-YGztxOoAfjF_Uv71tlEZbzeflf_t-N_ZvbgKtfZ2awqKB22B9MEUo_Z4NYjlStdnZXvVn5aBwhyphenhyphenqikvx783Z85a9uMYz2paP2PUGZbkJH1ltvoZL6I-__ZXizf8KqUOIFaY/s320/DSC_5231a.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shipping Things</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With the help of my lovely assistant I also figured out the details on how the VIUDs are going to be shipped. Originally I was planning on just using small bubble wrap bags from Canada Post but my wife found a better idea of small cardboard boxes which ended up being a little bit cheaper and looks/works better as well. </span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next Week(s)...</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While I'm waiting for the Aluminum parts to be anodized I can start finishing the parts for the 100 Titanium VIUDs. I'm also working on getting the details sorted out for the Laser marking.</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-75609098799334833372016-01-30T10:25:00.004-08:002016-01-30T10:25:44.018-08:00Week in Review...30 January 2016<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It has been a busy week or two in VIUD production, although I didn't get as much done as I wanted due to work that needed to get done on <a href="http://www.uesp.net/">www.uesp.net</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">More Impact Testing</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">About 100 more impact tests with the <a href="http://www.viud.net/2013/09/shock-testing-round-1.html">air cannon</a> have been done to test a few different types and methods of epoxy fills in order to improve the VIUD's shock resistance (more on that in a future blog post...soon). I've managed to successfully test speeds over 300 km/h (200 miles/hour) with impact shocks nearing 5000 G which seem to be the limit of what can be accomplished with the current shock testing rig for a couple of reasons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At lower speeds the air gun pressure was roughly linear with the output speed of the VIUD but exceeding 25 psi of pressure the output speed quickly flattens out (see the graph on the right). Since the theoretical <a href="http://www.viud.net/2013/09/an-interesting-question.html">terminal velocity</a> of the VIUD is around 200 km/h (120 miles/hour) its going to be difficult to get it to go much faster than this. I may be able to get a little more speed out it by mounting the VIUD in a foam "bullet" to increase the firing efficiency but I don't know exactly how much that will get me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj359bpIHNQDIGWNJMry7_obH3vRt6h42NbjdSi2wXvb7yJatAGU8OZ67d0Kja58Afn5yb_cYVQePg-Vtxf-_j7A7o_sFtp00cJHFOz0UN7kOqBNImntuxVPZ4xjd9pHitx9NTYo43OLIqq/s1600/VIUD-PressureSpeedGraph.grf.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="603" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj359bpIHNQDIGWNJMry7_obH3vRt6h42NbjdSi2wXvb7yJatAGU8OZ67d0Kja58Afn5yb_cYVQePg-Vtxf-_j7A7o_sFtp00cJHFOz0UN7kOqBNImntuxVPZ4xjd9pHitx9NTYo43OLIqq/s640/VIUD-PressureSpeedGraph.grf.png" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At these high speeds the impact targets are also taking a good beating. The wood target is beat up pretty well but has survived 100 impacts and can probably take 100 more before needing to be replaced. The stone targets, however, have fared less well...</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiormSYSAyeAm3Wn_PwY5G1jvP2fhvQltu0HlL4L5n_yFPUgl_yzotwUTzGGLErY-8Bj7dNa9STHJxVyMuzLj7djyMgHiZdgio9TDoWM10PIQMCLYTXmHt1e8W-_qhPddehWTrwVQ4qgr4-/s1600/CIMG1504a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiormSYSAyeAm3Wn_PwY5G1jvP2fhvQltu0HlL4L5n_yFPUgl_yzotwUTzGGLErY-8Bj7dNa9STHJxVyMuzLj7djyMgHiZdgio9TDoWM10PIQMCLYTXmHt1e8W-_qhPddehWTrwVQ4qgr4-/s320/CIMG1504a.JPG" width="243" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKKMuhUTxGQnTFFnFLTAdAvlsNWUOEtRN-YhVuz3EbVKaZfgleDfHi3zOTZ0nOFnzdn2z6IoSGrs-9BnzmNB6vYIpZ4elajc4vP7Z6aFrUlXVHK9MVdsWZIf9rkHJnOd-uk-cOHbzoi3c/s1600/CIMG1510a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKKMuhUTxGQnTFFnFLTAdAvlsNWUOEtRN-YhVuz3EbVKaZfgleDfHi3zOTZ0nOFnzdn2z6IoSGrs-9BnzmNB6vYIpZ4elajc4vP7Z6aFrUlXVHK9MVdsWZIf9rkHJnOd-uk-cOHbzoi3c/s320/CIMG1510a.JPG" width="217" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i></i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Stone Targets Destroyed by VIUD Impact Tests</i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Against the heavier and tougher Titanium VIUD at speeds above 200 km/h (120 miles/hour) a new stone target (left image above) broke after just 4 impact tests. I've since started using a thicker 2" Arkansas Limestone target which is a bit softer but seems to take the hits a bit better.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I also seem to have reached a measurement limit with the high-speed camera. The Casio Exilim EX-ZR200 was the cheapest camera I could find that could go up to 1000 fps. This is much faster than most cameras but this speed seems to limit the measured impact accelerations to under 5000 G. At this magnitude the actual impact occurs in well under one frame (<< 1 ms) so it is likely underestimating the actual impact force. I'd love to get a better camera that can do at least 10k fps or better but the ones I've looked at are quite pricey.</span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Aluminum Case Preparation</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before I can get the remainder of the Aluminum cases anodized there is a fair amount of preparation work needed. In truth, they could probably be anodized as they are and turn out OK but I'd prefer to take a little bit of time and make them better than just "OK".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First step was to make a simple jig that can hold the VIUD cap or base securely, quickly, and accurately in the lathe without damaging them. It was relatively straightforward to design and manufacture an Aluminum collet piece sized exactly to the outer diameter of the VIUD.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYJ_rd_JeyEm8RUilk7eGIU5grrnZoInzWvsxkY5oqmGMvo2aFGuHrPzGLr04NQDmeZ4uxNVOeaNfoQ5SRxsAHRgWaLiUfKI46LRnx98XhYQf-HjiCGskj-eptQVW6vO3gyMYzpiC3tuU/s1600/DSC_5190a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYJ_rd_JeyEm8RUilk7eGIU5grrnZoInzWvsxkY5oqmGMvo2aFGuHrPzGLr04NQDmeZ4uxNVOeaNfoQ5SRxsAHRgWaLiUfKI46LRnx98XhYQf-HjiCGskj-eptQVW6vO3gyMYzpiC3tuU/s400/DSC_5190a.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Simple Jig for Holding a VIUD Cap/Base in the Lathe</i></b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Using this jig I increased the size of the cosmetic chamfer on the ends of the cap and base from essentially 0.00" (it was barely what you could call a "broken" edge) to 0.01". While this seems like an insignificant modification it stops this edge from feeling sharp and will help the anodizing from chipping prematurely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Next step is to polish all remaining Aluminum 150 caps and bases. The finished surface as they are is typical dull Aluminum. By polishing to a near mirror finish the resulting anodized surface will be much shinier and it also helps break any remaining sharp edges for a better feel as well as preventing the anodized surface from chipping.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3iTMSkMAUDzx-2XTOrv4bSrbSR7Ha9K5k1liMTPxHOvjR3AgnKfnKf5NU3XUkC1qS_AqkJWXLmdU1YM5v5HIXzffKuoWWTUVTgxRH4GI00gTnOX3aWVA80bM__FGu1MOY6kaBPVCIHoL/s1600/DSC_5179a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3iTMSkMAUDzx-2XTOrv4bSrbSR7Ha9K5k1liMTPxHOvjR3AgnKfnKf5NU3XUkC1qS_AqkJWXLmdU1YM5v5HIXzffKuoWWTUVTgxRH4GI00gTnOX3aWVA80bM__FGu1MOY6kaBPVCIHoL/s400/DSC_5179a.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Comparing Original (Left) and Polished (Right) Aluminum VIUD Bodies</span></i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next Week...</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've just started polishing the bodies so that will be my first task next week followed by finishing the VIUD plugs and then cleaning everything. There are more impact tests I'd like to do as well if I have time. The next week will be very busy in <a href="http://www.uesp.net/">UESP </a>related work but stay tuned for more progress reports in a week or two!</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-83286909164142557612016-01-11T07:23:00.001-08:002016-01-11T07:23:32.132-08:00The Start of Another YearThe start of another year and the end of another break in the VIUD's story. I wasn't intending on such a long break but there ended up being a lot of maintenance and work that needed doing on <a href="http://www.uesp.net/">UESP.net</a>. Now that I've finally caught up on that work I can begin to focus a bit more on the completing the VIUD.<br />
<br />
I'm still basically where I was on the last blog post but the short list is essentially:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Complete detailing/finishing all the cases (in progress).</li>
<li>Order all the parts needed for assembly (mostly done).</li>
<li>Finalize research on the epoxy technique and premature USB failures (more on that in a future blog post).</li>
<li>Figure out a sales platform and all the subsequent details (prices, taxes, shipping).</li>
</ul>
<div>
So still an appreciable amount of work left to do but the end is definitely in sight.</div>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-35178799068671281522015-06-03T14:33:00.000-07:002015-06-03T14:33:08.084-07:00Production Starts!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While I've been silent on the VIUD front for the past few months it has been mostly due to waiting for the first 300 VIUD cases (200 Aluminum, 100 Titanium) to finish production. They took a long time to get here but they finally arrived and are looking great!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSeTC96T39NbZ0Bat-RVZX4XznY_5Le7K0cYjgtiTE-pP1GHsFZnQIQD6SkgDMR0d-_1qp1Tvqi9-X9gFaCDKu1IpW08RTV-Ivx6LohcKMCqkPUnafkufNW4KmVmM6_R94FMl2oOMqgZl/s1600/DSC_4531a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSeTC96T39NbZ0Bat-RVZX4XznY_5Le7K0cYjgtiTE-pP1GHsFZnQIQD6SkgDMR0d-_1qp1Tvqi9-X9gFaCDKu1IpW08RTV-Ivx6LohcKMCqkPUnafkufNW4KmVmM6_R94FMl2oOMqgZl/s640/DSC_4531a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>What 300 VIUD Cases Look Like</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4z-PyfTf44Kj8-y-uimG1PAD5k64CI32c5a_KM-FA8cpjbFRizBOdY33WtqwZK7ltWTYblx3rAHSGwPiCvN0eaD3M4ZwRi3K8tbpM_BoNJ_rMyXdodgOvwICt9jCjJ6dEM6xh9aC9m-uY/s1600/DSC_4368a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4z-PyfTf44Kj8-y-uimG1PAD5k64CI32c5a_KM-FA8cpjbFRizBOdY33WtqwZK7ltWTYblx3rAHSGwPiCvN0eaD3M4ZwRi3K8tbpM_BoNJ_rMyXdodgOvwICt9jCjJ6dEM6xh9aC9m-uY/s640/DSC_4368a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Titanium VIUD</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUB60So80fX9IlMjCeLNh4mAp7tXupB3sXji_28F-7L2RpOimqOiY7_tjIka-OKA71d2LNjDpiKzlKSu3Unz6XLh0y7nsELvWQwY7UAtkyvcMCZJOZIxJiOgvkXwosBqVly46ftMSUnXKt/s1600/DSC_4385a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUB60So80fX9IlMjCeLNh4mAp7tXupB3sXji_28F-7L2RpOimqOiY7_tjIka-OKA71d2LNjDpiKzlKSu3Unz6XLh0y7nsELvWQwY7UAtkyvcMCZJOZIxJiOgvkXwosBqVly46ftMSUnXKt/s640/DSC_4385a.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Anodized Black Aluminum VIUD</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'd love to say that I'll begin selling VIUDs in the near future but there are just a "few" tasks left before that can happen:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Polish and clean the 150 non-anodized Aluminum.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anodize the 150 Aluminum sets 3 different colours.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Laser engrave everything with a logo and serial number.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Order all the various parts required for assembly.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finish testing and finalizing the epoxy type and assembly procedure.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Create a few tools and jigs to help with assembly.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Install 600 magnets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Create a VIUD shopping site. I'll probably use a service that offers pre-built stores but there is still a good amount of customization and setup to do.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Create a simple assembly and non-conformance tracking database.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Get shipping procedures and costs finalized.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Figure out a sales price for the VIUDs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Start selling!</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sounds exhausting and while my summer is usually busier than average I hope to be able to finish everything in this list and start selling a few VIUDs this fall. Stay tuned!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-45150926426729353942015-03-05T05:37:00.000-08:002015-03-05T05:37:21.047-08:00Evaluating New Case Manufacturers<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the <a href="http://www.viud.net/2015/02/making-it-cheaper.html">last post</a> I mentioned finding four new case manufacturers for the VIUD and having a few samples made from each one. To choose one manufacturer for a larger case order we'll have to evaluate/test the samples and pick one that has the best combination of quality and price.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Machining Quality</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The easiest test we can do for the case samples is to simply make sure we received what we asked for. We'll measure all the dimensions from the three case pieces (base, cap, and plug) and compare that with the drawing specification for all four manufacturers:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Item</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer A</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer B</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer C</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer D</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#99ff99"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dimensions OK</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">16 / 32</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">30 / 32</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">31 / 32</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">31 / 32</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffff99"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dimensions Not OK</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ff9999"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dimensions Way Off!</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">0</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">0</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">0</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finish</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al - Poor Clear Anodized</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti - Black?</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al - Natural</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti - Natural</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al - Clear Anodized</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti - Natural</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al - Anodized Black</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti - Natural</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Assembly</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Threads Don't Fit</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OK</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OK</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OK</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cap chamfer for o-ring too small</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Manufacturers B, C, and D all fair well with only a couple minor deviations outside of the expected dimension tolerances (mainly a couple chamfers that were a bit smaller than desired). Manufacturer A, on the other hand, was so bad I had to create a special category just for it. Half of the dimensions were outside of tolerances and some features were outright missing. The threads, or I should say the attempt of threads, were a wonder to behold. All the inside threads were double-started, the screw angles of the exterior threads were wrong and skewed to one side and at least one thread was not square to the body by more than 5°</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Even a considerable attempt to restore the threads with a tap and file failed to get them working fully. It is fair to say that Manufacturer A won't be further considered even though they did ship first and didn't charge me anything (I wonder why).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Appearance</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The quantitative dimension comparison showed Manufacturers B, C, and D to be very close with each other but how about a more qualitative "appearance" test? Although accurate dimensions are important the case has to look good as well. We can rate a few different appearance factors for each manufacturer:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Item</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer A</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer B</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer C</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer D</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Surface Finish</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Poor</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Excellent</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Knurl Quality</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Poor</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Good</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Assembly Fit</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Doesn't Assemble!</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Good</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Acceptable</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Overall Appearance</span></b></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Poor</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Good</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Excellent</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very Good</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Ignoring the terrible performance from Manufacturer A, the other three look equally well with C and D slightly leading the pack.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Stress Testing</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The final test will be a destructive stress test to failure. The purpose of this test is to determine the type and quality of material used. While I specified very specific alloys (Al 7075-T6 and Ti Grade 5) it is difficult to tell the exact alloy used. It is possible they used a much cheaper alloy (like Al 6061 or Ti Grade 2) or mistakenly used an untempered Aluminum alloy like 7075 instead of 7075-T6. The only way I know to test the alloy, other than a spectrograph, is a stress test to see at what load the item fails.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
This will be the first destructive stress test in a long while...the last one was actually the first brass prototype almost two years ago. I've been meaning to destructively test a few from the prototype #5 pre-production test but I have too many non-destructive tests still to do. These tests will validate, or not, the theoretical stress modelling I've done in Autodesk Inventor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
The stress tests will use an assembled unit without any epoxy or USB board. We'll start with the end-to-end stress test in my hydraulic shop press and finish with a side stress test if the unit survives. Note that a value of <i>"> 9 tons"</i> in the following table indicates it didn't fail in the test.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stress Test</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Expected Failure</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer A</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer B</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer C</span></th><th><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manufacturer D</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al : End-To-End</span></b></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6.5 tons</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6.5 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti : End-To-End</span></b></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9 tons</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">> 9 tons</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Al : Side</span></b></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4 tons</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4.5 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6.5 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7 tons</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ti : Side</span></b></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6 tons</span></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td><td><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">> 9 tons</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The complete video of the stress testing is also available:
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='640' height='533' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/LSVRygkkkBI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From the stress failure loads and the way the case failed I would say that Manufacturers A and B used a lower strength Aluminum alloy like untempered 7075 or 6061 while Manufacturers C and D used the 7075-T6 alloy as specified. Both A and B failed in a ductile manner (the case deformed slowly and remained in one piece) while both C and D cracked suddenly (see image below). This sudden cracking is typical of a stronger alloy like 7075-T6 or 7068 which are more brittle than other Aluminum alloys. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmMClKVulDbRmfYHkm4TyR5QFa4GMRyk_3DLUomrysJMiy3vH1jArppgedhmDf4zK-NLZQ249GleuRj-dkeKIpBlTis_13MwTEvODgKmYiy-GuptAVyqALEDC5nX6ubONfRoqFHwJdfbv/s1600/AlloyCompare-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmMClKVulDbRmfYHkm4TyR5QFa4GMRyk_3DLUomrysJMiy3vH1jArppgedhmDf4zK-NLZQ249GleuRj-dkeKIpBlTis_13MwTEvODgKmYiy-GuptAVyqALEDC5nX6ubONfRoqFHwJdfbv/s1600/AlloyCompare-1.jpg" height="521" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Comparison of Failures in Lower Strength Aluminum Alloy (Left) and Higher Strength (Right)</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another interesting thing to note is that the cases C and D outperformed the theoretical failure loads by a good margin, at least 50%. The cases failed pretty much where they were expected to fail (cap threads for the end-to-end test) and there were no big surprises. The hole for the lanyard mount did fail in the end-to-end stress test on two cases at high loads but this was expected to happen at some point and the failures were not premature.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Which One?</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Considering all case evaluations and tests Manufacturers C and D come out notably ahead of the other two. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Manufacturer C has a low lead time but higher price while Manufacturer D has a very long lead time but the cheapest price by a considerable margin. My choice for the first large order will be Manufacturer D, mostly due to the price, but I'll keep C in mind as a backup.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-55462045017677844802015-02-11T07:43:00.002-08:002015-02-11T07:43:52.464-08:00Making it Cheaper!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the important things I learned from the <a href="http://www.viud.net/2015/01/kickstarter-lessons-learned.html">VIUD's KickStarter</a> was that its price was on the high end so finding a way to reduce that price is now at the top of my list of things to do. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At first glance it may appear that there is little that can be done...the prices used on the KickStarter were the lowest I could get them at the time but there are a few areas we can look at and perhaps their combined effect can result in a notable price reduction.</span><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sales Method</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Using KickStarter as the sales method introduces a not insignificant amount of overhead on the price which includes:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">KickStarter fee (5%)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Credit card fees (3-5%)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">International shipping</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If we compare the VIUD's prices from the KickStarter and without this overhead we can see a good sized difference:</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: center;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Model</th><th>KickStarter Price</th><th>Base Price</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Al 16GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$199</td><td style="text-align: center;">$151</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Al 32GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$219</td><td style="text-align: center;">$164</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Al 64GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$249</td><td style="text-align: center;">$183</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Al 128GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$299</td><td style="text-align: center;">$241</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Al 256GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$419</td><td style="text-align: center;">$346</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Ti 16GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$319</td><td style="text-align: center;">$250</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Ti 32GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$349</td><td style="text-align: center;">$264</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Ti 64GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$399</td><td style="text-align: center;">$282</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Ti 128GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$449</td><td style="text-align: center;">$340</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Ti 256GB</div>
</td><td style="text-align: center;">$599</td><td style="text-align: center;">$445</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The effect is more significant in the more expensive models...the 256GB Ti is already over $150 cheaper! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Technically some of this overhead, namely the credit card and shipping fees, will have to be included at some point but removing them from the VIUD's list price is an important step. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Case Material</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We can evaluate the case materials to see if any trade-offs can be made regarding price. The current two case materials, Aluminum 7068-T651 and Titanium Grade 5, were chosen as they are among the highest strength alloys of the respective material. Unfortunately, this also means they are more expensive than other alloys. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Comparing a few common alloys:</span><br />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><th>Alloy</th><th>Tensile Strength</th><th>Cost</th></tr>
<tr><td>Al 7068-T651</td><td>95 kpsi</td><td>Low-Medium</td></tr>
<tr><td>Al 7075-T6</td><td>75 kpsi</td><td>Low</td></tr>
<tr><td>Al 6061</td><td>35 kpsi</td><td>Low</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ti Grade 5</td><td>120 kspi</td><td>High</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ti Grade 2</td><td>40 kpsi</td><td>Medium-High</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For the Aluminum VIUD we can consider moving to Al 7075-T6 as this alloy is still very strong and it can make the case manufacturing price a bit cheaper. Experience has also shown that it is much easier to find a machine shop able to source and work with 7075 than 7068. For the Titanium VIUD we will stick with Grade 5 as the more common Grade 2 is significantly weaker and we can have the Titanium VIUDs be a "premium" model to match its higher price.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Case Manufacturer</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The VIUD's case is the largest portion of its manufacturing cost comprising 50-80% of its total. I've already <a href="http://www.viud.net/2014/03/prototype-4-production-how-to-waste-4.html">sourced a bunch of machine shops</a> for the case production and choose the cheapest one. At least the cheapest one that was able to make the case and not screw up royally. There was one, unmentionable, shop that failed miserably but did offer much lower prices. Perhaps another search and production test will reveal a shop with a lower price but still good quality production.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To make a long story short, I found a few dozen potential shops and ordered VIUD case samples from four of them for evaluation purposes. All four shops had lower prices than my previous manufacturer and 3 of the 4 managed to supply cases with pretty decent qualities as seen in the below pictures:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjadKkmCPpQhjAuNQnqfcdUagbzPO46tVePtIUz1I_UD9yO4f_JAyOaFWp3WAkUYbxLc9HPEEx5bSZK_3Fdkg5OP0b8pl7tWGZhycghTkOIQeUmL1KWZ7wkR6hn92R6IroVRjTLuY8Ag89C/s1600/DSC_4277a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjadKkmCPpQhjAuNQnqfcdUagbzPO46tVePtIUz1I_UD9yO4f_JAyOaFWp3WAkUYbxLc9HPEEx5bSZK_3Fdkg5OP0b8pl7tWGZhycghTkOIQeUmL1KWZ7wkR6hn92R6IroVRjTLuY8Ag89C/s1600/DSC_4277a.JPG" height="246" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Case Manufacturer A</b></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBrxkT0kiPLrkaxWAwlg2Z8kYdrUVBCZgFtkMvY206kK3thZ2hYy8_JHOssAKpyPWIZtJvEK_cPILAcnUyReNbbrav6cGacZwGOsQog43L3ligqTp9UbwNnUdv-tGdlEC3PVjyOf_GTQj/s1600/DSC_4284a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBrxkT0kiPLrkaxWAwlg2Z8kYdrUVBCZgFtkMvY206kK3thZ2hYy8_JHOssAKpyPWIZtJvEK_cPILAcnUyReNbbrav6cGacZwGOsQog43L3ligqTp9UbwNnUdv-tGdlEC3PVjyOf_GTQj/s1600/DSC_4284a.JPG" height="250" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Case Manufacturer B</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1SF2za3Fyu2unAe5si88MiaqDije2X4OU5EbCxnhUTdm4wUrlAkeccwKj1XS7n8zdlRO6qA_QVp-fe6Hry7kRRqhNsYvQs_ot8rzAtVxtBZrN7CYDAtsSScme743LXl6VPxH_2404eRm/s1600/DSC_4293a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1SF2za3Fyu2unAe5si88MiaqDije2X4OU5EbCxnhUTdm4wUrlAkeccwKj1XS7n8zdlRO6qA_QVp-fe6Hry7kRRqhNsYvQs_ot8rzAtVxtBZrN7CYDAtsSScme743LXl6VPxH_2404eRm/s1600/DSC_4293a.JPG" height="226" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Case Manufacturer C</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRqhUOvBgi2pc3MG3P55q47Ky7JCqBsh7heSzwR9oXWf63Ax6Wafq76bqp11-G1eSZ9YwTvrmPz18T07zGE3wNuh-i-2L3RZei9lUtc4shzQpHUOS4_7x6ayL6g12gqNJ2QxipVTf5QxR/s1600/DSC_4303a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRqhUOvBgi2pc3MG3P55q47Ky7JCqBsh7heSzwR9oXWf63Ax6Wafq76bqp11-G1eSZ9YwTvrmPz18T07zGE3wNuh-i-2L3RZei9lUtc4shzQpHUOS4_7x6ayL6g12gqNJ2QxipVTf5QxR/s1600/DSC_4303a.JPG" height="232" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Case Manufacturer D</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Three of the manufacturers supplied pretty much identical parts with very good quality. Manufacturer A was the notable exception with completely unusable quality, literally! The threads were so bad they wouldn't screw together even after trying to fix them. You'd think you would want to do your best work when making samples for a potentially larger order.</span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Potentially Good News....</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I still need to fully test the VIUD case samples from the newly sourced manufacturers to make sure the cases are worthy of being used in the world's toughest USB drive, but it looks promising at this point. Based on the average quoted price of the 4 suppliers I should be able to get the list price of the cheapest VIUD model (Al 16GB) well under $100 which should make it much easier to convince people to buy it. </span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-45634934474795544772015-01-30T09:06:00.001-08:002015-01-30T09:07:17.669-08:00KickStarter: Lessons Learned<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While the VIUD's KickStarter campaign was not successful it was still useful in what I learned in from the process. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Video Making</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prior to starting the campaign I had done basically no video capturing or editing. All KS campaigns require a decent looking introduction video so I started practising by making a variety of VIUD testing and documentation videos which I put on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWzBzOL_Gh_jS_euco3XCBw">VIUD's YouTube channel</a>. I quickly found a few important things about making videos:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Lighting</b> -- Even getting half-decent lighting for a simple video can be difficult. Partial sun in the video is no good as it ruins the video's contrast/brightness levels and stands out too much. Direct bright lighting is bad as it tends to reflect off my glasses horribly. I found that using some high-intensity halogen work lights reflecting off a wall or ceiling gave a decent effect with little effort.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Background Sounds</b> -- I didn't realize how loud all the various background sounds could be until I tried to make a few videos. I live near a school, busy road, and plane route and it was a challenge to record a video outside that didn't have some sort of background noise interrupting it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Public Speaking</b> -- I've never been a good public speaker and that much was obvious from the first few video takes. I've since practised speaking more slowly, carefully pronouncing words and trying to keep the inevitable "ums" and "ahs" to a minimum.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first few videos definitely took more than a few takes to get just right than the recent ones. I'm particularly proud of the KS campaign video (see below). It won't win any awards and is not as nice as some other KickStarter videos but represents something I couldn't do prior the quest for the VIUD.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uqddH_6EJNk/0.jpg" height="533" width="640"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/uqddH_6EJNk?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="640" height="533" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/uqddH_6EJNk?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>VIUD KickStarter Campaign Video</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition to the video creation I've also had to learn some basic video editing. For now Windows Movie Maker was sufficient to create my basic videos and I've had to learn things like joining movies, transition effects, recording and adding a voice over, sourcing and adding music, and basic credits. Nothing fancy but definitely a little learning curve there. If I had to make more videos I would definitely want to look into getting a better video editor. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Marketing</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'll readily admin that I'm first and foremost an engineer/physicist and have little to no marketing/sales knowledge or experience. While I tried a little promotion of the VIUD shortly before I started its KickStarter campaign I quickly found out I did far too little and much too late.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I found a few companies after I launched to help promote the campaign, for a price of course, and I wish I had known about them before hand. One was <a href="http://backershub.com/">BackersHub </a>which sends out an email newsletter to inform their clients about KickStarter campaigns and offer deals to some of them. Another one, <a href="http://ayudos.com/">Ayudos</a>, offered a press release and promotion on their social media accounts. In addition I spent a lot of time after the campaign started trying to contact sites and reporters who might be interested in the VIUD and its story. I also ran a Google AdWords campaign that at least resulted in a lot of traffic to the campaign and blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Unfortunately, my few attempts at marketing didn't yield very much. In hindsight I should have begun aggressively marketing the VIUD and its KS months before the campaign actually started. This would have given me a much larger audience and a better chance at getting the required funding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Price</span></h2>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF8l_UPNuN3S5QwK3gNTBQyWewxfRAe2-LHGzVqXeJSejxNnja42z0flQYuKV9yBIELOJILy9BcJZd-QQ-U7GOVu4DyyqsLGwwOLl5lis6_A98O2sblWJRToBzOuyxNEqZnQGT_jnqdLh4/s1600/dollar-311344_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF8l_UPNuN3S5QwK3gNTBQyWewxfRAe2-LHGzVqXeJSejxNnja42z0flQYuKV9yBIELOJILy9BcJZd-QQ-U7GOVu4DyyqsLGwwOLl5lis6_A98O2sblWJRToBzOuyxNEqZnQGT_jnqdLh4/s1600/dollar-311344_1280.png" height="320" width="226" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The high price of the VIUD was definitely a significant barrier in getting people interested in purchasing it. Part the problem was that the KickStarter price includes the KS fee, credit card fee, and shipping. For example, the cheapest VIUD (Aluminum 16 GB) might have listed for $150 on an online store with a good profit margin but on KickStarter the additional fees bumped that price up to $199 or more. The $179 early bird price I was offering gave me almost no profit.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reducing the cost of the VIUD mostly involves reducing the manufacturing cost of the case itself. On the 16 GB model the case is currently 80-90% of the overall manufacturing cost. I've already got quotes from a half-dozen different manufacturing shops and the one I've chosen was actually the cheapest by a good margin. There was a considerably cheaper one but it failed to supply anything usable by a spectacular margin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This leaves me with the unenviable task of looking and trying out a few more case manufacturers to see if I can get a better price.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Next Step...</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After spending a solid two months almost exclusively on the VIUD and its KS campaign I took a short break for a few months in order to get caught up on all the other work I have to do (or had been ignoring in other words). I'll be looking for new suppliers for the manufacturing of the VIUD case to see if I can get the price lower for another attempt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've considered trying another KickStarter campaign (you can simply create a new project to try again) but I'm not so sure that KickStarter is a good choice for this type of product. I'm more leaning towards just purchasing a few hundred initial VIUDs and creating a simple web store to sell them from. Either way will take a little more consideration to decide exactly what to do.</span></div>
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<br />Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-74649230680665417832014-11-14T05:33:00.001-08:002014-11-14T05:33:48.598-08:00KickStarter Campaign Over<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The VIUD's KickStarter campaign finished this morning and, unfortunately, we didn't reach our funding target. While I'm disappointed, the entire experience was educating and I received a lot of great feedback to sort through. Development of the VIUD continues with the primary goal of reducing the manufacturing cost to get its retail price a low as possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Keep tuned to the blog for future VIUD news and development posts including a post-mortem review of the entire KickStarter experience.</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-50375983931526919772014-10-15T04:48:00.000-07:002014-10-15T04:49:01.320-07:00KickStarter Campaign is Now Live!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1207469598/viud-the-virtually-indestructible-usb-drive"><b>VIUD's KickStarter campaign</b></a> is now available!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1207469598/viud-the-virtually-indestructible-usb-drive">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LEF_eSv99iCak5VuldeUn1t50uxRNv6SEfhyphenhyphenb5hbUGgqpc8d9BDWVvzj8E8LS4tBU8mrSgmWa6a4RejLQPzUJo-syN1jel_r8kk0p_OFm7q5ORrCvfH6wV1kaG9kPMGbMtXpRjN0Nu1R/s1600/viud-ksblogimage1.png" height="37" width="320" />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-56984655805381641292014-10-08T15:46:00.001-07:002015-06-03T14:17:56.171-07:00Reddit AMA - 9 October 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'll be doing a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2ir23l/i_am_the_inventor_of_the_worlds_toughest_usb/">Reddit AMA</a> starting on the morning of 9 October 2014. The below image is used as proof for that thread.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf2WYbXeLGj-UCWeYmjpLxIdhNt2Q8L4qGKDGQfOD7SGaSE3E8H0IuR0dc8We7xxrollu5GtNXVIDoyiBCgLRFZnI8nybqHKaAWqwGQoccpKqJLYsTPwOV9N_sXLvQ4mJ9oF0otsckP0k/s1600/CIMG0430a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf2WYbXeLGj-UCWeYmjpLxIdhNt2Q8L4qGKDGQfOD7SGaSE3E8H0IuR0dc8We7xxrollu5GtNXVIDoyiBCgLRFZnI8nybqHKaAWqwGQoccpKqJLYsTPwOV9N_sXLvQ4mJ9oF0otsckP0k/s1600/CIMG0430a.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-59004927779462462002014-10-08T12:10:00.000-07:002016-08-16T09:35:37.476-07:00History of the VIUD<span id="goog_2002491170"></span><span id="goog_2002491171"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A little video about the history of the VIUD and some of the design revisions and prototypes it has been through.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> See it below or directly on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4j3mEuXBg&feature=youtu.be" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lo4j3mEuXBg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lo4j3mEuXBg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-88023546967790904682014-10-06T06:41:00.001-07:002016-08-16T09:37:01.068-07:00Can you do this with your USB Drive (Part 2)?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A short video on something you shouldn't do with just any USB drive.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> See it below or directly on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd7z9Z-N5kg&feature=youtu.be" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yd7z9Z-N5kg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yd7z9Z-N5kg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-6045272335548407612014-10-03T06:52:00.001-07:002016-08-16T09:38:14.399-07:00Shock Testing Video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">VIUD </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> video on shock, or acceleration, testing is now available! See it below or directly on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GArX0-Td2lE&feature=youtu.be" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GArX0-Td2lE/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GArX0-Td2lE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Also look on our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWzBzOL_Gh_jS_euco3XCBw">YouTube Channel</a> for some hi-speed shock testing videos like this one:</span><br />
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<br />Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-24293337166981284832014-10-02T07:25:00.002-07:002016-08-16T09:38:39.241-07:00Can you do this with your USB drive?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A quick demonstration of how tough the VIUD really is by holding it in my bare hand while in a 2000 </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">°</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C flame for 30 seconds! See it below or directly on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m60Tc6dXhhY&feature=youtu.be" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-11111651619222171722014-10-01T11:44:00.000-07:002016-08-16T09:39:05.435-07:00High Temperature Testing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">VIUD </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">testing video on high temperatures is now available! See it below or directly on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYdYOydMb4&feature=youtu.be" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Keep tuned for more testing videos soon!</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-68349594240703902232014-09-29T11:53:00.003-07:002016-08-16T09:39:40.341-07:00Pressure Testing Video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My first VIUD video on pressure testing is up! See it below or directly on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAO3OzYEAsI&feature=youtu.be">YouTube</a>.</span></div>
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Now that I'm getting the hang of video recording and editing look for more testing related videos in the next few weeks!Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-51481288728474536452014-09-27T10:37:00.000-07:002014-09-27T10:37:37.630-07:00Good News Everyone!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been busy over the last few weeks getting back up to full speed in the VIUD design and testing and there have been a few important things to note.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Most significantly, I contacted my USB circuit board supplier to check on prices and they have managed to drop by almost 50% since last year. This doesn't make too much difference on the 16/32 GB model prices but drops the final price on the expensive 256 GB by over $100! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've started to record some videos and figure out video editing. This is definitely outside of my comfort zone but I'm having fun learning something new. Look for some new testing videos here in the near future. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've also finally figured out and solved an issue with some USBs failing in the VIUDs after assembly. Look for a blog post on this subject in the next few days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last but not least, I've created an account on KickStarter and have been playing around with creating a project. I must say their web interface is one of the better ones I've used. I hope to launch the VIUD's KickStarter in a few weeks, after I record a few more test videos, so stay tuned!</span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681997696960058133.post-63124232495947281952014-05-29T12:29:00.000-07:002014-05-29T12:29:16.206-07:00The Finished Product!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While it took much longer than I had anticipated I'm happy to say I can hold in my hand the world's toughest USB drive!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>The Completed Revision 5 VIUD Prototypes</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The completed VIUDs are even better looking than the individual parts and work great. I've been carrying two in my pocket for the last two months and while they are definitely on the heavy side for a USB drive they are not excessively so. There's a bit of chipping on the corners/edges of the Aluminum model which is expected and probably </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">mostly</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">due to the Titanium model being next to it. The Titanium model still looks flawless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The magnetic cap works great and is strong enough to hold the VIUD to the fridge door or other metal surface as designed. I haven't tested the lanyard attachment but my initial concern of the edges being too sharp were fortunately unfounded. I've only done a quick 3000 psi pressure test so far but both test units passed easily.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Assembly</span></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Adding the Internal Epoxy</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Assembly of the 15 prototypes went well but did reveal a few minor design and assembly flaws:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The anodized threads were just barely too tight and required manual retapping. I'll specify a looser thread tolerance for the internal threads to compensate.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The slots for the magnets were just barely too small and had to be made a bit larger. Slightly larger OD dimension for the slots are needed depending on how shock testing goes. I fear if I make it too loose the cap magnet will come free too easily.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Weighing the amount of epoxy in the base worked great but the magnet caused havoc with the scale. Adding a few non-magnetic spacers fixed this easily.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The scale used has an annoying tendency to turn off in the middle of deploying the epoxy into the base. Hopefully there's a way to disable the auto-power off feature or a different scale will be needed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The amount of epoxy needs to be reduced slightly as when it is cooked in the oven it expands and overflows. The overflow is actually good in a sense as it means there are no air pockets in the base but it requires more time consuming clean up afterwards.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Oven baking to cure the epoxy worked just fine. The magnets help to keep the base secure the metal pan.</span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baking at 90°C</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (200°</b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">F) to Cure the Epoxy</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What Next? </span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There will have be a small break in the VIUD development this summer due to my personal schedule...who knew getting married would keep you so busy! Sometime in the fall I'll get back into more testing of the finished revision 5 VIUD prototypes to see exactly what sort of punishment they can take.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Assuming no significant design change is required (I doubt it but you never know) I hope to be able to get a KickStarter going for the initial VIUD production run later this fall. Stay tuned to the blog for the eventual announcement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Davehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09352936165548179515noreply@blogger.com0