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[on:]

Hello Everyone,

My partner and I use Arduinos... a LOT! However, mounting them in a secure and safe fashion is not always the easiest task. This usually ends up with various plastic tupperware and duct tape.

My partner and I have come up with a line of rugged project cases for the Arduino UNO and Arduino Mega footprints.

The cases are machined from HDPE plastic for its durability, and have a clear acrylic lid.
You can also add an expansion stack to the case so you can easily use them with your various Arduino shields.
There are slits in the sides and bottom that allow you to easily and cleanly route your wires for your project in and out of the case to the Arduino Boards.
The USB and POWER outlets are also easily accessible while the board is mounted in the case.
The cases also have a set of external mounting holes making it easy to mount your project just about anywhere.
They come in a variety of colors as well.

We are always open to suggestions on changes and improvements to our cases and really looking for some feedback.
We machine these cases ourselves in house, so changes can be done quick. Custom cases and lids can also be made.

For right now we will leave you with some Images of the UNO case and a link to its product page. Tomorrow we will be putting up the Mega case as well as our double wide cases and lids that support LCD screens. You can see some 3D models of the cases on our site as well.

Hope you all like em.

http://madlabindustries.com/?page_id=345

Jason
Mad Lab Industries
http://MadLabIndustries.com

[Reply #1 on:]

looks robust, some questions arise:

Do the expansion stacks have openings for e.g. ethernet connector etc?

Are there weather-proof, waterproof version (outside use) available?

Are there larger cases so I can include batteries?

Mega?

Resellers in Europe?

(enough for first round

[Reply #2 on:]

Hey,

Thanks for the response and questions. Here are some answers, if you have any more shoot em our way.

The expansion stacks do not have "fitted" opening for things like the Ethernet stack yet. We are currently in the process of designing the more "specialized" stacks that require additional fitted openings. I would except to see the Ethernet expansion stack and a few others with in the next week.

There is a Mega Version that we are cutting the first batch of today. I will post some pictures, information, and link to their page once they are cut.

There is also a "double wide" version of the cases that supports the addition of breadboards, or other components.

We have contemplated weather and waterproof versions. Here are some questions we have arise during that process.
1) How viable are they. Do a lot of people besides us use Arduino Outside, and in projects they expect to get wet?
2) What method would we use to "seal" the cases. Should it simply be a gasket like fitting sits between the stacks and the lid?
3) If we do make a "sealed" version, how big should it be. We need to be able to put the whole project in there, or keeping it sealed from moisture would be an issue.
4) Obviously on a weather and water proof case it would make having your USB port accessible a bit unrealistic. What would be the best mounting solution/case design to make quickly accessing and updating your board viable then?

As far as bigger cases for batteries.
We do plan to make bigger cases that have battery docking in them, but we wanted to get some ideas of what most people use for their Arduino Projects.
We use lipos on pretty much everything. What about the rest of you? AA? AAA? 9v?
We were leaning in the direction of lipos or AAA for the first battery case add-on, as their size would keep the cases as small as possible.

As for re-sellers in Europe. We do not currently have any, but we are currently working on trying to get our products carried somewhere besides our own store. We do international shipping though. We are a small start-up company, and initially had planned to use Kickstarter for the release of our cases. After reading all the TOS and exactly how it worked though, it seemed far less of a viable option. So we decided to come right o the Arduino community. Most of the re-sellers wish to see that it is a viable marketable product before they are willing to purchase a minimum order.

If there is anything i missed, or if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

Jason
Mad Lab Industries
http://MadLabIndustries.com

[Reply #3 on:]

Hi,

Where are you located or do you ship from??

What are the shipping zones in your table??

Thanks!

[Reply #4 on:]

Currently we are located outside Chicago,Illinois and that is where we ship from. We will be moving locations to Sioux Falls, South Dakota within the next month or two.

The shipping rates.

Everything uses Rate A - which is USPS.

If you are within the CONUS, the shipping is $5.15 i believe view USPS Flat Rate.
If you are outside the CONUS, the Shipping is $16.95 via USPS Flate Rate.


I am working on getting our web-system to integrate with USPS as well so it can give you live pricing if you wish to use that option.

Thank you for y our questions. If you have more feel free to ask.

Jason
Mad Lab Industries
http://MadLabIndustries.com

[Reply #5 on:]

Looks great, but isn't $25 a little high including shipping?

[Reply #6 on:]

Hey sbright33,

Perhaps $25 dollars is a bit high as we are not seeing the volume of individual sales we were hoping for, though sadly there is not much room for us to adjust the price currently.
The reason being is these cases are produced in house and machined from solid HDPE. Since they are produced in short runs our overhead cost is a bit high.

We are currently working on getting the product carried by other vendors. This would allow us to increase our production levels which would lower the cost.

While we have your attention though. What do you feel would be an appropriate price for such a case. What about for the case with the expansion pack?

Thanks for your input, we take what people say to heart and try to work with it, so if you have any other comments please feel free to post em.

Thanks,
Jason
Mad Lab Industries
http://Http://MadLabIndustries.com

[Reply #7 on:]

Hi Jason,

I think there are two markets here:

1. Semi-custom cases for specific projects and prototypes of products others are developing, where your CAD/CAM approach is very viable.
2. The hundreds+ quantity market for a case with the properties of what you have designed.

For (2) you probably need to go to Injection molded.  I get inquiries from Chinese companies that wannabe moldmakers and suppliers. Let me know if you want links/emails.
For (1) you need to allow others to design custom stuff. But maybe there you are competing with other custom houses making low-volume from Solidwords etc. But maybe you can keep the costs down and be competitive, being small, low-overhead.

I think there is a place for small operations. I'm almost making money and supporting 2 or 3 people with Yourduino.com 

Maybe there's a 1.5 where your case has "standard options" for specific shields and Arduino variants, which a customer can invoke in an online order and you cut that variant for them at a good price. You can take orders efficiently for options like this : http://arduino-direct.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=302 

OtherIdea: I am discussing the design of a Mega-equivalent on a larger Proto board about 15 by 20 cm, with plenty of space to build a prototype or short-production run of various Arduino-based products. If a customer could order a semi-custom case for that, businesses could find that attractive at prices quite a bit higher than the hobbyist market.

Let us know how it goes...

[Reply #8 on:]

Jason, seems to me $15 would be in my price range including shipping.  Don't want to take over this thread but I thought I'd pop in a question for you Terry or anyone.  Do you know anyone to manufacture 4" balls out of polyurethane or composite plastic coated with poly?