I have to say I registered after following this thread and wanting one of these cases, however he's got a couple points you are erroneously dismissing.
Your first point about the apple products is the most glaring. The apple products are designed from the get go as they are, and go through extensive testing. It's likely they utilize part or all of their cases as antennas.
Aluminum does in fact block RF energy. The Triumph already has issues with poor GPS reception. You're going to be testing it with a plastic prototype to ascertain whether there are operational problems with an end product made of aluminum?
oops. logical fallacy in thar.
As for aluminum being hard well he used the wrong terminology. It like most metals doesn't absorb shock well. It really is not going to provide any shock protection for the phone at all and may make it worse.
You make a couple of other erroneous assertions if you tie them together, yes, aluminum is malleable but not the alloys used for aircraft, they add other elements to make it strong which actually make it quite brittle which is why they have frequent NDT for stress cracks in airframes.
Anyone who's into bicycling (I am) knows there are strengths and weaknesses inherent to chrome moly steel, aluminum and titanium in bicycle frames. Aluminum gives a very harsh ride which is why my hybrid is ti.
All of that unimportant to this case but I think that reception issue IS. You're not going to know what wrapping this phone in aluminum is going to do until you get them all made, I think it's going to be bad. Yet for all we know it could improve it. This is why you test it first with an accurate model.
good luck. (FWIW the day I brought mine home I made a case on my sewing machine, double thick vinyl)
well thanks for taking the time to post.
As to apple products, the iphone 4 and 4s are the ones using the aluminum case as antennas. Other products such as their laptops, the antenna is built into the lid and ipads, ipods built into the upper backside of the device, since it is most likely to be raised. Iphone use 2 separate aerials so that they can more efficiently be designed for different frequencies (I.e. 2.4ghz and 850 / 1900 mhz, and shorting these two with a finger is what caused the issues, but thats not here nor there.) This has actually causes issues, the whole "you are holding it wrong" debacle. This is the problem of using the casing as an aerial because even human skin conducts. Have you ever held an AM/FM antenna and noticed the change in reception? You hold a phone all day so the antenna is grounded to the internal circuitry, not the casing (exemption being iphone 4 and 4s) thus permits negligible interference. And of course they go through extensive testing, it's apple.
who said I was going to be testing reception with a plastic prototype? you seem to be putting words in my mouth. This prototype is fitment only, obviously.
"Aluminum does in fact block RF energy" yes, and so does your hand, abs, and so does oxygen and nitrogen. A cloudy day inhibits reception. You replied to this topic as if this is the first ever aluminum case made for a phone. This has been done before.
"It like most metals doesn't absorb shock well. It really is not going to provide any shock protection for the phone at all and may make it worse." This right here is a bit ridiculous. back to physics. I am invoking newtons second law of motion. F = m (dv/dt)
If force is what we are looking for (since this tends to be the deciding factor on whether your screen will crack or not), delta mass is constant and delta v (velocity) is our only varible. If delta v is our change is acceleration (or in this case deceleration, but thats not an appropriate way to approach this since deceleration is less acceleration) you basically just said that a metal case increase acceleration of the phone when it hits the ground. Maybe you hadn't thought this far into it when you posted, but that is absurd. And I know you are into biking and while aluminum may giver a harder ride than carbon fiber, there are bigger variables than bike frames such as tire type, saddle type and frame geometry. And no offense but your tush isn't a very accurate G-meter. On top of this I'm sure you are aware that you are way more likely to break a carbon fiber bike than an aluminum one because aluminum is soft and flexible and carbon fiber is hard and strong but brittle. but now i digress lol.
back to metals and aircraft. aircraft as you state use alloys of aluminum and are a bad example. but I guess in a way this further proves my point "Aluminum alloys are used extensively in aircraft due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. On the other hand, pure aluminum metal is much too soft for such uses, and it does not have the high tensile strength that is needed for
airplanes and
helicopters." source:
Aluminium alloy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
all in all aluminum can reflect or absorb RF, in the end it should be a wash or negligible. Like you said it could even improve receptiom. but untill I get a local machinist to CNC one, we wait. Again this is not the first aluminum case for a phone.
Oh and not meaning to talk down to you with newtons 3rd law, I have no idea what level of education you have and error on the side of explanation.
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