Completed MJOLNIR: The minimalistic – but not boring – 9.7L Case

[For_Science]

Hey Alex

I can send Korean spicy ramen to your team.

Would you like to try?

I hope that's not an attempted bribe for the giveaway in broad daylight. I will have to alert the authorities right away ?.

 

[AlexTzone]

Are you considering various designs for the Booster Cell's cut-out concept?

There will be many people who are looking forward to it.

Yeah we've tried a lot of different designs, but many of them looked either over-complicated or inefficient :/

@AlexTzone
Hi Alex

I hope you are enjoying January. Now that the Kickstarter has finished and that the design seems to be more or less finalized the silence is almost eerie! I look forward to seeing who won the prize draw soon (I was surprised to see that Sweden now allows prize draws, pretty sure it wasn't the case a few years ago!). Hoping that things in the background are working well.

I just thought I'd take the opportunity to summarize the things that happened in the PeakDesign Travel Tripod Kickstarter after funding. There were some notable rocky events that happened and the reaction of the backers were interesting so I thought maybe it may be beneficial for you too.

Generally speaking at least 1 update per month were provided, including photos from the factory, photos of production models which were very encouraging to see as a backer.

3 months after the Kickstarter campaign a major change in the final product was necessary, the carbon fiber tripod was not to be all carbon fiber (the center column needed to be replaced for aluminium). This was a major change that was met with an equal amount of upset and noise. PeakDesign posted 1 update and 1 YouTube video dedicated to the reasoning as to why this change was necessary. However not all people were convinced and PeakDesign did allow
for those people to refund their pledges. This would be equivalent if for example down the line it turns out Unibody would not be possible, and I think it was the right thing to do to allow those unhappy people to get their money back. Now that Mjolnir has a lot of new part and features, it would be really great if you keep this in mind for when and if the time comes.

In December (the initial estimated shipping month) it became apparant that not all tripods would be making it to people in that month. This was met with absolute fury and since December the comments of the Kickstarter has been filled with "Where's my tripod" "Why have some people got it and not me" blah blah blah, it is honestly completely unbearable to read and brings the mental age of photography enthusiasts into question. I'm not sure what could have been done to avoid this except for perhaps when the delay became apparant, instead of saying they will ship by January, for them to estimate much further so that people won't be so pushy now that it is the end of January.

A PeakDesign employee pretty much has to give an update (in the comments section) every 2-3 days as to what percentage of tripods in each country has been dispatched so that the people are somewhat satisfied. In this particular campaign US backers got their tripods first and then now slowly the rest of the world is getting theirs (EU and Canada seems to be getting theirs last).

Heey! Basically what we're doing now is summarizing all backer data (changes, extras, etc) and all factories to vet in China in February. It's mostly boring stuff (update-wise), i.e. today we listed another 2 factories, tomorrow another 2, etc. We'll tolerance optimize the final design starting in 3 days, for a total of 1 week. Not much practical stuff can be done until the Chinese New Year is over, so we wanted to fill that time with giveaway winners, etc...but...

Then I got a nasty infection in one of my wisdom teeth that spread to the face, so had to get on meds a while to get rid of it. Didn't want to announce the winners looking like a hamster ?

Now everything is back on track, and our giveaway tools have arrived! We'll film the procedure tomorrow! ??

With regards to production, one of the factories was particularly interesting. They've had experience with high-surface quality OEM precision extrusions in smooth dark gray anodizing (color / finish-wise it's exactly what we're looking for). They've also worked with a couple of big names in the case industry, definitely look forward to vet them in February.

Btw thanks a lot for sharing the peak design process, it's certainly interesting to see how they handle everything (especially any pit falls)! Dygma Raise is another interesting story with very detailed updates of the whole process.

@ Alex Thorzone & Admin SFF.network

Is it possible to start a Vendor Forum for the Mjolnir?

Definitely interesting, but it's best to wait until the units are shipped first

 

[Sazexa]

Hello everyone. First time posting here. I've been into SFF for a very long time. At least 10 years now. I've done many builds but, I'm pretty excited to get my hands on my Mjolnir when it comes in. I've been in pretty frequent contact with Alex, and the team through him, basically through out the life of the project. It's great to see it finally coming close to a physical unit we'll get out hands on. I have, what I consider, quite a unique and powerful build planned for the Mjolnir and I can't wait to share it with you all. There's a lot I'll chime in on as things unfold from here. ?

 

[keepcoding]

Maybe a stupid question, but how do I figure out which backer number that I have?

[edit] Just figured it out (it is hidden on kickstarter under 'view pledge' all the way at the bottom).

 

[wolfatpno]

I hope that's not an attempted bribe for the giveaway in broad daylight. I will have to alert the authorities right away ?.

Do you want to eat too? lol

 

[For_Science]

@AlexTzone I was thinking overnight if you guys do anything in particular to allow for the TG window to "snap" into the windows frame. In my head it would seem very easy to chip the glass and cause a big mess in the process if you have to apply any kind of lateral force onto the panel. This is a concern for me since I am sort of interested in seeing if I can replace the window with something else, but prefer to do it non-destructively.

Almost felt if the windowed panel itself was a sandwich of two aluminium frames that either snapped or screwed then one could safely remove the glass.

 

[Sazexa]

@AlexTzone I was thinking overnight if you guys do anything in particular to allow for the TG window to "snap" into the windows frame. In my head it would seem very easy to chip the glass and cause a big mess in the process if you have to apply any kind of lateral force onto the panel. This is a concern for me since I am sort of interested in seeing if I can replace the window with something else, but prefer to do it non-destructively.

Almost felt if the windowed panel itself was a sandwich of two aluminium frames that either snapped or screwed then one could safely remove the glass.

To make it a sandwich part that clamps together to hold a piece of glass probably would make it significantly thicker.

I'm sure if you can snap the glass in, it can be snapped out (or done so at least a few times) without breaking the glass.

They are also most likely doing this as a means of trying to keep the glass as flush as possible without some crazy custom two-step thickness glass piece.

Arguably, they could maybe maybe the glass held in my some screws that screw directly into the panel, but that might steal interior clearance for when the core slides in.

What are you planning to do to the glass that you can't do while it's in the panel?

 

[For_Science]

What are you planning to do to the glass that you can't do while it's in the panel?

Replace it for a mesh, for example

 

[Sazexa]

Replace it for a mesh, for example

If you're going that route, why not just get something like rubber channel, mount some magnets into it, and make a full on replacement panel.

I assume the purpose of a mesh panel for you would be for better airflow, so if you do this you have a lot more surface area in general and if you do it right you can still look really high quality in like it belongs on the case.

In any scenario, if absolute worst case would be that you could probably find a local glass company to make you an exact copy of the panel for probably under $60 or so. I had a Lian Li O11 and had custom glass panels made for it, since I didn't like the factory copper tint ones. It cost me somewhere around $100 USD for two large panels with holes drilled for screw mounting, and window tinting preapplied.

 

[For_Science]

If you're going that route, why not just get something like rubber channel, mount some magnets into it, and make a full on replacement panel.

I assume the purpose of a mesh panel for you would be for better airflow, so if you do this you have a lot more surface area in general and if you do it right you can still look really high quality in like it belongs on the case.

In any scenario, if absolute worst case would be that you could probably find a local glass company to make you an exact copy of the panel for probably under $60 or so. I had a Lian Li O11 and had custom glass panels made for it, since I didn't like the factory copper tint ones. It cost me somewhere around $100 USD for two large panels with holes drilled for screw mounting, and window tinting preapplied.

You raise some good alternatives, but I do think it would look the best with the stock frame, given that they are very thin now the surface area lost is also negligible.

Getting a replacement glass panel is not something I considered so its good that you mention it, but also it would be $60 additional spending that is unneeded if the glass can be safely popped out. Since this side panel has not existed in the real world yet, I wanted to ask Alex who has the best chance amongst us all of knowing.

 

[wolfatpno]

I hope Alex gets well soon and comes back to the forum.

 

[AlexTzone]

Hello everyone. First time posting here. I've been into SFF for a very long time. At least 10 years now. I've done many builds but, I'm pretty excited to get my hands on my Mjolnir when it comes in. I've been in pretty frequent contact with Alex, and the team through him, basically through out the life of the project. It's great to see it finally coming close to a physical unit we'll get out hands on. I have, what I consider, quite a unique and powerful build planned for the Mjolnir and I can't wait to share it with you all. There's a lot I'll chime in on as things unfold from here. ?

Man that rig of yours will look epic, can't wait to see it once you get your case! Also, epic to see you here on the forum at last ?

Do you want to eat too? lol

I want to eat spicy ramen!! ?

@AlexTzone I was thinking overnight if you guys do anything in particular to allow for the TG window to "snap" into the windows frame. In my head it would seem very easy to chip the glass and cause a big mess in the process if you have to apply any kind of lateral force onto the panel. This is a concern for me since I am sort of interested in seeing if I can replace the window with something else, but prefer to do it non-destructively.

Almost felt if the windowed panel itself was a sandwich of two aluminium frames that either snapped or screwed then one could safely remove the glass.

The glass frame is pretty flexible (it similar to the current one in terms on thickness, but smarter in terms of function). The TG panel is held from 2 sides (upper and lower), so you can carefully flex them out and the glass will fall out. The factory thinks that a 1mm deep channel above and below is enough to secure the glass, but I definitely want to test it IRL before committing to a large order. In any case, if you are careful I'm quite certain you'll have no problems with chipping

I hope Alex gets well soon and comes back to the forum.

Oh everything is well here friend! We're basically tolerance optimizing the final 3D model now and waiting for the factories to open again so that we can proceed to the next step ?

 

[For_Science]

Oh everything is well here friend! We're basically tolerance optimizing the final 3D model now and waiting for the factories to open again so that we can proceed to the next step ?

Hopefully this coronavirus is over soon so that you can visit china if you need to inspect the manufacturing

 

[Sazexa]

Man that rig of yours will look epic, can't wait to see it once you get your case! Also, epic to see you here on the forum at last ?

I've lurked here long enough, figured it was time to join ?

 

[AlexTzone]

Hopefully this coronavirus is over soon so that you can visit china if you need to inspect the manufacturing

Yeah definitely, talk about bad timing for a virus to start, we'll have to see how things progress and if the factories are up and running on schedule ? Could have been worse though, like a stray black hole entering the solar system...that would cause somewhat of a delay.

 

[For_Science]

Yeah definitely, talk about bad timing for a virus to start, we'll have to see how things progress and if the factories are up and running on schedule ? Could have been worse though, like a stray black hole entering the solar system...that would cause somewhat of a delay.

If there is nobody left to notice the delay, then is there really a delay?

 

[AlexTzone]

If there is nobody left to notice the delay, then is there really a delay?

Haha well played sir! ?

 

[Jakyrian]

Does anyone know if the new EK 120mm AIO would fit inside the Mjolnir? Really interested to see how it compares to the H60 V2 if so. https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-aio-120-d-rgb

 

[thekinghippo]

Does anyone know if the new EK 120mm AIO would fit inside the Mjolnir? Really interested to see how it compares to the H60 V2 if so. https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-aio-120-d-rgb

According to specs it shouldn't. 53mm tall when Mjolnir supports 51mm. That does look cool though.

 

[Sharknose]

According to specs it shouldn't. 53mm tall when Mjolnir supports 51mm. That does look cool though.

The engineering diagram shows a total pump block height including mounting screws for backplate as being 52mm. The height above the CPU when mounted and tightened down might be less than 51mm. I'll hold out hope for a 'maybe' on this one. Sure looks like a neat pump design.