The MSTR Case

[Fallon]

That case looks pretty awful to be honest.

It's a MiSTer design classic. Some people have zero taste.

[chanunnaki]

Hmm, I like almost everything about that case in the posted YT video by callanabrown except the drink holder, but it's a nice personal touch.

It's clearly just a personal project and not designed for mass production, but with a custom-built keyboard, custom PCBs to refine the internals and milled/cast from aluminium and anodised, I see nothing fundamentally wrong with the foundational tenets of the design. Those being the integrated keyboard and the display. I really like those two aspects, and to combine that with ethos and clear quality of what Akicus and daemonbite can produce, would be something I'd be totally interested in. The MSTR case could be the "console" MiSTer and the one with the keyboard could be the "computer" one. I'd take one of each, so I hope it happens.

On the topic of general/product design, I personally have a pet hate for anybody using 3D FDM-printed items are general-use items. For me, it's mainly for prototyping, but anybody who's into 3D printing and wants to present their stuff to the world as a usable product would be wise to research methods into finishing off the surface of their prints. The finish is what takes it out of the realm of hobbyist project completely. Even SLA/DLP printers, while they can produce incredible surface finishes, the results still needs some sort of finish to truly bring out the qualities of the design.

I'm firmly in the "almost all design is entirely subjective" camp. Few things can be considered objectively bad so you can't really state something looks "pretty awful to be honest" without looking like an uninformed, ignorant douche.

[aberu]

It's not an insult in any way to suggest that it's telling when somebody doesn't have industrial design experience, to say that to somebody who does have that experience would of course be insulting.
It was a strange suggestion to post that here and suggest it could be useful for a future design.
If you look at some of the cases that Mike has worked on previously you will see that there is a world difference between a case that doesn't do this work professionally and somebody who has designed and built a case for themselves. As I said, the posted case is fine for the type of case it is, just as many other home made cases are.
https://www.daemonbite.com/

There is nothing wrong with people designing and building their own cases and I would fully encourage people to do that.The MSTR case is not what that is and will be professionally manufactured out of aluminium and will likely cost what a professionally manufactured casee should cost so to post a homemade case here and to suggest that it may be a future option for akicus and Mike is not the way to do things, they're clearly more than capable of creating their own hardware and from everything that has been shown here, doing that in the best way possible.
I'm all for people making their own cases but posting that here with that suggestion seems to me like it's completely missing the point.

Reread the comment that you originally replied to. They just vaguely mentioned how they liked it for the mt32-pi display and integrated keyboard, and they said they thought it would be cool if an alternate case was made like that in the future.

You seemed to have interpreted this as "you need to make the case similar to this one" which isn't what that person you replied to said at all. You blew that comment completely out of proportion. They didn't say "this amateur case could be useful for a future design", they said "I like the mt32-pi and keyboard integration, that would be cool if you did that in an alternate version."

I can see why you made such a rude comment as you were basically replying to some comment the person never even made, as if you were trying to protect akicus from a perceived slight or something lol

[akicus]

Thanks for the feedback lol, yes I don't have industrial design experience.

DIY projects are always intetesting to look at and it had some nice things about it for sure like the keyboard and have everything built together into one case, I know some people want this for sure.
Maybe some day...

[LamerDeluxe]

I'm firmly in the "almost all design is entirely subjective" camp.

I don't agree with that, it would mean that you wouldn't have to study to become a good designer and there wouldn't be any designers that are generally considered to be very talented. Apart from developing an eye for good design by studying and practicing it, there are lots of guidelines you can learn to create good looking designs.

A good looking design will usually be the result of many different designs and iterations. The designer has to be able to explain his motivation for every detail of it. There will often be a certain thought or theme behind a design.

[chanunnaki]

I'm firmly in the "almost all design is entirely subjective" camp.

I don't agree with that, it would mean that you wouldn't have to study to become a good designer and there wouldn't be any designers that are generally considered to be very talented. Apart from developing an eye for good design by studying and practicing it, there are lots of guidelines you can learn to create good looking designs.

A good looking design will usually be the result of many different designs and iterations. The designer has to be able to explain his motivation for every detail of it. There will often be a certain thought or theme behind a design.

I don't see what you really mean. Regardless of what you study, no matter how accomplished, design is subjective. Same way there is nothing objetively good in design, there is nothing objectively bad. Like the perceived beauty of a person's face. Is there someone on this earth who can be considered objectively beautiful? a 10/10 to every person on earth? Is there much difference between the aestethics of a being and an object? Not for me personally...

It doesn't mean every design is good or has merit. There are such things as bad designs, but still not necessarily objectively bad. It's oftentimes a situational thing and "fit-for-purpose". Something designed for a person with disability might be considered objectively bad to someone without such disability and without knowledge of the impetus behind the design. Anyway, I'm blabbering.

[LamerDeluxe]

I'm firmly in the "almost all design is entirely subjective" camp.

I don't agree with that, it would mean that you wouldn't have to study to become a good designer and there wouldn't be any designers that are generally considered to be very talented. Apart from developing an eye for good design by studying and practicing it, there are lots of guidelines you can learn to create good looking designs.

A good looking design will usually be the result of many different designs and iterations. The designer has to be able to explain his motivation for every detail of it. There will often be a certain thought or theme behind a design.

I don't see what you really mean. Regardless of what you study, no matter how accomplished, design is subjective.

I was explaining why it isn't, but that was purely about visual design.

Same way there is nothing objetively good in design, there is nothing objectively bad.

If no thought has been put into a design it is objectively bad, unless it turns out to be good by sheer coincidence.

Like the perceived beauty of a person's face. Is there someone on this earth who can be considered objectively beautiful? a 10/10 to every person on earth?

Beauty reflects how (genetically) healthy a person is, there have been lots of studies about what makes a face beautiful.

A design can be objectively good without having to be liked by everyone. Just because there happens to be someone subjectively not liking it, doesn't mean it is an objectively bad design.

Is there much difference between the aestethics of a being and an object? Not for me personally...

I agree. A (genetically) healthy human or animal has a visual design quality that IMO hasn't been matched by any designer.

It doesn't mean every design is good or has merit. There are such things as bad designs, but still not necessarily objectively bad. It's oftentimes a situational thing and "fit-for-purpose". Something designed for a person with disability might be considered objectively bad to someone without such disability and without knowledge of the impetus behind the design. Anyway, I'm blabbering.

I've been mostly talking from a visual design point of view, but there are lots of other forms of design of course.

For instance user interface and interaction design. There a lots of guidelines there as well, for the use of color, positioning, the shape of elements, how things respond to the user etc. A good UI/UX design will work intuitively. If it responds in a way the user doesn't expect, the user will lose confidence in the application. In this case the design will be less objective, as it will depend on the kind of interaction that most users of a certain group are used to. As well as what society in general has decided something should look like or how it should respond.
In this case a design might indeed not be good for all users, for instance many things have been designed for right-handed people.

[Milspex]

ok back to how cool the MSTR case is please.. I'm just curious how it's gonna pan out when they decide to use the 2nd header as well for adding more ram. I don't think anything like that is on the cards as of yet

[akicus]

ok back to how cool the MSTR case is please.. I'm just curious how it's gonna pan out when they decide to use the 2nd header as well for adding more ram. I don't think anything like that is on the cards as of yet

If we start using 256mb ram then a new type of I/O board needs to be developed, VGA/RGB would probably not be available.
Not sure when we will go that route though...

[ericcannon]

Is this project dead? I was really looking forward to this case.

[grizzly]

You know that everything does not happen in maximum 5min right?

[Milspex]

haha 3 weeks no posts = dead project these days

chill..

[akicus]

Hi,

We are still working on it, not dead yet .

We will post something by next week as we are adding a OLED screen to it thus changing a little to the front of the case (case should still be of the same size). We thought that since more people want this feature why not include it?

A possible second OLED screen on cassette (MT-32 for example) would then also be possible so it displays both the core on the main OLED screen and show the MT32 on the OLED screen on the cassette.

We have a way of presenting a specific ROM on the main OLED screen as well, more on that later.


See you next week!


Early picture of our OLED implementation (final design will be different).

OLEDMSTR.jpg

[venice]

...
We have a way of presenting a specific ROM on the main OLED screen as well, more on that later.

I am curious to see how this will work.

[akicus]

...
We have a way of presenting a specific ROM on the main OLED screen as well, more on that later.

I am curious to see how this will work.

It is a little limited but I think people will like it. Love your project btw, fantastic work.

[Slipard]

yet

Anyway, nice progress.
I really like that how the project evolves and aims to be an all-rounder without sacrificing quality.
That's almost a miracle happening here.

[venice]

... Love your project btw, fantastic work.

Ditto Many Thanks

[aberu]

ok back to how cool the MSTR case is please.. I'm just curious how it's gonna pan out when they decide to use the 2nd header as well for adding more ram. I don't think anything like that is on the cards as of yet

If we start using 256mb ram then a new type of I/O board needs to be developed, VGA/RGB would probably not be available.
Not sure when we will go that route though...

Send a private message to sorgelig if you want more official information. I think it's only something that's possible, but there are no for sure plans yet. I think with the Sega Saturn core it was being considered, but we just don't know yet if it will be required.

[akicus]

So most likely we will use this OLED display (2.08"), 256x64. It is more rectangular and will fit better with the bottom part of the case. Notice also that the headset jack and "slider" are on the left side and the slider has turned into a wheel instead to make everything more compact and nothing is protruding.

OLED256x64.png

OLED2Inch.png

Thoughts?

[Milspex]

pretty cool. Is it optional though?

[astrovewlix]

I love how we don’t get updates on this project in a while…people complain.

We get updates with cool new additions…people [still] complain.

Optional? Feature creep? Am I just reading this wrong?

[Milspex]

Yes you are. The comments are positive

[akicus]

ok back to how cool the MSTR case is please.. I'm just curious how it's gonna pan out when they decide to use the 2nd header as well for adding more ram. I don't think anything like that is on the cards as of yet

If we start using 256mb ram then a new type of I/O board needs to be developed, VGA/RGB would probably not be available.
Not sure when we will go that route though...

Send a private message to sorgelig if you want more official information. I think it's only something that's possible, but there are no for sure plans yet. I think with the Sega Saturn core it was being considered, but we just don't know yet if it will be required.

Yeah, we will have this in mind during the development of the case, thank you.

pretty cool. Is it optional though?

Since we will have to buy a lot of displays it adds almost nothing to the total price of everything (we will buy a Taiwanese brand called Winstar). We could maybe have a version for people who don't want it or be able to shut the screen off somehow, that is also an option.

Looking good to me.
I would think that a wheel makes more sense than the initial slider youare getting pretty limited in terms of space on the front of the case.
Seeing the OLED for me it is very much about the mt32-pi for me as it would end up being really useful for that but seeing that image with the battery icon on the display has got me thinking about displaying how charged the controller is for people using things like the 8BitDo then it got me thinking about displaying scores in arcade cores.
Silly ideas really, I'd imagine modifications being needed to whatever was running and it's also getting deep into feature creep with daft ideas like these. It's often best to not over complicate things.

Yeah I understand. The MT32-pi display will be on the cassette so maybe we should have some way of shutting off the main display if people don't want to see it, not everyone likes a glowing display. I'll look into it.

[grizzly]

Yeah I understand. The MT32-pi display will be on the cassette so maybe we should have some way of shutting off the main display if people don't want to see it, not everyone likes a glowing display. I'll look into it.

Wait doesn´t every one want a bright blinding screen and 87 mini suns blinding you when you play?

Ps.
Post could conatain small amounts of irony

[akicus]

Yeah I understand. The MT32-pi display will be on the cassette so maybe we should have some way of shutting off the main display if people don't want to see it, not everyone likes a glowing display. I'll look into it.

Wait doesn´t every one want a bright blinding screen and 87 mini suns blinding you when you play?

Ps.
Post could conatain small amounts of irony

I guess not ^_^. It should be possible to run a script through the menu to shut it off.

[akicus]

What do people think about using a e-ink color display instead of OLED? It is just a question, not saying we will use it.

Looking good to me.
I would think that a wheel makes more sense than the initial slider youare getting pretty limited in terms of space on the front of the case.
Seeing the OLED for me it is very much about the mt32-pi for me as it would end up being really useful for that but seeing that image with the battery icon on the display has got me thinking about displaying how charged the controller is for people using things like the 8BitDo then it got me thinking about displaying scores in arcade cores.
Silly ideas really, I'd imagine modifications being needed to whatever was running and it's also getting deep into feature creep with daft ideas like these. It's often best to not over complicate things.

Yeah I understand. The MT32-pi display will be on the cassette so maybe we should have some way of shutting off the main display if people don't want to see it, not everyone likes a glowing display. I'll look into it.

No, sorry, I think I'm just not explaining very well.
I'm certainly not against having either of the screens there but I was trying to explain that MT32-Pi screen for me is the important screen and I'd be diappointed if that wasn't there but anything other than that is extra to what I see as the important reason for having a screen but I'm certainly not against having the casette screen and/or the the second screen in any way.
I hope that makes more sense?
I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what intersting things you're able to do with the screens as I imagine you have a few ideas bouncing around in your head at the moment. I said, I do like the idea of being able to see how charged your controller is on the screen but I imagine things like that are just complicating things.

Fully understood.

I think we can come up with something that people like.

[Milspex]

No way the case is going to be big enough to fit the Mister, the custom boards, a hdd and a raspberry pi for mt32-pi though right?

Oh wait or is there going to be a mt32-pi cassette? I think I misunderstood.

[akicus]

No way the case is going to be big enough to fit the Mister, the custom boards, a hdd and a raspberry pi for mt32-pi though right?

Oh wait or is there going to be a mt32-pi cassette? I think I misunderstood.

The cassette will hold the mt32-pi, correct.
To be fair though it takes planning to be able to fit everything, but it will be ok.

[virtuali]

The cassette will hold the mt32-pi, correct.

Please be sure it will fit both RPI A and B models. While it's likely most mt32-pi users have the A model, I had a spare B model I didn't used, so perhaps others are in the same situation, it would be nice if the case could fit both.

[Milspex]

I think it's gonna be a little bit expensive but then again I do believe there surely is a big market for a more premium mister case.