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Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

As someone working on a hardware project one of the biggest challenges we have is finding a tablet that is cheap, mass-produceable, and rugged enough to stand up for months/years of abuse. This might do the trick.

Our only options so far has been very cheap knock-off tablets and the questionable long term viability of the pengpod.

It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but have a touch-screen, metal body, usb ports, screw placements for mounting, and easy to access replacable hardware.

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There was an article on Hacker News a few months back about somebody who visited hardware manufacturers in China,and apparently you can buy a fully functional Android tablet for as low as $39 there. At that price I imagine it's not necessary to have a super-rugged device for 10x the price if you can just replace it so cheaply.

That is the price range that you can find on aliexpress.com right now, and you can buy them in large lots. However, I have no idea whether they would work when they arrived or not.

> It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but have a touch-screen, metal body, usb ports, screw placements for mounting, and easy to access replacable hardware.

Contact me off-list to discuss some options.

'cheap' and 'metal body' don't go well together. Metalwork is expensive.

> It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but...

That's very difficult criteria. You might find cases engineered for industrial environments, but there is only so much stuff you can put over the screen before the touch sensor stops working. And if that is the "weakest link" what's the value of having a back panel you can use to drive nails?

Yeah the touch-screen has been a problem - especially when trying to give something out to the general unwashed public. No amount of protective cover would have helped us when some guy or gal decided to punch one of the screens in a few months back. Meh.

By 2" thick I was talking more about a box with the touch-screen in the front with a simple plastic protective layer and a hinge you can flip open to reveal the internals. That way replacing the screen is just a dispatch-call. Or something to that effect.

Basically something that can be mounted semi-permanently, the same way as a television screen, and with the most common parts (the screen) accessible by a technician so they can be replaced when broken.

If it's a public kiosk-like environment, especially if Google Play and related apps are not important, I would suggest using an inexpensive Android compatible "dev" board and spec'ing the display separately. You need to be careful about driver support. If 2" is really acceptable, you should be able to find stuff that will be fist-proof.

If you don't strictly need multi-touch, maybe you could forgo capacitive for a hardier resistive screen? Or for a IR-based touchscreen (such as on e-readers)?

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