Hi Kyle,
I still think it's pretty darned good as is. Nothing wrong with tweaking it and don't take my comments as some sort of a diatribe. They aren't. I'm no printing expert so don't know what's possible or not with the material. As far as a belt clip goes, I've never found one on any radio that I like. I have an old style flip phone that I bought an aftermarket case that has an inter-locking tab on the belt case. That case isn't going anywhere. I've lost two phones from slipping off a belt with cases of simpler design. One phone I subsequently ran over with an SUV and the other one is lying in the dirt in a Central Illinois farm field/launchsite. Since they're $20.00 subscription phones I didn't have any concern whatsoever because I can turn them off from a computer now. Most belt clips slip off too easily and I wouldn't want to drop the case on something hard. With more individuals who have "ample girth" (I'm not in that category as my body mass index is in the normal range.) it's more of a problem with anything that has a belt clip to slip off. If one stuffs that heavier battery in the handle, with more mass there's more chance of something breaking if it lands on something hard.
I'd suggest if the material is strong enough, to integrate a lanyard tab. If it's not, then just leave it the same.
I will make a suggestion to a user to use a JST connector like I did so one can easily pull it out and charge the pack without taking the handle off. Remove the four case screws, take off the back and pull out the charge socket. If using the 1500mah 2S pack one might not need an extension but it's easier to leave the battery connected and use a "freer" socket to connect the charger to. Also I'd recommend if a user wants to be able to balance charge the pack in-situ to get an extension cable for the balance port of their charger. Anything to avoid
having to remove the handle once the pack is in place.
For long life, avoid dropping, leaving out in high heat and minimize multiple removals of the handle. If one needs to remove the handle, hold the case between the legs with the handle up
and remove the screws. One wants to avoid the case slipping with one screw out and the other partially unscrewed. An unbalanced force could snap the material from around the screw and that might mean one would have to permanently epoxy the handle to the case to make it serviceable. Of course that would mean no easy access to the enclosed battery pack so simply be careful.
If I were to get a 3rd LCD unit, I would buy another one of these cases from Kyle.
(Different color for variety)
Sheesh, I may have to do that as my second unit in the yellow case, the screen will go mysteriously blank after it's been on for awhile. The data still comes in over the bluetooth
link to GPS Rocket Locator and if I turn it off/on the screen comes back up, only to go blank at some indeterminate time later. It's not the connector and Cris says it's probably a bad LCD. He's sending me another one with a header. If that's not it, I'll drop the screen out of my
"good" unit in the black case and if the same behavior is seen, will assume I messed up something on the main board.
Oh, FWIW my unit with B/T, 1500mah battery, antenna and ready to go weighs 255 grams or about 9 ounces.
Kurt Savegnago