For this teardown, we’re joined by Telind Bench, the Lead Product Design Engineer forOrion Labs。Telind为我们提供了许多关于Navdy Heads Up Display（HUD）的精彩设计洞察力。

如果您错过了它，Navdy Head Up Display是2014年宣布的最有趣的新产品之一。它承诺为任何车辆增强现实，并在其Kickstarter支持者中添加手势控制，导航，电话和其他许多功能，仅售$ 299。

更引人注目的是,Navdy将提供所有these features from atop your vehicle dashboard—humming along at temperature extremes that can bake cookies or make instant slushies. To do that, it packed a full Android processor; Bluetooth and GPS antennas; and even a tiny projector into a beautiful, seamless-looking housing.

After a year and a half of delays, Navdy officially launched in late 2016, to largely positive reviews. However, it was not fated to last. By the end of 2017, Navdy publicly announced its liquidation and notified users that their devices would soon stop working.

So, what happened? We were curious to see what the Navdy HUD could tell us about the meteoric rise and fall of the company and whether there are any takeaways here that could improve our designs.

Here are the features of interest we’re drilling into for this teardown:

1. Clever design for injection molding –We found some really elegent design for注射成型, with some great lessons.

2. Heat sinking –Tearing down this product was basically a tour of different heat sink technologies. There are 5 different heat sinks on the Navdy, all optimized for different things.

3.注意细节 -It’s clear that the Navdy team put a lot of thought and heart into creating every part of this system, including small features like the thumbwheel.

Design for Injection Molding

Tearing down the Navdy HUD, we found some really elegantdesign for injection molding。Over and over again, the Navdy team broke large, complex parts into smaller, easy-to-mold parts.

This strategy increases part count but can be helpful if the parts would otherwise be too complex or the molds too expensive. This can be taken too far (like on the Coolest Cooler), but in this case, it allowed Navdy to have both the exterior surfacesandthe interior geometry they wanted.

Navdy engineers cleverly hid all of the parting lines using corners in the industrial design, making the assembly appear seamless from the outside.

Mold markings on the top case indicate that these parts are made of polycarbonate (PC); the date of manufacture was May of 2016 (circular date indicators); and these parts are recyclable. 701-00002 is likely the Navdy part number.

这种复杂零件的巧妙分解可能是Navdy团队仔细预测的结果。这也可能是制造合作伙伴的许多来回的结果。不过，可以肯定的是：这种设计不会在一夜之间发生。细分零件，创建模具，然后将整个零件调整为结合在一起，一定需要花费大量时间和金钱。

散热器

Projectors generate a lot of heat. Vehicle dashboards are one of the hottest environments that most consumer products ever encounter. The fact that Navdy put a projector on a dashboard means they did a pretty remarkable job removing heat from the device. Tearing down this product was basically a tour ofdifferent heat sink technologies。There are 5 different heat sinks on the Navdy, all optimized for different things.

Two types of extruded aluminum heat sinks and a sheet metal heat spreader provide low-cost, effective cooling for the processor and memory ICs. The different types were likely selected to fit under the sloped ceiling of the enclosure. A stacked sheet metal heat sink was used to cool the DLP chip, making use of the fan to pull air between the aluminum plates.

A copper heat pipe and fins were used where the projector light source needed the most cooling. Copper is more expensive but was used for its high thermal conductivity. Placing this heat sink next to the fan takes maximum advantage of airflow. The PCB even has a few holes that appear to be to improve airflow.

Navdy组装团队添加了几块泡沫和Kapton胶带，以确保所有气流都通过投影仪周围的散热器。为了关闭循环，FlyWires上的几个温度传感器监视了投影仪散热器中的温度。

Clearly, the team put in a lot of thought and design here. The memory and processor ICs can get by with some cheap but effective aluminum heat sinks. But the huge thermal load from the projector requires a couple of custom heat sinks, with temperature sensors and a fan to provide active cooling.

在发布产品之前，这看起来可能需要大量时间和金钱才能正确投资。

注意细节

很明显，Navdy团队为创建该系统的每个部分都投入了很多思考和内心。我们最喜欢的发现？丝网印刷版在电池PCB的背面上，示为“您所有的基地都属于我们。”（这是1989年游戏的标题零翼。）

The thumbwheel has a clever silicone band system that gently but securely attaches to steering wheels of different diameters and also prevents the user from installing the thumbwheel, unless the battery door is closed.

The FCC information for the thumbwheel is printed on the inside of the silicone band, which we thought was a neat solution. Ironically, this attention to detail might provide us some clues as to why Navdy went under.

作为一家新公司，将新产品推向市场，Navdy已经承担了很多风险。在上面加上对这样的细节的不懈努力将增加成本和开发时间，并可能导致Navdy最终的灭亡。

主要要点

From an engineering and design perspective, the Navdy HUD is a great product. It’s innovative, well-designed, and looks, asone reviewer说：“就像您的手机和战斗机一样，有一个婴儿。”

The注射成型design on this product is excellent. The team at Navdy did a great job with a challenging set of exterior surfaces by breaking large, complex parts into smaller, simpler parts. While this strategy can certainly be taken too far, the Navdy strikes a good balance between assembly cost and tooling cost. To top it all off, they did a great job hiding the resulting parting lines at corners, so the final product looked seamless. This is definitely a product we’ll look back to for injection molding inspiration.

我们也可以学习到很多热量从th沉没e Navdy HUD. Putting a running projector on a vehicle dashboard is a recipe for heat-related issues, but this product pulls it off nicely. With a fan for active cooling, temperature sensors to close the control loop, and a variety of different heat sinks, the Navdy is a great example of the application of different heat sink technologies.

Despite all of that, the company went under just a year after launching their first product. What happened?

一个答案可能在于对细节的细致关注。Navdy花费了大量时间和金钱来开发此产品，并且可能会遇到比他们在首次发布时所能承受的更多风险。将新产品纳入新类别已经非常具有挑战性。增加了困难的热管理问题；光滑的，最小的外表面；而且，对细节的毫不妥协的关注将有进一步的时间和成本增加，并且可能一次实在太多了。

There’s evidence that the Navdy team encountered more difficulties than they anticipated. Between the prototype they showed in 2014 and the units customers received in 2016, they cut features, like a microphone and aux output, and changed the exterior surfaces. The price rose from a projected $500 to $799 at launch but was dropped to $599, then $499, and eventually $399, perhaps indicating slow sales.

团队是否愿意承担风险和关注细节的意愿将其从市场上淘汰？很难说。其他因素，例如供应链，制造商协议和业务策略，都在设定价格中发挥作用。但是，当我们设计产品时，要考虑的一件事是（何时）我们是否必须为业务利益牺牲产品质量。有时，将设备伸入用户的手中（向投资者证明有一个市场）比提供完美的产品更重要。如果Navdy用更简单的散热器提供了更大，更便宜或更具拳头的产品，他们是否有机会推出第二版？这是不可能知道的。但这始终是我们考虑我们的工作如何影响用户和整个业务的好时机。也许在接下来的手之前再喝一杯咖啡，看看您发现了什么。