4GB and 1,5GHz? Confirmed.


EvilDragon

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Busy, busy, busy... that what describes my life best right now.
That's also why you haven't seen me posting a lot at the boards... I had a lot of projects (with my TV company) which had deadlines I had to keep, so I worked on them during the daytime and on Pyra-related stuff during the nighttime.

Now most of those deadline-projects are finished so I finally find some time to give you some updates!

1. Boards and more prototypes

zmatt has already received his prototype and has already submitted quite a lot of patches.
One of the most important one probably is that he enabled the 4GB RAM in U-Boot.
We haven't done extensive testing of that yet in Linux, but there's no reason those 4GB RAM shouldn't work fine. We might need to optimize the timings a bit, but that's probably it.

He also enabled one feature of the OMAP5 which made all prototype boards we have now run at 1.5GHz as well (Nikolaus even tested some up to 1.7GHz)!
Yep, you read correctly: We've got them running at 1.5GHz now!

Does that mean all that optimizing and testing was for naught?
No, certainly not. Two of the prototype boards are pretty unreliable - and the unoptimized PCB could be the reason for that, as each OMAP5 has different tolerances and it might be "too noisy" for some.
The better your board is optimized, the less likely are problems deriving from that.

So, Nikolaus has tested all boards and made a few fixes to them (nothing major) and gave them to me so I can assemble more prototypes.
I've only got four clear cases left right now (more on that further down) so I can't build that many prototypes yet, but each prototype in the capable hands of a dev is a great addition.

Nikolaus also made the changes to the mainboard (including Wifi antenna optimizations) and already sent them to Global Components.

Which means: We can order these as well - so much for the main hardware :D


2. The cases

We've found another two last-minute changes for the cases:

  • The shoulderbuttons were okay, but I could easily improve them by removing about 0.3mm plastic with a knife.
  • The keyboard area was a bit too narrow (for some reason, the molds were off 0.6mm compared to the 3D data) and therefore made the normal keyboard keys a bit harder to press.

Both issues have already been fixed in the mold and according to FormAction, the new cases will be produced on Monday and then sent to us.
Hopefully the final revision as well!



3. The keymat

The company that produces the keymat was also working very hard to find out the reasons the keymat was a bit inconsistent.
They also noticed the issue of the case I mentioned above :)

The reason for the varying quality of the key was the use of a primer.
The primer makes glueing the keycaps onto the keymat a lot easier, however it seems to affect the keymat.

They will use a stencil layer so that the primer will ONLY be where the keys are glued, so it can't affect the keymat itself.

Additionally, the material will be changed as well: Did you know that there exists a silicone made especially for gaming pads? I didn't - and they also didn't. But they'll use that now.

The new samples are planned to arrive here in week 12 - and then they REALLY should be ready for mass production as well.


4. The LCD Cable


Nothing special here, just a quick note of a small improvement of the LCD Cable:
We increased the length by 5mm and added small ears at the display-board side of the cable as well.

This doesn't have anything to do with functionality, it just makes assembling the unit a lot easier.


So much for todays news.
Pretty good ones, I think. And showing that we're getting there in a good pace. Always moving forward :)
 
woohoo, updates galore! :)
great to hear that the keymat issue is identified. i hope switching to the new material is going smooth.
also new cases done next week is freakin' awesome!

...and now off to the weekend with you! :)
 
Fantastic news @ED! More to the point, glad you're okay. Was getting concerned that the flu had got the better of you again.

So excited for this now :)
 
fryparty.gif Yay! In 2 months more!
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there exists a silicone made especially for gaming
Of course we know this: Funbags

by removing about 0.3mm plastic with a knife
Ouch... this means the metal casing where the plastic is injected to needs to be redone (as all you can do is make things wider when extruding more). I guess for both left and right paddles...
 
great news re: memory, the one thing I've found very limiting with the PI for example (and others for that matter) is the memory, especially as this machine will easily cope with the likes of xfce (worked like a charm on pandora) this will make end to end 3d printing design practical on the hoof!
 
ED I love you have my babies.
I think that might be difficult for him for biological reasons. If you plan to just give him your children I hope he tells you to raise your own damn kids. :p

Ouch... this means the metal casing where the plastic is injected to needs to be redone (as all you can do is make things wider when extruding more). I guess for both left and right paddles...
That is what I read as well. Kinda sucks, and hope it doesn't require much money and that it will all still be just as reliable as if it had been one piece.
 
Ouch... this means the metal casing where the plastic is injected to needs to be redone (as all you can do is make things wider when extruding more). I guess for both left and right paddles...

Or maybe... he will just buy a lot of knives !!
 
Regarding the keymat: "The new samples are planned to arrive here in week 12".
I'm a little lost on how I should interpret this. Does this mean the 12th week of the year (end of March ish)? Is it a a typo and meant to be "here in a week or two"?

-edit-
Thanks for the people suggesting it is week 12 of the year.
 
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Or the Pyra will include a small knife and instructions how to remove about 0.3mm plastic with it...
Maybe they will be cool knives. :)

Regarding the keymat: "The new samples are planned to arrive here in week 12".
I'm a little lost on how I should interpret this. Does this mean the 12th week of the year (end of March ish)?
Pretty sure.
 
So, nothing new finalized and another iteration needed all across the board :(
I suppose bad news is better than no news.

Bad news?
All these posts from ED with small updates, improvements, fixes and his eye for detail make me more and more confident that the Pyra will become an excellent product.
 
Bad news?
All these posts from ED with small updates, improvements, fixes and his eye for detail make me more and more confident that the Pyra will become an excellent product.
I was about to say the same thing.
 
Everything I worked on a product it is working, but finishing it takes a few iterations. That's what is happening now and makes it different from a GPD where the device works but issues are solved during revisions after the first sales (no guarantee that the Pyra will not have any issues, but lot of quirks are already fixed as these updates show).
 
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