Getting closer...


I wish I could share in the optimism, but I read the post like this:

Currently:
  • No news on the cases, probably delayed by Greek new year (only some empty promises)
  • CPU boards delayed by Chinese new year
  • Mainboards WiFi seems to be stronger, boards still need more testing
  • No solution yet for sirring noise removal
  • At least one more iteration for mainboards is needed
  • Cooling solution is still ongoing
Future:
  • Perhaps a prototype if all of the above are fixed
  • Maybe SoC upgrade board based on i.MX8 M Quadlite (open source 3D drivers and more power efficient)
So, nothing has been checked off as finished, everything is still ongoing.

My guestimate: prototype around summer, production in Q4, delivery in 2019.
 
Cooling solution is still ongoing
That's not something to be pessimistic about. If we believe EvilDragon, then he has a cooling solution that works sufficiently well already, and we should be satisfied if that's as far as it went, but he's doing further tests to see if it can be improved while waiting for other stuff to finish. This is an efficient use of time and should not be counted as a negative.
 
No news on the cases, probably delayed by Greek new year (only some empty promises)

Well, my contact has checked that all the fixes have been made to the molds, but the samples need to be produced.
The important thing is that the changes have been done.

CPU boards delayed by Chinese new year

Sure, that's a bummer, but not we can do about this here.

Mainboards WiFi seems to be stronger, boards still need more testing

Thorough testing. It works as good as my smartphone, but you should still test it with different routers, etc.
The important thing is that the revised layout has fixed the Wifi issue.
As all other known issues of the mainboard has been fixed now as well, the layout is fix and we can safely consider the mainboard to be finished as well.

No solution yet for sirring noise removal

That was to be expected if you follow the news:
CPU board production takes 6 weeks, Mainboard production takes 4 weeks.

Testing different capacitors can be done while we're waiting for the PCBs.
Testing whether the known issues had been fixed and that Wifi works fine had a higher priority, as those were mandatory to ORDER the mainboards (they might've needed layout changes).

So if we first would've worked on fixing the sirring noises instead of testing Wifi and fixed, the mainboard production would've been delayed by a couple of weeks.
Not a good idea if you ask me.

At least one more iteration for mainboards is needed

Not really one more iteration. The layout is now done and tested, nothing more is needed.

But how should we build prototypes without the mainboards?
Also, where is the problem with that if the CPU boards need 6 weeks in production and the mainboards 4 weeks (could even be sped up to 2 weeks for a bit money more)?
The important things are...

a) The mainboard has been tested and works
b) The mainboard is being produced in parallel to the CPU board and both should arrive at GC at the same time.

Cooling solution is still ongoing

What's the problem with that? The cooling we had is already working fine (it cools the CPU down by 20°C).
But why shouldn't I try to improve that even further while we're waiting for the PCBs to arrive?

Sure, I could sit down and play some games and have fun... but trying to improve it even further if it doesn't delay anything is even more fun.
We know it works and we can start production with the already working solution :)
Perhaps a prototype if all of the above are fixed

I'm not sure if you understood the post correctly, but the mainboard IS already fixed, the CPU board has a 99.99% chance of being fixed (as these simulations are very accurate usually), cooling solution is also working fine, the molds should've all fixes included as well.
The ONLY thing not fixed yet is the capacitor sirring noise, but we always had the plan to work on that while the boards are being produced.

So what we're doing now is WAITING for everything to be produced (PCBs and cases) so we can do a final check (though the final mainboard has already been checked, but we need more to be able to produce the prototypes ;))

So, nothing has been checked off as finished, everything is still ongoing.

It depends on what you define as "finished".

If "finished" means: The layout and design files are now done, no more fixes are needed, then basically everything except for the sirring noise has been finished.
If you define "finished" that everything has been done AND thoroughly tested (which is what we need the prototype for), then yes, we still need to check the CPU board and the case.
Heating solution and mainboard have already been checked, so these could be considered as being finished then as well.

(then again, I sometimes have the feeling that 90% of the products on the market couldn't be considered as being "finished" then, as they often seem to be missing some thorough testing...)

My guestimate: prototype around summer, production in Q4, delivery in 2019.

Weeeell... if the Chinese New Year ends in July, then yes, it would be summer until we receive the PCBs to do the prototype production run.
Otherwise, I don't see a reason why it should take longer. Global Components have ALWAYS been fast and reliable when it comes to production, so why should they NOT produce them?

Regarding the cases: I've got 25 sets of the previous revision here.
The ONLY fixes that have been made was to the shoulder buttons, the stylus holder and the keyboard part (as the holes were a bit off).
Everything else IS already in the final revision.

Yes, I can understand why one can be pessimistic and think things will take years.
But you should still see the facts of what has been done and what not.
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That's not something to be pessimistic about. If we believe EvilDragon, then he has a cooling solution that works sufficiently well already, and we should be satisfied if that's as far as it went, but he's doing further tests to see if it can be improved while waiting for other stuff to finish. This is an efficient use of time and should not be counted as a negative.

Yep, that's exactly how it is :)
 
One question about the Cooling:
DOS Temperatur from outside harm the CPU/Mainboard ??
I have my Pandora lots of time in my Poket where it’s gets more than 27^C from my Body Temperature and in Winter it’s also under the Bed Cover in my Pokets,
I wants to make this also whit my Pyra

Or dos the Pyra Board produce more heat than it will ever get from outside, even in bed or on a hot day in summer ??
 
I have a few different ARM set top boxes/SoCs. Other than the Raspberry Pi, the best Linux support has been for the i.MX6 device I have. No other device (besides my Pandora) comes close. So that would seem to be a promising direction to look for the next revision of the CPU board (If there had been a mobile version of the i.MX6 that may even have been what we'd be expecting in the current CPU board). As the Raspberry Pi has shown, support trumps many other considerations when it comes to the usefulness of the device. Of course, a CPU board revision seems likely to not arrive for at least a couple of years even if work on it gets started before the end of this year, so that's just something to consider for the future. I'm looking forward to receiving the initial version of the Pyra for now.
 
I have a few different ARM set top boxes/SoCs. Other than the Raspberry Pi, the best Linux support has been for the i.MX6 device I have. No other device (besides my Pandora) comes close. So that would seem to be a promising direction to look for the next revision of the CPU board (If there had been a mobile version of the i.MX6 that may even have been what we'd be expecting in the current CPU board). As the Raspberry Pi has shown, support trumps many other considerations when it comes to the usefulness of the device. Of course, a CPU board revision seems likely to not arrive for at least a couple of years even if work on it gets started before the end of this year, so that's just something to consider for the future. I'm looking forward to receiving the initial version of the Pyra for now.
The Novena laptop uses an i.MX as well. It's the best for open source but as was said earlier in the thread A53 cores are not exactly exciting. Depends on what the priorities are.
 
DOS Temperatur from outside harm the CPU/Mainboard ??

For given load conditions, the external temperature determines how quickly heat can be dissipated. Damage is unlikely to occur unless you decide to bake your Pyra in the oven* - but the poorer heat transfer may result in poorer CPU performance as the throttling kicks in.

*Please don't do that!
 
Lots of people are missing the ™ off the end of their two month predictions. It's probably something like two months before the prototypes come out, so it's something like two months™ before real production happens, at the very least.

Edit: It must be the old board software that used to map the string '(tm)' into the unicode glyph '™'. To get that on Linux I need to type shift+crtl+u then '2122' then a space, because it's at unicode codepoint 0x2122. Windows is something like Alt+0153 I understand.
 
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Awesome news!! I can't wait!

So I saw the specs for the possible upgrade SoC and noticed the OpenGL 3.0 support. Does the OMAP5 in the Pyra have native support for full OpenGL 3.0? If not I'll be getting that upgrade as soon as it's available. But if the OMAP5's GPU already supports OpenGL 3.0 (and not just GLES) then I'll wait a few years before I get a SoC upgrade.

The OMAP5 page on both wikipedia and TI's website fail to mention OpenGL support, one way or the other.
 
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