A recount of our time together thus far

[Kieroshark]

This post has been promoted to an article

 

[lulzfish]

iPhone displays aren't heat-sensitive, they sense capacitance.


afaik no digital touch input device has ever sensed heat.

 

[Kieroshark]

iPhone displays aren't heat-sensitive, they sense capacitance.


afaik no digital touch input device has ever sensed heat.

Not to de-rail my own thread, but really?


Then why doesn't it respond to metal?


EDIT: Scratch that, I was getting Capacitance mixed up with conductivity. Wikipedia ftw.

 

[craigix]

Hello,


The nub issue sounds like calibration. DO NOT blast air in to the new nubs. That was for the old ones as some of them had oil in them due to incorrect assembly. That issue was fixed long ago.


After you take the battery out and reboot properly you need to calibrate the nubs. There is also software to reset them should one start acting strange.


But whatever you do don't go trying to hardware hack them, these new ones seem 100%

 

[Kieroshark]

Hello,


The nub issue sounds like calibration. DO NOT blast air in to the new nubs. That was for the old ones as some of them had oil in them due to incorrect assembly. That issue was fixed long ago.


After you take the battery out and reboot properly you need to calibrate the nubs. There is also software to reset them should one start acting strange.


But whatever you do don't go trying to hardware hack them, these new ones seem 100%

Ah, very much appreciate the reply Craig. I definitely wasn't going to try de-soldering them or anything.


As far as calibration goes, are you referring to: "tweaking them as far as they would go in one of the 8 directions, allowing the nub to recenter, then rinse and repeat for the other directions" Or is there an actual "calibration" application?


Also, when they would fail, resetting them appeared to have absolutely no effect, even when moving the nub right would make the mouse go left. Any thoughts?

 

[craigix]

If one of them is faulty it will be the first faulty one I know of from the new batch. If you hard reset the unit does it work at first then get worse? Ed might be able to put some light on the reset nubs function, it seemed to work for other people.


I'm happy you fixed your shoulder button though, when they leave here they work, then when some arrive they don't. We're making the 'gap' bigger now to try to solve this. It could be down to being quashed in shipping. That's possible, I'll see if we can take some precautions there.

 

[Kieroshark]

If one of them is faulty it will be the first faulty one I know of from the new batch. If you hard reset the unit does it work at first then get worse? Ed might be able to put some light on the reset nubs function, it seemed to work for other people.


I'm happy you fixed your shoulder button though, when they leave here they work, then when some arrive they don't. We're making the 'gap' bigger now to try to solve this. It could be down to being quashed in shipping. That's possible, I'll see if we can take some precautions there.

Ok, so I just did some more testing. I have had my pandora "shutdown" all day today. When I turned it on the nub was not working again. I did a hard reset, and now the nub is fine.


Previously, I did a reset at one point after updating with a hotfix, and that made the nub STOP working. (not technically a hard reset)


Other times, I did a hard reset and it made it worse (ie right went left, instead of just doing nothing)


This is the first time a hard reset has actually fixed it. Is it possible that the temperature of the device is somehow related to this issue?


EDIT: And I do want to comment, it has been working more than 85% of the time I've been using the pandora, to keep my data in scale.

 

[Eridger]

My nubs are okay except when I change direction with them. For example, moving at any angle is totally fine, but if I change direction with them without allowing them to re-center, the mouse will move very slowly in the direction I want them to move.


Fairly annoying, but bearable.

 

[ToastBucket]

There's a calibration application under the settings. It's labeled "Nubs." It's the same place you go to set the nubs as mouse buttons and such.

 

[Link]

I like dropping the battery for 10 minutes if the nubs go outta whack

 

[Kieroshark]

There's a calibration application under the settings. It's labeled "Nubs." It's the same place you go to set the nubs as mouse buttons and such.

Yes, but there is no actual calibration application in there.


You can change different settings, but nothing involving the calibration of the nub itself.


I believe it is automatic, with the 8 point thing I Was doing, but not positive.

I like dropping the battery for 10 minutes if the nubs go outta whack

Yea I think I got the idea from you in some thread.


Ok I have done a lot more testing. Rebooted the device many times. Its definitely not anything wrong with the hardware. (Craig, your 100% on the nubs is still sound, sorry if I gave you a scare. ) Its calibration related, but its kind of strange. Whenever I "Shutdown" and power up the device, or do a hard reset, it almost always goes back to its non-functional state. If I immediately do a calibration after bootup it seems to be fixing it most of the time. If I don't do the calibration immediately after bootup, or if I mess with the nubs in a random fashion prior to doing the 8 point calibration, it seems to become unfixable without doing a reset.


"Resetting the nub" via the "Nubs" application, then doing an 8 point calibration does NOT seem to fix anything. From what I've witnissed thus far, it needs to be an actual shutdown / power up of the device it seems.


Does the device store default calibration information about the nubs somewhere in the software? And if so, can that default information be updated/modified somehow?


EDIT: I'm a little sad. This thread was intended to be a "Hey, the Pandora is awesome!" post, :lol: and I seem to have turned it into a support post. I do appreciate the help everyone. I just hope this thread doesn't dissuade anyone looking at getting a Pandora, since I love this device and recommend it to anyone who will listen.

 

[Kieroshark]

Hah! I have solved the inconsistencies.


Ok, so I was tweaking out over how sometimes hard reset was working, sometimes it wasn't.


Sometimes shutting down was working, sometimes it wasn't.


I have now fully solved how to make it work, each time.


Since I had ruled out hardware failure, I suspected the variance was likely with me, and in how I was calibrating the nub. (*sigh, user error... you'd expect better from an engineer*)


If I calibrate the nub by first moving the nub to the right, then the other directions, it will almost always be messed up, depending on how I do the other directions.


If I calibrate the nub by first moving the nub up, first moving the nub down, or first moving the nub left, then the other directions, it works perfectly.


I cannot explain why this is the case, but I have repeatedly tested this, and found it to occur consistantly! My poor pandora has been doing nothing but rebooting for the last 30 minutes, lol.


Also, it seems 4 directions are needed to calibrate the nub, not 8. (Just the four compass points)


Doing a nub reset does NOT seem to reset the calibration, not sure why.


So... case solved, lets go back to having this thread be about the awesomeness of the Pandora. :lol: (Although if anyone has any insight into why this occurs, I'd love to hear it)

 

[craigix]

That's analogue hardware for you... it's a dark art.


We did once consider some kind of digital analogue control, with 3 levels of microswitch like a multi layered Dpad, but it starts to get complex and all those lines...

 

[shadow.8]

Thanks for the review. I can't wait for my Pandora. Glad to hear your nub issues have been solved.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

Excellent review Kieroshark! The nub support thing was great actually in case anyone else encounters the same problems, this way they know what actions to take. Hope you can get a chance to test out the N64/PS1 emus and let us know how that goes!

 

[SirDregan]

Excellent review Kieroshark! The nub support thing was great actually in case anyone else encounters the same problems, this way they know what actions to take. Hope you can get a chance to test out the N64/PS1 emus and let us know how that goes!

Yeah! As you know, Kieroshark, my popcorn is allready ready so I'd love to read some N64/PS1 reviews, too

 

[mahousaru]

Great review, I was able to read it with my ranging hang over

 

[fr4n]

The nub support thing was great actually in case anyone else encounters the same problems, this way they know what actions to take.

*sigh* If only I had tried this before resorting to DIY surgery and killing my LCD.


Nice thorough review, though.

 

[Kieroshark]

Glad you guys liked the review.


This weekend I'll try out the N64 / PS emulation, and post here about how it goes.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

That's analogue hardware for you... it's a dark art.


We did once consider some kind of digital analogue control, with 3 levels of microswitch like a multi layered Dpad, but it starts to get complex and all those lines...

I hardly know anything about hardware, does this post mean that this nub behavior is likely to exist on other Pandoras, too?


If so, putting an "official calibration dance" instruction into the "Nubs" application might decrease support cases.