A/v Cables Have Arrived!

[WizardStan]

Confirmed: Pandora is not a morning person.

Alternatively
*insert standard trip-fight image occasionally used when Craig says something but replace words with "Do not touch while live"*

 

[lulzfish]

... Which is why computers are generally powered off before they are taken apart. Any questions?

 

[droneb]

lol i literally can't believe some of the responses in this thread. The pandora pcb is NO different than your average laptop.
Laptops even have the same sensitive circuit and i don't see people freaking out about it.
Do any of you guys use you laptop in a downpour? Do you buy a laptop, open it up and smother the pcb in epoxy?
You guys are acting like if the Pandora doesn't get it's morning coffee, it's gunna BSOD

for what i bought it im certainly it is

ill be fiddling with its electronics, something i dont do with my average laptop (i do tear em apart to savage parts but no more)

and i dont see why you keep pushing the negative on it, PP wants to make a panda better. is it something that shouldnt be done?
no one is freking out just asking freaking out would be hey "oh no the panda has a loop back circuit and it says do not touch when live, it is going to pump up and kill you by electrocution (not sure i spell that right) or hey OP team didnt shield the loop back circuit my panda will bang the second i turn it on!.

the another thing is that you dont usually know all the facts and stuff related about your laptop pcb, so it would be much more harder to make it better. and as since its average laptop is made by large Computer CO, you usually think every mayor thing has been done and nothing can be better.

participation, participation on the dev process make you grow knowledge make you want to ask things, kids sometimes are annoying because they keep asking W/H questions that might be stupid or things that are "as it is" but the trouble is that kids want to know the real meat, adults forget that and they just like thinking they know what they have to know and nothing else is required, but the truth is that we addults only know what we know based on faith. just keep asking like a kid "why the sky is blue?" then why XX makes the sky blue?" then etc..

going back to the real topic:
i see those cables are nice and shining OP logos, but im afraid to ask, are these gonna be hackable to use the other pins? or they are just blind pins?, or the connector doesnt have the other pins at all?.

@lulfish

XD, it keeps making me laugh that Picture on it 2 ver ive seen

 

[WhiteBat]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2425/3924020347_31e8f1aeb9.jpg[]

... Which is why computers are generally powered off before they are taken apart. Any questions?
[/quote]
haha, nice

 

[moxie]

And I, too, demand some kind of isolating material for that sensitive spot on the Pandora; it's ridiculous that a rogue rain drop has the potential of hosing the whole board/chipset. If no protection is added, I will add some myself by applying silicon or something...

*bangs head against table*

Looky here: every place on the board where the metal is exposed is sensitive to conductive stuff - I.e. non-pure water or coke or metal filings or whatnot. If you worry about that, you'd better epoxy the whole board. Honestly.

The point here is that in this place, specifically, things might go bad because of capacitance. That is, your grubby mitts. Not by virtue of them being conductive (which they usually aren't, at least not to the degree that it becomes problematic), but by being an agent for capacitive coupling. Which has nothing to do with what happens if you douse it in water, because then it will go Pfzzt regardless of whether you pour silicone on the spot or not.

If you believe you need a machine that can withstand that kind of treatment, I recommend a Husky Hunter. Also a nice machine, but a little less advanced in the graphics and gaming controls department.

 

[lulzfish]

If you worry about that, you'd better epoxy the whole board.

Maybe we can make some kind of hard plastic covering to protect the board from rain / Coke / fingers while it's running, sort of like a case.

 

[pelrun]

... Which is why computers are generally powered off before they are taken apart. Any questions?

I think I'll have to refrain from seeing that image when/if I have the Pandora open, because I will snort my drink right out my nose onto the sensitive bit.

 

[Monk]

If you worry about that, you'd better epoxy the whole board.

Maybe we can make some kind of hard plastic covering to protect the board from rain / Coke / fingers while it's running, sort of like a case.

You know - you just might have something there! Why didn't the OpenPandora team think of this???

 

[Squidge]

Why not just use the standard most people use: Conformal coating ?

 

[Enverex]

As I can't see an answer to this rather important question here, I'll ask myself:

The delay between the Pandora and the TV, is that because of the AV Cable/Pandora or is it the TV's own LCD delay? (No guesses please, I'm looking for an answer from the team).

 

[Squidge]

Well, there will be a delay induced by the cable, as no electronics are instantaneous (the reason you find those strange squiggly lines on PCB boards to ensure every trace is the same length) but that really isn't worth bothering about as it'll be so small. The largest delay will caused by your TV decoding the signal into something usable and displaying it. The device itself doesn't have this delay as it can drive the LCD directly.

 

[WizardStan]

Well, there will be a delay induced by the cable, as no electronics are instantaneous (the reason you find those strange squiggly lines on PCB boards to ensure every trace is the same length) but that really isn't worth bothering about as it'll be so small. The largest delay will caused by your TV decoding the signal into something usable and displaying it. The device itself doesn't have this delay as it can drive the LCD directly.

That's still a guess. It's possible there is a problem with the video out circuitry that it is buffering the image somehow. This would be very, very, VERY unusual, and the odds are definitely all on the LCD itself, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that it is a hardware or software problem.
It is made even more strange by the fact that we've seen TV out before, and there was no delay then, but I'm pretty sure that was on a different TV; that would again imply that it was definitely the TV itself, not the Pandora, but I don't want to say that for certain until MWeston tries it on something that is known to not generate a delay, such as a CRT or something.

 

[Etinin]

Why do some people keep arguing without having facts?
As Squidge said, the cable itself should have a very small delay. The analog output is handled by the OMAP itself, not by any electronics made by MWeston, if I'm not mistaken, and there's no reason why it would buffer anything.

 

[WizardStan]

Why do some people keep arguing without having facts?
As Squidge said, the cable itself should have a very small delay. The analog output is handled by the OMAP itself, not by any electronics made by MWeston, if I'm not mistaken, and there's no reason why it would buffer anything.

That's what I said, but would you be willing to wager large sums of cash on that? I wouldn't, I'd much rather know for certain where the problem lies, especially with such a simple to run experiment.

 

[Squidge]

That's still a guess.

No, it's a fact. The cable WILL cause a delay, however small, and so will the TV. I never said it was the entire reason for all of the delay, what I said is that those two do cause delays. There's probably also a delay incured by generating the S-Video signal as opposed to the digital RGB lines driving the display (but that IS a guess as I have not read the datasheet to confirm).

 

[Asmo]

I'd much rather know for certain where the problem lies, especially with such a simple to run experiment.

+1

Sure, the cable can add a delay - of imperceptible significance. What's causing worry is something that seems to suggest a delay that could impact on the playability of many games, if it's on the Pandora's end rather than the TV that was being used. It almost certainly is the TV, it's a known issue, but a definitive word on this would put many minds to rest.

 

[WizardStan]

That's still a guess.

No, it's a fact. The cable WILL cause a delay, however small, and so will the TV. I never said it was the entire reason for all of the delay, what I said is that those two do cause delays. There's probably also a delay incured by generating the S-Video signal as opposed to the digital RGB lines driving the display (but that IS a guess as I have not read the datasheet to confirm).

This is the "guess" I was referring to:

The largest delay will caused by your TV decoding the signal into something usable and displaying it

I am 99.999999% certain of this, but it's still only based on "shoulda coulda"s. Until someone plugs the cable into a device known to not cause a delay there is still a chance we are wrong. Even if we knew the TV was definitely the largest source of delay, it might be only two thirds of the total delay we're seeing. Plugged into a CRT, there may still be 1/4 second delay: much improved over the HDTV, but still a visible problem.
Like I said, I am not arguing that it shouldn't be a problem, I'm arguing that Enverex asked for a definitive answer, and without a Pandora of our own, all we can give are educated guesses.

 

[Nation.A.List]

Am I correct in thinking the Pandora A/V cable would be able to connect to this http://www.x2vga.com/product or this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10530 and then to our PC monitors?

 

[wermy]

Am I correct in thinking the Pandora A/V cable would be able to connect to this http://www.x2vga.com/product or this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10530 and then to our PC monitors?

Unless I'm mistaken, the Pandora A/V cable only has composite and S-Video outputs (no component output, which both those devices require).. So even if you were to find one that converted composite/s-video to a VGA signal, it would still be such a low resolution that you might as well just attach it to a TV. That's my opinion, anyway.

 

[-Tj-]

Yup, Pandora A/V cable is S-Video and composite, not component. I can understand why one would want to connect to a PC monitor though. One less piece of equipment to have around.

You can go from composite to component, HDMI, or (I think) DVI, but the equipment necessary to do so is fairly expensive.

Edit:
It never occurred to me to go look for a composite to VGA adapater till now, but lo and behold, they do exist, and they're not too expensive! One such example:

http://www0.shopping.com/xPO-StarTech-com-StarTech-Video-Game-Jockey-video-converter

Anyway, that's more what you should be looking for, not component versions.