Back from Greece


EvilDragon

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Good news, everyone!

I'm on my way back from Greece to Munich right now and it's time for another new update!

And it's not just about the cases...

So, what happened in Greece?

Three things actually...

1. Discussing the production run with FormAction

As you know, FormAction will produce 500 sets of the transparent cases.
As the seem to be finished and okay now, they will start as soon as possible.
However, they also have other customers and will close down August 1st for a full month.

So we made the deal with them that they will produce as many as they can and afterwards, we'll move the molds over to UniquePlast, the new company.

Some of you might have noticed that I said "seem to be finished" - are they or aren't they?
Well, I didn't find the time to fully assemble a Pyra yet with the latest set of cases I received.
However, as the only fix were the shoulder buttons and the stlylus, I tested these and they were fine.
Everything else WAS already okay and hasn't changed, so that should be fine.

Still, I will assemble a full Pyra during the weekend to make 100% sure it's okay.

You should be able to buy transparent Pyra cases in August - with immediate delivery, if you like :)


2. Discussing the logo plate

If you read my last news, you already know that the logo wasn't made of anodized aluminium but instead was painted black.
This looks awful and is certainly not what we want.

So what was the problem here?

Well, apparently, it's nigh impossible getting anodized aluminium in Greece.
There's just no real demand for it there and therefore, it's a material that can't be bought there.

They will still try to find a source, but if they can't find any, we'll use brushed stainless steel.
This looks nice and I can also imagine that it looks neat as well on a black shell.
The logo itself will be milky white until you switch on the LEDs, so it fits well inside the metal plate.

We won't let a metal plate cause us any delays, that's for sure!



3. Upcoming production with UniquePlast

The last thing I had to do in Greece was discussing the upcoming production run of the Pyra case with UniquePlast.
Especially with different plastic materials, etc.
They're very experienced with different colors (and have many of them in stock). I think you will be very pleased with the final case the Pyra will have!

We could now also mix different colors together, for example, have the keyboard part a different color than the lid, etc.
Time to resurrect the old thread with the different color themes to see what we can do to make it look good, eh?

Anyways, they're also on holidays from August 1st until August 21st, so nothing will happen during that time.
So we're planning to move the molds there end of August / early September so that the cases can be produced in September.

BTW: It's not the first time I'm working with them.
They are also producing all my MegaDrive, SNES and NES shells, incl. the variations for the Retrode Plugins. So they made at least 5000 shells in various colors for me already.

Now we're only mising the...


Mainboards

And yes, some good news here as well:
Global Components has populated the mainboards. Now it's time for Nikolaus to pick them up and do a quick test run.
As you already know, the 4GB RAM CPU boards have been finished a while ago and are working fine.

So a bug-free mainboard is the last piece of the puzzle now!

Well, these mainboards and CPU boards will be used to assemble Pyras with the transparent cases (I already have a set of ten) and these will go to the Prototype Preorders and some developers.

This will hopefully help to improve the software a lot as well.
I will also have a final (transparent case) unit with me at the GamesCom, in case you're planning to visit there.

Once we confirm the mainboards to be working fine as well... it's time to place the order for the mass production... and then it's only a bit more of waiting until we start assembling and shipping the units!

Yay!


I hope you enjoyed that little news post.
Remember the live video Q&A I mentioned? Well, I'll start a poll with different timeframes soon, so we can find the best time for everone.

Hopefully, you'll have some interesting questions for me ready by then!
 
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Edelstahl!

Germany a country of engineers ?

we have no common usage word for high grade steel !

every post gets it just that bit nearer... gosh there's been some birthing pains!
 
Well, apparently, it's nigh impossible getting anodized aluminium in Greece.
There's just no real demand for it there and therefore, it's a material that can't be bought there.

They will still try to find a source, but if they can't find any, we'll use brushed stainless steel.

That is no real reason for me.
It's not available in Greece but isn't it available somewhere?
Can't they buy the material somewhere else?
 
Global Components has populated the mainboards. Now it's time for Nikolaus to pick them up and do a quick test run.
As you already know, the 4GB RAM CPU boards have been finished a while ago and are working fine.

So a bug-free mainboard is the last piece of the puzzle now!

Well, these mainboards and CPU boards will be used to assemble Pyras with the transparent cases (I already have a set of ten) and these will go to the Prototype Preorders and some developers.
Trying to parse this out... Does this mean that all of the parts for the prototypes currently exist? Or are there still components missing (thermal, US 4G modems, etc)?
[doublepost=1530898456,1530898369][/doublepost]
That is no real reason for me.
It's not available in Greece but isn't it available somewhere?
Can't they buy the material somewhere else?

I read between those lines that they're not interested in doing that part of the job. Global economy - anything can be gotten anywhere, but the price differentials might be silly.
 
That is no real reason for me.
It's not available in Greece but isn't it available somewhere?
Can't they buy the material somewhere else?

Greece companies are still very limited, thanks to the crisis their government made.
It's not as easy to buy from companies outside of Greece thanks to that.

The current government seems to be doing everything to kill companies. They've got high taxes, everything they do is closely watched, etc.
[doublepost=1530899530,1530899232][/doublepost]
Trying to parse this out... Does this mean that all of the parts for the prototypes currently exist? Or are there still components missing (thermal, US 4G modems, etc)?

As far as I am aware, we should have everything ready now, yes

3000 LCD cables, CPU boards, Mainboards, speakers, cooling plates, transparent cases...
 
Ahaha, I forgot what the english name for that was and didn't have internet in the plane!
Wanted to look it up replace it before I post, hehe ;)

Will do that now.

Du könntest doch auch einfach auf deutsch posten, wäre für mich viel einfacher ^^

(Just post in German, this would also be much easier for me )
 
I can remember, in the early days of the Pandora Development, when „Youprobadlyknowwho“ was also still on board, EvilDragon had much more time and posted the News in German in the German Boards,
But after some „Twoo Months️“ Zykles, he lost the time for this and so members of the German Community translated the English News for forum.gp2x.de
I dit this also, ..
Not word for word, but whit my own sentence..

I learned that it’s not important to understand every word in English, but to understand the meaning of a text,
This is much faster..
 
Greece companies are still very limited, thanks to the crisis their government made.
It's not as easy to buy from companies outside of Greece thanks to that.

The current government seems to be doing everything to kill companies. They've got high taxes, everything they do is closely watched, etc.

Is the situation really that bad? Didn't expect that.

Du könntest doch auch einfach auf deutsch posten, wäre für mich viel einfacher ^^

(Just post in German, this would also be much easier for me )

You could visit some English class.
Would be so much easier for everyone else :p:p
 
Too many Hobby’s actually,
and not enough time..
Whe are in the main season on my Work and I’m never home until 19 AM
So an English Class wouldn’t work..

So I gather Experience in a English Board even if my English is still awefull

My French is much more terrible..

Hopefully the Ask ED Question Stream will get saved to watch afterwards..
 
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As far as I am aware, we should have everything ready now, yes

3000 LCD cables, CPU boards, Mainboards, speakers, cooling plates, transparent cases...

Are enough mainboards & CPU boards all populated? Did any of the mainboards happen to get populated with the US 4G module?

It almost feels like the first delivery of a paid-for Pyras might be on a horizon shorter than Two Months, but I don't want to hex it.
 
Hopefully the Ask ED Question Stream will get saved to watch afterwards..
Yep, youtube streams become normal youtube videos after the stream finishes (with a little delay for transcoding I think, but that's pretty quick these days).

There seem to be some outstanding issues on the kernel mailing list, namely that OTG on the USB3 port does not seem to connect either on the prototypes or on the TI devboards, and some weirdnesses that ED experienced, but hopefully new mainboards will fix those in the main. Unless TI dropped the ball with their devboards, the former is probably a software fix though, so perhaps we're closer to the paid prototypes stage than I thought.
 
I like the idea Youtube live streams, the new "Super Chat" features also could allow another method for monetary donations for the Pyra effort.
 
The clear case will NOT be an option for our Pyra. We will have to buy it separately and install ourselves?
Yes, unless there's an outstanding demand for transparent to be the colour in the forthcoming colour threads (and even then it will mean the carbon fibre inclusions can't be used, so it's highly unlikely to be the official colour), the only way to get a transparent case is to buy it from August-ish and install it on your Pyra yourself once you get it (assuming you aren't due to get a prototype order which are intended to have transparent cases).
 
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