Bringing the case and PCB together

[rygD]

At worst it takes the solder pads on the PCB with it,  which would make it pretty much unfixable without replacing the whole PCB.

This is something I never considered about the Pyra.  This makes me like the design even more, since it will be much simpler to do this repair, and at a significantly lower cost, especially for those with only basic soldering skills and such.

To prevent this particular problem it would be nice to have it how Yoyobuae suggested.

I want ED to get the next version of the case and buttons with his changes, and let us know if they are comfortable for him.

 

[Saber]

True, but it also depends on the design of the shoulders placed at the corners. For the Pyra, it may cause all sorts of catastrophic motherboard issues like you said, or it may dislodge the little switch from it's glued placement. How they are engineered could make the difference.

The shoulder button switches aren't just glued in place,  they are soldered to the board in place.   If the switch gets dislodged from its placement then at best it gets separated from the PCB and has to be re-soldered or replaced if it's also damaged. At worst it takes the solder pads on the PCB with it,  which would make it pretty much unfixable without replacing the whole PCB.

- Neelix

Good to know how it will be in the absolute worst of cases. I still stand by what you didn't dissect from my post though. Big, strong shoulder buttons like the 3DS XL's on the corners with some rubberizing. Also, please don't drop expensive electronics because they bounce as well as eggs do.

 

[FaeMinx]

^ asking someone to please not have an accident? Hmm.


I guess that explains all the mishaps, blunders, and unforseen tragedies in my life... nobody said please first.


=~. O =

 

[Askarus]

True, but it also depends on the design of the shoulders placed at the corners. For the Pyra, it may cause all sorts of catastrophic motherboard issues like you said, or it may dislodge the little switch from it's glued placement. How they are engineered could make the difference.

The shoulder button switches aren't just glued in place,  they are soldered to the board in place.   If the switch gets dislodged from its placement then at best it gets separated from the PCB and has to be re-soldered or replaced if it's also damaged. At worst it takes the solder pads on the PCB with it,  which would make it pretty much unfixable without replacing the whole PCB.

- Neelix

Good to know how it will be in the absolute worst of cases. I still stand by what you didn't dissect from my post though. Big, strong shoulder buttons like the 3DS XL's on the corners with some rubberizing. Also, please don't drop expensive electronics because they bounce as well as eggs do.

3DS XL has great shoulder buttons.

I think we also should use buttons like that.

Nintendo did this for every handheld.

If it would be bad, they wouldn't use it.

 

[Saber]

^ asking someone to please not have an accident? Hmm.


I guess that explains all the mishaps, blunders, and unforseen tragedies in my life... nobody said please first.


=~. O =

You''ll be alright.

True, but it also depends on the design of the shoulders placed at the corners. For the Pyra, it may cause all sorts of catastrophic motherboard issues like you said, or it may dislodge the little switch from it's glued placement. How they are engineered could make the difference.

The shoulder button switches aren't just glued in place,  they are soldered to the board in place.   If the switch gets dislodged from its placement then at best it gets separated from the PCB and has to be re-soldered or replaced if it's also damaged. At worst it takes the solder pads on the PCB with it,  which would make it pretty much unfixable without replacing the whole PCB.

- Neelix

Good to know how it will be in the absolute worst of cases. I still stand by what you didn't dissect from my post though. Big, strong shoulder buttons like the 3DS XL's on the corners with some rubberizing. Also, please don't drop expensive electronics because they bounce as well as eggs do.

3DS XL has great shoulder buttons.

I think we also should use buttons like that.

Nintendo did this for every handheld.

If it would be bad, they wouldn't use it.

I couldn't find a pic of the shoulders for the XL but I did find one for the ND Lite if you scroll to the bottom of the page: http://www.squidoo.com/ds-lite-top-screen-replacement

The mechanics for the triggers seem sound and comparable to it's big sister. Notice in particular how smartly they incorporate the exterior of the case? 

The DS Lite Trigger Buttons iFixit guide here shows they also use springs for that nice clicky feedback action.  

 

[fusion_power]

They use metal pins for the little trigger hinge, very nice. Pandora only has plastic there and what's the additional spring at the NDS trigger pin? For keeping the trigger stiff? Also not bad. At least such a metal hinge could be used for the Pyra triggers too.

 

[Saber]

Because I'm so enamored with drawing Pyra's shoulder triggers, I figured here's the last one with the changes I desired in my last few posts:

1. Shoulder labels correspond to the four switches on the board.

2. R1 and L1 are longer vertically but shorter horizontally a touch than their Pandora counterparts and are not flush with the case.

3. R2 and L2 are longer than they are in the first post pictures.

I'd still be okay with the latest prototype triggers though.

Jokingly, maybe we should skip the shoulder buttons altogether and add one big button to the bottom of the case that's activated when you press downward on the device. Call it the Z button.

 

[Null]

Jokingly, maybe we should skip the shoulder buttons altogether and add one big button to the bottom of the case that's activated when you press downward on the device. Call it the Z button.

 

[rygD]

They use metal pins for the little trigger hinge, very nice.

The other day when looking at the Pyra shoulder buttons I was thinking something like this might be accomplished by adding a screw or something inside the plastic to reinforce it.  

 

[Saber]

They use metal pins for the little trigger hinge, very nice.

The other day when looking at the Pyra shoulder buttons I was thinking something like this might be accomplished by adding a screw or something inside the plastic to reinforce it.  

Yeah, some reinforcement there and some extra plastic/lattice inside at the case edges around the upper and lower back corners(the lid hinge mechanics surely adds lots of stress, and the holes for the shoulders and ports can't be helping the area's stability).

LOL at Strigoi's Mr. Spock pic. Love Leonard Nimoy and classic "Amok Time" Trek.

 

[Zipy]

I got a few device with ok shoulder buttons. JXD S5800 are confortable, but a bit loud... Can't really use them next to my sleeping wife.


I also got an Archos Gamepad2 the shoulder buttons are just great. Confortable and also looks quite cool. Built quality is also ok. I think it worth to have a look onit!

 

[szr]

I really like how the progress is going. I like how this keyboard looks. Only thing I might suggest is making the Meta key blue so it matches the keys that it brings forth, much like how it is on most laptops (Fn and the keys it enables being the same color.) Obviously that's no big deal, just something I thought would be nice. The Pyra keeps looking better and better.

 

[TrashyMG]

I really like how the progress is going. I like how this keyboard looks. Only thing I might suggest is making the Meta key blue so it matches the keys that it brings forth, much like how it is on most laptops (Fn and the keys it enables being the same color.) Obviously that's no big deal, just something I thought would be nice. The Pyra keeps looking better and better.

I believe the keyboard layout and color and such is still being decided on... this was just a rendering.

 

[Grench]

Personally, I'd like to see white, red and green labels on every key to match the different key mappings in something like this:

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15275-unofficial-keyboard-layoutsjune-28-2014/

Maybe even add blue if we need another mapping.

Example of 4 colors on each key of a standard keyboard:

Note that the red, green and blue characters despite being the same size do not overpower your recognition of the primary (white) characters.

For the curious - it's a Simplified Chinese & US QWERTY keyboard.  I have two of them - they work great.  No I'm not, do not speak or read Chinese.  They're great keyboards - and  I love the expression on peoples faces when they sit down behind it and go uhmmm?

 

[rygD]

I do like the red idea, and may like the green if I could see what it would look like with the backlight.  Yellow and orange sound good, too. 

 

[Grench]

I'd like to stick to White (diffuse), Red, Green and Blue.

Note on that keyboard - it actually has -5- mappings for most of the central keys White caps, White LC, Red, Green, Blue.

Looking at the proposed Pyra's keys, two symbols would be easy, 3 would be compact but doable.  4 is probably right out.

So - probably White, Red, Blue?

 

[klapse]

"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out."

Whenever someone says "right out" I think of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail...

 

[szr]

I really like how the progress is going. I like how this keyboard looks. Only thing I might suggest is making the Meta key blue so it matches the keys that it brings forth, much like how it is on most laptops (Fn and the keys it enables being the same color.) Obviously that's no big deal, just something I thought would be nice. The Pyra keeps looking better and better.

I believe the keyboard layout and color and such is still being decided on... this was just a rendering.

Indeed. I actually meant to say to match the color of the meta key and the labels of what it exposes, and not necessarily blue.

 

[Grench]

I really like how the progress is going. I like how this keyboard looks. Only thing I might suggest is making the Meta key blue so it matches the keys that it brings forth, much like how it is on most laptops (Fn and the keys it enables being the same color.) Obviously that's no big deal, just something I thought would be nice. The Pyra keeps looking better and better.

I believe the keyboard layout and color and such is still being decided on... this was just a rendering.

Indeed. I actually meant to say to match the color of the meta key and the labels of what it exposes, and not necessarily blue.

 And I have no idea how much each color would add to the cost of the key mat.

Maybe to keep that in check, have the rectangular keys be marked in white-blue-white.  3 labels, the blue label in the middle separating the two white ones?

So - normal (white) - sym (blue) - shift (white).

Even that winds up posing an interesting problem.  Do we print the English letter keys only once on the left as CAPS even though they're actually lowercase unless shifted?  The first one is 'correct' in that it's normal, symbol, shifted. It looks real weird though. The second may look better, but ignores the unshifted reality - which in turn comes back to bite on the other non-letter keys that still require 3 symbols on a key.

q ESC Q

or

Q ESC

???

As another reference, the '1' key:

1 F1 !

Which brings up another question - do we want the 'alternate color' to be something a bit less opaque than blue?

 

[klapse]

 q ESC Q


or

Q ESC


???

Choose the latter. Like any normal keyboard does it, no lowercase letter is necessary.