Case closed?

[EvilDragon]

So, yay, I received the case... and is it the final one?
Well, it's a VERY good candidate!

Here's a fairly long unboxing video for you to enjoy (it's still being uploaded... so be patient )


After the video, I played around a bit more.
I can confirm three shoulder buttons are working perfectly out of the box with the new case, tested with different PCBs.
Only one needs a minor adjustment (around 0,3mm plastic removed at one area) as the tolerance is too tight.
It probably worked fine with the test PCB FormAction has, but all PCBs have tolerances as well, and it's important to test the cases with different PCBs because of that.

The stylus needs to have 0,3mm plastic added (so it doesn't rattle).

These are the only to minor things I found, everything else seems to have been fixed now. Everything fits nicely now, no areas where it's too tight or too flimsy, It's SO much better than the previous version!

I've already let my contact in Greece know. We should have the needed case sets ready when the the prototype PCBs arrive

So what's the next step?

Obviously, waiting for the bare PCBs to arrive at Global Components so we can assemble the units.
Well... then ship them to the prototype orders and test them.

The firmware still needs a lot of tweaks (especially testing all components and installing it on the eMMC), but as the firmware is an ongoing work (as it was with the Pandora), it doesn't need to be fully polished on release.

Once the hardware is out, more devs will contribute to the firmware and it should improve quickly (as was the case with the Pandora... anyone remembers the old Zaxxon Release 1...? Whew... not comparable to the latest version!)

So... I'm relieved now. The long odyssey to fix the final flaws of the case is finally over.
Another huge step done.

 

[codifies]

nice one! (itching to do some firmware hacking)

 

[Caine]

The shoulder buttons were by far the weakest part of the Pandora case and with the Pyra keyboard layout the shoulder buttons are very important due to their behaviour as modifiers. To be honest, the fact that they are now still among the last part requiring fixes has me a bit worried.

This also proves once again that as long as something is not flagged as done it needs at least one more iteration. As long as it gets a little bit closer to perfection every time

Up next: refreshing a youtube video until it loads.

 

[codifies]

how long is this video.... f5 f5 f5

 

[ashcloud]

Just in case you break your F5 key, try Ctrl+R

 

[Caine]

Just in case you break your F5 key, try Ctrl+R

Why choose when you can do both?

 

[codifies]

...not forgetting pressing enter in the address bar.....

 

[EvilDragon]

Youtube says the video is being processed and takes about 22 minutes still.
Yeah, it's about 15 minutes long

 

[codifies]

mine just straight upload without processing, I think its fine with mpeg2?? (but its a while since I bothered with youtube), processing yourself is way faster....

 

[EvilDragon]

The shoulder buttons were by far the weakest part of the Pandora case and with the Pyra keyboard layout the shoulder buttons are very important due to their behaviour as modifiers. To be honest, the fact that they are now still among the last part requiring fixes has me a bit worried.

Not sure if you had a later 1GHz version of the Pandora where we were experienced fixing the shoulder buttons as these are - in my opinion - working pretty good, I love them.
The reason these fixes need longer is simply because we want to get it working without any modification now. We're talking about 0,2mm - 0,3mm differences here, so it's just tiny tiny tolerance issues.

Since we started the design, I've looked at other shoulder buttons as well. They often use a concept with a spring to make the travel distance a bit further and feel nicer to press.
That's a nice idea, but it's a lot more complex to assemble... and once you lose the spring, it's over.
So I rather prefer how we're doing it.

The switches used for the buttons could need a bit more travel distance (my personal taste), but I know some prefer very little travel distance with their shoulder buttons.

The upper shoulder buttons work as well, but are not as nicely accessible as the ones in a 3DS, for example. That's because they're stacked on top in very minimal space.
If we had the space to put them beside each other, they would feel better, but then we had less space for ports

As soon as you work with little space, you always have some compromises.

It's hard to press both at the same time - but for modifiers, they work fine

 

[Caine]

Not sure if you had a later 1GHz version of the Pandora where we were experienced fixing the shoulder buttons as these are - in my opinion - working pretty good, I love them.

No, I never had the 1GHz version. Glad to hear it improved over time.

It's hard to press both at the same time - but for modifiers, they work fine

You never combine modifiers?

<edit>You have exactly the right amount of wackiness in your videos

Fantastic to see you put so much attention on testing the shoulder buttons. Keep up the great work!
</edit>

 

[ashcloud]

That's a very dirty video from our dragon overlord.
[doublepost=1521293355,1521292551][/doublepost]Wasn't the problem with the Pandora shoulder buttons that they didn't fit anymore because they got painted?

 

[codifies]

I had to smile at ED's expense when he said he though it would'nt be as hard second time around, but right enough with son of pyra it will be "just" a CPU board so all this hard work is an excellent foundation for the future...

 

[Bernd]

With all the shoulder button clicking, ED had an eargasm

Only 2 Month (Tm) till the Pyra is ready \(^.^)/

 

[mclien]

Wow this is great news! Especially the day after I came back from hospital, to cheer me bit up. And perfect timing: I looked into the forum 17min after ED posted it. Nice one!

 

[PowerGod]

Oh, a fragile package !! Let's shake it !!

Great intro !!

 

[Eight Bit]

I am a little disappointed that it isn't perfect yet to be honest... Couldn't the plastics company hear the stylus rattle?
With the extra 0.2/0.3mm needed on certain parts, is another prototype iteration of the case needed before it can be mass produced or will you just tell them they need to change those 2 or 3 things and produce the lot? How long will that take? Just a little change here, just a little change there is what we have been hearing for a while...

And it was going to be only 500 sets right? The rest will be produced by that other company? I foresee extra problems and delays there...

And what about colors? I have noticed you always steered away from that subject Ed...

It seems so close yet so far away... 3 weeks here, 6 weeks there and before we know it it's 2019....

 

[rygD]

@EvilDragon when you do your next video, or pictures, will you put a logo plate on it so we can see it? I just want a good look at it in an almost final clear case.
[doublepost=1521294907,1521294863][/doublepost]Oh, and doesn't look like the RHS will fit.

 

[Caine]

It seems so close yet so far away... 3 weeks here, 6 weeks there and before we know it it's 2019....

Yep, that is how it goes.

 

[codifies]

I am a little disappointed that it isn't perfect yet to be honest...

if only it were that simple..... why do you think ED looks near exhausted so often, 1001 little things biting you in the ankle...