Case Sneak Peek


EvilDragon

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Well, as mentioned, the case is nigh finished I just received the new case files yesterday.

Here are some pictures straight from FreeCAD for you :)
 

Closed unit, you can clearly see the shoulder buttons, all connectors as well as the SD Card Slots and the Stylus.

1.png2.png

Here's the keyboard part and the lid with the LCD.

3.png4.png

If you take a closer look at the LCD, you can see that there are two dummy screw slots - that's because part of the display is below that area.

That side will be clipped, whereas the other side will be screwed (same as the lower screw).

We'll have bumpers in there so you can't see that.

This way we can make the frame as small as possible, keep it sturdy with the screws and make sure we don't use too many clips.

Here's the inner part of the keyboard part:

5.png

Nothing too special, but the enclosement of the speakers is important for a good sound, can't wait to try them out :)

Next let's take a closer look on the shoulder buttons:

6.png7.png

The first picture shows them without the PCB. Really sturdy buttons should be really hard to break.

As you can see with the second picture, the plastic case will also stop the buttons before they can hurt the switches on the PCB.

That should make everything very robust as well.

Here's a last picture for you, showing where the SIM Card will be:

8.png

Some notes about the hinge:

The hinge part we'll use will be the same as in the Pandora, however, the hinge area will be changed a bit.

First, some background about my thoughts:

What's good with the current hinge design is that it snaps open and snaps close.

That's important and better than laptop friction hinges, which are stiff but don't really close well (unless you use some locking mechanism).

Our ideal hinge would be one which snaps open and close and has some friction added inbetween.

That's what we're trying to do here - using one simple trick.

The opposite side of the hinge (where the LCD Cable goes through) won't have a perfectly round hole and peg, but a slightly oval one.

That way, once you open it a bit, it has some friction - and when you're near 180°, the friction goes away again.

We need to try and tweak it a bit, but it should work out pretty well.
 
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will it be slightly thicker than an pandora, or does it just look that way?
 
LOVELY!

Is the case formed exactly the same in aluminium?

I heard there will be clips, do they behave the same when made of aluminium?
 
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will it be slightly thicker than an pandora, or does it just look that way?
 Same size, just looks like that in the image.

Is the case formed exactly the same in aluminium?

I heard there will be clips, do they behave the same when made of aluminium?
The aluminium case has to be produced completely new, you can't keep everything like that.

I'm not caring about an aluminium case right now.

EDIT: Did you inserted the wrong image where you are talking about the SIM card?
Thanks, fixed :)
 
What is the small hole near the D-pad? A reset button for needles?
 
Like the Pictures, also it seems like the Pyra also have a Hole for the Wrist Wrap


Same sice but more Power sounds great..


Like i said on twitter: also on Pandora i was more exitet about the case pictures than the PCB Pictures...


Mybe because the case is it you have in hands when in use, its what the Pyra devined..


Also heard today i will get unkle again in september :)


2 good thinks on one day, not bad..
 
Just the one SD slot ? not sure thats an issue - tho on my Pandora I tended to keep one in to boot from and have data (music etc) and only ever swap out the data sd, also full sized and not micro ?
 
If you take a closer look at the LCD, you can see that there are two dummy screw slots - that's because part of the display is below that area.


That side will be clipped, whereas the other side will be screwed (same as the lower screw).


We'll have bumpers in there so you can't see that.


This way we can make the frame as small as possible, keep it sturdy with the screws and make sure we don't use too many clips.
Clever. It's good to have more than the center screw holding the bezel together. And if the covered screws look like the dummy holes, nobody will notice there are only 3 instead of 5 screws holding it. :)

Next let's take a closer look on the shoulder buttons:


The first picture shows them without the PCB. Really sturdy buttons should be really hard to break.


As you can see with the second picture, the plastic case will also stop the buttons before they can hurt the switches on the PCB.


That should make everything very robust as well.
This starts to look very good and maybe it really works. ^^ I hope this time, the tolerances of the molds will be good enough to make the buttons work better than the ones from the Pandora, which may also be well designed un theory but in practise they often did not fit right (my triggers needed a good bunch of paper inside to work at all).


One critical point could be the pivot pin, it seems already be improved and supported to withstand the force of 2 buttons. maybe there is some space left on top of the pin to guide it  in some groove for more durability.


Also fell free to test if the vertical surface pattern of the upper trigger has good grip, maybe some horizontal "stripes" are better, I don't know. Maybe the upper trigger also needs to be shorter to avoid beeing pressed accidently. This stuff needs more actual testing for sure.

Some notes about the hinge:


The hinge part we'll use will be the same as in the Pandora, however, the hinge area will be changed a bit.


First, some background about my thoughts:


What's good with the current hinge design is that it snaps open and snaps close.


That's important and better than laptop friction hinges, which are stiff but don't really close well (unless you use some locking mechanism).


Our ideal hinge would be one which snaps open and close and has some friction added inbetween.


That's what we're trying to do here - using one simple trick.


The opposite side of the hinge (where the LCD Cable goes through) won't have a perfectly round hole and peg, but a slightly oval one.


That way, once you open it a bit, it has some friction - and when you're near 180°, the friction goes away again.


We need to try and tweak it a bit, but it should work out pretty well.
My Pandora hinge is very loose when fully opened full 180°, this needs to be improved on the Pandora. maybe some overall more tension that keeps the hinge open and closed? This way you could use the real hinge stop to fix the lid in 145° or whatever. Could be done by rotating the actual mechanism, somehow like that:

pyrahinge18ppzb.png


With enough friction the lid would srtay closed and opened, supported by some additional notch/peg lock mechanism, this would solve the old problem without getting in trouble with Nintendo patents. :)

I hope the sides of the case will be a little bit more rounded to hold it comfortably, the lower body still looks alot like the Pandora brick which caused some pain in my palms. But besides that, it seems to be a very usable case. And with better materials, it should even look better than the one from the Pandora.
 
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2 things..

1st - I can't seem to find the headphone port... is it on one of the sides?

2nd - the hinge, I respectfully would like to disagree. I personally think a friction hinge would be better all around, but I'm aware that there were problems with all the friction style hinges just being too big for the Pyra... Since it will use the same (the EXACT same? the Pandora one, I'd heard started to wear down and not lock into place very well?) hinge as in the Pandora I guess there won't be an 145°ish midway locking point like on nintendo DS, 3DS, etc... ?

edit: yeah, prety much ninja'd by Fusion_Power... :ph34r:
 
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In the first picture, what are all the connectors from left to right please ?
My guess:

µUSB3-OTG, USB2+eSTA, USB2, µUSB (for charging, debug, the one small one on top of the USB2 connector,) headphone jack, some form of small HDMI connector
 
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Just the one SD slot ? not sure thats an issue - tho on my Pandora I tended to keep one in to boot from and have data (music etc) and only ever swap out the data sd, also full sized and not micro ?
Aren't there two full-sized SD slots on the front?
Yes...

Two full sized SD cards in the front, and one μSD under the battery that can be enabled if you disable the internal eMMC NAND.
 
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If you take a closer look at the LCD, you can see that there are two dummy screw slots - that's because part of the display is below that area. That side will be clipped, whereas the other side will be screwed (same as the lower screw). We'll have bumpers in there so you can't see that. This way we can make the frame as small as possible, keep it sturdy with the screws and make sure we don't use too many clips.
I have a bad feeling about this one; its going to be hard to make the sides symmetric, with the different way the tension of clips and screws work, it will also feel different, probably the side w/o screws will feel soft and squaky, the other more firm. Furthermore, these bumpers don;t last very long (they usually fall out after some time). Could the screws that fix the LCD bezel go in from the side (or top) instead?

in general, I would also like more screws (than 4) holding the body together - it makes the device feel put together more tightly (well it would be :) ), elimating any flexibility that the plastic would have, and gives you some redundancy if one (or more) of the screws fail..
 
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Just the one SD slot ? not sure thats an issue - tho on my Pandora I tended to keep one in to boot from and have data (music etc) and only ever swap out the data sd, also full sized and not micro ?
Aren't there two full-sized SD slots on the front?
Yes...

Two full sized SD cards in the front, and one μSD under the battery that can be enabled if you disable the internal eMMC NAND.
ooh nice!
 
The overall design looks good and catches the eye.

As ImmaculateChimp said, a friction hinge is a must. It is a huge step back to use the Pandora hinge design. It will simply start to wear down! 

Especially for the users (like me) who will use Pyra as a smart phone replacement (It will replace my Note 3 for me)

At least make it to lock at 145° as Fusion_Power said. :(
 
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