Even more to see here (now)


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EvilDragon

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I'm currently sitting on the plane on my way to Greece.
Once again. :)

That gives me a bit of time to write a quick newspost to let you know what has happened and what the status is.

Forgive me that I didn't have much time to participate at the boards myself a lot. Besides preparing the Pyra massproduction (yes, you read that correctly), I upgraded my shop to the latest version of PrestaShop, migrating all orders, vouchers, etc.
I've started doing that last year in August and made the switch end of June, following a couple of weeks of bug squashing (for example, AmazonPay wasn't working).

Well, now the shop is back in a fully working state and has some new features. You can now easily throw out links to the shop or a specific product and get reward discount codes if somebody buys a product coming from that link.
So go and spread your affiliate links now - it's good for everyone :D

I still need to add some more products and sort some categories, but at least it's now fully functional.

That, of course, took some time. And while I still had the time to work on the planned Pyra production run, I didn't have any time left to do an extensive newspost.
Hopefully, this one will be enough for you.

And: We'll fill it with pictures during the next two days!

So, where to start...?

1. The cases

It's the reason I'm sitting on this plane right now:
azouls and his team worked hard on the remaining case issues, redesigned the shoulder buttons and now it's time to check it!
That's why I have some parts for prototypes in my bag and we'll check out everything in the company, as that means we can also do some last changes / fixes directly there if need be.
And of course, I've got a camera with me so you'll be able to see proper pictures and maybe videos of the result as well.

This thread will be updated :)


2. The hardware and software

Prototypes have been sent out to some devs, most of them are also working for TI, so Hopefully, they can help a bit with remaining driver issues.
Unfortunately, devs these days also don't have a lot of time, so don't expect things to happen within a few days!

The main issues we're still having is that the speakers are easily overdriven (probably because the DC Offset isn't set up yet), TILER / 3D needs to be make to work together and the battery monitor doesn't know the size of the battery yet, so the %-age it shows is off. As the charger handles everything itself, this is nothing dangerous though, the battery can't be overcharged (as it was the case with the first older Pandora OS).

Then there are some smaller quirks like that a restart hangs the system for some reason (shutting down and restart works though). Nikolaus found a workaround for that, but it's not yet a proper solution. It just points in the right direction.

And - of course - there's no proper powersaving there yet and the whole system is still a bit barren (like on the early Pandoras). All the nice little tools that made the Pandora easier to use (like the enable / disable Wifi, USB, etc. directly from the taskbar) are still missing, but the desktop itself works. And there's not nice GUI for doing phonecalls, etc.

But stuff like that will surely come from various devs once the device is shipping.

My main concerns are the speakers, but I'll plan to check them more extensively next week to make sure it's really just software thing and not hardware. But basically they're directly connected to the audio chip, so there's not really anything that could be broken in hardware here.

We (Nikolaus and me) also had another meeting with Global Components to start preparing the mass production.
Nikolaus submitted the final hardware details and Global Components are now looking to source the remaining parts and send me a new offer. Hopefully, the price won't be much higher than before. I expect that it'll cost me about 30 - 40 EUR more, which makes up a whopping 40k EUR more expenses than expected for the first batch!
I won't force anyone to pay that, but I'll let everyone know and decide for himself if he wants to donate that when the Pyra is ready to ship or not.

And no, there won't be "Premium Upgrades" to pull in money...

Getting parts these days usually can take up to 10 weeks after placing the order, and that's also the time it takes until we receive the 1000 keymats (which we already ordered).
So the Prototype Preorders will still get their units a few months before the final units.

But once everyhing is ordered... well, there's no going back for us :)

Oh speaking of keymats:
As you know, the final keymats have removable caps, they're not glued anymore.
And some of you asked whether it will be possible to get the keymat only partly printed (without the letters).
And: Yes, that it possible! We will receive 100 of those blank keymats, so you can do your own experiments with them.

We'll also sell spare keycaps in case you lose one during disassembly :)

Soo... I guess that sums things up a bit.

Of course, if you're visiting GamesCom this year, we'll be there (in the retro hall) as usual. But this time, we'll have FINAL Pyra units with us.

You're more than welcome to have a cup of coffee with me :)

Anyways, that's all for now... pictures should follow tomorrow!


UPDATE:

Okay, let's start with some pictures.
I'll also make a small video, so that's not everything.
And I'll also summarize the status of everything sometime during this weekend :)

Let's first get a small overview over the factory.

Here are some of the machines (there are A LOT more, this is just a small area of the full factory).
We've used one of these to produce all sample parts at one day :)

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This is a small part of the many, many moulds lying there... that's a few tons of steel!

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Speaking of moulds, here is one of ours (the most complicated one):

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These color pellets are being used to add color to the plastic parts:

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The box of trash. These are all non-goods parts, either not complete or with other issues like discolorizations.
That's normal when you first setup the correct machine parameters for a mould: You change the parameter, check the part and change some other parameter until it's as good as possible. There are a LOT of parameters to change - you really need to know what you're doing :)

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And... either something went wrong here or this is the "Modern Art Edition" of the Pyra :)

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I love it :D

To change the mould in the machine, a crane is needed, as the mould is so heavy:

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This can be properly seen in the video, so stay tuned!

Here is one of the finished Pyra.
Please note: We were JUST checking whether the moulds are now PHYSICALLY correct.
The color is not one we would use. It even was a wrong color for the moulds, that's why the case has some white discolorizations. So don't worry, it's not the final look!

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We were in the factory from 8am until 8pm... we stayed until everything had been done and finished!

So on Thursday, we did a little sightseeing for two hours... before I had to go back to the airport.
Here are some nice views from Thessaloniki:

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And in case someone has a 3D monitor (or VR glasses) at home:
Attached to the post are some of the pictures in 3D MPO file format packed up in a ZIP-File.

Okay, I'll try to edit the video ASAP and also update you about the results.

UPDATE 2:

Here is the video :)

 

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Thanks for update ED.
I am sure cases will be perfect now. Eagerly waiting for pics though.

So ED likes to post news when he's sitting bored on a plane... Somebody buy that dragon more plane tickets! Preferably at least twice a month.
He will not have anything to post then.
 
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Hurrah, the oracle has spoken, and not his lackey.

The software sounds like it's almost usable to me. Sure, the speakers would be better if they couldn't be blown up to easily, but I can live with everything else while it's being worked on (and maybe I'd even be able to help in fixing some things myself, if I had my unit to hand). I wonder what's in /sys/class/power_supply for debugging the battery monitor issues, for example.

But yeah, @Grench and the other prototype preorderers deserve to get their units before the great unwashed like me do, they paid enough for that privilege of course.
 
So ED likes to post news when he's sitting bored on a plane... Somebody buy that dragon more plane tickets! Preferably at least twice a month.

Or a train ticket. Better for the environment and ED has even more time for news posts ;)
 
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I wonder what's in /sys/class/power_supply for debugging the battery monitor issues, for example.

There's nothing special in there, just everything a normal LInux offers :)
The problem is that the driver needs to be setup to know the battery capacity, otherwise it uses some standard value (3600mAh or something like that)
 
Great news, 10 Weeks are something one can live whit, ..
For me, then our "Mainseason" is over, so i will have more time to getting used to the device....

And yes i know it will take maybe 2 Weeks more, because in 10 Weeks (or less hopefully) the Parts will arive, but needs to be assembled to Pyras..

But there is one thing i dotnt understand: you said some time in the past, that the PCBs need a couple of weeks to be made, or was this just for the Prototyphs ??

How long would a Pyra take from Scratch to be assembled if everything is set up and laying around ??

Whish you a great time in Greace
 
Of course, if you're visiting GamesCom this year, we'll be there (in the retro hall) as usual. But this time, we'll have FINAL Pyra units with us.

You're more than welcome to have a cup of coffee with me :)
Oh damn, I didn’t really plan to visit GamesCom this year .. now I have to :D The Retro Hall would probably be the only hall I really want to visit in general, even if it wasn’t for you, ED, and the Pyra.
(Forget what I asked here before editing, I’m an idiot :p )
Do you already know if you will be there all days, @EvilDragon ? I would prefer to visit Wednesday or Thursday, but of course this wouldn’t make sense if you’re only there on the weekend.

Yay, shoulder buttons that actually FEEL like shoulder buttons. That's something refreshing :)
The hype is getting real! Seems like I rediscovered the Pyra at just the right time.
 
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And my first Experience whit my Pandora was a stuck right shoulderbutton ^^ (about 2 Months after i fixed this, i finaly got to play a game where i needet this button..)
Ace Combat would be quite nice to play whit 4 Shoulderbuttons ^^

Fortunaly in ditnt need Shoulderbuttons for Mario Land ^^
 
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Looking forward to the new pics.
Does this update also mean we will be playing with our own Pyra this year?

I'll be at Gamescom again this year, trying out the latest ED has on display.
 
and the whole system is still a bit barren (like on the early Pandoras). All the nice little tools that made the Pandora easier to use (like the enable / disable Wifi, USB, etc. directly from the taskbar) are still missing, but the desktop itself works. And there's not nice GUI for doing phonecalls, etc.

I hope you don't plan on delaying anything due to lacking software. I much rather have the device sooner rather than later, and patches is easy these days ;)
 
I don’t think Joe Public would be happy if they received a device with sound, battery issues etc.Reviewers would pan the device as well.
 
Of course, if you're visiting GamesCom this year, we'll be there (in the retro hall) as usual. But this time, we'll have FINAL Pyra units with us.
I am not very familiar with GamesCon but if they consider devices that are not even officially released yet to be retro then I would love to see what their new stuff looks like.
 
I don’t think Joe Public would be happy if they received a device with sound, battery issues etc.Reviewers would pan the device as well.

Well there's joe public and john public, this device has a niche market and it will appeal to that niche. It would probably be worth while not sending out review units (if at all) before these issues are fixed, also there should be some nice showstopper applications or games available before it gets into reviewer hands. That said it is kind of a catch22 that ED is in, to get more devs on board you need to sell the device (or give away alot) and to sell the device it has to work at least the basics.
 
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