Finally, a bit more news!

[EvilDragon]

Once again, I'm really sorry for the long time without any update.
Before posting some news, I'd like to let you know the reasons why things are moving very slowly.
As you very well know, things haven't worked out as good as I had hoped they would.
You all followed me when we had the problems with the case. Or the OMAP5 basically being discontinued after we finished development with a lot of open software bugs still left.
Yes, I did tried my best to fix them all - and an assembled Pyra is still an impressive device, but all these fixes and additional work basicall mean a lot higher costs and a lot more work in assembly.
I've already spent a couple of thousand Euros just to get AESS working on the Pyra, and while hns is close to get it to work, it's still not fully done.
And due to the risen costs, one Pyra is around 200 - 300 EUR loss for me - as all parts and raw materials have risen in price extensively since we started.

I still love the Pyra (as well as the community supporting it ) and I will try to improve it further, maybe with a new case, a new CPU, and so on.
And there's one thing I'll never do: Run away and hide!

Remember the Pandora-Desaster when OpenPandora Ltd. ran out of money and had to close down? Well, this is mostly because they decided to fully concentrate on the Pandora and ignore everything else. That's something I will not do.
The shop and my other projects are pulling in the much-needed money to continue with the Pyra, both for further development and production. Don't forget I also have to pay back the investors at some time - which is another 300k EUR

So basically: Yes, the main reason things are moving ahead so slow is simply funds.
This delays the start of the next production run as well as the time I can spare to assemble Pyras. Unless there's someone who's got too much money to just throw at the project, things will continue to move slow until my other projects pulled in enough money.
It's also the reason we haven't actively worked on new CPU boards (only did some checks and tests for possible candidates).
However, this is the only way to move forward in my opinion. I guess you all agree it's better to have a slow production than eventually having to file for bankruptcy

But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you And thanks for sticking with me that long already. It means a lot!


Okay, now on to the news I can give to you:

1. New cases / coating

Finally, I have delivered the cases to the coating company. This is a delay which was not caused by money or too little time: The coating company simply had other jobs with higher priority to finish first, so they couldn't start to work on it before.
Now that they have the cases, we should receive them back in a few weeks, so I can assemble the Pyras of those who have ordered the Copper version (or who wanted to explicitely receive the new cases in black).
I've already assembled and shipped out all other finished preorders, who still got their Pyras using the older case revision.

That said, the next batch of eMails will be sent out soon (probably next week), so more users will be able to finally receive their Pyra


2. Some news regarding the software / kernel / OS

As mentioned above, Nikolaus has been working hard on AESS - and while it seems to be 99% done, it's not yet working. But hopefully, it won't be too far off.
This should reduce the workload of the CPU when it plays audio and therefore improve both the battery time and cause less heat quite a bit.

Speaking of battery time: Nikolaus also did a test run with a Pyra and his own LetuxOS. When it's idle, the battery lasts 14 hours and it doesn't get very warm.
Our current setup doesn't last that long when idling (probably only around 8 hours), so it seems that something in our setup is causing a constant battery drain.
Might be that some parts of the hardware are always on (like the modem or similar) or that some wrong interrupt is enabled that constantly wakes the CPU.
Whatever it is, it is software - so it can be fixed.

Also, a patch has been released by a former TI employee that fixes the random freezes that occur with the OMAP5!
And pimaster worked on the RAM timings a bit and found some quirks. The fixes are not yet good enough to be implemented into our U-Boot (some more tests need to be made, and there's a lot of trial and error involved), but this already made ALL the CPU Boards I have boot up (some reported memory errors before), and I can imagine it will be possible to reenable the low-power mode of the RAM again as well.

Risca has improved the volume wheel daemon a lot which makes the volume wheel work a lot smoother and need lees CPU time - and he doesn't even have a Pyra yet :O

Thanks to everyone who has helped working on these improvements. I really really do appreciate that.

There's just one problem:
We're basically missing developers who can incorporate all that into our OS.
While aTc is the one creating the OS images, he doesn't have that much time at the moment, and he's mostly doing this all by himself.
Hopefully, this situation will improve in the future as well - but I leave that up to aTc if he wants someone to help him.

I'm just sad seeing that there seem to be a lot of potential improvements out there which are not being implemented in the OS at the moment.


3. Final words for today

Well, that's where we currently stand. I wish I had some more and better news regarding the production, but I can't change that (and I will not tell you lies).
I'll try to do my best, and won't run away - you can be sure of that.

I'll also stop taking preorders soon, as we have so many to deliver first, and I want to finish these first before taking more of them.

Oh, and if someone happens to know a billionaire (or happens to be one) who just wants to throw money at us, let me know.
This would speed up things immensively and we could actively create new cases from scratch and design a new CPU board right away
I know you're out there

Well, that's it for today.

 

[rWind]

News! Updates! It's great to finally know more about the whys of recent slowdowns, not to mention that some things have to be restated periodically.

I'll probably get my Pyra soon, but most likely I'll get my Zelda:TotK pre-order before that, so it'll be easier to wait on only one (more) thing.
I must say I admire your persistence and I wish I had as much stick-to-itiveness. Slow and steady is far better than giving up.
Just keep going, I for one, appreciate it!

 

[Cralex]

The update is, as always, good to see. It's great to see so many components (both physical and in code) that will one day make the Pyra into a more refined product. For those of us that were there at the beginning of the Prya like I was... The world is a different place than it was when the project began. We are different people than we were back then. I've had my Pyra for some time now, but before then it gave me many years of something to follow and look forward to. If I had the means to make a big contribution to the project, I would. Not expecting anything back, but for all the fond memories and for the struggles overcome and that will continue to be overcome. Even in this different world, there is a place for the Pyra.

 

[Git1]

Thanks again ED, your honesty and commitment, even while making a loss, is still incredible and inspiring. I've never heard of someone so committed and transparent before.

The news all sounds very positive again. I hope I can afford to make an order this year. I'd love to get in while you're still taking pre-orders (just for bragging rights ).

 

[Trezker]

That's a big loss per unit. Do you see it becoming profitable in the future?

 

[asimov-solensan]

Thanks for the update.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

Thanks for the awesome and much awaited update @EvilDragon . Best news is that you're alive and (apparently) well.

I'm wondering how fast through the dates of preorders are we getting? Guess there will be a certain percentage of non responders to these emails, and do you give them a certain amount of time before giving up and opening the option to the next in queue?

Curious, as I'm no longer using the email I had when I ordered, but only get them forwarded, so not even sure if I'd see it if it hits the spam folder...

 

[Bosbeetle]

Cool I cant wait to see the improvements trickly down into the pyra, It happened with the pandora as well, I think the device has a lot of potential.
I just wish there were some easy tasks that dont require a real programmer that can be done to alleviate aTc's work, however i think organizing such tasks might even be a lot of work already.

I think I speak for many pyra owners that there would always be some time to do testing etc.

 

[matzesu]

Thanks for the Answer, and sad to hear about the big loss, its like you sell 2 Pyra, and the 3th Customer dont have to pay..

So the Pyra have to be increased in prize..
The new cases will be inportant for the others, i allready have my Case.. , AESS will be a big inprovement, who knows, maybe sometime in the future..

I still looking forward for a new CPU Board, maybe its then fast enough so i dont need this Filming Setup anymore whit Camera aimed on Pyra Screen so i can run a Screen Capture Software, made allready a test but it was too slow then for Emulators..

 

[Git1]

Maybe people that can afford it could make a donation to the store to make up the loss?

 

[Bagpussawake]

Now that they have the cases, we should receive them back in a few weeks, so I can assemble the Pyras of those who have ordered the Copper version (or who wanted to explicitely receive the new cases in black).
I've already assembled and shipped out all other finished preorders, who still got their Pyras using the older case revision.

I pretty sure I originally pre-ordered the chrome case but, although I saw that this was no longer available and there was a copper option instead, I don't recall ever seeing an option to switch to the copper one. I've had a search but could only find this from Dec 8th 2022.

I'll also do a newspost within the next couple of days, unfortunately, except for the remaining cases there won't be more Chromium editions (we can't get the color anymore), but a copper edition (or copper / chromium mixed edition) should be available from January on.

Does anyone know if I have missed the opportunity to confirm switching from Chrome to Copper or will Chrome orders automatically be switched to copper?

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

And I can imagine it will be possible to reenable the low-power mode of the RAM again as well.

So does that mean the Pyra may have suspend-to-RAM in the future? Or is it referring to some other kind of low-power mode?

 

[fusion_power]

Nice to see some sign of life here. I'm actually impressed that the Pyra-Development still continues after all the years. Sadly, time goes by and while the Pyra seems to be still in beta-dev-mode, other mobile devices are out in the wild with much better specs, working "out-of-the-box" and often (not always) come to a lower price. In fact, I follow the development and market of mobile (gaming) devices pretty closely, it's impressive what came out in the last months alone. Even the Steam Deck gets serious competition, not only from the countless China ARM/ x86 Handheld devices but also soon the ASUS ROG Ally is right around the corner. Rumours say the price will be above the Steam Deck but under 1000€, maybe 600-800€ or so. Which is still impressive for an Handheld with a Zen4 CPU and the new RDNA3 GPU. My next Laptop is likely to have these kind of APU inside, iGPU graphic came a long way now and is finally viable for some gaming. Enough for my needs anyway.

I still think it's important that the Pyra exists. It is an interesting project with alot that can be learned from. But the long and complicated Pyra development showed that it is nearly impossible to build such a device in Europe/USA, compared to China. No matter how much money you throw into companies here to make such an device. Whatever they do there in China, they seems to have resources we can't get our hands on. Even small, unknown companies throw out handheld devices like popcorn. With or without an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign. (Somehow funny to see that they usually only need these crowdfunding platforms as marketing device). I think one must be as big as Valve to be able to make such a Handheld outside of Asia.

This is not meant to be a rant, I'm just impressed that the Pyra went that far with that limited ressources ED has and without being abandoned. Keep on going.

 

[FBnil]

I dont mind paying the "new price" for my Pyra. But it sounds like the Pandora, where people payed full price to get it sooner, and those that did not have the funds were pushed back in the queue. It was not a bad solution then, not a bad solution now?

 

[pimaster]

So does that mean the Pyra may have suspend-to-RAM in the future? Or is it referring to some other kind of low-power mode?

My problem is lower level than that. There is a piece of hardware that acts as a bridge between the memory and the rest of the CPU. When it isn't actively being requested to fetch/store data, it can go into a lower power mode that does the minimum to keep the memory refreshed. I couldn't find settings that would let it enter this state.
This would have to be solved before Pyra could suspend to RAM, but suspend to RAM is another problem on top of this. You need all of the components to enter the low power mode and successfully wake up from it.

Thanks for the mention ED, just wish I left it in a better state before taking a break.

 

[EvilDragon]

True, but suspend-to-ram is not really needed for such devices. Smartphones also don't have a suspend-to-ram.
Modern CPUs have deep sleep states which use very little power and most other parts can be switched off as well.
It can also keep certain parts active (you don't want to miss calls on your smartphone, for example).

That's also how the Pandora reaches around 27 hours - it's not a suspend-to-ram, it's a deep sleep state.

 

[netcat]

Evokes images.... “In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

 

[matzesu]

It would be usefull if you can game, close the game and then put it in a low power mode where its dosnt emit heat so you can put the Pyra back in your pocket

 

[oskda]

Nice to see some sign of life here. I'm actually impressed that the Pyra-Development still continues after all the years. Sadly, time goes by and while the Pyra seems to be still in beta-dev-mode, other mobile devices are out in the wild with much better specs, working "out-of-the-box" and often (not always) come to a lower price. In fact, I follow the development and market of mobile (gaming) devices pretty closely, it's impressive what came out in the last months alone. Even the Steam Deck gets serious competition, not only from the countless China ARM/ x86 Handheld devices but also soon the ASUS ROG Ally is right around the corner. Rumours say the price will be above the Steam Deck but under 1000€, maybe 600-800€ or so. Which is still impressive for an Handheld with a Zen4 CPU and the new RDNA3 GPU. My next Laptop is likely to have these kind of APU inside, iGPU graphic came a long way now and is finally viable for some gaming. Enough for my needs anyway.

I still think it's important that the Pyra exists. It is an interesting project with alot that can be learned from. But the long and complicated Pyra development showed that it is nearly impossible to build such a device in Europe/USA, compared to China. No matter how much money you throw into companies here to make such an device. Whatever they do there in China, they seems to have resources we can't get our hands on. Even small, unknown companies throw out handheld devices like popcorn. With or without an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign. (Somehow funny to see that they usually only need these crowdfunding platforms as marketing device). I think one must be as big as Valve to be able to make such a Handheld outside of Asia.

This is not meant to be a rant, I'm just impressed that the Pyra went that far with that limited ressources ED has and without being abandoned. Keep on going.

You are right but all those Chinese handheld computers, or handheld devices, have a few points where they could not compete with Pyra (if Pyra was available, because it isn't):

1/ They are too big, they are not pocket size, no way. Pyre size and shape design is pocket size, ideal for using like pocket hand held device, where you can hold it with hands whike typing with thumbs.

2/ Most of them don't have keyboard, and ones with it result in a very bad keyboard and/or inusable because bevause device is too big and you can't hold it while reaching all keys with your thumbs.

Of course, problem with Pyra is it doesn't exist on market (there is near no production, you don't know how many years you need to wait if you order, even soon you can't order). And that after waiting more or less like 7 years (I follow Pyra since it started, even I remember it was going to have Full HD 1920x1080 resolution, but later that was changed to HD 720p). Before Pyre I followed Pandora.

I will continue waiting for Pyra, I am 7 years older, so I am more patient.

 

[fusion_power]

You are right but all those Chinese handheld computers, or hemming devices, have a few points where they could not compete with Pyra (if Pyre was available, because it isn't):

1/ They are too big, they are not pocket size, no way. Pyre size and shape design is pocket size, ideal for using like pocket hand held device, where you can hold it with hands whike typing with thumbs.

2/ Most of them don't have keyboard, and ones with it result in a very bad keyboard and/or inusable because bevause device is too big and you can't hold it while reaching all keys with your thumbs.

Of course, problem with Pyre is it doesn't exist on market (there is near no sproduction, you don't know how many years yoymu need to wait if you order, even soon you can't order). And that after waiting more or less like 10 years?

I will continue waiting for Pyra, I am 10 years older, so I am more patient.

Of course these comparisons between Pyra and "commercial" Handhelds are more or less Apples and Oranges. Different devices for different purposes and different audiences. I just wanted to point out what happened handheld-wise since the Pyra is in development, and it is quite alot within the last couple of years alone. And I'm actually glad that we have such a wide variety of (Gaming) Handhelds out there for every purpose and every price-range.
Yes, physical keyboards on these kind of devices are rare, but some have at least keyboards. For instance the well known GPD Win Max 2 (yes, it's big!) or the AYA Neo Slide or the GPD Win 4. Of course the prices for these devices are abysmal high, compared to the Steam Deck for instance.

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