First Beta Units

[Huxley]

I mean if they're just going to show us pictures why not use the batteries? it's not like it's going to run out before the flash goes off, and no one will sit around downloading a 6 hour video of the thing playing.

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This makes sense to me. If GPH did have a problem with bettery life, they could easily hide it in the publicity shots they've shown so far. Using a power cable suggests the problem is something less obvious and probably trickier to fix.

 

[reallynotnick]

nope, AAs are pretty much the same everywhere. they differ in capacity, though.

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Well some can drop in voltage faster then others, like towards the end of the batteries power their voltage can decrease like to 1.2 volts. Some batteries keep their voltage longer even though the battery is almost dead.

 

[Eolair]

Heh, I just thought of something. Maybe they just now discovered that chargable AA's are only 1.2V not 1.5V like regular ones. And so they don't provide enough voltage to power up the screen. Wouldn't that be nice

Just kidding. Obviously there must be some other problem or they wouldn't have to use an external power source for the beta units.

 

[second exodous]

Hmm, I'm confident that GPH has it sorted out and these are only the beta units. Maybe they crippled the beta units so they aren't just sold? I don't know, I'm sure if this problem was going to set back the release then we would have heard about it from GPH by now.

Thanx,
Stan

 

[EddCase]

Just wondering. Is this more likely to be a software/Firmware issue? I thought i read somewhere that craig had already recived the first batch of units and was just waiting for the testing on the software/firmware to be completed before shipping the units out? Maybe i'm getting confused.

Taken from gbax

Oct 4th: The first final units are complete, beta testing of the OS will take around 2 weeks (yes, lots of videos will be posted), then the units will ship out to all preorder customers. Its all pretty exciting here right now

I imagine it'll cause GPH and Craig a load of greif if the units need hardware modification this late on.

Just wondering if you knew anything else Craig?

 

[DaveC]

Just kidding. Obviously there must be some other problem or they wouldn't have to use an external power source for the beta units.

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No that doesn't make any sense. If the thing runs off of a 3V AC adapter it will run off of 3V batteries. 3V is 3V no matter where from. The only difference is the run time. It may suck dry a couple of AA batteries in 30 Minutes, but a power cord obviously is not effected.

If they have problems they maybe could use 4 AA batteries and just make that bulge go all of the way across. This would mean re-tooling the mold and an obvious delay.

 

[jankster]

surely all this would of been done and tested in R@D along time ago

 

[garteth]

This is very worrying, I really hope this is just false speculation

 

[Eolair]

Just kidding. Obviously there must be some other problem or they wouldn't have to use an external power source for the beta units.

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No that doesn't make any sense. If the thing runs off of a 3V AC adapter it will run off of 3V batteries. 3V is 3V no matter where from. The only difference is the run time. It may suck dry a couple of AA batteries in 30 Minutes, but a power cord obviously is not effected.

If they have problems they maybe could use 4 AA batteries and just make that bulge go all of the way across. This would mean re-tooling the mold and an obvious delay.

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No like I said earlier that doesn't make any sense either. GPH would've tested the power drain regularly during the hardware design. It would be incredible if they hadn't

 

[reallynotnick]

Just kidding. Obviously there must be some other problem or they wouldn't have to use an external power source for the beta units.

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No that doesn't make any sense. If the thing runs off of a 3V AC adapter it will run off of 3V batteries. 3V is 3V no matter where from. The only difference is the run time. It may suck dry a couple of AA batteries in 30 Minutes, but a power cord obviously is not effected.

If they have problems they maybe could use 4 AA batteries and just make that bulge go all of the way across. This would mean re-tooling the mold and an obvious delay.

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As a stated somewere in one of these threads, batteries voltage slowly goes down the more they are used. Some batteries keep a high (1.5V) for longer period of time while others voltage begins to drop. It just depends on the type and brand of the battery.

 

[Huxley]

No that doesn't make any sense. If the thing runs off of a 3V AC adapter it will run off of 3V batteries. 3V is 3V no matter where from. The only difference is the run time. It may suck dry a couple of AA batteries in 30 Minutes, but a power cord obviously is not effected.

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Then why would they need to use the power cable for publicity shots? 30 mins isn't a long time, but it's long enough to take some pictures. You need to consider the possibility that the problem is somehow effecting the batteries and not the power cable. I'm not saying this IS the problem...we just don't know yet.

 

[DaveC]

No that doesn't make any sense.  If the thing runs off of a 3V AC adapter it will run off of 3V batteries.  3V is 3V no matter where from.   The only difference is the run time.  It may suck dry a couple of AA batteries in 30 Minutes, but a power cord obviously is not effected.

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Then why would they need to use the power cable for publicity shots? 30 mins isn't a long time, but it's long enough to take some pictures. You need to consider the possibility that the problem is somehow effecting the batteries and not the power cable. I'm not saying this IS the problem...we just don't know yet.

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Maybe they are using 4.5V power adapters? If it needs that much voltage they could add 1 more battery as that would give 4.5V. It wouldn't be so bad 1 more battery is not that heavy and the bulge would only be a bit more. The worse thing is the delay that will cause.

 

[x68000]

could GPH really be so stupid as to make such a rudimentary mistake?

 

[Alpha2]

They had to do SOME kind of testing to come up with their first battery life estimate and to be able to have a release date schedualed. I really doubt it's a super serious issue at this point. They have a couple of weeks of testing and then we'll know for sure if it's coming out on time or if it's getting pushed back.

 

[abigsmurf]

*wonders if the extra ram pushed up the power requirements*

 

[Jarska333]

Wel, they have to power that RAM, somehow. But I'd wager they'd thought about that.

 

[Yuglooc]

They had to do SOME kind of testing to come up with their first battery life estimate

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Math?

 

[Alpha2]

That's better than a guess!