I hope you had some great holidays. Last week was quite busy for me, I had an appointment with Global Components to discuss about the productions cost (yep, it's getting serious now), and I was also fiddling around with the prototype quite a bit.
In fact, I am writing this newspost here in a train using the Pyra prototype. An excellent test for the keyboard.
It takes a bit getting used to (I always hit ' when I want to press SHIFT, as that's where SHIFT was on the Pandora), but I can already type pretty fast.
All keys are easily reachable, they feel good, but as you know, I already decided the keymat will be tweaked a bit to improve it even further.
So, here's what happened last week...
1. Heating tests
I've started playing around with some special heat spreading, blocking and dissipation materials with quite a bit success.
Currently, the unoptimized OS with all features enabled (Wifi, modem, display, all LEDs, all USB ports, etc.) and no suspend or powersaving features enabled gets quite warm without any anti-heat solution... in fact, the CPU reaches 40,1C when just sitting around for 10 minutes, using about 4W (running both cores with full load at 1 GHz uses about 6W with everything enabled)
With just a few layers of cleverly placed heat blockers (to block the heat getting to the battery and the DPad) and some heat spreading as well as two copper springs added to the USB ports, the unit ran for over 40 minutes staying at a comfortable temperature of 30,2C, which is a lot better.
I don't think we need to do much more (after all, those materials are the same every smartphone uses these days), and it will be enough for normal usage. For continuos high power usage, it will still be warm (like every smartphone out there), but there's nothing you can do (except for adding a fan...)
2. Meeting up with Global Components
I had a meeting with GC and received the production costs for both the normal and the spiced up unit (which has 4G and a few more sensors added)
As it looks like, we can keep the prospected 500 EUR price tag, but will use the better Wifi chip (which also has 5GHz speed) in the normal unit as well.
What we need to find out and discuss are some MOQs (Minimum order quantity).
It won't help if a MOQ for one type of the 4G module is 1000 pcs. We need to be able to mix them up (US,European versions).
As usual, I'll let you know as soon as I got more informationa.
3. Meeting with BOE
My BOE contact visited me this week to check the touchscreen issue (heavy color grains) with me.
Thank god it looks like it's a very simple issue.
The touchscreen is currently applied with some double adhesive tape. Because of that, there's a bit of air between the glass of the touchscreen and the LCD.
That air refracts the light which leads to diifused light entering the touchscreen layer.
Matted touchscreens are always a bit grainy, but the added refraction makes it worse (as colors are being refracted to different directions).
Another way to apply the touchscreen is using bonding. That way, a touchscreen is firmly applied to the LCD (without any air inbetween) which should solve that problem.
4. OS, developer info, updated website
The first few developer units will be shipped in about a week and I'll spend the next few days to actively work on the website and Wiki to show the advantages and strength of the Pyra to newcomers on the main site and to give developers access to the current status of the OS and kernel so they can help improve the system.
Any help is welcome. I'll let you know how you can help with other threads on the boards.
5. Protoype units and a preproduction run
We were able to create 10 working PCB sets from the prototype run. This is enough for the developers, but not yet for all the ordered prototypes.
However, we still have a few fixes and the ordered prototypes I want to ship should have a full case and a fixed keymat (though I'll also throw in the old one in case you want to compare it).
So they'll still take a while, but you'll still receive them before anyone else, no worries.
6. Preorders
Well... we now got a working prototype (which I used to type this newspost), so the time for the preorders has finally come!
I will now do a proper cost calculation which means the preorder won't be far away now!
BTW, the battery lasts about 8 hours currently with normal desktop usage... without any powersaving included yet and all components enabled.
That's pretty good already. About the same the Pandora had at the beginning without any powersavings enabled.
7. Some more thoughts
Well, honestly, what a weird feeling. Actually typing ON the Pyra on a train!
It almost feels surreal! It took a long time, but we were always moving forward!
You all played a huge part in the process - so thanks a lot!
It's awesome seeing coming a huge project to an end!
In fact, I am writing this newspost here in a train using the Pyra prototype. An excellent test for the keyboard.
It takes a bit getting used to (I always hit ' when I want to press SHIFT, as that's where SHIFT was on the Pandora), but I can already type pretty fast.
All keys are easily reachable, they feel good, but as you know, I already decided the keymat will be tweaked a bit to improve it even further.
So, here's what happened last week...
1. Heating tests
I've started playing around with some special heat spreading, blocking and dissipation materials with quite a bit success.
Currently, the unoptimized OS with all features enabled (Wifi, modem, display, all LEDs, all USB ports, etc.) and no suspend or powersaving features enabled gets quite warm without any anti-heat solution... in fact, the CPU reaches 40,1C when just sitting around for 10 minutes, using about 4W (running both cores with full load at 1 GHz uses about 6W with everything enabled)
With just a few layers of cleverly placed heat blockers (to block the heat getting to the battery and the DPad) and some heat spreading as well as two copper springs added to the USB ports, the unit ran for over 40 minutes staying at a comfortable temperature of 30,2C, which is a lot better.
I don't think we need to do much more (after all, those materials are the same every smartphone uses these days), and it will be enough for normal usage. For continuos high power usage, it will still be warm (like every smartphone out there), but there's nothing you can do (except for adding a fan...)
2. Meeting up with Global Components
I had a meeting with GC and received the production costs for both the normal and the spiced up unit (which has 4G and a few more sensors added)
As it looks like, we can keep the prospected 500 EUR price tag, but will use the better Wifi chip (which also has 5GHz speed) in the normal unit as well.
What we need to find out and discuss are some MOQs (Minimum order quantity).
It won't help if a MOQ for one type of the 4G module is 1000 pcs. We need to be able to mix them up (US,European versions).
As usual, I'll let you know as soon as I got more informationa.
3. Meeting with BOE
My BOE contact visited me this week to check the touchscreen issue (heavy color grains) with me.
Thank god it looks like it's a very simple issue.
The touchscreen is currently applied with some double adhesive tape. Because of that, there's a bit of air between the glass of the touchscreen and the LCD.
That air refracts the light which leads to diifused light entering the touchscreen layer.
Matted touchscreens are always a bit grainy, but the added refraction makes it worse (as colors are being refracted to different directions).
Another way to apply the touchscreen is using bonding. That way, a touchscreen is firmly applied to the LCD (without any air inbetween) which should solve that problem.
4. OS, developer info, updated website
The first few developer units will be shipped in about a week and I'll spend the next few days to actively work on the website and Wiki to show the advantages and strength of the Pyra to newcomers on the main site and to give developers access to the current status of the OS and kernel so they can help improve the system.
Any help is welcome. I'll let you know how you can help with other threads on the boards.
5. Protoype units and a preproduction run
We were able to create 10 working PCB sets from the prototype run. This is enough for the developers, but not yet for all the ordered prototypes.
However, we still have a few fixes and the ordered prototypes I want to ship should have a full case and a fixed keymat (though I'll also throw in the old one in case you want to compare it).
So they'll still take a while, but you'll still receive them before anyone else, no worries.
6. Preorders
Well... we now got a working prototype (which I used to type this newspost), so the time for the preorders has finally come!
I will now do a proper cost calculation which means the preorder won't be far away now!
BTW, the battery lasts about 8 hours currently with normal desktop usage... without any powersaving included yet and all components enabled.
That's pretty good already. About the same the Pandora had at the beginning without any powersavings enabled.
7. Some more thoughts
Well, honestly, what a weird feeling. Actually typing ON the Pyra on a train!
It almost feels surreal! It took a long time, but we were always moving forward!
You all played a huge part in the process - so thanks a lot!
It's awesome seeing coming a huge project to an end!
And typed on the Pyra is even more excelent!
