Getting closer... (2011 - 12 - 01)

[Linux-SWAT]

Maybe some scotch tape in the shipping would do it ? ;^)

 

[WizardStan]

Craig had this idea early on, but I don't know what happened to it.

It fizzled out, likely on account of lack of boards.

 

[EvilDragon]

Hey ED, with all the buzz around small computers you can just take with you (the talk about usb stick sized computers, and stuff like the Raspberry PI). What is the price on a bare Pandora PCB, say if someone just wants to use it with TV out and nothing else.


Could be a nice second market.

The PCB alone does cost about 200 EUR to produce.

 

[EvilDragon]

Hey ED, with all the buzz around small computers you can just take with you (the talk about usb stick sized computers, and stuff like the Raspberry PI). What is the price on a bare Pandora PCB, say if someone just wants to use it with TV out and nothing else.


Could be a nice second market.

How would you control it? There are no physical buttons on the PCB other than the shoulder buttons. I suspect your fingertips would have enough resistance to be undetectable as a keypress if you touched the pads directly, not to mention you'd have to memorise all the key locations.


how would you power it? Not every board is guaranteed to boot without a battery, and without a case how would you attach one?


I can think of a few ways around these issues but most are rather cumbersome, and so would defeat the purpose of carting around a bare PCB for the sake of portability.


I suppose you could distribute the bottom half of a case, with no LCD attached, and distribute it with just the TV-Out cable. not sure how cost effective that would be though, and you'd have no way of protecting the controls when lugging it about.


- Neelix

Oh, that would be possible.


A special firmware that enables TV Out right from the start, using USB Keyboard and Gamepads would be possible as well.


Power up IS possible, there are two test contacts on the PCB we use for testing the units. These two contacts simulate the battery, so using these, you could make sure that simply using an AC Adaptor would work.


However, for that price, you could get a PandaBoard

 

[Darkknight512]

Is there a reason, other then volume that our boards cost so much more?

 

[EvilDragon]

Is there a reason, other then volume that our boards cost so much more?

Mostly volume.


Parts would cost half if I could buy 10,000 at once, and parts are 140 EUR of that price.


I'll have a meeting with EBV / TI in February and discuss a bit about the prices... maybe I can negotiate something.

 

[Argtrak]

Heck, maybe they themselves would be willing to invest in the project. They'd end up making back their money and the profit would cover the difference.

 

[fusion_power]

Imagine, OPTeam had ordered 10.000 Units from the beginning. Maybe this could have been cheeper at the end. ^^

 

[Darkknight512]

Imagine, OPTeam had ordered 10.000 Units from the beginning. Maybe this could have been cheeper at the end. ^^

But imagine if CC was just as uncooperative, (or maybe 10 000 units would have made them cooperate better, we will never know) this project probably would have been in much more trouble.

 

[lulzfish]

Whoops, gravedigger.