I am a noob. Here are my noob questions.


B

Breaded Butter

Guest
I just discovered the Pandora and it looks awesome. I'd just like a few questions answered while I wait for the store to restock.

I see that the Pyra is in development, but I don't have a good picture of how far in development. I know that there's no set release date, but are there any rough ideas? This summer? This year? Later? If it's probably soon I may wait, otherwise I'll probably go for the Pandora. Speaking of which...

I see the Pandora is currently out of stock. Is it normally in-stock and right now just happens to be a bad time, or is it something that I'd need to jump on quickly when it returns to in stock?

In the Dragon Box Shop, it says that there's a US, UK, and EU charger plug included. I'll need a US one, but I don't see anywhere to specify that. Does that come later in the order process that I can't get to because it's out of stock, or does it just come with all 3?

The Pandora boasts 10-hour battery life for full use. Does it normally live up to that? If so... that's amazing. If not, I'd like to know in advance if a 2nd battery would be a good idea for the level of use I think I'll be doing.
 
Mine came with a charger which takes an interchangeable plug module, but was only supplied with the UK module, as that's where I live.

For an idea how far along Pyra development is, try the Pyra news forum - it's all happening in the open, although your guess as to when it will first be available is as good as mine.

The Pandora's out of stock because LCD cables are currently on back-order AFAIK.  I've lost track slightly on when those cables are due to arrive, but I expect it's soon.

My Pandora often lasts over 10 hours, if I'm not using wifi.  Heavy use of emulators will cut that down to around 7 hours, but that's usually enough to get me back to a charger.
 
1.done when its done, we should not get into that. The pandora had a LOT of delays and noone dares to give a date for the pyra now. 

2.The LCD cable is what is out of stock. When its back new full pandoras can be shipped, but they are a hairline from beeing sold out away. Forever. 

3. i use the psp charger.

4.For fresh batteries on normal gaming usage, say ps1 emulation, yes thats true. But that may fluctuate depend on what you do, Wifi, usb ports, Writing to external HDs takes all a high toll. And worst is the screen backlight. With backlight off/minimal you may use it for days straight. 

Anyway, all time in standby, using it everyday for half an hour for a little toilet game works for a week without charging. 
 
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Preorders for the Pyra haven't started, so it will probably be a while.  We could guess, but it probably won't be 2 months.  I would say the earliest is the end of this year.  A more realistic estimate would be "maybe next year".  Little problems might become big problems, and unexpected stuff can get in the way.  I don't think there will be delays like there were with the Pandora, but this is a small project with extremely limited funding, so that may have an impact should something come up since there isn't extra money to make sure things happen in a timely manner, or to go for different options.  Read about the SoC and nubs that were chosen to see what I mean.  EvilDragon already has the nubs, luckily, since he purchased in bulk already.

There are some new 1GHz units awaiting a ribbon cable that got delayed because of a holiday and/or something where they are being made (see what I mean about little things becoming big things).  Those are the last of the Pandoras that were manufactured.  I think I read that there will be refurbished Classic and Rebirth units available when those cables arrive to ED.

I don't recall if I specified during ordering which charger I needed, but I got the right one. Maybe they just looked at my shipping address (doubt it). Just make sure to pay attention to the options when you order, and don't be afraid to send them a message or otherwise try to get in touch.  The charger looks like it is the same for all locations, and it has a part that slides on that fits the regional outlets. A PSP charger will also work, and you should be able to (slowly) charge via USB.

I got 2 batteries.  I nearly never use the second one (I recently did just to check on it, then switched back).  I get 10 hours of real use without wifi, less with wifi, and since I don't typically use it for 10 or so hours in a day I charge it once or twice a week.  I have mine set to powersave when closed, not just turn off the screen, and it seems to last forever.  I just picked mine up after having set it aside for a few days and it has lost less than 20% of the charge (I don't recall what it was at last time I used it, around 80% I think, and it is at 63%.  I may have picked it up a couple times to quickly try something in the terminal during that time.)

Editing due to posts made while I typed: I keep my display brightness low unless I am outside or trying to show someone else something .  I don't use emulators often, and most of the games I play are probably of the light variety.  I usually use it for other purposes which are mostly not very power hungry.  I have a Classic unit.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

The end of year at earliest guesstimate is good enough for me, thanks.

So... is this the last manufacturing run ever or something, no future Pandoras after this?

I have a psp charger lying around, so if all else fails I can just do that? Works for me.

I think I got enough info to judge on having a backup battery, I tend to keep my backlights low on all devices so no real worries it seems.
 
The Pandora is out of production, but there are enough PCBs and other parts to finish more 1Ghz units once LCD cables arrive from what I gather.
 
Breaded Butter said:
I have a psp charger lying around, so if all else fails I can just do that? Works for me.
Click to expand...
I have the impression that Ed chooses the proper plug module depending on the country were he ships the Pandora to. Additionally the Pandora can be charged via its Mini-USB port, so (albait its a slow process and given you have Mini-USB cable lying around) you can use almost everything with a USB port to charge your Pandora
 
The Pandora has a 4.2Ah battery, which at a nominal 3.7V corresponds to 15Wh of energy.

Energy consumption is as follows:

  • the lid closed (screen off) and cpu idle: about 0.1W  (about 150 hours)
  • lid closed, playing music with Audacious: about 0.5W  (about 30 hours)
  • the lid open and screen on lowest non-zero brightness, cpu mostly idle: 0.65W  (I always use this brightness except outdoors)  --> this is roughly the power consumption of doing things like reading a PDF, coding or writing text. (about 23 hours)
  • screen at max brightness, cpu mostly idle: almost 1.2W (about 13 hours)
  • screen back at lowest non-zero brightness (brightness setting for all the next ones too, you can add the 0.55W yourself), artificial cpu stress test: 2W (about 7.5 hours)
  • NDS emulation with DraStic (new super mario bros, first levels) : about 1.6W (about 9 hours)
  • Playstation emulation with PCSX ReArmed at double resolution (FF7, battle scenes) : also about 1.6W
  • Playstation emulation with PCSX ReArmed at original resolution (FF7, battle scenes) : about 1.3W (about 11 hours)
  • SNES emulation with Snes9x4P (Super Mario World, first levels) : about 1.2W (about 12 hours)
  • Wifi on, screen on, downloading big files: about 1.8W (about 8 hours)
  • external (spinning) hard disk plugged in, copying a large file over to the SD card: 3 to 5W  (about 3 to 5 hours)
  • downloading a large file over wifi while copying a large file from an external hard disk while doing a cpu stress test with screen at max brightness: about 6W (about 2.5 hours)
I hope this helps to give you an accurate idea of the battery life of the Pandora. It's certainly much better than any smartphone or laptop.
 
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im actually selling my perfectly working GHZ pandora. have a look over at the trade section or contact me if you are interested.
 
Breaded Butter said:
I see that the Pyra is in development, but I don't have a good picture of how far in development. I know that there's no set release date, but are there any rough ideas? This summer? This year? Later? If it's probably soon I may wait, otherwise I'll probably go for the Pandora. Speaking of which...
Click to expand...
http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/18225-finishing-up-the-hardware//URL]


Check out ED's latest newspost if you have not. Seems the pyra design is "basically done" and preorders should open in 1,99 months.
 
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Breaded Butter said:
I just discovered the Pandora and it looks awesome. I'd just like a few questions answered while I wait for the store to restock.
Click to expand...
That will be soon.

I see that the Pyra is in development, but I don't have a good picture of how far in development. I know that there's no set release date, but are there any rough ideas? This summer? This year? Later? If it's probably soon I may wait, otherwise I'll probably go for the Pandora. Speaking of which...
Click to expand...
Christmas 2015, it's been announced, and anyone with familiarity with the Pandora will know what that means.

I see the Pandora is currently out of stock. Is it normally in-stock and right now just happens to be a bad time, or is it something that I'd need to jump on quickly when it returns to in stock?
Click to expand...
There will be limited numbers - about 40 of the 1GHz models, so yeah - get in quickly. They're gonna go like hot shit of a shiny shovel.

The Pandora boasts 10-hour battery life for full use. Does it normally live up to that? If so... that's amazing. If not, I'd like to know in advance if a 2nd battery would be a good idea for the level of use I think I'll be doing.
Click to expand...
Yes, the battery lasts for at least ten hours. I usually get around 12 to 14 depending on what I'm doing. In standby I get 2 or 3 weeks.

D.
 
Before Breaded Butter gets all confused, it might be worth pointing out that on these boards, the phrase "Two Months" has an almost mythical significance, and is regarded with great superstition. Therefore, when people starts writing posts with foretell that something will happen in Two Months, or in various very laborious avoid saying exactly two months, you should not regard this as being some sort of actual time reference. Rather, you should adopt a kind of anthropologist attitude, and regard this as a researcher might regard a a tribe of hunter-gatherers who paint images of buffaloes on the walls of the hut before they go out on a hunt.
 
'Two Months'  :

When the completion of a project approaches epsilon, Pandorians are subject to a distressing phenomenon in which they experience the passage of time looping in on itself... it appears the universe continues moving forward, but the Pandorian finds themselves in a seemingly endless cycle, unable to escape.

No one knows exactly how long these cycles are in real time, but the accepted unit of measure for one cycle is... 'Two Months'.
 
I've followed in-development stuff before, mainly games, and I've learned to expect that unexpected delays will happen. I just still like to have a rough idea of how far along stuff appears to be, and a general picture of how variable any estimates might be. I'm thinking at this point that if the Pandoras return in stock before August (which seems likely) I'll grab one, otherwise I'll take another look at Pyra news and re-evaluate my decision at that time.
 

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