I wonder... will the Pyra be more "my thing"?

[Kev2442]

Now, it appears that this pastel green is a sublime shade of green. When I saw this grape colour for the first time, my heart skipped a beet and made me feel meloncholy. Berry good, I think I am done. peachy?
If there is a any problem with this anwser, please lettuce know.

My brain just plummeted.

 

[TheOldOne]

I apologize for derailing the thread.

 

[tarator]

I apologize for derailing the thread.

Sorry... I Couldn't resist...

 

[rygD]

Hehe, thanks. It has been a while indeed, mostly because of the disapointments and maybe being a little bit too shy to be asking all kinds of silly questions all the time.

Your silly questions are more valuable than my stupid comments, so please ask them. As you can see, I am not alone, and we throw out more silliness than your sincere technical questions, so no need to be embarrassed or whatever.

I apologize for derailing the thread.

Liar.

 

[PCXT]

I was also considering will Pyra work in my case but I think that if there's Linux, I may make it useful.
Linux can show text files, can edit text files and Pyra has a nice keyboard, so it'll be OK for note taking. I think about programming shoulder buttons to make something better for productivity applications. Generally if I buy it, I'll try to remap something in Pyra's keyboard.
It is possible to have a spreadsheet - very good.
Calendar or database - there must be something in packages list. In the worst case Thunderbird.
If there will be Debian repo for ARM, it contains some web browsers and KiCAD is there too - if it works, it'll be complete environment for me (OpenGL? Who needs OpenGL? I don't use OpenGL in KiCAD as my graphics chip is antique and everything works fine!). For memory I perfectly fit in 2GB in my Intel 2GHz notebook.
...so it's OK for me. I'll be swapping from 8MHz DOS palmtop so the only thing worse will be battery operating time.
The only question - how about purely mechanical things? - most notebooks get some hinge diseases after few years of operation, palmtops too. In my palmtop I have abrasive wear on probably Teflon-like tube in hinge mechanism.

 

[FBnil]

hinge diseases

The hinge is the same as the Pandora, only the material is different. So you have to flap it open at 180 degrees. Moving it to other angles (120 degrees "laptop stype") will wear out in possibly half a year (might be restored by applying a layer of nailpolish). Significant improvement has been made in the video connector that runs through the hinge... that should take care of (and delay the symptoms of) the pink screen of abhorrence...

tl;dr: meh hinge, do not use it as a nutcracker.

as for note taking, there are many applications to do that, from personal wiki's, post-it's, mindmaps, to complete PIM's..

Battery life was 6-7 hours, possibly more after the OS software is optimized (hopefully Notaz can pull off a Notaz). But I think that if you underclock it (or disable a core), just like underclocking the Pandora to 800mhz, you could scrape at least another hour out of it.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

Don't forget about the paint, a loose hinge was mostly caused by the paint wearing off. The Pyra shouldn't suffer from this issue

 

[PCXT]

a loose hinge was mostly caused by the paint wearing off.

So between the plastics and hinge mechanisms there was a paint in Pandora? I hope Pyra will be free from this "feature" and opening resistance will be made by e.g. geometry.
Sorry for this complaining, I just work with wear modelling and I've seen too many different aspects of phenomenon.

In prototype assembly video I have seen that hinge mounting is quite simple as well as it's accessible, will purchasing a replacement will be possible?
I see molds are quite rigid now, but how about torque in hinges area?

About the battery life - was the test done with connectivity taking place? I think that WiFi adapter may drain some current and to be honest I won't use it extensively and it will be usually turned off.

 

[levi]

Yes, the Pandora moulds were relatively cheaply made and not finished well (or maybe it's more in the plastic injection process, I forget the details) that left stress marks on the plastic. The original ('CC') models were then painted black to hide this flaw, sprayed all over so yes in between the hinge, and the rebirth and later units were sprayed silver. Now my hinge still holds its position despite daily use (unless I shake it which has always limited its use like this), so I'm not sure how general these stories of hinge degradation are. But the Pyra case production is a much more professional operation, and paint won't be needed to hide flaws we're assured.

I'm sure replacement parts will be available on the dragonbox store, and other places. The Pandora parts were available for most of the time the Pandora was generally in stock, and I think are still available if you ask nicely.

Close-to-final cases were available for attendees at a recent show in Germany, but I haven't seen anyone reporting how the hinge felt.

I'm not sure what FBnil tested exactly, but if it was a Pyra prototype, why would you need a wifi adaptor? I've not heard of any problems with its wifi reception, unlike my Pandora, where I need to use a USB wifi adaptor most of the time. I don't know whether he was using the internal wifi, which will also have a watt-cost of course, but so will compiling big projects, or stressing a web browser.

 

[PCXT]

Sorry, I was thinking about WiFi chip.

 

[thatgui]

The hinge is the same as the Pandora, only the material is different.

Disclaimer: I maybe mix some things up, so anyone rather new to the topic, be on the safe side and "internally" mark my comment as wrong as long as not proven otherwise

I thought the hinge of the Pyra will have an oval profile (so there is artifical friction between the hinge parts) while the hinge on the Pandora has just a cylindrical profile,

 

[rygD]

I'll be swapping from 8MHz DOS palmtop so the only thing worse will be battery operating time.

Always glad to see another DOS palmtop user. You are right about the battery time for the Pyra. The trade-off is you get more modern hardware that is a bit easier to work with nowadays. Plus games! Even though games will be a minor use case with mine it is always nice to have decent game controls, especially when they are built in.

Now my hinge still holds its position despite daily use (unless I shake it which has always limited its use like this), so I'm not sure how general these stories of hinge degradation are.

I haven't had my Pandora as long as most others, however mine also still holds position in a laptop type position just fine, which I do somewhat frequently.

I may actually do the DS hinge mod with my Pyra so I have more stable positions. The changes in the hinge area for the case could work fine, so I will wait and try it out for a while.

I thought the hinge of the Pyra will have an oval profile (so there is artifical friction between the hinge parts) while the hinge on the Pandora has just a cylindrical profile,

That is what ED was saying. He did that for those of us that don't always use it all the way open, which is greatly appreciated (along with all the other little improvements).

 

[elvissteinjr]

Close-to-final cases were available for attendees at a recent show in Germany, but I haven't seen anyone reporting how the hinge felt.

At Gamescom (dunno if ED went anywhere else already since then), there were no hinges in any of the assembled Pyras. So if I had to answer, it felt really lacking.

 

[Askarus]

At Gamescom (dunno if ED went anywhere else already since then), there were no hinges in any of the assembled Pyras. So if I had to answer, it felt really lacking.

There were hinges in every Pyra else the lid would have fallen off.
However it was not representative for the final unit as the housing was too loose and so there was no physical resistance.

 

[elvissteinjr]

My memory's playing tricks on me again I guess.
The resulting feeling is almost identical minus the not falling off lids, so... close enough.

 

[FBnil]

I thought the hinge of the Pyra will have an oval profile (so there is artifical friction between the hinge parts) while the hinge on the Pandora has just a cylindrical profile,

No, you are quite correct. I apologize for FUD-ding. From the Dragon's mouth:

The friction will be added by a slightly oval curved hinge.
So when you move it, the plastic will cause a bit of friction. That's a lot more robust and durable than the paint on the Pandora!

This is still part of the tweaking though, so it couldn't be seen at GamesCom yet.

sauce