It's arrived!!! Questions...

[batfastad]

I honestly do not see WHY 2 R and 2 L shoulder buttons are desireable - I could see me pushing BOTH buttons at the same time with my fat fingers. What in the name of seven hells do you need with TWO of each shoulder button? Seriously...can someone tell me why this would be needed or desireable?

I would have loved to see 2 sets of L+R shoulder buttons. It would make PSX emulation even better than it already is. But I don't think the current design of the Pandora case would be particularly well-suited to it.

I believe there are actually connections available on the PCB for additional shoulder buttons.

I agree on the touchscreen responsiveness. I found it really hard to click+hold to drag and a long-press to trigger a right click. A double click can be a fiddly at times as well.

Using the right nub for mouse clicks is ok but I might look in to mapping the X button as left click and B as right click. Then using the left nub for mouse would probably be my primary input method.

Changing right nub to be home/end/pg up and pg down.

 

[superatarian]

I cannot believe just how good this 1GHz Pandora is. Everything works great just like it is suppose to. I am sure glad I upgraded my order.

 

[WizardStan]

I agree on the touchscreen responsiveness. I found it really hard to click+hold to drag and a long-press to trigger a right click. A double click can be a fiddly at times as well. 

As of 1.52 tapping is click always, and to get a right click you need to hold ALT while tapping. Problem solved.The double click "circle" size: go to "Settings"->"Desktop"->"Mouse" and select the "Behavior" tab. Increase the double click distance (I like 12) and the time as needed (500 works for me)

 

[batfastad]

Yeah already using ALT for right click. I might still look at re-mapping the game buttons though.

Nice tip on the double click settings

 

[Kumaki]

If I was ever in the market for a P2...if they ever come out...and it had 2R and 2L buttons standard...without an option of ONLY ONE of each...that would be a dealbreaker for me.

In such a situation you could simply disable the buttons, I don't see why it would be a straight out deal breaker.

Well, if the buttons could be DISABLED....

It would be a dealbreaker for ME...because my fat fingers can't control 2 shoulder buttons so close together, I'd forever be mashing BOTH buttons at the same time...I couldn't manage, while gaming...to hit only R1 or R2...I'd hit BOTH R1 and R2 at the same time.

Those buttons are just too little to have two of them on each side around the shoulder.

OR...I'd WANT to hit R2 (presumably located ABOVE R1...and end up only hitting R1 instead.

Just ME.

So I'd want to have a way to disable those buttons. Or make them do exactly the same thing as the R1/L1 buttons do.

So that accedental wrong key presses while gaming would not happen. I personally don't play any games that would require extra shoulder buttons, and find the concept to be massive overkill.

Kinda reminds me of the overkill that was the Atari 5200 controller...and I don't need to tell anyone here who ever owned an Atari 5200 how horrible those controllers were!

 

[WizardStan]

So I'd want to have a way to disable those buttons. Or make them do exactly the same thing as the R1/L1 buttons do.

Exactly. It's already an easy thing to disable or remap buttons on the P1, doing so on the P2 should be equally trivial, which is why I wonder why the very existence of such buttons alone would be the deal breaker.

 

[batfastad]

Since we're on this topic, how exactly do I re-map the ABXY buttons and LR shoulder buttons, in XFCE at least?

 

[Kwenie]

@batfastad

You may not yet have found the Pandora wiki: http://pandorawiki.org/Main_Page

Under "Tutorials and documentation" the "Keyboard layout changer" is explained.

Direct link: http://pandorawiki.org/Keyboard_layout_changer

 

[Kumaki]

So I'd want to have a way to disable those buttons. Or make them do exactly the same thing as the R1/L1 buttons do.

Exactly. It's already an easy thing to disable or remap buttons on the P1, doing so on the P2 should be equally trivial, which is why I wonder why the very existence of such buttons alone would be the deal breaker.

The existence alone would not be a dealbreaker if they could be disabled or remapped. But I haven't the first clue how to do either. Seriously, I know NOTHING about coding, or even fiddling around with a lot of things on Pandy...a coder, I am not.

 

[jorlinn]

Well, I'm not entirely sure why you might be uncomfortable hacking the Firmware. As I understand it, this does not present any problem, because if you hopelessly mess it up, you simply re-flash. Keep a copy of the codecs pack and a copy of the latest firmware handy (latest is Super Zaxxon 1.52)

If you need to re-flash, ever, then you simply unzip the contents of the firmware zip to the SD Card you will have in slot 1. Then, when powering on, also hold the right shoulder button. Then you can re-flash...and it should fix anything you screw up.

Thanks for the pointers. Right now, I simply don't have the time to hack the firmware, but if all it takes is to add/ change some constants and recompile, then it shou;dn't be too hard. I have some experience in Java and I did unsuccesfully follow a course in C, so I guess I would be able to read some of the code.

I agree on the touchscreen responsiveness. I found it really hard to click+hold to drag and a long-press to trigger a right click. A double click can be a fiddly at times as well. 

As of 1.52 tapping is click always, and to get a right click you need to hold ALT while tapping. Problem solved.The double click "circle" size: go to "Settings"->"Desktop"->"Mouse" and select the "Behavior" tab. Increase the double click distance (I like 12) and the time as needed (500 works for me)

That s a great tip, thanks!I didn't even know about the ALT-tap combo. Adding a double click/ tap to the repertoire makes it even better. Still, I'm not completely conforatible with the use of the nubs for precision movements.

I probably should fiddle around with the settings a bit.

Most setting screens on the Pandora seem to be just a tad longer than the usuable screen when the bottom Panel has been activated (XFCE). Authohiding the panel somehow disables the functionality of the Pandora button.

On keyboard controls btw, I'd love to see the P2 with a Blackberry/ Sony P900 type of keyboard, but that will probably be a hassle because of patents.

 

[Kumaki]

By the way, Jorlinn...just so you know...I say above about not knowing muchg about fiddling with Pandy...yet I mentioned you shouldn't have a problem, since you can always re-flash...

Let me quantify this: I only know things about fiddling around with the Pandy...that are already in my personal experience. and re-flashing...to the latest firmware IS something I have done...but the first time I did it I was on the phone live with a kind member of these Baords who was willing to hold my hand, because I was about paralyzed with fear that I'd screw something up.

I'm the kind of person that likes...once I have things dpoing what I want...I don't want to monkey with ANYTHING ever again, no matter how minor.

In that regard one might wonder why I own a Pandy...well, one doesn't need to make full use of all it's abilities to still enjoy it. Just some things I plain am AFRAID to fool around with.

 

[batfastad]

@batfastad

You may not yet have found the Pandora wiki: http://pandorawiki.org/Main_Page

Under "Tutorials and documentation" the "Keyboard layout changer" is explained.

Direct link: http://pandorawiki.org/Keyboard_layout_changer

I've just been looking into this. Is there any information on how you can re-map the game buttons with that?