It's the details that take longest (Part 2)

[EvilDragon]

Let's continue with our details about what's happening.
This time with...

1. The LCD Cable and Display PCB

Askarus and me have taken the time to design the layout (physical, not electrical) of the LCD Cable, using paper and thin foil cuts to measure that everything fits and can be assembled.

The flex cable will be a lot more simple than for the Pandora:
* No edges which rub against each other and could cut traces
* Only half of the traces needed, so traces on one side of the cable are enough, no double-side (like on the Pandora) needed.
* The cable will be twice as wide in the area where it rolls and we're keeping distance from the edge to prevent any damages there.
* The cable will only connect two PCBs, it won't have it's own PCB included at the top.

We've not yet decided whether we make the lines redundant, so if one breaks, there's still a second one, but we'll see how well that all fits.

Nikolaus and me are also currently discussing about how the display PCB will be layouted so that it is easy to assemble, needs as little space as possible in the lid and works without any issues.
There are multiple solutions possible, and we need to find out the best one, so we'll do some mechanical tests as well.


2. The LCD

I received some BOE LCD samples which have the touchscreen applied.
Unfortunately, they're not properly assembled (there are air bubbles between the touchscreen and LCD), but we'll get them replaced for free.
We can already use them for mechanical tests though.

I'm currently in favour of using the BOE display, as we got it to work already and it had a fantastic picture.
I'm also getting a demo board of the Success display though, so I can test and see if it's worth finishing our driver for it or not.
And Sharp is interested in getting their display into the Pyra - they even tried to code an OMAP5 display driver for us, so we'll test their LCD as well.
It's 5,2" instead of 5", so we need to check whether we can fit the LCD into the lid without changing the size, but I think it might JUST work.

We haven't continued to work on the Rotator chip driver (not enough manpower), as we know it's software and we know it works with the BOE displays in other setups, so that has a bit lower priority.

That's it for today - more stuff will be posted tomorrow
 

 

[thatgui]

We've not yet decided whether we make the lines redundant, so if one breaks, there's still a second one, but we'll see how well that all fits.

I would say, if the extra costs/efforts are minimal, why not ? But I would not make it a top priority, if a line failes chances are high its a design failure and the backup line will sufffer from that too, just a tad later.

And Sharp is interested in getting their display into the Pyra - they even tried to code an OMAP5 display driver for us, so we'll test their LCD as well.

It's 5,2" instead of 5", so we need to check whether we can fit the LCD into the lid without changing the size, but I think it might JUST work.

would this be also a portrait oriented display. If they even try to code a display driver specifically for a small project they may be inclined to deliver one with landscape orientation.

As always, thanks for keeping us close to the process

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

I think 5,2 inch may be welcome, giving that the drivers are good, and the image quality!

as for stylus, I'd be for the xstylus too, the all solid one from pandora was a bit odd to use and would wear down on one side eventually the more you use it. giving you kind of a flat area to work with instead of a point. 

a proper "touchscreen" pen would be better. wears more slower and usually more evenly (and I assume you can replace the tip eventually?)

 

[Granitehead]

If it fits I would prefer 5.2", the bigger (without increasing outside dimensions) the better.

 

[PokeParadox]

I agree that if possible the bigger screen could be nicer and it sounds like Sharp have a nice attitude towards the Pyra!

 

[Willhelm]

the battery drain of both displays could be of  interest. ...

 

[comradekingu]

Lets say lines break, more lines is not the 'right' solution. I only see how all lines break at mostly the same time. Protecting the cable and making sure the case works is how problems should be avoided.

Could we have a picture of how it fits together to understand how the shoe fits?

 

[sepulep]

wouldn't you want to make sure the rotator chip gives acceptable picture quality for fast moving games etc???

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Nice to see Sharp's interest in the Pyra.  Hope that their interest stops at the screen..don't want them to buy out the Pyra franchise

 

[Nintendo]

Why?

 

[Foxgod]

Nice update, especially the sharp part.

Being backed by them could be a huge advantage in terms of support.

Hopefully the 5.2 will fit.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Why?

Hope they don't have bigger ambition and offer to buy ED's pyra company down the road.

 

[EvilDragon]

wouldn't you want to make sure the rotator chip gives acceptable picture quality for fast moving games etc???

The rotator chip doesn't do video compression, it does single frame compression.

So the quality doesn't change for fast moving games (compression artifacts with fast movements only exists with video compression).

 

[Nintendo]

Why?

Hope they don't have bigger ambition and offer to buy ED's pyra company down the road.

Well, imo, there's nothing wrong with them buying as long as they eventually decide to sell to nVIDIA or Valve or someone else.

 

[fusion_power]

And Sharp is interested in getting their display into the Pyra - they even tried to code an OMAP5 display driver for us, so we'll test their LCD as well.

It's 5,2" instead of 5", so we need to check whether we can fit the LCD into the lid without changing the size, but I think it might JUST work.

You could design the main lid part so that both sizes (and other display types too) could fit, maybe only the bezel cover needs to be replaced then.

Why?

Hope they don't have bigger ambition and offer to buy ED's pyra company down the road.

I could imagine an licence agreement, so there could be different brands and types of the Pyra as base while ED of course keeps the original. The concept of the replacable daughter CPU board and the overall modular design of the Pyra has alot of possibilities. ^^

 

[Tensuke]

Really great to see companies like Sharp (and people like Elton) getting interested in the Pyra at early stages of development! I like the sound of a 5.2" screen--even better if they help out with driver development. But power consumption is always something to consider at the forefront, imo at least.

Great update, ED, and thanks Nikolaus, Askarus, notaz, and everyone else for y'alls hard work so far!

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

What kind of battery consumption are we talking about here?  10min, 20min, 30min, 1hr?  I would sacrifice a little battery life for that 5.2" even if the battery dies 1hr sooner for the same load.  5.2" Pyra with proper linux would completely replace my entire current work office

 

[iprice]

I'd happily sacrifice some battery life for a slightly larger screen from a company like Sharp. It actually say a lot that a company like them wants to support the Pyra

 

[levi]

I'm a little concerned about the designs of the LCD cable I've seen floating around on twitter, from a materials science point of view. Sharp corners tend to concentrate forces so will start to crack much more easily than a rounded corner, and once a crack has started it tends to propagate.


But perhaps the pictures are just designs where it's easier to work with sharp corners, and when the prototypes come in they'll all be smoothed off.

 

[benoitb]

Interesting to know Sharp is looking at the Pyra.

I remember the wonderful devices that were the Zaurus. Very small ARM/Linux laptops with gorgeous screens 10 years ago.

I loved them, I remember playing Shining Force on a megadrive emulator, encoding video so it could be played back on the CPU it had, cracking wep, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zaurus_sl-c860.JPG