It's the speed that counts.


EvilDragon

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Yay, some news again :)

And I guess it's mostly good news this time.
Let's just jump straight in!

The hardware

After all the drama we had with the 4GB RAM issue, it seems that this has now found a working solution.
Disabling DLL (delay-locked-loop) made the units run perfectly stable and I could start to work on the tests.
Which means we finally will be able to give feedback about potential production issues to Global Components.

While we're still figuring out what exactly the issue is (we've got a few ideas), it seems this "fix" works without any drawbacks. DLL is basically needed for high frequencies and longer traces (for example, DDR modules in a normal PC), as it synchronizes the timings of the RAM chips. But it could very well be we don't need it, as our RAM chips sit close to the CPU. And after all, we didn't have any more freezes disabling it - and that's what would happen if the timings are not properly synced. So yes, that should be it!

I've done a few Wifi tests and am pretty happy with the final revision of the motherboard.

My Wifi Router is in the room above me, so the signal has to pass a floor. And with both 5GHz a 2.4GHz Wifi, I get download speeds of about 4.5 - 4.9MB/s. My laptop manages to get 5.3MB/s for the same download.
So that's pretty good! Pings to google take around 30ms, which is also neat for a mobile device.

So Wifi seems to be fine!

The list of things we need to thoroughly test gets smaller every day.

Now... onto the biggest annoyance right now...


The case


While I receive the latest news on the status of the cases and production from FormAction tomorrow (and lets hope it's not just another set of excuses here), I've visited the Fukuma exhibition in Germany, one of the biggest plastic production fairs out there.

I've met up with Ilias and Dimitri (the two junior bosses of the new company) and we checked for new materials and ideas for plastic production.
There are some interesting things out there!
3M has some silicon glass bubbles which you can add to the material. It makes the material more scratch resistant and also around 25% lighter.
We have no idea yet whether this can be used for the Pyra or not, but it would be interesting.

Also, we've checked out various coatings, as that's basically the only way to make it an AWESOME looking color (like some smooth matte glossy red). It's probably too expensive, but we're checking it out anyways and will get some quotations. It would be a nice addition or we could even make special edition cases for a higher price.

But even without coating, there are quite a few ways to make it properly scratch resistant and nice-looking (just not AWESOME looking).

We'll receive some samples to we can test out various new materials and evaluate them.

Another thing is way more important for me though:
These guys want to help me.
They're both gamers, Ilias is especially annoyed if shoulder buttons are bad, so he wants to make them as good as possible.
Also, they want to improve the design and already have a lot of ideas for that.

Of course, creating completely new moulds is not possible in a short time (exept maybe for the shoulder buttons, as these are small parts), and as you all know we want to start delivery asap.

But as the case is not glued or anything, It can easily be replaced by anybody, especially if it's just the backside with the shoulder buttons and battery (that one can easily be replaced without having to touch the PCB).

So our current plan is this:
  • As soon as the moulds are at the new company, we'll check what needs to be fixed with the cases to make them perfectly usable (mostly the shoulder buttons, probably).
  • Depending on the amount of work and time needed, the shoulder buttons will be FULLY remade (only the small parts, not the big mould), as that might be possible within a very short timeframe. Or the current ones will be fixed so they will work.
  • After the first case production run, we'll start on improving things. Like the shoulder buttons (if that hasn't happened yet), making the backside of the case thinner (using a sliding battery door) etc.
These cases will be available to everyone who already has a Pyra for production cost price, so you can easily upgrade your unit if you like.

That's the current plan, and I'll let you know as soon as I have more news!
 
Definitely this is all good news :). Sounds like the new company are pretty proactive and eager which is great to hear. Especially re making improvements to the case down the line.

The glass bubbles sound interesting. Looking forward to pics / more info on possible options :)
 
do it!

29499-eef387b5a3eb15434634bd6974c475d6.jpg
 
Sounds pretty good, also i had some experience whit opening the Bottonpart of my Pandora a couple times, so i think i will upgrade my Pyra once the thinner part is ready :)..
As there is now also an EBOOK Reader in my Pockets, every inch space is wellcome :)
 
My Wifi Router is in the room above me, so the signal has to pass a floor. And with both 5GHz a 2.4GHz Wifi, I get download speeds of about 4.5 - 4.9MB/s. My laptop manages to get 5.3MB/s for the same download.
So that's pretty good! Pings to google take around 30ms, which is also neat for a mobile device.

You're probably only measuring your internet connection here and not the wlan.
If you only measure the wlan, data rates and ping should be much faster.
For example, I have a 6MB/s internet connection (like in your example), but my old ThinkPad T400 can get to a wlan speed of about 16MB/s (measured with a local SMB file transfer).
 
You're probably only measuring your internet connection here and not the wlan.
If you only measure the wlan, data rates and ping should be much faster.
For example, I have a 6MB/s internet connection (like in your example), but my old ThinkPad T400 can get to a wlan speed of about 16MB/s (measured with a local SMB file transfer).

It's my own server at home, so it's a local WLAN. But it's a low-power server, so it's probably not the fastest as well.

Are you sure you're old ThinkPad can get that high? You didn't confuse 6MB/s with 6MBit/s (Mbps), right?

A normal 54Mbps network (2,4GHz) usually reaches around 20Mbps, peaking at around 27Mbps, which would be roughly 2.5MB/s (with peaks at 3.4MB/s)

So 4.8MB/s is pretty good here.

To reach around 16MB/s, you'd need to reach about 128Mbps - so around 200 - 220Mbps Wifi connection.

You can see the details here:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-fast-is-a-wifi-network-816543
 
It's my own server at home, so it's a local WLAN. But it's a low-power server, so it's probably not the fastest as well.
Then your measurement should be right. Maybe you could try with a shorter distance...

My units should be correct though. The T400 uses the "Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN". According to the wiki, the Pyra should also support abgn.

For my test I copied a 600MB file in about 35 seconds. A screenshot of the copy operation is attached.
 

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But even without coating, there are quite a few ways to make it properly scratch resistant and nice-looking (just not AWESOME looking).
"Coating"? Please NO paint!
As long as the surface is not shiny and better looking than the Pandora, i'm already happy.
Another thing is way more important for me though:
These guys want to help me.
They're both gamers, Ilias is especially annoyed if shoulder buttons are bad, so he wants to make them as good as possible.
Also, they want to improve the design and already have a lot of ideas for that.
I recommend to travel back in time to meet these guys BEFORE Form Action. ;)

After the first case production run, we'll start on improving things. Like the shoulder buttons (if that hasn't happened yet), making the backside of the case thinner (using a sliding battery door) etc.
Are the current shoulder buttons that bad?
 
What do you have for a wifi router/access point? I've got an ubiquity A.P. here and my phones test out at 9MB/s down 10MB/s up for 2.4ghz (802.11n) and 27MB/s down 24MB/s up for 5ghz (802.11ac). I know the pyra's wifi chipset doesn't support ac but over n i though there'd be a little more speed, or is that realistically the best that can be done with an antenna of the pyra's scale?
 
@Leesam , I'm assuming ED may be working off SD cards on his test OS images, just remember even class 10 SD cards best case may get write speeds of 10MB/s. That may affect some file transfer tests.
 
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So 4.8MB/s is pretty good here.
On a Pyra, range and stability are going to be about as important or even more so than speed. Sounds like you have a good handle on it.

Which 802.11 protocols and radio frequencies does the Pyra support? I seem to recall it was 802.11bg...?

Is it strictly 2.4Ghz or is there a 5Ghz radio & antenna as well (802.11n)?
 
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