Logo led on the back of the lid

[EvilDragon]

For everyone who thinks this adds a lot of costs: One-Time costs for that are about 500 EUR (very small mould needed for the logo) and about 50Cents later for the case part.

 

[thatgui]

For everyone who thinks this adds a lot of costs: One-Time costs for that are about 500 EUR (very small mould needed for the logo) and about 50Cents later for the case part.

This particular point in my argument is moot then, thanks for clearing that up - still leaves the rest behind.

But interesting (not for the majority of course) how much "non knowledge" there is no my side, regarding case design. I would have thought that having such a "cutout" would weaken the lid, thus giving the designer another one or two sleepless nights on how to keep it durable.

 

[matzesu]

And by the way: is the Lid just open on the Logo, or is the Logo made from transparent plastic to prevent the guts in the Lid from Water and Dust??

 

[thatgui]

And by the way: is the Lid just open on the Logo, or is the Logo made from transparent plastic to prevent the guts in the Lid from Water and Dust??

Ordered the next full case set. With transparent PYRA Logo in the lid and a first version of shoulder buttons

 

[FaeMinx]

Well I wish I could chime in on this conversation, but I'm clearly biased for obvious reasons.


... So whatever argument I make will carry no weight.


But personally, I'm really excited to play around making a range of led animations.


Will it be practical? Maybe, maybe not.


Will it be fun? Hell yes!


... As a thought... Would it be possible to code a music player that used the RGB led as a visualizer? Just imagine how completely awesome that would be!

 

[HamishTPB]

But personally, I'm really excited to play around making a range of led animations.


Will it be practical? Maybe, maybe not.


Will it be fun? Hell yes!


... As a thought... Would it be possible to code a music player that used the RGB led as a visualizer? Just imagine how completely awesome that would be!

I am pretty sure this has been done with some device(s) before so I imagine it should be doable, yes.

 

[pmprog]

I could see something like this (maybe not quite so large though) being quite fun

http://oomlout.co.uk/products/led-matrix-8x8-bicolour

 

[fusion_power]

I personaly don't need an illuminated Logo onto the lid, it has no real usage, makes the lid less durable and does add costs. However, if people like this stuff, why not. I can imagine an REPLACABLE logo "piece" onto the Lid so everyone can insert his own logo. Imagine an open area onto the lid that has the blank light underneath (transparent piece, rectangular or round or whatever) and ontop of that inlay you can place the logo. ^^

 

[_wb_]

For everyone who thinks this adds a lot of costs: One-Time costs for that are about 500 EUR (very small mould needed for the logo) and about 50Cents later for the case part.

If the extra cost is 500 EUR one-time plus 0.5 EUR per unit, then the total extra cost is probably somewhere between 0.50 EUR and 0.75 EUR. I can live with that.

But interesting (not for the majority of course) how much "non knowledge" there is no my side, regarding case design. I would have thought that having such a "cutout" would weaken the lid, thus giving the designer another one or two sleepless nights on how to keep it durable.

I personaly don't need an illuminated Logo onto the lid, it has no real usage, makes the lid less durable and does add costs. However, if people like this stuff, why not.

Can someone who knows more about this than me comment on this please? Does a transparent logo necessarily make the lid less durable? Does it depend on how exactly it is done? How large is the effect on durability? Is it possible that it actually makes the lid more durable? (sometimes things are not intuitive)


I wouldn't know the answer, but let's not promote our guesses to the status of established fact.

I can imagine an REPLACABLE logo "piece" onto the Lid so everyone can insert his own logo. Imagine an open area onto the lid that has the blank light underneath (transparent piece, rectangular or round or whatever) and ontop of that inlay you can place the logo. ^^

Replaceable logo piece: nice idea, but I assume that you could get the problem of the logo piece getting loose and falling out. And it would probably not look as nice as a case with a logo cutout, since it would be impossible to fully hide the circular or rectangular seam between the logo piece and the lid itself. There would also be a risk of having slightly different colors on the two opaque parts, and dirt accumulating in the seam.


Also, if it costs 500 EUR + 0.50 EUR/piece to make the transparent logo-shaped piece, then it will probably cost around 1000 EUR + 1 EUR/piece to make a circular or rectangular piece with the two materials. So you can't really have custom logos (unless you can somehow 3D-print both parts at sufficiently high quality), but you would rather have one or two community-created alternative logos which get bought by at least 100 people or so, so the cost per piece can be brought down to something acceptable -- 5 EUR for a different logo would be acceptable, 100 EUR would not be .

 

[matzesu]

A cool feature of this Logo would bee:


Your in darkness, and all you have whit you is your Pyra: just set the logo brighnes hight, and you can use the Pyra as flashlight..


Hopefully this works, than the Light isnt useless bling bling feature..


Im happy whit the backlight Keyboard, as this will help to find some special keys on darc envoifnents, like @ € £¥ # ₩?!^-, )(☆♧♢♡♤[♢♤●■~♤~♡||■\}\♡♤●●》》●


You usaly ditnt find whitout light..

 

[fusion_power]

Can someone who knows more about this than me comment on this please? Does a transparent logo necessarily make the lid less durable? Does it depend on how exactly it is done? How large is the effect on durability? Is it possible that it actually makes the lid more durable? (sometimes things are not intuitive)

I wouldn't know the answer, but let's not promote our guesses to the status of established fact.

Ok, it COULD made the lid less stiff there, depending how the actual logo is cut out. i'm sure this can be reduced by adding supporting pieces underneath, like an transparent plastic that is glued under the lid. I mainly thought about the actual logo area, not the entire lid piece, sorry if this was mistaken.

Replaceable logo piece: nice idea, but I assume that you could get the problem of the logo piece getting loose and falling out. And it would probably not look as nice as a case with a logo cutout, since it would be impossible to fully hide the circular or rectangular seam between the logo piece and the lid itself. There would also be a risk of having slightly different colors on the two opaque parts, and dirt accumulating in the seam.

Of course it has to be that clever designed that it doesn't falling out and don't have a visible seam between the actual lid and the logo piece.So or so, it was just an idea, maybe someone grab it up and does some modding in that direction who knows. I don't need this or an actual illuminated logo but spinning ideas around never hurts. ^^

 

[_wb_]

A cool feature of this Logo would bee:


Your in darkness, and all you have whit you is your Pyra: just set the logo brighnes hight, and you can use the Pyra as flashlight..


Hopefully this works, than the Light isnt useless bling bling feature..

Haha, this reminds me of my first Pandora application. I would be surprised if the led would be bright enough to be a useful flashlight. A small mood light in an otherwise dark room, maybe.

Im happy whit the backlight Keyboard, as this will help to find some special keys on darc envoifnents, like @ € £¥ # ₩?!^-, )(☆♧♢♡♤[♢♤●■~♤~♡||■\}\♡♤●●》》●


You usaly ditnt find whitout light..

Wow, I usually can't find most of those keys even in plain daylight

 

[Grench]

A cool feature of this Logo would bee:


Your in darkness, and all you have whit you is your Pyra: just set the logo brighnes hight, and you can use the Pyra as flashlight..


Hopefully this works, than the Light isnt useless bling bling feature..

Haha, this reminds me of my first Pandora application. I would be surprised if the led would be bright enough to be a useful flashlight. A small mood light in an otherwise dark room, maybe.

Im happy whit the backlight Keyboard, as this will help to find some special keys on darc envoifnents, like @ € £¥ # ₩?!^-, )(☆♧♢♡♤[♢♤●■~♤~♡||■\}\♡♤●●》》●


You usaly ditnt find whitout light..

Wow, I usually can't find most of those keys even in plain daylight

That gave me a thought of an application I really don't want, but it's an amusing idea so I'll share it.

IF it also had a camera on the back of the lid (which I don't want), the combination of the LED and the camera could be used to create a visible light 'blaster'.  By using a flashing light of 128 variable colors as a 32 flashes per second transmitter and a camera set to record 30fps looking for light flashes in those wavelengths, a visible light data connection could be established between two units with line of sight.

It could reach data speeds of 150-300 baud...

Not particularly useful on a device with 802.11g networking capability, but I thought a few of you would find the idea amusing.

No, I still don't want a camera on it.

Real uses - visual alarms and notifications, battery status, disco light, beacon to have strange strangers from across the airport terminal walk over to ask you, "Is that a new iPod?", finding other Pyra users in a dark football stadium...

I wonder...  using the mic as input, could we use the Pyra as a musicians tuning validation device?

Musician plays a tone (C for this example).

Pyra's mic picks up sound and the LED comes on.

If the tone is exactly C then the light is solid green - no flashing.

The further sharp of C the tone is the slower the flashing and a blending of Yellow light comes in.  Until it starts flashing Yellow faster as the note approaches C#

The further flat of C the tone is the slower the flashing and a blending of Green light comes in.  Until it starts flashing Green faster as the note approaches B.

In the application a musician could pick what scale they intend to play and the key of the instrument - and the light could tell them if they're hitting the notes correctly.  Could be particularly handy for novice violin players.

So - the color and flashing rate of the light could give a fair approximation of an audio frequency oscilloscope.

 

[Yoyobuae]

For everyone who thinks this adds a lot of costs: One-Time costs for that are about 500 EUR (very small mould needed for the logo) and about 50Cents later for the case part.

So the lid logo only needs to generate a couple of extra sales to cover it's development costs. ^_^

 

[WizardStan]

Yeah, some people may not like it but it's pretty well established that proper branding has a net positive effect on sales. If two people see the flashy logo and followup on it where before they wouldn't have then it automatically becomes worth while.

 

[Xaeo]

Here are my two cents on this:

1) I have personally had plenty of people confused about what I am using, and assume it is nintendo DS or some type of foreign clam shell phone. Having a large light up logo on the back would make it instantly recognizable as something else entirely. I also find that the led's on the pandora case are quite annoying, especially when I'm trying to play/read something in bed with the lights off.

2) I remember an old forum about having a e-ink screen on the back to allow people to read e-books or to customize what logo they would prefer to show on the back. I still would love to see this feature incorporated, but I suspect it would be at a much higher price point then some RGB leds.

Those are my two cents,

-Xaeo

 

[thatgui]

Yeah, some people may not like it but it's pretty well established that proper branding has a net positive effect on sales. If two people see the flashy logo and followup on it where before they wouldn't have then it automatically becomes worth while.

Is this really of measureable relevance here? We are already in a niche, with people usually having some experience in that sector. So the people that would be interested probably already can distinguish the Pyra from a similar looking device. And even if the unlikely event occurs that a potential customers sees one, how much help does the logo give in identifying the device ?I would rather see that money spent on advertisement on some gadget or linux enthusiat site/blog/tumblr/whatever.

 

[HamishTPB]

I agree, I imagine that most people might ask "what is that" if they even notice the unfamiliar logo and don't just assume it's a DS variant then once you start explaining they will just glaze over and nod and smile.

Yeah - put the same money into an ad in retro-gamer or linux format or something.

 

[Natsu]

they will just glaze over and nod and smile.

Or, you know, actually gain interest of it.

Without the logo, some people would quickly assume it's a DS. With it, it would at least differentiate and give notice to it. Rather they ask the person what it is or they happen to see it again online.

TBH, I think it's silly to complain over logos.

 

[_wb_]

Yeah - put the same money into an ad in retro-gamer or linux format or something.

I would try to avoid paying for ads in magazines or websites. For the audience of the niche magazines/sites, ads will not help much because those people will probably already know about it from other channels (we should rather aim at getting an article/review published in such magazines, of course without paying for it except maybe by borrowing a review unit to a journalist). For the more general audience of big magazines/sites, ads are probably too expensive compared to the expected amount of extra sales gained from them. It's a niche device after all.

We should rely mostly on community-based "word of mouth" advertizing, articles on websites like hacker news and slashdot, and presence on FOSS and retro-gaming conventions.

Having a nice logo does contribute slightly (but not insignificantly) to strengthening the community and improving its visibility. Imagine the effect of having some well-respected hacker give a keynote talk at FOSDEM using a Pyra, with its logo visible for anyone in the audience or watching the video recordings. Sure, even without the logo people might wonder what kind of strange little device it is, but the logo does help. Some people want to be walking advertizements for this particular device, and such a light-up logo allows them to do just that. But unlike Apple products, you can also just disable it, use it as a mood light, status/notification led or whatever. I would probably change the setting depending on whether I feel like getting remarks and questions about the device.