My satisfaction with the Pandora after owning it for 2 years now


Yeah im pretty impressed by the work being done to be honest.


Wish there were more homebrew platformers (if pygame worked well we could package up a million games) but I'm really impressed with how everything is maturing.


My only qualms so far are : Planescape torment wont work, android wont recognise my sd card, bushido blade on psx is really weird and I've yet to get mame to work at all but I only got it recently so I'm "busy" with other stuff and I'll revisit those at some point.


Did someone say grim fandango works? Can you send me the link?
 
Planescape loads ok but then the menu loads up but the main screen stays blank. Doss my head in. Can get a screenshot if you like?


Pygame works but framerates are poor...Bubbman 2 on the repo is a pygame yet plays at 1/5 the speed on a normal pc.


P.s that grim fandango link just made my day!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ExquisiteCorpse said:
Planescape loads ok but then the menu loads up but the main screen stays blank. Doss my head in. Can get a screenshot if you like?


Pygame works but framerates are poor...Bubbman 2 on the repo is a pygame yet plays at 1/5 the speed on a normal pc.
Click to expand...
I play planescape torment without any issue on my pandora. You probably have a problem with the files you are using.

About pygame, this has nothing to do with pygame. You cannot expect the Pandora to run pygame games at the same speed as on a PC, just like a normal PC runs quake 1 at 500 fps or more while the pandora can only run it at 50 fps. What do you expect exactly?
 
My perspective: I am an IT Manager and I have always been an engineer (even as a young kid). To me, the Pandora is about playing games, however, this device is not a PSP. This device is for hobbyists and tinkerers. I have more fun getting things to work and talking to other people about it (asking for help because I am not a programmer) rather than playing the games. For example, the experience I had recently where mcobit got Donkey Kong II running in MAME was easily worth the money I spent on my classic and 1Ghz and I am thankful for everyone's help! I think me, Jumpman and NearTao had alot of fun on that thread!
 
WizardStan said:
Ah, quite right. I'm a herpderp. Too far I think for this to work. I was hoping to do some kind of (temporary) switch, see how my good wifi works in his area and vice versa, but for some reason I thought he was in north america. Atlantic shipping just for such a test wouldn't be worth it.
Click to expand...
Nevertheless: Thanks for your readiness and your trust in me!

Should I attempt a 3rd RMA ?
 
The shortcomings of the Pandora are really not a FLOSS vs commercial problem.. It's more what you get out of a niche device. There just aren't enough people who want to buy one to support a huge commercial endeavor. If there were you'd see larger companies investing in something similar. Heavily relying on available open source software and independent developers is a necessity; it's the same for a lot of other low volume devices.

That doesn't mean all the specific problems had to happen, and one can hope the learned experience will help make a better successor device some time in the future. But with so little funding you have to accept a dice roll of some issues and lower your expectations vs devices that can sell millions.
 
porg said:
Should I attempt a 3rd RMA ?
Click to expand...
I can't see a problem with asking. I still really want to get ahold of one of these Pandora's with the spotty wifi just so I can know exactly what we're dealing with.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ExquisiteCorpse said:
BUT if pygame could be full speed I'd be over the moon as there are so many cool games.
Click to expand...
Again, "Pygame being fullspeed" does not mean anything. It depends how the game is programmed and for what target platform it is made for. There are games that could run with Pygame very well on Pandora but they must be adapted for it. 
 
porg said:
I will notify him, that you would like to get the faulty device in order to study it.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about that. If I had an idea as to what could be fixed then I'd pay shipping myself just to get it, but right now it's just a curiosity.
 
porg said:
2) And, as I am already ranting: Another basic feature: charging my Pandora unattended to full load never works! Always find it at around 60-80%, instead of 100%, or at least near 100%. sysinfo logs proof it. Plus WizardStan admits the design errors of the charging circuitry in the linked post. Must stand nearby my Pandora and stop it if it reaches an acceptably load, or if it has a unsatisfying load, trigger charging manually again (opening lid sometimes is enough, sometimes needs power un/re-plugging).
Click to expand...

Abanest said:
I would just like to mention that I as well have similar charging problems, with both my CC and 1Ghz unit.
Click to expand...
this may sound stupid (and probably is) but have both of you tried to charge the Pandora through the USB-OTG port ? I haven't used the dedicated charging port since day one, and can't remember having any problems with it (well, except the small turbulent period where WizardStan and notaz were heavily reworking the process)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It could also be the case that the battery gauge is somehow reporting a wrong value for the charge. If the voltage is above 4.1V, then your battery is pretty much full, whatever it reports. If it is below 3.5V, then it is pretty much empty, whatever it reports. In between, the voltage is not a very accurate indication of the charge, but at the extreme ends it's pretty reliable.
 
I thought charge remaining was calculated using current and time, both of which are easily measured, with 3.5V as a baseline ?
 
It does but the measured current isn't always exact. If the BQ expects 4000mah to fill the battery, and records 500ma but is in fact charging at 600ma, that's a 20% difference and the battery will be "full" while still only reading 80%.

I only heard about the problem on the "cleaned up" CC boards that came out late though: no one I asked about it had an earlier Pandora, nor a Rebirth.

There is a safety "feature" of the TWL that sometimes causes problems as well: the charge chip detects a full battery when the current that can be supplied drops below a certain threshold, and under some conditions (low power on a warm day, notably) this threshold can be reached well before it has actually reached 4.2volts. It's (one of many) features to keep the battery from overloading. I've never heard someone consistently have this happen unless they were trying to, though. Prometheus mentioned it would happen if she left it in her bag, and others say it would happen occasionally, but this is the first I've heard it happening almost every single time. If this is the problem with porg's Pandora (and given his remark about opening the LCD being enough to restart it, I suspect it is) then it's actually a really simple fix: turn the threshold lower, or even off. You don't want to do that across the board for everyone, it's a safety feature, but if it's giving false positives in the name of "safety" then it's not doing the right thing. The fact that he says opening the lid is sometimes enough to get it going practically confirms the situation: the LCD uses more power, the battery consumption jumps, and the required charging rate climbs back above the posted threshold.

I'll dig up the documents again and see if I can figure out exactly what needs to be changed tonight.
 
^Just for the records. That's the way I have to charge my First Batch Pandora:


Wait until the red led goes dark,


open the lid (noticing that it's charged about 70%),


close the lid to let it charge again.


Annoying if you think your Pandy is fully charged and you see it has stopped at 66%. But hey, that's roughly enough for a full workday. So no big deal here.
 
@WizardStand: Thanks for looking into it even further to what you already wrote. For testing purposes I am willing to change the treshhold variable, if I am instructed how, as long as it is safe, and if you tell me how to reliable set it back again.

@A2000: Thanks for reporting your charging experience confirming mine.

@All: I have a totally new idea concerning my WiFi and charging issues. What has NOT changed throughout all the 3 Pandoras (2 originals, 1 rebirth) I have had is ……… the battery!!! Maybe this is causing both my issues with charging and potentially WiFi, as the WiFi chip is directly connected to the battery, according to notaz. It is likely that at the OpenPandora workshop the testing was done with their spare batteries, and therefore the issues were unnoticed? I will ask ED & Askarus directly, and if I get infos, follow up here.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Status Update after 3 years
Replies
10
Views
2K
TrashyMG
TrashyMG
hybrid21
After about 2 years of decommission, I was reunited with my Pandora.
Replies
8
Views
3K
Eight Bit
Eight Bit
timothee
Overnight charging?
Replies
9
Views
2K
Link
Link
T
WiFi tethering
Replies
11
Views
5K
Tor
Tor
P
4 years waiting for the Pandora... finally got it and very pleased!
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
fritata
F
Back
Top