New copper cases are finally being assembled

[EvilDragon]

I'm sorry for my long absence from the boards. July, August and September have been the usual busy months.
For those who don't know: In July I start preparing for Gamescom and create the new catalog for the shop - which keeps me pretty busy until Gamescom is over end of August. In September, the new ice hockey season starts and I'm doing the video production of everything that can be seen on the jumbotron, which includes a new mood film every year... so that kept me busy.

These days are over, so I'm back to everything that didn't move forward and started assembling the first new copper case:



They look absolutely gorgeous! I'm happy about the look of them.

Now, has assembly improved for the slightly redesigned cases...?
Well... yes. And no. Both.

What's good?
Well, the overall assembly has improved. I don't need to cut anything out in the top anymore, it simply fits and doesn't crack the screen as easily anymore during assembly.
There are a few more cuts and mods which I don't need to do anymore, so assembly is faster here.

What's no as good?
The new battery compartment is even harder to open. My guess is that the coating is too thick. It shouldn't, as in theory it should be 0.02mm thick (which is nothing!), but opening and closing the lid works fine without coating - but it's almost impossible with the coating applied.
That's a bit of a bummer, as I had hoped that this will now solve that issue once and for all - but it didn't.

I'll spend the next few days figuring out the easiest and fastest fix. For the first unit, I manually scrapped off the coating which improved things. As the coating that I need to scrap off is INSIDE the case, you can't see that when the battery compartment is closed, so it doesn't look ugly.
I have an automatic CNC, so maybe I can simply make a quick program which does that for me, which would make things a lot easier.

I'll check that, and now that the busy time is over, I'll be back at the boards regularly as well.
Otherwise, we're all very active on Discord

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[asimov-solensan]

Thanks for the update.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

Welcome back

Copper is the new black. I'm sold!

Down side... it's going to be harder waiting again.

 

[Git1]

Awesome news Ed! I agree, that colour looks amazing!

 

[pyrat]

I'm sorry for my long absence from the boards. July, August and September have been the usual busy months.

Not so grave, it's just that I may forget things that were already explained. Hopefully someone else may remind me ?

These days are over, so I'm back to everything that didn't move forward and started assembling the first new copper case:
They look absolutely gorgeous! I'm happy about the look of them.

But the coating had any other function apart from aesthetics ?
I know people want pretty things (except me, I prefer my gadgets to look as cheap as possible to stand a lesser chance of robbery).
Are all cases coated ? Or are there a number of them that could be used without coating? Or with some parts coated and some not if that helps a better fit and faster assembly ?
I'm assuming a single part cannot be coated by one side and uncoated by the other.

What's no as good?
The new battery compartment is even harder to open. My guess is that the coating is too thick. It shouldn't, as in theory it should be 0.02mm thick (which is nothing!), but opening and closing the lid works fine without coating - but it's almost impossible with the coating applied.

The coating where? in the parts that move to lock into place or in the parts that touch the battery and so the battery is under pressure (I think batteries in general can swell a little, so I'm not sure that'd be good).
Is it a matter of the locking device, or the battery compartment tolerance ?
In other words, the difficulty to open is the same when the battery is in the compartment and when the compartment is empty ?

That's a bit of a bummer, as I had hoped that this will now solve that issue once and for all - but it didn't.

But is it different for black cases ? And are all black cases ready and coated ?
And I guess those black cases still do need the time consuming manual fixes that the copper cases no longer need ?

I'll spend the next few days figuring out the easiest and fastest fix. For the first unit, I manually scrapped off the coating which improved things. As the coating that I need to scrap off is INSIDE the case, you can't see that when the battery compartment is closed, so it doesn't look ugly.
I have an automatic CNC, so maybe I can simply make a quick program which does that for me, which would make things a lot easier.

No idea about cnc, but for me it'd be enough if it works with a couple of nuts and bolts or screws instead of just clicking in place, as long as they're standard enough that one can source them easily if they tear and waste over the years.
(but I guess that's too much of a design change now).

I'll check that, and now that the busy time is over, I'll be back at the boards regularly as well.

Thanks.

 

[EvilDragon]

But the coating had any other function apart from aesthetics ?

No, it's only aesthetics.

I know people want pretty things (except me, I prefer my gadgets to look as cheap as possible to stand a lesser chance of robbery).
Are all cases coated ? Or are there a number of them that could be used without coating? Or with some parts coated and some not if that helps a better fit and faster assembly ?

We still have uncoated cases lying around. And not everything is being coated, for example, shoulder buttons, DPad, stylus, etc. are not coated.

I'm assuming a single part cannot be coated by one side and uncoated by the other.

They can, they're spray-coated, so the inside of the parts is uncoated anyways.

The coating where? in the parts that move to lock into place or in the parts that touch the battery and so the battery is under pressure (I think batteries in general can swell a little, so I'm not sure that'd be good).

It's on the side of the battery lid and the battery compartment, where the lid slides into the compartment. That's too tight. Doesn't affect the space the battery has for swelling.
I'm still trying to find out which parts exactly do affect that.

Is it a matter of the locking device, or the battery compartment tolerance ?

The lid and the compartment.

In other words, the difficulty to open is the same when the battery is in the compartment and when the compartment is empty ?

It's the same with and without, the battery is not squeezed in there.

But is it different for black cases ? And are all black cases ready and coated ?

I only coated the copper ones at the moment, as we still have old black coated ones we use, and there's no need to throw them away.

And I guess those black cases still do need the time consuming manual fixes that the copper cases no longer need ?

The old ones? Yes, but that has already been done mostly

No idea about cnc, but for me it'd be enough if it works with a couple of nuts and bolts or screws instead of just clicking in place, as long as they're standard enough that one can source them easily if they tear and waste over the years.
(but I guess that's too much of a design change now).

I'd love to redesign the case completely to be able to fix all that, maybe do it myself. Maybe we can do that with aluminium molds, as these are a lot less expensive and the modern ones can be used for 100k plastic parts, which is more than enough.
Things have changed here

 

[pyrat]

It's on the side of the battery lid and the battery compartment, where the lid slides into the compartment. That's too tight. Doesn't affect the space the battery has for swelling.
I'm still trying to find out which parts exactly do affect that.



The lid and the compartment.



It's the same with and without, the battery is not squeezed in there.

If it's where the lid slides in the compartment, do you know if the problem is excessive width or rather that the coating gives the lid excessive stiffness or something like that ? so that it doesn't flex so easily ?
Not sure how knowing that would help really, but sometimes the part may have a part that acts a little like a hinge and a part that acts as a lever, and if it's stiffness then maybe the coating needs out of the hinge, but if it's the width then somewhere else...

 

[Arkay Firestar]

Glad you’re still kicking, ED. It felt like the longest news pause ever and I sort of thought (and wouldn’t have held it against you) if it was becoming too much of a ballache to finish. With products like Steam Deck and Pi CM4 based builds out there my itch is scratched and I’m not impatient.

I would 1000% take an uncoated case with all sorts of molding marks. Heck, I’ll repeat what I’ve said a few times on here, but I’d be elated with a clear case like the prototype units. Getting a transparent analogue pocket and realizing just how much nicer it is to touch bare plastic without paint or coatings (which are certainly discernible to the touch and decrease durability)… well, anyways, just throwing it out there, again.

Thanks for continuing the project!

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I might be tempted to buy two cases - a (matte?) black Pyra, and copper case, and replace the front bezel and keyboard area with copper, and leave the outside black. Then have the best of both worlds with a battery cover that works (more) smoothly..?

 

[asimov-solensan]

Glad you’re still kicking, ED. It felt like the longest news pause ever and I sort of thought (and wouldn’t have held it against you) if it was becoming too much of a ballache to finish. With products like Steam Deck and Pi CM4 based builds out there my itch is scratched and I’m not impatient.

I would 1000% take an uncoated case with all sorts of molding marks. Heck, I’ll repeat what I’ve said a few times on here, but I’d be elated with a clear case like the prototype units. Getting a transparent analogue pocket and realizing just how much nicer it is to touch bare plastic without paint or coatings (which are certainly discernible to the touch and decrease durability)… well, anyways, just throwing it out there, again.

Thanks for continuing the project!

People keep bringing steam deck and other devices as Pyra competence, and I admit there is a big overlap between them.

I still think Pyra is unique, form factor, size, and other features fits my needs better than anything. Only thing comparable for me was GPD win but since they abandoned the clamshell design and I have concerns about linux support (very bad experience with GPD win 1) I won't get a newer one.

After my GPD win broke I got a quite expensive smartphone (for my standards) and customized a gamepad (to have additional available ports, tv out, etc ...) to use it for emulation/gaming. And I'm just amazed how many things this device can run. It can run a bunch of PS2, gamecube and even vita or 3DS games. Everything below these systems runs just perfect with shaders and a ton of features.

And still I would prefer to have Pyra for that purpose. Even if it can only run half of the things I run on my smartphone, I would prefer to use Pyra.

With this I want to say thanks to ED for keeping the project alive.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

With this I want to say thanks to ED for keeping the project alive

I cannot agree with this more.

 

[Bosbeetle]

They look really nice.

My current pyra has cracked hinge a small bit of plastic is gone from it, I hope in the future there will be replacement lids etc. But foremost I hope all the other preorderers get their pyra! Ive been enjoying the new updated PSNES emulater a lot lately and my pyra is getting much more use now the wheater is getting colder.

Keep up the great work ED!

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Some days I doubted that the remaining Pyras would ever come. It is good to hear that Pyra production is still in progress.

 

[matzesu]

This is quite amazing news, after a short "Missadvanture" whit a Anbernic Win600 and Batocera (i wantet to update and in the meantime i did try to run a Gamecube Game, this didnt work i made a Hardreset, but the Update was on an Point where this did break the Batocera .. to get my Roms from the Pyra SD on the Batocera Stick you need lots of hours, so i did decide to go back to fully back to Pyra, and out of frustation, i did also load up some more PS1 and Dreamcast Games to the Pyra ..

So im now full back in Pyra Business, also the Win600 did freece shortly even on PS1 .. where the Pyra did a great job..

 

[EvilDragon]

Some days I doubted that the remaining Pyras would ever come. It is good to hear that Pyra production is still in progress.

That will not happen as long as I'm alive and still can somehow work on it!

 

[elw3]

Dude you died like years ago but where too busy to notice.

 

[pyrat]

Dude you died like years ago but where too busy to notice.

People don't talk to the dead.
And those who (think they) do, do it with a medium and a ouija (a very affirmative francogerman word, btw), not with an internet forum.
Therefore I'm going to deduce you're being dishonest here, cat.

 

[elw3]

Its a terrible joke, dont stress it further.

 

[EvilDragon]

Dude you died like years ago but where too busy to notice.

"I'm not dead yet! I wanna go for a walk"

 

[Legodude522]

Copper looks beautiful! It's almost steam punk.