New render of the Pyra

[directive0]

I really hope they offer choices. There is no "right" or "good" colour. It's all subjective and I hate the faux silver/grey of my pandora. 

 

[ible]

It is a very nice keyboard for the following reasons:

• It has all the symbols you'll find on a standard US-QWERTY keyboard. Moreover, it respects the standard shift-pairs on the number row, and the symbols on the Fn layer respect the convention that the last row (Fn+ZXC...) are the unshifted symbols and while the penultimate row (Fn+ASD...) are the shifted symbols.
• It has all the symbols you'll find on a standard German keyboard: üöäß and ° § € are there, and they're in a location close to where a German would expect them to be.
• It has all the letters needed for French: éèàç are there (relatively close to their expected locations), and there's a dead circumflex / dead diaeresis key to easily type âêîôû and äëïöü  (well, for äöü there is of course an even easier way...)
• The keys labeled ` ´ ~ can be configured in software to behave as dead diacritics, for grave (àèìòù), acute (áéíóú) and tilde (ãõñ). For French this is not really needed (except for the ù in "où"), but for Spanish, Portuguese and Italian this is nice.
• Compose is an easy mash-action (like Tab on the Pandora), so all remaining special stuff is covered better than on the Pandora
• Many new dedicated keys compared to the Pandora: Esc, F11, Tab, apostrophe, Ins, Del, Brightness and a user-definable key.
• Thanks to Fn and Alt on shoulder buttons, and the number row in a much more reachable location, it will be much easier to use the F-keys (e.g. Alt-F4)
• There's even room for my hidden dead GREEK and dead MATH keys at Shift+Fn+G and Shift+Fn+M

I would add a few more:

• The German äöü and ß are clumped together, so any Norwegians who want to remap them to their favorite P+2 and L+2 keys can do so. For me, this was an attempt to listen to CK and to ED, but I don't think I was the first to put them this way.
• For English people (US or British), it is easy to remap keys in the second row (the QWERTY row) to be the missing keys they desire. Well, US are fine by default, but for the British one can remap the pound-sign £ on P without marring anything, and put the not sign ¬ somewhere (perhaps on Fn+W). Or people who want the fractions can easily put them below their respective numbers.
• AltGr is still free and in a perfect spot (right shoulder), to allow for even more symbol modifications, like putting ãõñ on their respective letters.

 

[Haraldur]

Will there be tangible differences between some of the keys (like F and J being special) to help touch-navigation?

 

[rygD]

Now that I see more renderers, the case indeed missing the improved edges, I thought they were approved...

What happend?

uh oh, you are right, they are missing.

ED, did you decide against them in the end ? Any particular reason ?

The edges and corners look very rounded compared to the Pandora.  Look at his most recent tweet.

 

[comradekingu]

Will there be tangible differences between some of the keys (like F and J being special) to help touch-navigation?

You always hold it relative to the position of the keys, and can navigate from that, special F and J doesn't do much to that same effect. Try putting something on F and J on the pandora and see if it makes a difference.

 

[myNewUsername]

I noticed USR1 and USR2 key on the rendering. What are those, user configurable?

 

[FaeMinx]

^ Yes. Aint that just the berries?

 

[myNewUsername]

^ Yes. Aint that just the berries?

Not bad finding room for this! will there be some easy peasy gui tool where you can select some predefined actions or what is the deal?

 

[Alperoot]

Hmm.


There are no leds on the render.

 

[Kev2442]

There are. On both sides of the power button.

 

[sepulep]

nicenice btw..what are the dimensions of the case??

Approx. 140 x 84 x 29 mm (if the site is up-to-date).

aren't these just the pandora dimensions?  (or have they already been updated to the latest desgin?)

 

[rygD]

nicenice btw..what are the dimensions of the case??

Approx. 140 x 84 x 29 mm (if the site is up-to-date).

aren't these just the pandora dimensions?  (or have they already been updated to the latest desgin?)

It should be about the same size as the Pandora to keep it pocketable.

 

[rygD]

Hmm.


There are no leds on the render.

There are. On both sides of the power button.

There are also some under the keymat and on the back of the display, where the logo will be.  I think we will be able to set the logo to be used as an indicator when it is closed.

 

[Haraldur]

Will there be tangible differences between some of the keys (like F and J being special) to help touch-navigation?

You always hold it relative to the position of the keys, and can navigate from that, special F and J doesn't do much to that same effect. Try putting something on F and J on the pandora and see if it makes a difference.

I quite often find that I press F instead of G (and vice versa) or J instead of H when I do not/cannot look at the keyboard, when using the Pandora. On the Pyra there shall be more and smaller keys, making mistakes like this more likely. With tangible differences, one can find keys with smaller counts -- on the Pyra, both F and H are 4 keys away from a corner key, while for G the number is 5. If F and H (or J) were marked, then no key would be more than 2 keys away from either a corner key or F or H (or J). Plus, with "holding the Pandora relative to the position of the keys", one can quickly place one's thumb down, feel that one has found F (as it is different from other keys on the left hand side) and move the thumb to G to press it (with confidence!), or place it to the left edge of the keyboard to find TAB and go two keys right to press W.

When typing in a text document, it is OK to make mistakes* and then backspace and try again (with a slightly higher chance of success because of short-term spatial memory), but for certain games pressing the wrong key may have frustrating consequences (like Fn+6 vs Fn+7 -- for F6 vs F7 -- for quick-saving and quick-loading for example: pressing the wrong one of those could result in a significant amount of wasted time).

*Exception: VIM. Meant :q! but typed in :w!<ENTER>? Oops!

I am considering putting some small paper stickers on some of the Pandora keys to make playing keyboard-heavy DOS games a little easier.

 

[fusion_power]

I really hope they offer choices. There is no "right" or "good" colour. It's all subjective and I hate the faux silver/grey of my pandora.

I'm not a friend of that plain grey, even if it seems to have fans here. Plain black or white should be fine though, "charcoal grey" could be also a nice compromise.It's more important that they don't paint the case unlike the Pandora one, adds costs and time and kills alot of the tolerances like we have learned in the past. It should be possible with propper molds to have various plastic colors as an option.

 

[Haraldur]

Black is a good colour, but white is NOT: it may look good at first, but with enough handling it will be smudged with brown. Ugh.

I also like deep red, but black is the best conservative choice.

EDIT: Of course,if the device is to end up brown anyway, one could use beige for nostalgia's sake.

 

[Neelix]

^ Yes. Aint that just the berries?

Not bad finding room for this! will there be some easy peasy gui tool where you can select some predefined actions or what is the deal?

And hopefully there'll a few predefined actions you can set them to (eg toggle wifi, toggle bluetooth, toggle 4g etc) and you'll be able to set them from the first boot wizard.

I quite often find that I press F instead of G (and vice versa) or J instead of H when I do not/cannot look at the keyboard, when using the Pandora. On the Pyra there shall be more and smaller keys, making mistakes like this more likely. With tangible differences, one can find keys with smaller counts -- on the Pyra, both F and H are 4 keys away from a corner key, while for G the number is 5. If F and H (or J) were marked, then no key would be more than 2 keys away from either a corner key or F or H (or J). Plus, with "holding the Pandora relative to the position of the keys", one can quickly place one's thumb down, feel that one has found F (as it is different from other keys on the left hand side) and move the thumb to G to press it (with confidence!), or place it to the left edge of the keyboard to find TAB and go two keys right to press W.

While I do think texture markings on F and J are are a good idea, I  don't think it would be a good idea to place the texture marking on H.  That would only cause problems for people who expect to find it on J.  

I'm not a friend of that plain grey, even if it seems to have fans here. Plain black or white should be fine though, "charcoal grey" could be also a nice compromise.

I don't like the plain grey shown in the render,  but the actual colour of the printed case had a stone texture to it that worked really well.   If the moulded product would have that same texture in the colouring I think the grey would be more desirable. 

-Neelix

 

[TrashyMG]

Can we get it the same yellow color as an aging Amiga?

 

[txus]

BTW, maybe I'm taking things for granted, but I guess there is going to be some rubber covering the screws on the lid (as well as the dummy holes on the right side). Won't those be pressing down on at least the bottom left and right keys in the current render?

 

[Grench]

^ Yes. Aint that just the berries?

 Not bad finding room for this! will there be some easy peasy gui tool where you can select some predefined actions or what is the deal?

And hopefully there'll a few predefined actions you can set them to (eg toggle wifi, toggle bluetooth, toggle 4g etc) and you'll be able to set them from the first boot wizard.

I would like to see these default to:USR1 = "Start" Menu equivalent. I have yet to figure out what they actually call this menu in Debian...

USR2 (Fn+USR1) = Hardware Configuration Screen/Overlay (turn radios on/off/etc.)

But yes, IMHO, they should be fully user configurable to whatever else the user wants to do with them.

I quite often find that I press F instead of G (and vice versa) or J instead of H when I do not/cannot look at the keyboard, when using the Pandora. On the Pyra there shall be more and smaller keys, making mistakes like this more likely. With tangible differences, one can find keys with smaller counts -- on the Pyra, both F and H are 4 keys away from a corner key, while for G the number is 5. If F and H (or J) were marked, then no key would be more than 2 keys away from either a corner key or F or H (or J). Plus, with "holding the Pandora relative to the position of the keys", one can quickly place one's thumb down, feel that one has found F (as it is different from other keys on the left hand side) and move the thumb to G to press it (with confidence!), or place it to the left edge of the keyboard to find TAB and go two keys right to press W.

 While I do think texture markings on F and J are are a good idea, I  don't think it would be a good idea to place the texture marking on H.  That would only cause problems for people who expect to find it on J.

I don't think this is a real issue - textures are likely overkill. Why?1. It's a small device. It is held from the sides and used with thumbs. There are two giant thumb nubs that your thumbs find first then arc down to the keyboard area - that gives a landmark for them.

2. It has a back lit keyboard - and even if that is turned off there is a monitor shining on the keyboard from 3" away. Did I mention it's a very small device?

Now - if you absolutely must have a texture bump on one or more keys, that's easy to do. Just touch them once with a warm (not hot) soldering iron. This type of plastics has a pretty low melt-point, and all you would need to do is give it the slightest deformation. Alternatively you could use a hobby knife to shave off the very topmost bit of the key cap or lop off a corner of the key. Or use a bit of sand paper to 'rough up' the target key(s). It's EASY to add a bump, lump, pit, grit to an otherwise clean key.

What can't be done, if the device ships with them, is to fix that for the rest of us that don't want or need a bump, lump, pit, grit or otherwise 'touched' key(s) to navigate the device. So - better to not have them IMHO. Anyone can surface-mod a key if they really must.