No Prototypes for GamesCom
I'm really sad to tell you that we won't have fully assembled prototypes ready for the GamesCom.
The CPU PCB WAS to complex - the company that promised to be able to produce them within 5 days (for double the price) found out they couldn't.
They further increased the price and pushed back the delivery date to July 24th - but apparently, that still wasn't possible... we still didn't get the bare PCBs yet.
So they'll be too late for GamesCom and Nikolaus goes on a (well-deserved!) vacation this Saturday until August 14th, so he won't be able to do anything until then.
As soon as he gets back, he'll create the prototype PCBs as planned, so we should have them shortly after the GamesCom.
Of course, we will NOT pay the full price for those PCBs. We won't pay more than a non-express production would've cost us... but still, it's a bit annoying.
WHAT we'll have at the GamesCom is still a fully working devboard and maybe even connected to the original LCD in a case!
We'll keep you up-to-date, but you can be sure to fully test the current version of the OS and play around.
That's the only bad news for today, so let's continue with the good stuff!
The solution for the Wifi Chip
While the chip we originally had planned still has a leadtime of at least 30 weeks, we found a replacement that is available from stock - and it even uses the more recent WiLink8 chipset (and it's well supported in mainline kernel).
Nikolaus managed to squeeze the slightly bigger chip onto the mainboard. So the last missing hardware puzzle piece has been added as well.
The chip is available in various versions:
With and without bluetooth and with or without additional 5GHz channels.
Of course, Bluetooth is a no-brainer (it only adds 1 EUR to the price anyways), but the additional 5GHz doubles the cost (from 14 EUR to 28 EUR), so that's something to think about.
The different versions are all pin-compatible, so we can use any of them without a redesign. The question is whether 5GHz is worth the additional costs.
My experiences with 5GHz weren't too good, to be honest. I didn't really get more speed, but a less reliable network connection.
What do you think? Do you use 5GHz Wifi?
Finalizing the keyboard layout
Thanks to the poll and your comments, we were able to finish a keyboard layout that should be usable and satisfy most of you.
We will still work and tweak on the look of some of the symbols and char, but the functionality should be finished (unless someone finds a huge flaw here).
So, here it is:
Some renderings for you
In case you missed them on Twitter (or in the various threads here), here are some of the latest renderings I created, using the real case and keymat data!
Please keep in mind that the color is not finished, I just used some grey as case color now, but we haven't even thought about the real case color yet.
And here is one that shows what the keyboard will probably look like when you're in the dark (although it's hard to tell how accurate that will be):
Well, that's it for today.
Hope to meet some of you guys next week at the GamesCom in Cologne!
I'm really sad to tell you that we won't have fully assembled prototypes ready for the GamesCom.
The CPU PCB WAS to complex - the company that promised to be able to produce them within 5 days (for double the price) found out they couldn't.
They further increased the price and pushed back the delivery date to July 24th - but apparently, that still wasn't possible... we still didn't get the bare PCBs yet.
So they'll be too late for GamesCom and Nikolaus goes on a (well-deserved!) vacation this Saturday until August 14th, so he won't be able to do anything until then.
As soon as he gets back, he'll create the prototype PCBs as planned, so we should have them shortly after the GamesCom.
Of course, we will NOT pay the full price for those PCBs. We won't pay more than a non-express production would've cost us... but still, it's a bit annoying.
WHAT we'll have at the GamesCom is still a fully working devboard and maybe even connected to the original LCD in a case!
We'll keep you up-to-date, but you can be sure to fully test the current version of the OS and play around.
That's the only bad news for today, so let's continue with the good stuff!
The solution for the Wifi Chip
While the chip we originally had planned still has a leadtime of at least 30 weeks, we found a replacement that is available from stock - and it even uses the more recent WiLink8 chipset (and it's well supported in mainline kernel).
Nikolaus managed to squeeze the slightly bigger chip onto the mainboard. So the last missing hardware puzzle piece has been added as well.
The chip is available in various versions:
With and without bluetooth and with or without additional 5GHz channels.
Of course, Bluetooth is a no-brainer (it only adds 1 EUR to the price anyways), but the additional 5GHz doubles the cost (from 14 EUR to 28 EUR), so that's something to think about.
The different versions are all pin-compatible, so we can use any of them without a redesign. The question is whether 5GHz is worth the additional costs.
My experiences with 5GHz weren't too good, to be honest. I didn't really get more speed, but a less reliable network connection.
What do you think? Do you use 5GHz Wifi?
Finalizing the keyboard layout
Thanks to the poll and your comments, we were able to finish a keyboard layout that should be usable and satisfy most of you.
We will still work and tweak on the look of some of the symbols and char, but the functionality should be finished (unless someone finds a huge flaw here).
So, here it is:
Some renderings for you
In case you missed them on Twitter (or in the various threads here), here are some of the latest renderings I created, using the real case and keymat data!
Please keep in mind that the color is not finished, I just used some grey as case color now, but we haven't even thought about the real case color yet.
And here is one that shows what the keyboard will probably look like when you're in the dark (although it's hard to tell how accurate that will be):
Well, that's it for today.
Hope to meet some of you guys next week at the GamesCom in Cologne!
