No time for a break after GamesCom

[TrashyMG]

Hi there,

I am rather new to the discussion, so please excuse my lacking knowledge of previous discussions.

Have you ever considered standard battery sizes (e.g. AA or AAA)?

Ok, the battery lifetime would not be optimal, but batteries would be much easier to replace and it would be easier to find speed-chargers.

It would take 16 AA batteries (more for AAA)  to match the current Pandora LIPO battery.. I don't see this as feasible as the space needed would be horrible.. plus the Lipo batteries last years without replacing, my first batch Pandora battery is almost 4 years old and still gets 10-12+.hours of consistent use(Web browsing, gaming... etc) on a single charge.. And they're still easily bought from EvilDragon's shop. Also concider the Pyra will be more power hungry and will have a 6000mAH battery vs the Pandoras 4200mAh battery..  

DO NOT PUT BUTTONS ON THE EXPOSED CORNERS OF THE DEVICE. Yes, I'm yelling because I see a train wreck in progress - and everyone appears to be climbing on board and forgetting the last go 'round with the exact same issue.

I don't see this as an issue.. If designed properly with a mechanical stop (extra bit of plastic to prevent the button from being pushed forward too much) it should stop any button damage.. also people stop dropping your expensive gaming devices.. seriously.  Also we're dealing with a case company easily accessible to EvilDragon, so it will be easier to deal with to correct issues.. and this time around is much different.


edit: didn't see all the battery explanations until I already posted.. I see you guys are on top of it..

 

[Granitehead]

I see you guys are on top of it..

Now I can't resist any longer: Please, that person mixing up all kinds of units, /please/ look up some basic physics and correct that, I can't stand to look at it.

 

[TrashyMG]

I see you guys are on top of it..

Now I can't resist any longer: Please, that person mixing up all kinds of units, /please/ look up some basic physics and correct that, I can't stand to look at it.

You complaining about what now?

 

[Granitehead]

I see you guys are on top of it..

Now I can't resist any longer: Please, that person mixing up all kinds of units, /please/ look up some basic physics and correct that, I can't stand to look at it.

You complaining about what now?

3. a build in battery is lighter and has more capacity (1 AAA is maybe 750mA@1,2v so 4 would only be 3000mA compared to the Pyra's 6000mA probably more than 1,2v)

Edit: Okay, I guess, technically, it's only one unit, but anyways...

 

[TrashyMG]

^ Ah I see.. 

 

 

[LuSimon]

im so pumped right nha

 

[moz]

Fantastic work ED!

It's all going extremely fast, it looks like we'll all have our Pyra in less than the 2 monthstm of last time

 

[slimeycat]

Awesome update.  I recently got my Pandora and random people are asking where I got it! 

I can't wait for the Pyra.

 

[EssoAir]

we also still need to add a Wifi chip.

One that works this time around  

 

[Silent-Hunter]

^Yes please!

Although, I haven't had many issues with mine, except that the router drops it sometimes. But that happens with my laptop too.

 

[destraht]

The design looks reasonable ... I also like that the lower buttons go around the edge. Not sure if one will still press both buttons when trying to hit the upper ones, but it looks a lot more like what I would have expected.

Could turn out to be a vulnerable spot though, looks like the entire corners are basically a hole now, filled with the buttons. Still worth a try though.

It looks better from the outside. And It does not need to go that far around the lower edge, I just used the Pandora trigger as base but to get more stability, the Pyra lower trigger may be a little bit smaller there, whatever works better without weakening the case. Same for the distance in between the triggers, may be larger than here to have more case material in between and separate them more:

Maybe the smaller buttons could bet set as alt and ctrl by default.  In particular I'm very interested to be able to have access to a Tab and ` character for being able to efficiently use Canonical's Unity DE.  People in the Debian camp have been working on supporting Unity since 14.04 when they finally changed the forked package names from the original Gnome names.  I think that Unity would be great on it as it utilizes the vertical space very efficiently.  I hope that we could get a functional tab, and ` on the keyboard.

 

[destraht]

Is there any chance that the upgrade CPU could be 64 bit a year or two after the launch?  I noticed that nVidia's new K1 CPU comes in a 4 core 32 bit and a 2 core 64 bit variety.  I'm thinking that two years from now would be a great time to go 64 bit.

Also how would this work with port support going forward?

Also if this is going to be something that is can endure for a long time with a CPU upgrade then I think that the Pyra should use the new USB-C port.  I just think that it would be a shame to come out with the Pyra near the end of a port legacy.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Is there any chance that the upgrade CPU could be 64 bit a year or two after the launch?  I noticed that nVidia's new K1 CPU comes in a 4 core 32 bit and a 2 core 64 bit variety.  I'm thinking that two years from now would be a great time to go 64 bit.

Also how would this work with port support going forward?

Also if this is going to be something that is can endure for a long time with a CPU upgrade then I think that the Pyra should use the new USB-C port.  I just think that it would be a shame to come out with the Pyra near the end of a port legacy.

Stop dreaming already!  Nvidia will never entertain us ... If they do, I'll be wrong

 

[comradekingu]

Thanks for the update

I have a question in regards to the screen though... As no screen has been chosen yet. Would a 1280x800 screen be possible/available? If only just to make 1024x768 possible.

Sadly 1280x800 screens don't seem to exist, at least not in the size we're looking for (~5"). Everything is 16:9, so 1280x720 (or full HD, but that's not really any better to display 1024x768).

I guess for most 1024x768 applications/games, losing a horizontal strip of 48 pixels high is probably not the end of the world -- and of course downscaling to 720p should be possible.

I think the closest thing is  the 5.2-inches 308 ppi 960 x 1280 from Lg Vu 3 pretty gnarly 3:4 res

According to my math that would make it 0.65 more narrow and 1.35cm taller, which is ill-fitting on a pyra.

The 5.3" Samsung AMS529HA01 is 800x1280, but thats pentile matrix oled.

 

[just me]

Imagine the positive media buzz if we replaced the logo with a picture of a Sycamore. 

Tell them it is one (while burning).

 

[just me]

I think the closest thing is  the 5.2-inches 308 ppi 960 x 1280 from Lg Vu 3

Unfortunately that's 4:3, so it's too tall to fit in our form factor.

 

[Null]

I think that the Pyra should use the new USB-C port.

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/16820-usb-31-type-c-connector-is-ready-for-production/

 

[_wb_]

The design looks reasonable ... I also like that the lower buttons go around the edge. Not sure if one will still press both buttons when trying to hit the upper ones, but it looks a lot more like what I would have expected.

Could turn out to be a vulnerable spot though, looks like the entire corners are basically a hole now, filled with the buttons. Still worth a try though.

It looks better from the outside. And It does not need to go that far around the lower edge, I just used the Pandora trigger as base but to get more stability, the Pyra lower trigger may be a little bit smaller there, whatever works better without weakening the case. Same for the distance in between the triggers, may be larger than here to have more case material in between and separate them more:

Maybe the smaller buttons could bet set as alt and ctrl by default.  In particular I'm very interested to be able to have access to a Tab and ` character for being able to efficiently use Canonical's Unity DE.  People in the Debian camp have been working on supporting Unity since 14.04 when they finally changed the forked package names from the original Gnome names.  I think that Unity would be great on it as it utilizes the vertical space very efficiently.  I hope that we could get a functional tab, and ` on the keyboard.

I replied to this in a keyboard layout thread, to avoid derailing this one.

Please continue over there: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/16868-the-big-pyra-keyboard-poll/#entry353394/URL]

 

[Foxgod]

Great progress , looking forward to test results and more info

Also, i love the idea that we will be able to upgrade our Pyra in the future to a Pyra 2.0 thanks to the cpu upgrade feature.

And when it comes to the screen, i also prefer the 720p one, cause it means, more performance!

 

[destraht]

Is there any chance that the upgrade CPU could be 64 bit a year or two after the launch?  I noticed that nVidia's new K1 CPU comes in a 4 core 32 bit and a 2 core 64 bit variety.  I'm thinking that two years from now would be a great time to go 64 bit.

Also how would this work with port support going forward?

Also if this is going to be something that is can endure for a long time with a CPU upgrade then I think that the Pyra should use the new USB-C port.  I just think that it would be a shame to come out with the Pyra near the end of a port legacy.

Stop dreaming already!  Nvidia will never entertain us ... If they do, I'll be wrong

I'm not saying that the Pyra should specifically use the nVidia chip but that apparently it is very possible to have the other stuff (not in the SOC) fully support 32 and 64 bit CPUs.  I don't know if special consideration needs to be paid to this or if it can somehow just work out magically since more and more stuff is in the SOC these days.  I believe that AMD will also be releasing two pin compatible 64 bit chips as well and one will be ARM and the other x86-64.  So apparently all of that is possible but I'm wondering if it is specifically possible for the Pyra CPU board.  Of course this is probably like 2.5 years out and I think that there will be a plethora of 64 bit chips on the market by that time.

I'm just saying that it would be nice if the right people gave that one 30 minutes of thought before everything is committed so that it any pitfall could be addressed now.