One week with the Pyra

[fusion_power]

Depends on what you are planning.
We planned from the very beginning to have some options for heat dissipation / spreading, but we always mentioned we will test how much will be needed when everything is assembled.
I don't think your solution would be much different than one of our options.

In fact, we left enough space between the PCB and the battery compartment to put a full insulation / heat spreading mat inbetween, just in case we need it.

I'm planing world domination but that's another story.

Actualy, I just wanted to find out if there is some small room at the top side of the PCB and case to guide a small, flat heatpipe through the top side of the keyboard area, right between the hinge/lid part. So if there is some room for an metal heat spreader, it would be a nice spot to place such a thingy. Additional air vent holes and your idea of using the SD-card-slots may also be included.

I made some quick sketches of what I had in mind, it's only a Pandora of course so please ignore it:

CPU PCB with heat sink for the SOC:


flat (1mm thick, 5mm wide here) Heatpipe guides heat to the top through the PCB (only small area needed for this) to the heatspreader:



...something like this. ^^"

 

[Not_a_Nick]

I really don't think eagerness should come in the way of quality, patience is a virtue.

 

[Blue Shadow]

5" 720p displays seem non-existent for the Raspberry Pi (I looked). Can just anyone produce them easily? Is there a risk that ALL such LCDs have the graininess problem?

The problem is not the LCD, but the touchscreen - which is good, having to search another LCD would be a really big problem and a massive setback at this stage of the developement(the whole sync-/rotating-/potential tearing-stuff again).

 

[Kev2442]

ED, when do you plan to decide on sound implementation? If I remember correctly, you or Nicolaus planned to compare sound quality of internal DAC+amp vs external DAC+amp (pandora configuration) on actual prototypes to decide which implementation to use.

Boop ! Would really like to know more about this. Everything else is looking great so far, except for the screen. Can't wait for some more videos !

 

[EvilDragon]

Considering Pyra's pixels are much smaller than Pandora's, I'm not sure Pyra's screen with Pandora's touchscreen would not look as good.

Well, that's something I can easily check.

Regarding, how it looks, you can compare it here:
http://www.downlink.de/pyra/Touchscreen-Problem.mp4

 

[Swordfish II]

Getting excited. In for 2, maybe a black and a red

 

[comradekingu]

I don't want any touchscreen. Happy to buy a fused one and remove it myself.

 

[EvilDragon]

I'm planing world domination but that's another story.

Actualy, I just wanted to find out if there is some small room at the top side of the PCB and case to guide a small, flat heatpipe through the top side of the keyboard area, right between the hinge/lid part. So if there is some room for an metal heat spreader, it would be a nice spot to place such a thingy. Additional air vent holes and your idea of using the SD-card-slots may also be included.

I made some quick sketches of what I had in mind, it's only a Pandora of course so please ignore it:

CPU PCB with heat sink for the SOC:
View attachment 28059

flat (1mm thick, 5mm wide here) Heatpipe guides heat to the top through the PCB (only small area needed for this) to the heatspreader:

View attachment 28060

...something like this. ^^"

We're more planning it below the USB ports. There's enough space and we can make some openings to the backside.
The area you're putting it is covered by the LCD, which prevents the airflow.
[doublepost=1458439446,1458439406][/doublepost]

I don't want any touchscreen. Happy to buy a fused one and remove it myself.

That would make the LCD thinner, so you'd need to put some padding in so it fits in the upper area.

 

[vcoleiro1]

From the video ED posted, the graininess caused by the touchscreen does look pretty bad.

 

[levi]

Those new nubs sound awesome. I've never really used my Pandora's touchscreen much, so good nubs are important to me, and those sound perfect for me, thanks!

The LCD is great, but I'm not happy with the touchscreen yet.

It is VERY grainy, sadly, it decreases the picture quality quite a bit.
So that's something we need to fix.

I do hope you're testing these prototypes outside in full sunshine (hopefully you're having better weather there than I'm getting here right now). I really hope my Pyra will be more usable outside on an overcast (but non shaded) day than my Pandora was, as I found that a problem (and still do with devices like my Nintendo 3DS which is unusable even on the train much of the time).

 

[LoopStar]

The weight is similar to the above: It WILL be a bit heavier than the Pandora. We can't change that. The battery itself weighs 30g more.
The mainboard and cases are almost the same, but right now, the LCD-PCB adds another 20g. These can be brought down a lot though. as that PCB is full-sized and takes has a few copper layers. We can cut out large areas (as not much space it needed) and remove a lot of copper, which will reduce the weight down to probably 5g or something like that.

Hey Ed!

Nice to see things are progressing smoothly! One thing that immediately came to my mind when you talked about the weight was: how about the balancing of the Pyra? To me, the Pandora seemed to be very top-heavy, making it a bit uncomfortable of me to use it. So it'd be great if the Pyra's balancing would be a bit better by making it a bit heavier on the base (the 30g of the battery will probably help there) and a bit lighter on the screen-part.

 

[comradekingu]

That would make the LCD thinner, so you'd need to put some padding in so it fits in the upper area.

Fine by me.

 

[WizardStan]

Well, that's something I can easily check.

Regarding, how it looks, you can compare it here:
http://www.downlink.de/pyra/Touchscreen-Problem.mp4

Ah, that is quite the grain. Are you 100% certain it's the touch screen though? I applied to work for an LCD manufacturer writing calibration software and that actually looks like some of the pre-calibrated panels they showed me to demonstrate.

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, we have panels without touchscreen and they're fine.

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

Yes, we have panels without touchscreen and they're fine.

will you sell pyras without touchscreen? I would probably be interested in that. I think the one in the pandora is fine, but it still washes out the colors a bit, I would prefer the better image in favor of touch.

but wow that touchscreen on the pyra was really awful! I couldn't have imagined it unless I saw it first.

 

[Grench]

[QUOTE="fusion_power, post: 1369857]

flat (1mm thick, 5mm wide here) Heatpipe guides heat to the top through the PCB (only small area needed for this) to the heatspreader:

View attachment 28060

...something like this. ^^"[/QUOTE]

Where you go vertical to get to the under hinge area conflicts with the motherboard.

Try this? Change direction and skip the expensive heat pipe. Keep it as a thin flat broad sheet of metal. SD slots are on the underside. Run under those to the front - exit under slots and wrap the front lower plastic with a radiator.

 

[PowerGod]

I didn't expected it was SO grainy... why a producer could have done such a thing ? Maybe they were meant for another kind of display ?

 

[WizardStan]

why a producer could have done such a thing ?

A guess? They had a bad run (as occasionally happens) and saw an opportunity to offload them on a small scale operation.

 

[Xcl4m4t10n]

Thanks for the video @EvilDragon. It seems to be an error/scam to me, it's strange that you can't get a refund for this. Maybe you can talk with them and, at least, get an explanation of why the screens have that problem. I doubt a producer make such a bad stuff intentionally like @PowerGod stated.

 

[fusion_power]

We're more planning it below the USB ports. There's enough space and we can make some openings to the backside.
The area you're putting it is covered by the LCD, which prevents the airflow.

I know, I hoped the radiator part is enough to spread the heat out, even without ideal "air flow" if there is any insuch a small device. It was just an idea, the heat spreader could be somewhere else of course, I just wanted a point where it can be on the upper side of the case and there would be the only available spot.

Where you go vertical to get to the under hinge area conflicts with the motherboard.

Try this? Change direction and skip the expensive heat pipe. Keep it as a thin flat broad sheet of metal. SD slots are on the underside. Run under those to the front - exit under slots and wrap the front lower plastic with a radiator.

I guess that's basicly ED's idea, he want to include the SD-slots somehow, which may bring also some air vent holes at the front side, front/bottom maybe. SD slota are closeto the CPU board so this should be doable, maybe with some additional flat heat spreaders glued on the metal SD-slot case?