pandora vs pyra developpement time
- Thread starter ahahah
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It's basically due to buying a SoC that Ti decided to abandon, but not before selling them to EvilDragon, so it's taking years to work out several inherent issues some of which are still a problem today. The add Covid and case quality issues are kind of a slow downs in general deliverables. But generally a lack of interest in the device, we don't nearly have the same amount of skilled people dealing with the software side. I don't really see a point of making a talking point on this unless you want to volunteer to do something about it.
Not cursed. Just allround bad luck. For example: The production of the Pandora was much more complex/expensive than expected, and the idea to make a gamepad to gather money to continue Pandora development was just too late and the England branch folded.
Then Pyra had an inflation, then a bit of trouble with the quality of the plastic, then there were no screens that could do horizontal/wide, so a rotator chip had to be added, but was then removed because it could be done from inside the SOC, then corona hit, then Chips became scarce; and we had the bad luck of using a CPU that has a few bugs. Also note its a niche product instead of a quick mass product. Chip development now also goes fairly quick, so the things to come are: Obsoleted chip (this was anticipated, and plans for a new daughterboard are already on the forums, but first the original product needs to come out). Then a new inflation this year of 10%-20% on top of previous years, combined with a price hike in all components.
You could also say that idealism delayed production. Trying to source as much as possible from Europe, instead of let China do all the work (would also need someone that talks Chinese and travels a lot to keep things progressing). As much as possible conflict free batteries.
Part of that idealism is that a German is creating the device. So you know it will be a proper device (quality instead of fast). You wont see it when you receive a Pyra... but years down the line, it will still work, compared to planned-obsolence devices today. I see that in my Pandora, it still works (despite all the times I dropped it). Something else from the Pandora is the absolute low amount of hissing it has when the sound circuits are running (IIRC we can blame/thank MWeston for that
). Those are qualities you only get from expensive devices. Again, these are "unseen" polishing things that delay a lot, but make it more fun. Same for the Pyra, it took a while until good nubs were found.
If you open the device there are extra's, like being able to solder in led lights, pull them out of the screen and have them go on/off with software. The Pyra is now full of ledlights!
Other things: that delayed the Pyra were: Forum consensus for the layout of the keyboard. The experiment with an E-ink display instead of the logo (too bad, that would have been something). And yes, software and hardware developers that have moved on and they are now scarce and cherished. And the way of financing. ED talked a bit about this in the past, that he did not go to the crowdfunding platforms, also out of idealism.
All fine by me. I pledged to Pyra (as well as to other crazy devices, like the LibreM, which yeah, has also the same problems that are, can we say, "caused by Corona").
Then Pyra had an inflation, then a bit of trouble with the quality of the plastic, then there were no screens that could do horizontal/wide, so a rotator chip had to be added, but was then removed because it could be done from inside the SOC, then corona hit, then Chips became scarce; and we had the bad luck of using a CPU that has a few bugs. Also note its a niche product instead of a quick mass product. Chip development now also goes fairly quick, so the things to come are: Obsoleted chip (this was anticipated, and plans for a new daughterboard are already on the forums, but first the original product needs to come out). Then a new inflation this year of 10%-20% on top of previous years, combined with a price hike in all components.
You could also say that idealism delayed production. Trying to source as much as possible from Europe, instead of let China do all the work (would also need someone that talks Chinese and travels a lot to keep things progressing). As much as possible conflict free batteries.
Part of that idealism is that a German is creating the device. So you know it will be a proper device (quality instead of fast). You wont see it when you receive a Pyra... but years down the line, it will still work, compared to planned-obsolence devices today. I see that in my Pandora, it still works (despite all the times I dropped it). Something else from the Pandora is the absolute low amount of hissing it has when the sound circuits are running (IIRC we can blame/thank MWeston for that
). Those are qualities you only get from expensive devices. Again, these are "unseen" polishing things that delay a lot, but make it more fun. Same for the Pyra, it took a while until good nubs were found.If you open the device there are extra's, like being able to solder in led lights, pull them out of the screen and have them go on/off with software. The Pyra is now full of ledlights!
Other things: that delayed the Pyra were: Forum consensus for the layout of the keyboard. The experiment with an E-ink display instead of the logo (too bad, that would have been something). And yes, software and hardware developers that have moved on and they are now scarce and cherished. And the way of financing. ED talked a bit about this in the past, that he did not go to the crowdfunding platforms, also out of idealism.
All fine by me. I pledged to Pyra (as well as to other crazy devices, like the LibreM, which yeah, has also the same problems that are, can we say, "caused by Corona").
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openbsd98324
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I keep telling you guys that the hardware of Pandora and Pyra is very bad ideas.
You should focus on opensource really, and think about openbsd on pyra first, so long you have opensource you have a chance.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Trying to get the openbsd kernel booting on a new ARM board is at least as complicated as getting linux booting, plus the engineers involved have less experience of openbsd that they do linux/gnu.. Plus as far as I know, the pyra OS is opensource except for a few binary blobbed drivers.
that means your on the wrong forum.
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Pandora is perfectly fine, hardware well supported, and it's a great little gaming Machine that I still use daily to this day nearly 11 years later. The OMAP5 should have been a slam dunk if Ti didn't just pull the rug from the support on it mid Pyra development, If that didn't happen It would have likely caused the Pyra to be released on time. The Pyra It's still solid for many things and does some things way better than the Pandora, but it still needs work. Open Source isn't the issue, It's plenty open, getting interested developers is the problem. OpenBSD is a stupid choice, It's literally 100 steps backwards for a usable OS and it would likely kill any motivation for someone to work on the project, well outside one troll I'm commenting on for some stupid reason right now.
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