Parallel Production and new boards


EvilDragon

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The news I'll post today are old news.
Well, not for you guys - but I planned to post them over a week ago, just didn't find the time.
And the upgrade of the forum software with some more fixes also took quite a while.

New Webboards!

In case you visited the boards sometimes within the last week, you have most probably seen that we upgraded the forum software to the latest version.
This brought some improvements and some regressions (as it's often the case when upgrading something).

The board software has been rewritten from scratch to be more compatible with modern internet stuff. It has a responsive theme (which is urgently needed unless you want to lose search results within google).

You can still switch to a static theme if you like. In case you got login problems: The old boards had a display name and a username. The news boards have those merged - so if you had different names back then, try to use the other name in case you can't login.
The editor still has some issues - but they will be mostly fixed in October, when a new update happens.
Otherwise, check the OffTopic-Section in case you find bugs or have suggestions, as we're trying to fix everything that needs a fix.

Oh, and the Login now uses SSL encryption, which should make things more secure.

Okay, now onto the news you've been waiting for... the parallel productions!


The keymat

The moulds of the keymats are already in production and we should receive some samples early to mid October.
Yep, those will be REAL samples from the moulds, no 3D print or similar.
The real thing! With transparent keymat, plastic caps... yes, the exact same keymat you will receive once you get your Pyra!
(Well, unless we still do some more small tweaks to it).


The Case

The moulds for the case are ALSO currently being manufactured.
I don't have a date for them yet, but they should also probably be finished sometime in October, maybe November.
That means we don't need to use any more 3D printed cases but real plastic ones.
It also means we need to think about the color soon...


The CPU Boards and mainboards

Even though we had crossed traces on the CPU Board, we could test most components (and triple-check the layout of the stuff we couldn't test).
The new, fixed boards are already in production as well and should also be finished early October.

Everything seems to work: Modem, the LCD using the rotator (and our own custom LCD Cable), USB Ports, the LEDs, etc.
The Mainboard will get a few small tweaks from Nikolaus and the new revisions will also be finished early to mid October.

This means we'll have a pre-production run in October.
Pre-Production means that this will be a test for the mass-production - so everything will be done under the same conditions.


Batteries

3000 batteries have arrived in Germany at Global Components already.
So yes, those are finished as well, waiting to juice your Pyras!


So what does that all mean?

Well, it means that we'll have some pre-production models ready in October / November.
And if they work without any issues.
Some of them will be sold, some will go to developers.

We need to do some more tests with them, but in case these units are working fine, all that needs to be done on the hardware side is give the green light for the mass production!
Then, a few months later, Pyras should head out to see the whole wide world!

And yes, this also means: Preorder time!
Finally!
Let the fun begin!

Talking about fun, notaz was visiting me for a week, and while he contributed some helpful details to some of the technical things (and fixed some software bugs), he also made a quick test with simultaneous outputs on the Pyra.

Here is the result:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1ccK1aX4OY?feature=oembed
You can see a MegaDrive emulator running on the LCD (using the rotator) while X is running via HDMI out.
Is that useful? Probably not - but it was fun :)
Well, it's the same way DraStic works on the Pandora, so you can be sure DraStic also works with two monitors on the Pyra.

By the way, the emulator was using 4% CPU power (of one core).
So that means, in theory the Pyra can run about 50 fullspeed MegaDrive emulators on the same time. You'd just need 50 displays...

Joking aside, what this really means is: When doing something like MegaDrive emulation, the battery should last long... really, really long.


That's it for today.
Hope you enjoyed todays news - I certainly did :)

 
 
Great post Ed. Mass production finally seems to be drawing closer. Exciting. 
Dark Red...Ahem!!
 
Pyra in my hands by Christmas!

Not just me then :p

Wallet is open at the ready ..

+1 for hot pink color case! Seriously, I'll be happy with two choices:

Black
White
Red

 
 
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Pyra in my hands by Christmas!

Not just me then :p

Wallet is open at the ready ..
 

You must be new here..., that is optimism not found in people who experienced the Pandora production.
My glass is half full.  It's a different management and history has clearly taught these guys a valuable lesson.
 
Looks like stuff is going well, awesome! I'm excited to see what the cost will look like once all of that is settled, I am guessing $600+ still. Good job!
 
Oh, no... The color discussion, again.  (For anyone that has joined recently, we have had a few threads and polls, so go check those out, and vote for what you like.)  I kinda want to trust that ED will pick something good for us, so unless he picks blue maybe we shouldn't have much say in the color.  And that right there is why we shouldn't get a choice (my dislike of blue).  Hopefully it has been discussed enough over the years, with plenty of polls, that all we need is one final official poll without tons of comments like this one.  Black, dark red, dark grey, etc. :D

I am looking forward to pictures of the keymat (and everything really).  Thanks for the info ED.

Is anyone planning on buying one of the pre-production units?


 
 
Before we see color polls all over the place again, I'd like to remind the people here that the available color choices depends on the plastics being used in the case productions. The case manufacturer has yet to offer the choices. At least that's what I was told last time I asked ED about the case colors.
So as of right now, making more polls won't yield more than the previous ones we had already. The real choices are not available yet.
 
I think a dark red would be cool, of course black is a safe choice as well. I just think dark red like how the forum is now would look unique and I think it would be cool to stick to the red 'theme' if that makes any sense.
 
I just hope this time we get a case colour that's the same as the paint on top of it.  I tend to assume a complicated case like this will still need painting, as inherent stresses will be present as the case cools in the mould which will discolour patches.  But if it's mostly the same colour as the paint, scratches will be less obvious.
 
Freaking awesome ED!

Please, another video! Any other emulators you could show us?

Has the wifi (2.4Ghz/5Ghz) and RAM amount been decided upon?

Good news about the CPU usage! I better warn the wife that pre orders start soon ;)
 
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Fantastic that the keymats are in production!  Don't open the door for tweaks too widely though - we all know where that can lead.

+1 for Dark Red - so dark it's almost black.  The silver Pyra render at the top of the main forum page doesn't cut it.

Please don't forget to coordinate the initial pre-order with Link's US store.  Many of us have a substantial credit hanging out there that is tagged directly for Pyra purchase.

Make mine with 4G for the US GSM networks, a very very fast 16GB eMMC, 2GB RAM in a dark dark red case please.
 
 
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