Playing with Play-Doh


They have had Play-Doh in a prominent location at one of the stores I visit regularly. They have much better colors than I remember as a kid, and I just wanna play with it, so I keep trying to find an excuse to get it. Maybe I will pretend I need to measure a bunch of things at the same time, so I will need different colors (don't try to follow the logic).

Thanks for the pics.
 
It's certainly a novel way of measuring internal distances. Real engineers I know tend to measure everything and then use arithmetic to work out gaps, but if you're at all inaccurate in your initial measurements you'll tend to be inaccurate one way more than the other, which can easily mean that theoretically, things don't fit that do for example.

This way there's only one thing to measure, although the gloopiness of play-doh probably limits how confident you can be about the answer, but at least your positives will stay positive.

In other news, I bought one of those digital calipers a few years ago now. Then, after using it I put it in my toolbox. Grabbing it to use a month or two later, I saw that it had used up its battery. So I ditched it and bought a proper vernier caliper set instead, which has much better battery life ;)
 
I was thinking about this. Playdough contains a large quantity of salt making it both conductive and corrosive when moist: is that really the best material to be doing this with? Maybe some other modeling material, like plasticine would be better?
 
I'm not sure if the acids in plasticine would also be corrosive. Blu-tac is another possibility, which only tend to leach its oils if left on something absorbent (like the posters it's used to suspend) for a number of years. You can also get that in a range of colours these days if that's important to you. In Germany that seems to be known as Fun-tak or Poster Putty amongst other names it seems.
 
I'm not sure if the acids in plasticine would also be corrosive. Blu-tac is another possibility, which only tend to leach its oils if left on something absorbent (like the posters it's used to suspend) for a number of years. You can also get that in a range of colours these days if that's important to you. In Germany that seems to be known as Fun-tak or Poster Putty amongst other names it seems.
How about just using paraphin (wax)?
 
Huh, never knew that Play-Doh could be used like that. Much multi-tool, very indeed~

Still a bit curious over this one part in the OP, tho;
And yes that misusing Play-Doh-trick is being done by other designers as well, it's not something I made up!

*looks around* What more gadgets could be using the same method of measurement, hm..
 
I was thinking about this. Playdough contains a large quantity of salt making it both conductive and corrosive when moist: is that really the best material to be doing this with? Maybe some other modeling material, like plasticine would be better?
I don't think that breaking one pyra during development is an issue, and I am pretty sure that even if the state of the board is not great, it's probably good enough for some hardware/driver early free test machine...
If play-doh works nice, then it's the thing to use...
 
I'm dead tired right now, so forgive me if I write some wrong words in the post.
But I wanted to get the latest updates out to you tonight.

Prototype units

As you know, prototype units have been built and I also finally started to ship them to some devs.
notaz, ptitSeb and aTc either have already received one or will receive them within the next two days.
Some more devs will get one, but I haven't decided who yet and which unit.

And I'll also contact the Pyra preorderers. While these units are not yet perfect (case, older keymat, etc.), they are basically working and this might be enough for some of the preorderers, especially if they want to help with bug hunting or even bug fixing. I'll let every preorderer decide whether he wants to wait for the final keymat, etc.
I hope to find the time to contact them this week.

ptitSeb will also be at the Libre Software Meeting from July 01-07 Saint-Etienne (France) with the prototype, together with fantomid and Linux-SWAT (only on Sunday), so if you'd like to meet some of the community members AND see a prototype, feel free to go there!


The cases

If you followed the news, you know that the cases are now physically correct except for one or two minimum tweaks.
That means we're now planning the production of the first mass production run.
As usual, Greece companies close down in August (it's too hot to work), so the mass production run is currently being planned to happen mid till end of July.
I'll be there to make sure the quality is fine and everything fits.

We still have to wait for the keymats, but these should be ready in July / August as well.
There are still a lot of other parameters, so don't expect that the mass production and delivery will happen right after the cases are there - but we're getting closer!

In July, 500 cases will be produced.
Why only 500?

Well, when mass production starts, we most certainly won't be able to produce more than 500 per month.
The first produced units always take longer. You need to optimize the full process before you can start in full speed.

So the rest of the cases will be produced in time for the next 500 units :)

And in case we find any improvements / fixes during assembly of the first 100 units, we can let Form Action know so that the next batch of cases will have those already included.


So what about the Play-Doh?

Well, there were a few measurements I had to make.
First, the space between the case and the backside of the Display board. We need some padding here, so that the LCD sits firmly inside the case but won't break as easy when you push hard against it.
But how can you find out how much space there is, as it's inside the case?

Easy: With Play-Doh. Just put a bit Play-Doh inside, close the case and measure the thickness of the Play-Doh afterwards.
That's it!

I also used the same way to determine the thickness of the small aluminium plate that will go between the PCB and the backside, helping to keep the heat away from the battery.

And yes that misusing Play-Doh-trick is being done by other designers as well, it's not something I made up!



The keymats

New samples haven't arrived yet, but probably will within the next 1 - 2 weeks.
Once they're confirmed... it's time for mass production as well.


LCD-Cables

Mass production has started, so they should be with us sometimes in July / August.


Other Stuff


I made a new contract with FedEx which means I can now ship items with battery for a WAY cheaper price than with UPS.
About 30 EUR to US, delivery within 3 - 4 days. That means it'll probably be cheaper if I ship it directly to you.

Link will still stock Pyras once they're out in regular production :)

I hope I didn't forget anything and didn't post too many weird things.
I'm off to bed now and will see you soon :D

I know that you must get this question alot, but how long until the final products are ready to ship?

I live in america, and i know that china takes a month to deliver anything, but what is your estimation time for delivery to the ports on this side of the atlantic? (Dont worry about the government's routine probe-u-lators or the time that it takes for the postal workers to feel inspired enough to do their jobs, lol)
 
I live in america, and i know that china takes a month to deliver anything, but what is your estimation time for delivery to the ports on this side of the atlantic?
Afaik Link is going to sell Pyra's too so you can essentially buy them in the states. Not that it would matter much in regards to shipping time, those units will come from Europe as well. Ed just mailed he found a new courier that takes batteries too. What was it, Fed-Ex? You could look up their standard shipping times.
[doublepost=1498484317,1498484006][/doublepost]Btw, thanks for the short progress update @EvilDragon :)
As far as I'm concerned the extensive news posts are nice and all but daily short progress or no progress one or two line update posts (Or longer like this one) are just as good to keep me 'appy and engaged! :D
Not that it is your job to keep me happy but you know... lol

Nevermind
 
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I live in america, and i know that china takes a month to deliver anything, but what is your estimation time for delivery to the ports on this side of the atlantic? (Dont worry about the government's routine probe-u-lators or the time that it takes for the postal workers to feel inspired enough to do their jobs, lol)
I've had fedex and/or UPS deliveries from Germany only take 4 or 5 days before.
 
There is still a lot of important bits to work out. Running at 1Ghz, 4GB/2GB, thermal, etc. We need to have a run-down on the different versions of the processor/RAM/eMMC board. It is becoming difficult for those of us in the audience to keep track of which changes on which board are being used where. What distinguishes one from the next? Is the next revision of the processor board being produced currently or is it still pending more tests/checks/changes?

However, there are -working- prototypes in the hands of developers. That is an accomplishment worth celebrating.
 
2 Months? I think it may take a bit more, but do not hurry, this is an important stage. Let's try to sum up what should be done with software, this list is based on posts here and lack of information about certain functions, I haven't seen the OS on prototype so some items may be already done in Debian and some more may be needed.
- 4GB timings fix in loader
- Driver for graphics - to have 3D, or, if free-as-in-freedom OS is needed, location into which driver blob may or may not be copied.
- Driver support for video o/p.
- Configurability for input devices (e.g. nub sensitivity) ?
- Support for bells-and-whistles (LEDs), or scripts throwing proper values in needed registers.
- Driver for battery monitoring.
- Thermal/performance throttling support to minimize battery consumption?
Prototype in hands of developers is much, but it's beginning with software. Now the thing is as complicated as HP had with their LX, maybe even more as they had a complete set of standards (CGA, RS232) or more-or-less standards (LX's PC-speaker) implemented in system.
 
North or South America?

Don't forget Central America ;)

----
I'm glad the prototypes are getting into the hands of some of the devs. That'll hopefully speed up fixing some of the underlying issues.
There's quite a few things that will probably need to be tuned and tweaked as well, for instance I'm pretty curious about how well the wifi and cell radios perform.
 
There's quite a few things that will probably need to be tuned and tweaked as well, for instance I'm pretty curious about how well the wifi and cell radios perform.
He'll need to build some new prototypes for that - the ones that have gone out already and probably all of the initial dev ones (which is 20 or so, IIRC) will use slightly old boards, at least until he gets the new ones delivered. We know the one Ptitseb has has untuned wifi which doesn't work very well, for example.
 
I know that you must get this question alot, but how long until the final products are ready to ship?
they have prototypes right now with few issues with the hardware, the case and some more open points with the software. I would estimate at least 6 month for production (in detail, bugs have to be fixed until sept/oct (aug is holiday season, then you have to scedule mass production, shipment of the finnished parts) and 1 month for assembly and shipment. Also to mention, there will be a first batch one and a first batch two. So only 500 pieces are produced and shiped to customers. If they have them, we have to wait some weeks and see what happens and if there are any bugs left. If so, they have to be removed and parts have to be changed and produced new. If not they can continue producing parts. If this sounds like chaos for you, you are not alone. So the first 500 preorderers will have the pyra around january. if everything goes right ( which was not the case for the last years) the next 500 will have the pyra around april/june 2018. If there are changes to be made, they have to wait for christmas 2018.
 
We do know the max sustained CPU speed in Pyra (with and without case-heatsink at normal room temperature)?

In a good quality and good design notebook or desktop computer (at normal room temperature) you can drive CPU to continuous max speed without problem. In a modern smartphone it is different: speed decreases; And I suppose in Pyra it will be the same (specially since it hasn't been designed specially for take heat out).

In a smartphone we don't bother too much, because a most of time we use them in a different way we use a desktop/notebook computer, but Pyra is a more hybrid device: it is a pocket computer, for me more a small notebook than a smartphone: and it has a computer SO (real Linux), not a smartphone SO.

I think it will be also interesting to know the pleasant (for human body) max sustained speed. Here, with pleasant, I refer to a case temperature which doesn't bother to our human body (for example our hands in contact with Pyra while we hold it and we type or play with it).

PD: I would love a Pyra more in focus with heat dissipation, for example I would put CPU card in display part and rear display cover in aluminum, connected with SOC/CPU, so it would act as a big heatsink. And in this way we would have lower part (with keyboard, gamead, battery) cool for our hands (and good for battery), being hot in the upper part (displat part) and taking away with big heatsink. Obviously this can be changed as we have other design yet done.


North or South America?

Or Central America. Don't forget the center.
 
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