Preparing for a Prototype

[rygD]

VHS means it is probably older than mine. I always wanted a video camera back then. Now I don't ever make videos.

Videos off the prototype in use would be nice. I will be happy with whatever Grench gives us, which I expect to be an occasional post about what he has been doing with it.

 

[ible]

i deny having a vhs video camera, very strongly. all subsequent allegations will henceforth be subject to a harassment lawsuit from my lawyer.

it was mostly a tired brain thinking the phrase was interesting --- "video tape some stuff" --- implying there's tape involved, which would be vhs... or something else... with tape...

i should probably go to sleep.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I have been approached again by someone wanting to buy my place in line for my prototype order.

He contacted me too, asking if I had one.
[doublepost=1484976078,1484976036][/doublepost]

i deny having a vhs video camera, very strongly.

I have one!

 

[rygD]

I would want one if they weren't so damn huge.

 

[Grench]

More random musings.

With ED's recent news posts it sounds like I may actually be within 2 Months of getting my Pyra prototype.

I'm looking forward to it. It will be interesting to see what is/not working with the early stage of the software.

I'm really curious about the state of things with the eMMC & microSD slot. It should ship with an OS image on the eMMC. To my knowledge, the mircoSD slot & eMMC switching for using both within a single session is still hypothetical rather than real. Some day when this is working, I would like to boot and run the OS from the eMMC and store media files on the highest capacity microSD that I can reasonably obtain at that time.

I'm tempted to purchase a very fast microSDXC card though so I can easily switch between two OS images. I'm betting that once the prototypes start getting into developers hands that the OS changes and updates will start happening with greater frequency. It could be good to have a 'stable' OS installed on one and a 'testing' OS on the other. That should give me a safe way to experiment without as much concern over blowing up the OS. No way to know, though, what the fastest microSDXC card will be for the Pyra. I saw that there are some cards out there that only operate at their stated data rates in very specific circumstances. I think we'll quickly want a consistent way to benchmark microSD cards (and SDXC cards) in the Pyra.

From what I can tell, the 4G wireless is also going to be in it's infancy. I currently have an AT&T 4G SIM card in a tablet (Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 Android) that I plan to use for connecting for mobile data. It does not have a voice plan attached - data only. As things progress I could potentially swap in my main voice/data AT&T 4G SIM from my primary phone to test telephony.

Initially graphics speed might be limited. Or did I miss somewhere that the 3D drivers get sorted out? This may initially limit what games are playable on the prototypes. I'll likely be most interested in getting some of my old DOS games up and running.

Most of the display of what will/won't/should/shouldn't run has already been done by those with dev boards. So, I'll likely not concentrate too much on that aspect.

When 'some day' arrives, though, what should I report on first?

 

[levi]

I don't see any rush to buy a MicroSD card yet for my own use at least (although I already have a slowish 64GB card which may well do the job) - until this theory of alternate clock accesses to the card and eMMC proves to work, I'd look to it as an option to run alternative OSes, and we only have one OS as of yet.

But as the only public preorder known yet, I guess just testing that the OS can boot from microSD is an unknown as of yet, so would be worth knowing. But I don't know when an image that can be unpacked to SD will become available - I can see that it might not be the top priority just yet.

And I know what you say about devboards being able to show this stuff, but assuming ED doesn't beat you to it, just a short vid or even an image of it booted and running a web browser should do a lot for the preorder stats, I suspect.

Beyond that, I assume you keep up to date on these boards, and am not sure if your on IRC. Being on IRC is a good idea probably, as a lot of stuff gets talked about there before it gets publicly released here. Pictures and videos of any of that stuff should set the pulse racing in this household at least!

 

[sulu]

No way to know, though, what the fastest microSDXC card will be for the Pyra. I saw that there are some cards out there that only operate at their stated data rates in very specific circumstances. I think we'll quickly want a consistent way to benchmark microSD cards (and SDXC cards) in the Pyra.

As I pointed out in [1], there is a benchmarking website for SD cards [2] that suggests that Sandisk Extreme SD and µSD cards and Samsung Pro plus µSD cards should be the fastest for the Pyra's use-case.
These results however have to be taken with a grain of salt, as they most certainly are based on (ex)FAT file systems. Since we wouldn't use the standard file systems our results MIGHT be lower.

As for benchmarking, "gnome-disk-utility", which you referred to in [3] doesn't help US, because it only measures sequential r/w. In the thread of [1] I recommended "fio", simply because it's the only Linux disk performance benchmark I know of that is capable of random r/w. As far as I can tell its write test is lossless, but I'm not sure if it's intended to be and even if it were I wouldn't rely on that. It has no fancy GUI though.


[1] https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/th...ards-at-the-speed-of-ssds.79640/#post-1404072
[2] http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/reviews/sd-cards/
[3] https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/which-is-the-fastest-sd-card-for-pyra.78987/#post-1401561

 

[rygD]

When 'some day' arrives, though, what should I report on first?

Look and feel. We can see pictures, but that doesn't really tell us what it looks like in person, and everyone's opinion is different. I am very interested in how people feel about the physical controls, especially typing on the keyboard, and also the layout in actual use. Other little things are the feel of the surface of the case and grip/slip, the overall feeling that people often refer to as how durable it feels, the hinge strength with the prototype case (does it stay in place or is it super floppy?), and so on. You can even comment on things like the color you got, the touchscreen layer, the display, what you think of the SD slots. Maybe top it off with some real world results of wifi and battery life, or you can save those for your second report.

I have plenty more I want to know, so let me know if you need ideas.

 

[FaeMinx]

I want to see some videos... of general usage. Pressing the keys, opening and closing the lid, popping sd cards in and out of slots... using the ports... seeing what light shows you can achieve with the led's... and then take the pyra with you for a walk in the park... sit together on your roof (don't fall off)... bake a cake... show the Pyra to random strangers... cool stuff like that.

 

[ible]

oo yes, random strangers.

 

[Haraldur]

These are probably unreasonable (I would not do them), but: dropping the Pyra from waist height (I have managed to let my Pandora fall from a desk, twice, and it has survived), using it in the rain and leaving it out in the sun (open and closed).

More reasonably: playing Quake, Duke Nukem 3D etc. on high difficulty levels while using the new nubs and controlling a drone/UAV with the Pyra's gaming controls.

 

[Grench]

These are probably unreasonable (I would not do them), but: dropping the Pyra from waist height (I have managed to let my Pandora fall from a desk, twice, and it has survived), using it in the rain and leaving it out in the sun (open and closed).

More reasonably: playing Quake, Duke Nukem 3D etc. on high difficulty levels while using the new nubs and controlling a drone/UAV with the Pyra's gaming controls.

I'll have to pass on anything purposely destructive. There are so many things to be learned from and tested on the device that it would be a shame to have one of the few prototypes taken out of the mix that way. Plus, this thing isn't cheap. If I fumble and the thing drops on accident, I'll of course report that. But, I'm going to take a pass on voluntary gravity testing.

The Pyra makes no claim for weather sealing. That would be akin to testing a colander to find out if water passes through it.

As for purposely leaving it out in the sun, the case is made out of the same thing as audio CDs. Those generally don't directly melt in sunlight, but can warp if left to cook with some tension. I once made an audio CD that I didn't care for into a focusing lens by gently cooking it in a round bottom wok in an oven. It did focus light, but only into a fuzzy patch instead of a fine point. I.e. not focused enough to be any fun.

That isn't to say that I have any intentions of wearing white gloves and transporting the thing in a Pelican case. The plan is to carry it in a pant pocket and use it as much as practical during every day activities. My Pandora got it's greatest use as a desktop audio player through decent quality headphones. Mine won't be a 'museum piece'.

 

[rygD]

That isn't to say that I have any intentions of wearing white gloves and transporting the thing in a Pelican case.

If this is a reference to me and my Pandora, my gloves are dyed black deer hide.

 

[socket]

Can't wait to hear about your prototype. I have been all in since I could be. 2 months!

 

[WizardStan]

I know what I'd like: feedback on the screen in various conditions of brightness, the effective contrast outside specifically, under sunny and overcast skies.
I've not had much difficulty playing my Pandora outside, like it gets harder to see for sure but whatever I was doing was still playable. That is, until I started playing UQM again with its primarily black backdrop and dark blue planetary orbit lines. I'll try to come up with a good gradient for specific tests but for now this page seems to have a reasonable one.

 

[Swordfish II]

Or did I miss somewhere that the 3D drivers get sorted out?

IIRC there is a rough 3D driver working

 

[Grench]

So, I was thinking about this... If I were to hold an 'unboxing party' at a restaurant in Omaha, NE, USA, would anyone be interested enough and near enough to be able to attend? Obviously there is no 'when' yet. Notice might be a bit short depending on how much lead time I get from ED. At this point having a gathering is only a concept. Despite my location being only 215 miles from the geographical center of the US, more or less centrally located, it is probably a bit far for most of the people on these boards from the US to travel just to see & try an electronic gizmo.

But, I thought I would float the idea and see if there is any interest.

 

[TrashyMG]

@Grench Well it's only a quick 20.5 Hour drive from my place in one direction... And without stops...

 

[ible]

i might be willing to meet up, though the family might not be as willing... though it's only a 6 hour drive here. also depends on what kinda crazy stuff happens this year, if we move at all.

 

[Grench]

@Grench Well it's only a quick 20.5 Hour drive from my place in one direction... And without stops...

Just think - someday if/when automated cars become a reality, you'll be able to sleep through it with the car only waking you up periodically to refuel/charge it.

Personally, I would generally rather drive myself. But those long stretches of nearly straight interstate highways get pretty boring.

My ideal personal car isn't made for sale in the US market. I want a mid size wagon with all wheel drive, a standard/manual transmission and no touchscreen controls. An all wheel drive Fusion/Mondeo (for size reference) wagon (not available in the US) with standard transmission (not available in the US) and no navigation or Sync or any of the touch screen crap that gets outdated by the time it rolls off the dealer lot would be about right. I enjoy driving and simply don't need any of that stuff. How many people with 2+ year old sat nav systems in their car use their phone for directions?

i might be willing to meet up, though the family might not be as willing... though it's only a 6 hour drive here. also depends on what kinda crazy stuff happens this year, if we move at all.

You would consider driving 12 hours to spend an hour or two of shared time with a Pyra? That is dedication.