Preparing for a Prototype

[ible]

well, i have cousins/aunts/uncles in/near that area, so ostensibly it could be to say hi to them.

actually, i think my dad and his dad are driving out their way sometime in may or so. maybe the ladies stay home and, well, we'll keep our options open .

[edit] though of course, if i have my own pyra by then it will be less important

 

[Grench]

[edit] though of course, if i have my own pyra by then it will be less important

Yes, with production moving forward and the gap compressing between prototype and production Pyras, it becomes a narrower window.

 

[rygD]

Maybe you could have it sent somewhere on the east coast (closer to Euroland) and you can take it on a road trip to visit interested people on your way back home.

 

[Grench]

Maybe you could have it sent somewhere on the east coast (closer to Euroland) and you can take it on a road trip to visit interested people on your way back home.

Would be fun, but not going to happen. A one way plane ticket, a rental car, three nights hotel stay and road food would add up quickly to the cost of the prototype. It quickly becomes impractical.

 

[Eight Bit]

lol, why not fly to Amsterdam, drive to Ed's shop, pick it up and do a pyra tour on your way back to Amsterdam, fly back to east coast US and THEN do rygD's idea.

 

[Grench]

lol, why not fly to Amsterdam, drive to Ed's shop, pick it up and do a pyra tour on your way back to Amsterdam, fly back to east coast US and THEN do rygD's idea.

End of March tickets for:
Omaha, NE, USA to Munich
Munich to New York (EWR actually, but hey close enough and saves a few $$)
EWR to ORD (Chicago)
ORD to OMA (Omaha)
Total: $3132.01

Ground (public) transport at destinations ~ $200.
Hotel stays over this 8 night period ~ $1200, but could theoretically be cut with couch surfing.
Food & drink for 9 days of eating out ~$1000+

Rough estimate of that plan ~ $5600+.

Although it would be fun, I simply don't have that kind of budget.

 

[Eight Bit]

It would be an experience you'd never forget

 

[levi]

Not to mention an overdraft you'd never outrun.

 

[rygD]

It might be worth it to pick it up from its birthplace and meet its parents in person.

 

[Grench]

Every now and then I poke around to see what is new in microSD and SD cards. Since the Pyra is going to be UHS-I only, I've kept to that technology.

I saw this - and it may be about ideal for the internal microSD slot in a Pyra:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...wg_128g_ancma_extreme_plus_microsd_128gb.html

For space, it is 1/2 the capacity of 'big' microSDXC cards now available. I haven't found much for write speed benchmarks for the 256GB microSDXC cards though.

For speed it should be good. It should nearly max out the internal microSD slot's throughput. The availability(mid March 2017) might correspond well too.

Fun stuff.

 

[levi]

As I think I mentioned before, just because the max thruput goes up, the average may still go down, and it would thus be using the available bandwidth less effectively. This has been shown to happen in different revisions of Ultra sandisk cards, and while I'd hope these Extreme Plus cards to be less susceptible to these sort of shenanigans, I don't actually know where 'Extreme Plus' stands on the sandisk range - it it meant to be better or worse than extreme pro cards?

 

[Grench]

As I think I mentioned before, just because the max thruput goes up, the average may still go down, and it would thus be using the available bandwidth less effectively. This has been shown to happen in different revisions of Ultra sandisk cards, and while I'd hope these Extreme Plus cards to be less susceptible to these sort of shenanigans, I don't actually know where 'Extreme Plus' stands on the sandisk range - it it meant to be better or worse than extreme pro cards?

Considering how Sandisk recycles their branding and marketing, last year's 'Extreme', 'Plus', 'Pro' cards and this year's are likely completely different animals. I don't buy any Sandisk stuff unless I've seen benchmarks and reviews that list the actual product code.

 

[rygD]

A random thought: I don't think I will be buying a high capacity micro SD card initially, since I will be more interested in spending money on full size SD cards so I can have all of my music and other extremely important stuff like that. I will just use random ones I have unless I start using something else other than the default OS most of the time.

Thanks for sharing the results of your window shopping.

 

[ible]

currently i've got about 60 GB syncing between my devices (with syncthing), plus a small amount via dropbox (less than 5 GB), though i probably don't want all of that on the pyra.

so yeah, i probably won't be looking at high capacity cards... they're more expensive than normal ones

 

[Grench]

In between ED's news posts we all have the luxury to think, dream and invent uses and gear for the Pyra.

So, I had this idea...

Milling an aluminum case would be cool, but not very practical - for most of the case. Keymats, hinges and clip-in screen bezels have very low tolerances and would be hard (see expensive) to get right. But - what about the lower case plastic piece? What about just doing that one piece then keeping the rest of the case plastics?

Still, that one piece has a lot of subtle clearance requirements - and it would be extra cool if a lower aluminum case replacement were to somehow tie into or replace the mysterious aluminum heat sink that ED has hinted at a few times. To do that might require a very thin protrusion to slip between the SoC board and the main board, which would greatly complicate a milled case.

So, what about building that lower case piece as a set of water jet cut aluminum sheets of varying thicknesses? The piece with the heat sink interface could be very thin and sandwich between other sheets around the edges. The bottom sheet could be gauged up to match the Pyra's base thickness so that the battery door would still fit. It could even have the backing piece for the battery compartment as one thin sheet.

So, the idea would be to reduce the lower case to a set/series of cross sections cut in 2D that when stacked together would create the 3D ideal lower Pyra plastic piece replacement - connecting it all with a longer set of flat head screws. I suspect that the screw heads would need to protrude a bit from the bottom - setting them flush might be possible with tapered heads though - which would require a bit of machining on the thicker lower layer, but something to consider if anyone picks it up.

The layers would be something similar to:
Top shim piece to adjust clearance between heat grabber and the keyboard surround plastics
Heat grabber layer - with a tongue that extends between the SoC and the keyboard - would necessitate installing the SoC during layering/assembly.
Mid shim piece(s).
Battery separation layer.
Lower shim piece(s).
Case bottom (where plastic battery door clips into).

Some of the shims may need to be multiple pieces to get the clearances right. The layers may need to be ground/sanded after assembly so the semi-hidden edges don't cut hands.

So - does anyone have direct access to a water jet and varying thicknesses of Aluminum sheet stock? Might be a fun project to look into in the months after the Pyra comes out.

Back to waiting.

 

[Swordfish II]

The lower case being made out of aluminum would likely make the GPRS, BT, WiFi, and GPS receptions go to shit

 

[spud42]

The lower case being made out of aluminium would likely make the GPRS, BT, WiFi, and GPS receptions go to shit

yep you are going to have to leave a sections/windows to put a plastic piece in to allow wifi etc... then thinking about it you are still going to have the plastic top for the keyboard??

 

[Grench]

yep you are going to have to leave a sections/windows to put a plastic piece in to allow wifi etc... then thinking about it you are still going to have the plastic top for the keyboard??

The above idea is to replace -one- piece of plastic. Just the one that forms the bottom corners and separates the battery compartment. The keyboard & hinge area would still have plastic.

Its only a model.

 

[levi]

The idea that metal case parts will block 2.4GHz signals is still just a theory though, to be best of my knowledge. How much they will attenuate the signal remains to be seen, and if someone is willing to spend their own money to try it out, I say more power to them.

They should be made aware of this potential issue and the risk that their investment might prove to be largely unusable though, of course.

 

[Grench]

The idea that metal case parts will block 2.4GHz signals is still just a theory though, to be best of my knowledge. How much they will attenuate the signal remains to be seen, and if someone is willing to spend their own money to try it out, I say more power to them.

They should be made aware of this potential issue and the risk that their investment might prove to be largely unusable though, of course.

That or it might act as a reflector or ground plane and give greater directional range away from the metal. Unlikely, but we're getting all theoretical and iffy here anyway.