Pyra News: Springs are brilliant!


I would be very interested to hear the details on this. Are low-level coders needed before the Pyra can be released and if so, what exactly is still missing? Or is this just a concern about general dev support after it has been released?
Does anybody know?
 
I would be very interested to hear the details on this. Are low-level coders needed before the Pyra can be released and if so, what exactly is still missing? Or is this just a concern about general dev support after it has been released?
Does anybody know?
I believe EvilDragon has always planned to release it when the hardware is ready, even if the software is incomplete. It just means there may not be 3D acceleration at first.
 
I believe EvilDragon has always planned to release it when the hardware is ready, even if the software is incomplete. It just means there may not be 3D acceleration at first.

And overdriven speakers at the moment, if the volume is too loud.
Headset works fine, but the DC Offset in the audio chip needs to be set properly for the speakers to work 100%.
 
Oh, and that involves low-level programming?

Yes, as far as I know the driver hasn't that parameter included, so someone needs to add that register properly into the driver :)
At least Nikolaus took a quick look at it and said he'd need to look into it to get it working, so it's not just a simple driver config.
 
The Pandora video-a-day things only came out once he'd got production up and running as I recall. I guess if he's planning similar this time then that'll happen a similar way. Either way, I'm confident there'll be plenty of videos out showing what it can do once it's out, from ED nnd others.
 
Well, the problem is:
With the Pandora, my main job was handling the community. I was NOT handling any of the hardware production, etc.
AND we had the first 500 Pandoras out in the wild, so devs were releasing stuff on it already.
The the shop was a lot smaller (only focussed on the GP2x), so a lot less work to do here.

These days, I have to handle the development of the Pyra, handle the shop (to keep money rolling in), handle the taxes stuff for it (which is a lot more than before) and so on.
Additionally, as no devs are releasing software for it, I would have to port everything myself.. which would need even more time.

So yeah, I have a LOT more to do than back when I did handle the Pandora publicity. Basically, I've now taken the job Craig had back then but no one has taken over my job of doing publicity, posting news and creating videos.

I spent about 2 - 3 hours for one of the "One video per day"-Pandora videos. My hope is that once I send ptitSeb a new unit and the OS has been setup so that we have some hardware acceleration and / or 3D going so have games running at a nice speed that I'll find the time to do videos.
After all, development should now be finished, so that's one thing less I have to take care of, which mean I can spend more that time creating videos.

But I first need to have something running on the system in order to show it off :)
 
I wouldnt mind if the first few months arend "Perfekt" whe arend by Heidi Klums Next Topmodel ^^
I think the Magic of the New Device would even make me happy if its nothing more than a "Doorstop" which it isnt:

- Can it boot at the current state??
- Can it recharge at the current state??
- Run some Texteditors even if its use all 4 Cores (or 2 Cores) ??

Want it explode if i put it in my Pockets??


If the Answers are Yes, then i think i will be happy in the first few months..
 
I would be very interested to hear the details on this. Are low-level coders needed before the Pyra can be released and if so, what exactly is still missing? Or is this just a concern about general dev support after it has been released?
Does anybody know?

Think of it like the pi4 that was just released. The hardware can support h265 hardware decoding. The pi4 cant do it right now though because it hasn't been coded yet.

Low level is a very small subset of programmers too unfortunately.
 
@EvilDragon How long are you gonna stay in Greece this time? You should leave a prototype at the new company in Thessaloniki so I can go there and play with it later this summer.
 
GPS, Altometer, Hygrometer, Barometer and Compass are only available in the mobile edition.
Ah, now I've looked at and checked the 2016 schematics release, I understand better why some of the chips are crossed out on different versions (sometimes it's because a better chip had been found, sometimes it's because something's only optional, and sometimes it's because they're removed from the standard edition). So yes, no sensors on the standard edition, but to bring it back to the original question, both revisions have the vibramotor included, which I guess in English means we all get haptics/rumble.
 
@EvilDragon How long are you gonna stay in Greece this time? You should leave a prototype at the new company in Thessaloniki so I can go there and play with it later this summer.

I'm leaving on Thursday... so yeah, only a short trip.
They will receive some units, but I don't know if they will already have some in summer. You might want to ask azouls if you can come visit though :)
 
Only thing I'm a bit worried about is the software - it's still nigh impossible to find devs with time who are able to do low-level coding :/
I don't want to sound rude, but you actualy had YEARS to find some, during the Pyra development. Enough time for spreading the word at least. I can't imagine there are no talented people out there who would like to tinker on a promising open source handheld.
Or did GPD catched every available talent? (I would not be surprised, actualy).
 
I don't want to sound rude, but you actualy had YEARS to find some, during the Pyra development. Enough time for spreading the word at least. I can't imagine there are no talented people out there who would like to tinker on a promising open source handheld.
Or did GPD catched every available talent? (I would not be surprised, actualy).
I think that the big issue is the lack of hardware - it is extremely hard to develop drivers for systems that you can't put your hands on
 
You're very welcome to provide some, if you like to.
Where are all the talented low-level devs GPD has you speak of?
99% of their setup including drivers has been provided by Intel, most of the rest by the manufacturers of the chips.
As most manufacturers have Windows drivers available.
The documentation and documents Intel provides are awesome.
And a company supports you if your order is big enough, these companies provide you with great support.
The only way we could even get the OMAP was by acknowledging we won't receive any support.

They still have annoying bugs left in a lot of their systems (like the GPD Win 2 stopping charging when you go to sleep mode so you will have an empty battery when that happens - or the GPD Win often only showing half of the screen in a lot of games or not being able to start the GPD Win when it's connected to the charger...)

Apart from that, they have around 10 times as much funding than we have (if that's even enough).

They don't even need any Linux lowlevel devs.

We are in the great situation of using an SoC that has been abandoned by the manufacturer and a lot of stuff is unfinished.

So, please find devs who do that for a reasonable price if you think it's that easy and all I did was sitting around twiddling thumbs or donate 200,000 EUR to me, because I'm sure I can get a company for that price that will handle that.
 
Only thing I'm a bit worried about is the software - it's still nigh impossible to find devs with time who are able to do low-level coding :/
This is a community project after all and i totally think its our job to tackle the software side.
So focus on the hardware, then sit back, relax and hit us users with a whip till we improved the drivers.
 
This is a community project after all and i totally think its our job to tackle the software side.
So focus on the hardware, then sit back, relax and hit us users with a whip till we improved the drivers.
Interesting way of looking at it. So you'll have the drivers ready by Thursday?

As ED is struggling to find a developer, that kind of implies that this community doesn't have such a person with sufficient time and/or interest... Otherwise I'd have expected them to come forward some time ago.
 
I think that the big issue is the lack of hardware - it is extremely hard to develop drivers for systems that you can't put your hands on
True, but if I remember correctly, dev-boards are out in the wild since a while.
Where are all the talented low-level devs GPD has you speak of?
That's the question. ^^"
99% of their setup including drivers has been provided by Intel, most of the rest by the manufacturers of the chips.
As most manufacturers have Windows drivers available.
The documentation and documents Intel provides are awesome.
Well, then going Intel sounds like the logical and les stressful way I guess.
And a company supports you if your order is big enough, these companies provide you with great support.
Are the quantities of GPD's devices known? It's bigger than Pyra but still really niche devices. Maybe Intel provides programs for small companies who only need a couple of hundred chips. Just to piss of AMD or whatever. ^^"
The only way we could even get the OMAP was by acknowledging we won't receive any support.
That's actualy....weird...
So, please find devs who do that for a reasonable price if you think it's that easy and all I did was sitting around twiddling thumbs or donate 200,000 EUR to me, because I'm sure I can get a company for that price that will handle that.
You get me wrong. I never sayed it's easy, I just assumed the many years during the Pyra development would have lead to the attention of the "right" people. Because it sounds like most of the "core" Software stuff is not even existant. Of course you need the hardware first, we had hope that going the Debian route would make stuff much more easy and compatible, compared to the quirky Pandora software development.
Not sure if the choosen OMAP is easier or harder to develop for. I guess, today you would look first if the choosen Chip also has propper software documentation and support. This should be a standard in the Chip industry, actualy. At least I hope so. Otherwise it is indeed hard to find people who can code "low level" stuff for an (abandoned) SoC without official support and documentations.
 
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