Pyra Nubs / How Durable will they be ?

[ekianjo]

ED,
Seeing that many people have had issues either right from the start or during the life of the pandora with their nubs (me included), I'd like to know if you can reassure us a little regarding the expected quality of the Pyra nubs.

1) will they be durable ?
2) any change to see the calibration problems gone completely ?

This is one of the aspects where I hope the Pyra will massively improve over the pandora -

 

[comradekingu]

The nubs are N50P105 hall effect nubs. Very tried and tested. You can get some yourself. Even soldered up.
The self calibration, and the firmware is different.

Its just a i2c interface rather than a full arm processor unit if I remember correctly.

Drawback is that its EOL, 10200 N50s have been ordered by ED, which should be enough for 5k pyras. The smaller N40P107
 is a good replacement.
I think the PCBs are made so that they accomodate both by having the smaller solderpads in the footprint available inside that of the bigger one, leading to the same pins.

http://pandoralive.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/B9B88nBIEAAX4wW.jpg

Lets say you destroy one nub, the N40s are easier to get ahold of, if you want to replace it yourself. Would have to silicone around the perimeter of the smaller nub though.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Seeing that many people have had issues either right from the start or during the life of the pandora with their nubs

It would be more accurate to replace "many people" by "some people".
I've tested many Pandoras, and found only one to have a problem because a dust was stuck in the mechanism.

 

[levi]

My nubs always behave impeccably after a fresh boot, but develop idiosyncrasies over the time they're used.

And I'll just leave with a note that since this is an 'Ask Ed' thread none of us should be posting here yet.

 

[TrashyMG]

I've always theorized some kind of calibration issue... The Pre-Ptitseb Mupen64 had some kind of Pandora NUB calibration offset in the config file. I wanted to know what that was doing, because while everything else was working badly that old version of Mupen64 always worked well, it was doing something to offset the issue many suffer. 

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, the new nubs can't have calibration issues, as they're just a magnet and a hall sensor. Those are absolute values.
About the durability: Hard to tell As mentioned, they've been used in other systems, are tested and proved.
Turning the nub disk like a steering wheel will kill them though... so don't do that.

Also, as long as they're inside the case, everything is fine.
But if you open the unit: Don't press on the nub case, as then they won't move smoothly anymore.
They will still work then, but might scratch on their own case

 

[edgex004]

I've always theorized some kind of calibration issue... The Pre-Ptitseb Mupen64 had some kind of Pandora NUB calibration offset in the config file. I wanted to know what that was doing, because while everything else was working badly that old version of Mupen64 always worked well, it was doing something to offset the issue many suffer. 

I have noticed with several of my nubs that have started to go bad, that the direction seems to be correct even after the nub stops working. However, certain directions see little or no magnitude when the nub is moved that way. For instance, right now looking at my right nub in the input tester: up, down, left and right all work fine. 3 of the diagonals work fine as well. However, for some reason up-right gives reduced magnitude. The maximum value for each axis is 32 I believe, so up-right should give me around (-27) in the y-axis and (+27) in the x-axis. However I can only get to about 21 in each axis in this direction. It is odd that I can reach 32 ion both axis, but not at this angle.

I have accounted for this in my game by just treating any magnitude, sqrt(x^2 + y^2) = 29 in my case, above 25 as the maximum. Nubs work fine in the game for now, but I know the nub may get worse with time.

I was wondering if there was potential for a replacement to be developed for the Pandora nubs. I know they were custom made, but it would be nice if some sort of adaptor could be produced to use the Pyra nubs on the Pandora or something to this effect. My right nub just started failing, and it was always the one that worked the best.

 

[TrashyMG]

Pyra's nubs are a bit different.  It's a two part device, one is the mechanical part, the square piece that you are accustom of seeing in photos EvilDragon shows, this is the physical nub mechanism with a basically a little joystick that moves around a magnet, there is no circuitry at all on this part... The second part is a hall effect sensor chip that is actually soldered on the under side of the PCB directly under the mechanical part... The underside of the Pandora PCB directly opposite of where the nubs are located is a busy mess of components, I'd say it would be difficult to pull off something similar. Perhaps it's possible to stack the IC directly under the mechanical part, but I think they're designed to have a specific gap of the PCB. even if it would work it would greatly increase the height of the nub.

 

[rygD]

Turning the nub disk like a steering wheel will kill them though... so don't do that.

No driving games then.  
Thanks for pointing this out, as I probably would have messed with it a bit and ruined a nub.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Turning the nub disk like a steering wheel will kill them though... so don't do that.

No driving games then.  
Thanks for pointing this out, as I probably would have messed with it a bit and ruined a nub.

This is gonna be a problem. Each ppl wanting to try the Pyra must be warned.

 

[matzesu]

No driving games?? This is sad..

But there wasnt any driving game on the pandora were you had to spin the nub like a steering weel...

Only to put it right or left to steer..

I want to play some dreamcast driving games like 4 x4 Evo 2 or this Bus Game or Cracy Taxi..

Or is the nub out of danger as long it sits in the case..

 

[Blimp]

When do you ever turn the nubs like a steering wheel? Not in any game I know of, only when fiddling with it out of boredom... Couldn't The nubs be locked? I don't have any controller or handheld where I can turn the nub.

 

[TrashyMG]

The nubs are locked on the new ones and don't spin like the Pandora ones do, I think that was the joke EvilDragon was trying to make.

 

[Stainy]

matzesu: He doesn`t mean you won`t be able to play any driving games... he just means you can move the nubs around and around..

 

[fusion_power]

Hm, I hope these nubs are sturdy enough because you automaticly put some rotation force on them when you move them into different directions or turn them around. There is still some force that tend to rotate the nubs a little bit, even if they can't be rotated.

 

[ekianjo]

Pyra's nubs are a bit different.  It's a two part device, one is the mechanical part, the square piece that you are accustom of seeing in photos EvilDragon shows, this is the physical nub mechanism with a basically a little joystick that moves around a magnet, there is no circuitry at all on this part... The second part is a hall effect sensor chip that is actually soldered on the under side of the PCB directly under the mechanical part... The underside of the Pandora PCB directly opposite of where the nubs are located is a busy mess of components, I'd say it would be difficult to pull off something similar. Perhaps it's possible to stack the IC directly under the mechanical part, but I think they're designed to have a specific gap of the PCB. even if it would work it would greatly increase the height of the nub.

so why using them for driving games make them break or something?

 

[TrashyMG]

^^ https://boards.openpandora.org/topic/5600188-pyra-nubs-how-durable-will-they-be/#comment-405604

 

[EvilDragon]

The nubs are locked on the new ones and don't spin like the Pandora ones do, I think that was the joke EvilDragon was trying to make.

Nope. Someone at the GamesCom forcibly turned them (though that's only really possible if they're opened up and don't have a disc on, otherwise you won't have enough grip).

That killed them

 

[fusion_power]

The nubs are locked on the new ones and don't spin like the Pandora ones do, I think that was the joke EvilDragon was trying to make.

Nope. Someone at the GamesCom forcibly turned them (though that's only really possible if they're opened up and don't have a disc on, otherwise you won't have enough grip).

That killed them

DARN KIDS!  :rolleyes: