Should I have received my final order eMail already?

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

The Pyra's design is old and the connectivity is bad. Micro USB and the likes ...

Micro USB works fine. If you lack cables, then you can get them at any prehistorics museum or from any ancient ruins after a bit of excavating. Media Markt also sells them in Europe.

 

[Askarus]

Perhaps I'm stupid, and/or one of only a handful of people, but I still feel the Pyra is a small wonder (and not everything needs to follow modern trends).

If I did not like the Pyra, I would not support it for years.
I am just not shy of saying how about I feel about the current situation.

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2024

Micro USB works fine. If you lack cables, then you can get them at any prehistorics museum or from any ancient ruins after a bit of excavating. Media Markt also sells them in Europe.

It is not that I do not own cables.
It is that I do not want to carry around an adapter just for the Pyra.

One more thing that really annoys me: charging
The Pyra must be turned on to charge at full speed.
Turn it off and plug in the cable and it charges super slowly.
Also Micro-USB is limited by how much current it can draw. It can not even sustain the Pyra on a 2.5 amp charger when it does some heavier stuff, resulting in ever returning popups telling me "Charging" -> "Discharging" ...

 

[matzesu]

I have an Micro USB Cable to USBC Adapter in my Wallet, its mostly meant for recharge my Headlamp or the Electro Zippo, but works also fine for the Pyra ..
You cant get USBC Speed anymore when you use this Adapter, but the Pyra did not have USBC Speed anyway..

And for most Task Micro and USBA are working fine on Pyra..

 

[ClockworkCoder]

If I did not like the Pyra, I would not support it for years.
I am just not shy of saying how about I feel about the current situation

I very much appreciate you for all of that, and especially being active in helping the Pyra get out to more people much more quickly than we'd otherwise get.

Unrelated, I also feel a bit of an (inevitable) shift in the community, between the haves and the have-nots. The former getting jaded over time as they've perhaps not got as much out of their Pyras as they'd hoped, and/or perhaps just stopped using it over time. And the latter for whom it's hard to feel excited when there's no sign of "you'll get yours by x" and scant positive feedback re actual use of them.

I wonder what we can do to resolve that...

 

[TrashyMG]

ARM is stupid and limits the software we can use.

Honestly a good portion of this community is here because it IS ARM, the Pandora and prior systems GP2X etc... The Community was built around the software development effort around a single platform...

 

[matzesu]

If im honest: When i came to the Pandora, there was no other Mini Computer of this Size whit Gamepad Build in, so ARM or not ARM where no Option back then.. Pandora and Pyra work fine whit ARM but its something you need peaple who know how to port..

I have experiences whit X86 SOC Driven Mini Computers whit the Win 1 and the Win Mini, and compared to the ARM Pyra they have advantages and disadvantages:
i can just grap an .exe File, like the X86 Port of Gianas Return and it works whitouth someone who port this stuff or Compiling myself..
A big part of my own Steam Library is working on Win Mini as long its works whit Windows 11 , and as this X-Input Protocoll is quite wide spread these days i dont even got issues configure the Gamepads ..
On the other side, even whit Gameboy Emulator they get at least quite warm and you have a whole Windows 11 behind which also costs Power

Im fine whit the ARM on the Pyra, and its gives the handheld a quite special charakter, but this Omap7 is really not the best SOC anymore..

 

[Askarus]

Honestly a good portion of this community is here because it IS ARM, the Pandora and prior systems GP2X etc... The Community was built around the software development effort around a single platform...

It was great for the Pandora.
Regarding the Pyra, it's not like there is much community left to build software around one system.
It all died. Maybe People will come back once more Pyras are out.

The big issue is armhf since most 3rd party repos dropped deb support for armhf and only provide 64 bit binaries.

A more modern SoC, modern connectivity and a proper system without the complicated hardware and OS would make the Pyra a great system.

 

[Askarus]

I wonder what we can do to resolve that...

Produce as many Pryas as quickly as possible.
That is most crucial in my opinion.

Second would be to stop the overly pedantic OS management trying to make everything super perfect which leads to a stand still.
I wanted to contribute twice. Once during the early days and just now.
It is even more frustrating than my last programming job for a huge automotive industry was.
It's so much justifying and explaining yourself.
Too many fixes are out there and not in the OS because of reasons ...
I do not care about it any more. Wasted so much time for nothing.

 

[TrashyMG]

Second would be to stop the overly pedantic OS management trying to make everything super perfect which leads to a stand still.

Not sure who is gatekeeping you, but I doubt it's in the name of perfection, that ship has sailed long ago.

 

[Serenity]

First of all: I honor your work for the Pyra. You are doing a lot of different stuff for it, even if the results are not perfect or as good as you desire.

However ED is financing the project at a loss and doing his best to deliver all the Pyras so that everyone who paid for it will get one.

I don't know, how much preorders left. What happened after that?

It still exists.

I never said, it doesn't exist. But I remember a time, where there were a lot of more posts about the GP2x oder the Wiz or the Pandora than today... and I mean really a lot of more.
But in the past, there weren't a lot of devices / handhelds available, where you are able to emulate different old consoles.
Today, I have an Anbernic, that works fine - and there are a lot of simiar device on AliExpress for (as we say in Germany) an apple and an egg.

Now, paying 700€ for a device, that has less power then every low-budget smartphone, isn't quite interesting anymore.
I don't say, that there are no interests. But if you look at the posts in this board, which represents the community, there is more a downward posting trend compared to the time, where people were waiting for the Pandora or the GP2x. For me, that means, that the interests in the device decreased massivly.

 

[netcat]

When I browsed openpandora.org recently it seems to have a lot more software possibilities than the pyra. I assume they are largely from the community and am wondering if this community will enable the pyra to be as great.

 

[Serenity]

When I browsed openpandora.org recently it seems to have a lot more software possibilities than the pyra. I assume they are largely from the community and am wondering if this community will enable the pyra to be as great.

or people, who already owns a pandora are satisfied with that device and doesn't need an upgrade.

 

[Askarus]

I don't know, how much preorders left. What happened after that?

First we need to see how long it will take to deliver all preorders.
It depends on how many parts after that we still have in stock.
Probably a new SoC and house redesign.
If we just make a Rockhicp SoC replacement, that would be a nice upgrade.

What is holding us back so much is the OMAP 5. OMAP 3 was great to work with but OMAP 5 is a broken mess. There are still hardware bugs TI never fixed because they lost interest.
The TILER rotation and the power inefficiency are all the fault of the OMAP.

Now, paying 700€ for a device, that has less power then every low-budget smartphone, isn't quite interesting anymore.

That is what I feel towards all those Anbernic or whatever gaming handhelds. For many years those release in huge quantities but still they do not offer more value than a 15 year old Pandora.
Dreamcast maybe but for everything else, the Pandora is still equal or better.

When it comes to the Pyra, I do not see it as a gaming device at all.
I personally would sacrifice 3D acceleration to advance the Kernel.
It is a portable notebook for reading, note taking, browsing and light programming and maybe music.
Besides the GPD Micro PC there is no other device out there that can provide that.
The Micro PC is better as a device but typing feels still better on the Pyra.
If the Pyra had a decent SoC, it still would be one of a kind and totally worth the money.

For me, that means, that the interests in the device decreased massivly.

Yes, the interst is decreasing.
However there are still a lot of people waiting for their Pyra.
It still is a great device.
I have hopes that once there are more Pyras delivered some dedicated fans will take up the software work and fix the major issues.
If everything would prk as intended, the Pyra would be great value

 

[Askarus]

Let's stay positive everyone
Even if I might sound quite negative, I still think that the Pyra is in the best spot for years.
I finally have time to do dedicated Pyra work that is more than just occasional hobby work.
So the production will go on faster than ever I hope.
Maybe it will not result in a mass production of Pyras right away but I do a lot of preparation and optimization work behind the scenes

 

[elw3]

Its good that you are cheerful but the forum is so calm, little talk, no new releases, no news.
Its weird these days.
I know its a general _forums are dying_ problem. But i still miss the good old days of daily checking the side, now you only need to check every few weeks.

Speaking of anbernic, powkiddy and the rest of the cheap handheld fraction:
I bought a buttload of these devices by now, and yea even if they are by specs superior to the pandora, i mean they have a strong quadcore, it kinda doesnt change anything game wise.
Feels mostly like the same emulation power.
Also they lack in software developers too, the powkiddy v90 uses software for gp2x and canoon while the more _modern_ ones ship with 5 year old versions of ubuntu.
So yea this stuff is different, but its not like the pyra or even the by now well aged pandora has fallen behind very much.
Price aside, but competing with a chinese factory is nothing worth a discussion.

 

[PowerGod]

no new releases

Lately there are a lot of ports to the Pyra repo.

 

[elw3]

I have not even noticed.

 

[jedi23]

Thank you very much for providing so much information about the current state and your honest assessment Askarus. After all these months of silence it feels great to have some fresh input.

We all know, the Pyra is very niche. Even if all kernel and driver issues would be solved, the Pyra will never have nearly the same appeal than any current gaming Handheld. Show or tell about the Pyra in your group of friends and you know what I mean. But I don't see why the Pyra should not be a gaming device. I never had a Pandora, but both Handhelds look quite the same...
It even seems (thanks to the many portings by M-HT), everything that worked on Pandora can be played on Pyra as well. And thanks to GL4ES by ptitSeb, the 3D performance is great as well.

I see only two big issues: the sound issues and the lack of power saving mode.
Smaller issues are the missing native graphics driver, freezes in Bullseye or Bookworm and the battery loading issues.
Even if the Pyra really is that big mess under the hood with plenty of tinkering to make it all work together, all people involved did a great job! The Buster based stock rom runs perfectly stable and it seems the remaining issues are not unsolveable with some great efforts already made on some of them.

 

[asimov-solensan]

I still think Pyra is the kind of device I want. Size, set of features and linux out of the box fits my use case better than anything else.

A Pyra with an up-to-date SOC and fixes here and there and it would be my perfect device.

In the meantime I'm using my phone with a customized gamepad for games (emulators mainly). But I would prefer having the same device for everything as I did with Pandora.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

It is not that I do not own cables.
It is that I do not want to carry around an adapter just for the Pyra.

Every device I commonly carry witrh me has USB B Micro, like the Pyra does. I would like USB C but not instead of USB B Micro and I would rather have an Ethernet port than USB C.

the Pyra will never have nearly the same appeal than any current gaming Handheld

What makes the Pyra better than other handhelds is that it is more free and it is not dependent on Windows. Would you be comfortable playing games while Bill Gates is watching you? What if you were gaming while taking a dump on the toilet? I would not. But if you use Windows, then Bill Gates will personally follow you while you game and his buddies at the FBI too.

In fact, years ago I was playing Netbattle on my Windows computer and 30 minutes after I beat a certain guy there was knocking on my door. Guess what? Turns out that guy worked at the FBI and he was not happy with his loss. I got taken in and was sentenced to jail for 1 month and 29 days. But they had a computer there so I installed Netbattle on it and then made sure to lose to everyone I met. Eventually I battled the same guy and lost to him, causing my sentence to be shorted to only 4 days in total.

After this I installed the GNU/Linux (or as I like to call it, GNU+Linux) operating system and went on Netbattle using a emulator running Windows. I met the same guy and beat him 6-0. He then messaged me asking for my IP and telling me to use Windows on hardware next time. I told him my IP was "127.0.0.1". He said he called the FBI to hack that IP and take it's owner to jail. So I used the power of the free and open GNU/Linux (or as I like to call it, GNU+Linux) operating system to find out where he lived and then I drove to his house. 18 minutes after I arrived I saw the FBI knocking on his door and taking him to jail.