Some personal stuff - and prototypes building!

[NOP]

So on the Pyra, i dont need my tiny Bluetooth Transmitter for Wireless Headphones `??
Sounds great, i know on the Pandora, there was a way to get Bluetooth Headphones to work, but i dint want to bother to get it to work..
If Bluetooth Headphones on Pyra is that easy as connect a Bluetooth Keyboard on Pandora, this wouldbe quite cool..

I use my shure BT1 (bluetooth inear) all the time on my Linux machines, it works really great out of the box. My Laptop connects and switches to my inears as soon as i turn them on, and also switches back afterward.

only the play pause buttons behave strange (vlc recognizes them when i press them twice, track skip seems to work better in vlc).

But other than the buttons, it can't be any better.

If now someone builds an application for calling which mutes all audio outputs switches the headset into headset mode and after the call back to stereo and resumes the audio. I would throw out my android

Maybe I can hack that into the calling app if that gets developed.

 

[levi]

For my uses at least, pausing over muting wins every time if some higher priority signal comes in. Assuming it's a pausable form like flac or mp3, and not something like a streaming media source, where muting's pretty much the best you can do. My phone pretty much does that, although for a text alert sound it just mixes the audio (albeit dimming the audio playback), which actually (despite other complaints) it probably just how I like it.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

@levi You can pause a stream, as long as you don't run out of buffer. @Grench What would the maxed out storage capacity be again?

 

[NOP]

Pausing may be better, but also harder to implemet, or are music applications listening to dbus events for pause/unpause (not toggle of course)?

And even then muting all applications must always be done.

 

[Grench]

@levi You can pause a stream, as long as you don't run out of buffer. @Grench What would the maxed out storage capacity be again?

Somewhere between, "A lot" and a "metric S-ton", depending on how much you want to spend?

Current maximum theoretical (until someone actually does it, everything is theoretical) on-device in-pocket running storage using cards that can be purchased, of a Pyra is ~5.1TB. https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/preparing-for-a-prototype.76956/page-12#post-1448837

 

[Coupo]

So, I haven't been here for a while... Have I missed anyth.....
WOW, ok
Just... 6 more pages of comments....
And new fotos from ED.
...
Oh! I guess the protos coming together nicely

 

[CyrusDreams]

I updated the first post with some more pictures
In the end, the speakers and headphones as well as Bluetooth should appear as different outputs, so you can route any audio stream to any output.

If you manage to do this, the Pyra can do more audio than a "state-of-the-art" ThinkPad T580
That thing only has one stereo pair which is switched between speakers and headphones. Cheapskates.

 

[Eight Bit]

When will the CPU boards come @EvilDragon ?

 

[JDTAY]

Whoa there, it's only been a week since ED's last update. Give the man some space. Don't make me go get Wally.

*continues to stalk ED twice as hard as Eight Bit*

 

[Eight Bit]

Well, as I like those nice, almost finished looking prototypes to be sent out as much as anyone else in here,
and they only need the cpu board and the battery to be finished,
and the batteries are already in,
and ED is not physically making the cpu boards himself,
and thus ordered them XX days ago,
I guess it's a legit question how long it takes for the boards to arrive

 

[CommanderB]

If I understood correctly the prototype boards are already there, but maybe ED is waiting for more heatpipes?

 

[levi]

If I understood correctly the prototype boards are already there, but maybe ED is waiting for more heatpipes?

Yes, he's ordered some more heatpipes too recently for them to be ready just yet; he forgot them temporarily I think. But he said he can run some tester software on them without a heatsink. I don't think I've seen the tester software for them yet, but I don't recall if I actually saw the software tester running on the Pandora back in the day, other than the input tester, which I think we already saw running on a Pyra in the keyboard backlighting video done in the dark.

 

[Grench]

Yes, he's ordered some more heatpipes too recently for them to be ready just yet; he forgot them temporarily I think. But he said he can run some tester software on them without a heatsink. I don't think I've seen the tester software for them yet, but I don't recall if I actually saw the software tester running on the Pandora back in the day, other than the input tester, which I think we already saw running on a Pyra in the keyboard backlighting video done in the dark.

Obviously the assembly of the prototypes is going to be a very slow process as each issue is solved rather than given a work around. For example, I somewhat expect the prototypes may end up having black shoulder buttons so that the spring solution can be implemented. for some things, the prototypes will yield better solutions for the production units while using 'old' solutions in the prototypes. Example: not needing separate silicone backing sealing for the speakers but instead modifying the keymat silicone to incorporate that piece. A tweak here a modification there, 'Aha! moments,' that can only occur when handling and carefully studying physical hardware.

The prototype exercise is clearly being used to make the production Pyra production process more efficient and produce better units. But then, that is the whole idea of this exercise right?

 

[EvilDragon]

Updated the first post
Wow, 82 pictures already

 

[docbroke]

Wonderful, so we have one fully working prototype. I am eager to see more photographs

 

[rSl]

looks awesome, really loving the latest progress!

 

[PowerGod]

The cases seems really perfect, also everything fits great, really a good job

 

[levi]

Boy, this photo is like an optical illusion or something:

It first of all looked to me like I was looking at the edge of the PCB there, and it wasn't until I noticed the moulding mark that I realised we were looking from inside the battery slot. That's the glued on side of the insulator in the very front (slightly out of focus), then looking at the reverse of the USB slots and the heatsink (in focus) and outside of the case in pink bubblewrap (out of focus again).

 

[Kuro]

Just a small concern, but the fins on the heatsink are supposed to enhance the cooling by convection of the air around them. As they appear to be placed inside the case, they do not seam to have a lot of space for air to circulate around them.

Taking this into account wouldn't it be better (cooling and price wise) to just have a copper cube to act as a thermal capacitor and rely on the usb port to dissipate the heat through convection (as it actually has contact with the air outside the case)?
It needs to be tested to be sure but my intuition tells me that these new aluminum heat sinks will not be as effective as the copper ones, as 1st they look less dense (more space between the fins), and 2nd they are aluminum so they have a lot less heat capacity per unit of volume.

It would be nice to see some thermal testing comparing these heatsinks to just a block of copper.

 

[PowerGod]

I didn't like very much how the Pandora was using the USB as a dissipator... I know there wasn't much choice, and it actually always worked well when the port was not in use, but when something was plugged in the temperature could reach very high levels.