The Pyra Puzzle

[Silent-Hunter]

I don't think so.

 

[matzesu]

Nope: the Chip is on the Mainboard next to the left SDXC Slot, in the Corner..


Where the On Off Switch from the Pandora was..


Somethime ago, i opend my Pandora Case to fix the Shoulderbutton, this was easy because my experience whit Lego and Kinder Surprise Egg Toys .. it was the mechanikal Part..


But the Eletronix are nothing i know about..


But the Posts in this Thread gave me a bit clearness..


If my long Charger Cable (about 3 m) ditnt fit its no Problem, as this cable is a bit damaged at the End because somethimes, i watched Youtube whit my Note 2 in Bed, and just fall asleep...

 

[Neelix]

Have you considered a PSP-style "transformer in the middle of the cable with the replaceable AC side attached using an IEC 60320 connector" design instead of the Pandora's wall wart design? (To quote the AVGN, "Have these, not these!")

I'd agree with this idea. My first Pandora (from Craigix) came with just such an adapter. I'd prefer the circuitry to be separate to the plug if at all possible. In addition to making it easier to plug it into a crowded power-board, this also has the advantage of allowing the end user to switch to a longer cable between plug and adapter circuitry.

I dont consider more travel to be a bonus, but it remains to be tested thoroughly if too little can be an issue. I dont think so since the IBM nubs worked fine.

I do see less travel as a disadvantage. More travel gives much finer control where the amount of travel actually matters. (particularly in games like Oolite where such fine control can mean the difference between winning or losing a fight)

- Neelix

 

[Silent-Hunter]

They won't allow Kinder Surprise in the USA. They're afraid kids will choke on the toy.

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

This is great news, looking forward to the pyra.


Can we get file system encryption in the standard OS this time?

Edit: btw Hi guys, been a while

 

[matzesu]

Tja, thats the Diverent between good old Germany and good old USA..


I can remember a picture for one chield holding a gun, and one holding a kinder egg,


And there was the slogan "One off they are holding a for childs probittet Thing in USA guess who.."..


Played a lot whit Kinder Eggs, and i just survived ^^


But this is offtopic, ..

 

[comradekingu]

Have you considered a PSP-style "transformer in the middle of the cable with the replaceable AC side attached using an IEC 60320 connector" design instead of the Pandora's wall wart design? (To quote the AVGN, "Have these, not these!")

I'd agree with this idea. My first Pandora (from Craigix) came with just such an adapter. I'd prefer the circuitry to be separate to the plug if at all possible. In addition to making it easier to plug it into a crowded power-board, this also has the advantage of allowing the end user to switch to a longer cable between plug and adapter circuitry.

I dont consider more travel to be a bonus, but it remains to be tested thoroughly if too little can be an issue. I dont think so since the IBM nubs worked fine.

I do see less travel as a disadvantage. More travel gives much finer control where the amount of travel actually matters. (particularly in games like Oolite where such fine control can mean the difference between winning or losing a fight)


- Neelix

It all depends on the quality of the nub. I agree with more than too little, but a quality nub can have almost none and outperform the ones with the most leeway by a lot.

USB chargers are smaller now. I prefer the ones that plug into the socket, but dont get in the way of other connections on the strip.

Also if it can have a female regular USB hole you can use it with many different cables, as these tend to change a lot. A bonus is that when/if the cable gets tangled, you can just clip it off at the adaptor side.

 

[Granitehead]

USB chargers are smaller now. I prefer the ones that plug into the socket, but dont get in the way of other connections on the strip.

+1Something like this would be fine: http://www.dx.com/p/universal-eu-plug-dual-usb-car-charger-for-iphone-ipad-ipod-5v-2a-238142

 

[Wally]

It'd be nice if the charger was an optional extra. I'm more than likely to throw it out if it's only USB as I have plenty of fast USB chargers lying around.

 

[DAP]

4 layers, no ground plane? This scares me. You are asking for trouble. (EMI, signal integrity issues etc...)

 

[benoitb]

It'd be nice if the charger was an optional extra. I'm more than likely to throw it out if it's only USB as I have plenty of fast USB chargers lying around.

+1, I have several quality 2A USB chargers from modern smartphones and tablet.

Do we have some news about the screen, ED ? I think last time we heard about them, there was a Sharp option and 1 or 2 others ? Have I missed some news since ?

 

[fusion_power]

Some things that should not be confused:

1. The main PCB is simpler in production (almost no SMD parts, less layers, etc.) but that doesn't mean it's simpler to be designed

2. The SCHEMATICS were finished in my last post, the layout was ALMOST. But the last few % always need the most work.

It's always complicated, even the "simple" stuff, right? I know how complex such an layout can be, and it has to be done without even knowing if everything will 100% work at the end with the real devcice. ^^" There are tools to test such pcbs "virtual" of course but only the real, finished device will show if everything works like it should. The mother/daugher-board design is pretty unique and complex, alot of stuff can make trouble with so much components. It's still a miracle how the Pandora worked that well, 8-layer PCB designed by one guy.

Well, they were waiting for physical dummys to continue working on the case as well as the last measurements for LCD PCB, Battery Sample, etc.

They didn't want to work for a few hours and then have to wait until we send the next details, the wanted to finish everything in one go once we got everything (which is totally understandable).

It also doesn't make sense changing the case and then changing it again after we decided to use different components, etc.

That's why it was in pause mode until we had all our specs set.

Yes, sounds logical. It's not easy to design a fitting case around unfinished inner parts, that's why I still can not test my Pyra design that I have in mind, sadly. ^^"

Yes, if possible. But it isn't at that resolution, only at lower ones - or with a delay for encoding / decoding as well as higher power usage.

We only have half of the traces we need for the Pandora already with an improved cable.

That should easily work.

Delay would be bad indeed. Had not thought about that an ribbon cable is faster and uses less power. Makes sense.
Oh, forgot one thing that really worries me at the moment:

The Stylus will probably get a tiny bit thinner and all four screws will be hidden inside the battery compartment (which is nice).

Bad, I hoped for an actual bigger Pyra stylus (in all proportions) than the one for Pandora, because it's already wayyy to small for my hands, and it would be sad to use an external Stylus. It must not one like the NDS XL Stylus (which would be "my" stylus size by the way XD ) but a little bit more mature size for the stylus would be nice. I don't have 11 years kids hands anymore.

 

[Foxgod]

I am so glad you guys are doing the Pyra, really impressive, tnx for the update.

I hope the Pyra will sell even better then the Pandora!

 

[TrashyMG]

4 layers, no ground plane? This scares me. You are asking for trouble. (EMI, signal integrity issues etc...)

How are you concluding it doesn't have a ground plane?

 

[TeDaDeS]

The Pyra is still going steady, pretty promising. I would also think a lot of people will already have USB-chargers, but not sure if adding/removing is a hassle.

 

[levi]

4 layers, no ground plane? This scares me. You are asking for trouble. (EMI, signal integrity issues etc...)

How are you concluding it doesn't have a ground plane?

Probably because of the four different colours of overlapping traces in that layout snipped posted (blue, red, blue shaded, red shaded).
I'm not sure how much grounding is needed to be honest. It's an SoC-based design, so most of the high-speed interconnects are within that package. I understand RAM is in a separate chip, which will require moderately high-speed lines to, but I guess it's close so they're pretty short. The peripheral board also has some fairly high-speed stuff - the USB3 port and HDMI out come to mind, but I assume the circuitry for those is right next to their respective ports, so again, less risk of interference, and less chance of broadcasting anything.

 

[TrashyMG]

4 layers, no ground plane? This scares me. You are asking for trouble. (EMI, signal integrity issues etc...)

How are you concluding it doesn't have a ground plane?

Probably because of the four different colours of overlapping traces in that layout snipped posted (blue, red, blue shaded, red shaded).
I'm not sure how much grounding is needed to be honest. It's an SoC-based design, so most of the high-speed interconnects are within that package. I understand RAM is in a separate chip, which will require moderately high-speed lines to, but I guess it's close so they're pretty short. The peripheral board also has some fairly high-speed stuff - the USB3 port and HDMI out come to mind, but I assume the circuitry for those is right next to their respective ports, so again, less risk of interference, and less chance of broadcasting anything.

Gotcha, didn't even notice the picture...

 

[WizardStan]

They won't allow Kinder Surprise in the USA. They're afraid kids will choke on the toy.

Side note: that's not officially why, that's just the media latching onto a very prominent example. It's actually a lot more general than that, it's against the law to put non-food in food and is a general "people are stupid and will try to eat the non-food" and not specifically against kids.So when you see those cliched "guy puts a ring in his girlfriend's drink to propose" he's actually breaking the law! And when the restaurant helps they're accomplices! Such scandal!

 

[ekianjo]

I hope the Pyra will sell even better then the Pandora!

Should not be too hard

 

[Majin Wamu]

Any Pyra news is good news to me. The more time, the better actually.