The Pyra Puzzle

[Exophase]

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.

That four layer board doesn't include the SoC, RAM, or PMIC (and I think NAND, but I can't remember for sure). Those are on the daughter board being designed next, which as ED says will contain more layers.

 

[DrHAX]

Spoiler

That looks like art to me..  :wub:  

 

[thatgui]

3. The case

Would it be possible to have two cavities on the back of the Pandora (radius ~0.4 mm, 15-20mm long), mabye between the shoulder buttons and the ports, where guiding rods, that a future dock might have, could slide in ?

4. AC Adaptor and LCD Cables

Fatih is looking for various AC Adaptors. Basically, it's a normal USB plug (with 2A) with replaceable plug, similar to the Pandora (so it works with EU, UK, US and AU plugs).

There are various manufacturers for that and we'll get different samples for testing.

Could we get a charger with a female USB port on it, where the charging cable is just a standard USB cable that is plugged into the charger ? A lot of consumer devices employ that kind of flexibility nowadays. The adapter gets a lot more use cases (like one for many devices on travel or the user can use a cable with a length that suits his/her specific situation better), the adapter does not get useless when the cable/plug gets damaged, and may even be useable for the second iteration of the main pcb which will probably sport another USB port.Would it be possible to get an adapter that has a higher current output ? I'm thinking about the dock, which could need a AC adapter that has a little more power.

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!

Is that really the case ? I thought they weren't allowing the (unhealthy)food+toy thinghy so kids don't associate those two things

 

[dflatline]

Surely they'd ban Macdonald's Happy Meals if that was the case.

 

[EvilDragon]

4. AC Adaptor and LCD Cables


Fatih is looking for various AC Adaptors. Basically, it's a normal USB plug (with 2A) with replaceable plug, similar to the Pandora (so it works with EU, UK, US and AU plugs).


There are various manufacturers for that and we'll get different samples for testing.

Could we get a charger with a female USB port on it, where the charging cable is just a standard USB cable that is plugged into the charger ? A lot of consumer devices employ that kind of flexibility nowadays. The adapter gets a lot more use cases (like one for many devices on travel or the user can use a cable with a length that suits his/her specific situation better), the adapter does not get useless when the cable/plug gets damaged, and may even be useable for the second iteration of the main pcb which will probably sport another USB port.
Would it be possible to get an adapter that has a higher current output ? I'm thinking about the dock, which could need a AC adapter that has a little more power.

Aaah, you thought the adapter would be  a simple AC Adapter with Micro-USB Cable included? Naaah, I planned a female port from the beginning, probably just forgot to mention that.

However, it's hard enough getting AC Adaptors with 2A, so I don't think we'll find higher ones.

 

[matzesu]

According to your Twitter:

Aaaand we're down to the two last issues on Pyras main PCB. They're not that important for testing, so we ordered parts and PCBs today

https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717/status/544417533458382849

Sounds great

Something news from the Case Designer??

Or are they just at work..

 

[Bosbeetle]

Ah a puzzle always nice

 

[Mr_Loon]

Aaah, you thought the adapter would be  a simple AC Adapter with Micro-USB Cable included?

Have you thought about making the charger an optional extra so that people like me who already have a 2A USB charger (in fact I've got 3) don't have to waste money / resources / postage costs buying a needless additional charger?

If Pyra will charge off a 1.5A USB charger then I've got 6 existing chargers I could use.  :blink:

 

[matzesu]

Is there a way, to also use a USB Cable?? 

This would be nice, because then whe can put the Cable in the USB Port of the Pyra and the other side on our phone to charge the phone

Or put the Mini USB Plug in the Pyra Mini USB Port and the USB Plug in the Pyra USB Port,

This way the Pyra would charge itsellf And whe have a Perpetoum Mobile

 

[WizardStan]

I thought they weren't allowing the (unhealthy)food+toy thinghy so kids don't associate those two things

Surely they'd ban Macdonald's Happy Meals if that was the case.

Exactly.

The toy is beside the food in the bag, not embedded in it, so no one cares.  I can't find the exact wording anymore, it's buried somewhere in the Federal food, drug, and cosmetics act (which is ridiculously hard to search and I don't know why) and specifically mentioned non-food being embedded in food.  As long as the toy and the food are separate there's no problem, but encase the toy in the food and it's a problem.

 

[PokeParadox]

I thought they weren't allowing the (unhealthy)food+toy thinghy so kids don't associate those two things

Surely they'd ban Macdonald's Happy Meals if that was the case.

Exactly.

The toy is beside the food in the bag, not embedded in it, so no one cares.  I can't find the exact wording anymore, it's buried somewhere in the Federal food, drug, and cosmetics act (which is ridiculously hard to search and I don't know why) and specifically mentioned non-food being embedded in food.  As long as the toy and the food are separate there's no problem, but encase the toy in the food and it's a problem.

Nooooo... Kinder Eggs! :lol:

 

[fusion_power]

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!

Strange, in every other corner of the world, Kinder Surprise is pretty common (and cult in germany!), and afaik nobody has died yet from eating it. For the plain american mass it may help to put a big warning sign on each egg I guess.

Aaah, you thought the adapter would be  a simple AC Adapter with Micro-USB Cable included? Naaah, I planned a female port from the beginning, probably just forgot to mention that.

However, it's hard enough getting AC Adaptors with 2A, so I don't think we'll find higher ones.

The charger I've got with the Pandora also only has 1A and charges the 4000mAh battery fine. Only issue is that the battery seems to get old, never reaches 100%. Last % take ages but up to 80% it's going normal.

 

[erico]

...

2. A puzzling experience

...

Someone should create a puzzle game on the Pandora based on that

It was already done in 1984 by the Learning Company.

It is called Robot Odyssey and you should play the apple II version. (heck that is one of the good things of being 38)

I bet Nikolaus did play that at the time...I recall it took me+friends years to beat that game.

We even designed a couple micro chips to go along.

 

[Grench]

Fatih is looking for various AC Adaptors. Basically, it's a normal USB plug (with 2A) with replaceable plug, similar to the Pandora (so it works with EU, UK, US and AU plugs). There are various manufacturers for that and we'll get different samples for testing.

It might be worth considering selling the official charger as an extra, I've already got 3 USB plugs that could be used to charge the Pyra, so don't really need another one, bet I'm not the only one in this boat.

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.

Aaah, you thought the adapter would be  a simple AC Adapter with Micro-USB Cable included?

Have you thought about making the charger an optional extra so that people like me who already have a 2A USB charger (in fact I've got 3) don't have to waste money / resources / postage costs buying a needless additional charger?


If Pyra will charge off a 1.5A USB charger then I've got 6 existing chargers I could use.  :blink:

Some simple economics of manufacturing and packaging.  Every time you allow a 'choice' to the end consumer it adds cost beyond the materials.  Don't assume that 100% of the material costs are avoided by giving an option to -not- include something in the box.

Example:  Assume that these chargers cost $5 each.  Adding a branch/decision point to the packaging (boxing) process might add $1 to ALL orders.  Assuming 1000 orders of which 20% (huge) of the customers opt to not get a charger, at that point it's a wash just to add the decision point WITHOUT giving the consumer any discount.

I.e. if they add an option to nix the charger, you're not going to be able to get the whole root cost of the charger back (if anything).

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

3. The case

Would it be possible to have two cavities on the back of the Pandora (radius ~0.4 mm, 15-20mm long), mabye between the shoulder buttons and the ports, where guiding rods, that a future dock might have, could slide in ? 

4. AC Adaptor and LCD Cables Fatih is looking for various AC Adaptors. Basically, it's a normal USB plug (with 2A) with replaceable plug, similar to the Pandora (so it works with EU, UK, US and AU plugs).There are various manufacturers for that and we'll get different samples for testing.

Could we get a charger with a female USB port on it, where the charging cable is just a standard USB cable that is plugged into the charger ? A lot of consumer devices employ that kind of flexibility nowadays. The adapter gets a lot more use cases (like one for many devices on travel or the user can use a cable with a length that suits his/her specific situation better), the adapter does not get useless when the cable/plug gets damaged, and may even be useable for the second iteration of the main pcb which will probably sport another USB port.Would it be possible to get an adapter that has a higher current output ? I'm thinking about the dock, which could need a AC adapter that has a little more power. 

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!

Is that really the case ? I thought they weren't allowing the (unhealthy)food+toy thinghy so kids don't associate those two things

Whatever happened to crackerjacks then? A toy in flavoured popcorn i think it was.

 

[DaMummy]

I thought they weren't allowing the (unhealthy)food+toy thinghy so kids don't associate those two things

Surely they'd ban Macdonald's Happy Meals if that was the case.

Exactly.

The toy is beside the food in the bag, not embedded in it, so no one cares.  I can't find the exact wording anymore, it's buried somewhere in the Federal food, drug, and cosmetics act (which is ridiculously hard to search and I don't know why) and specifically mentioned non-food being embedded in food.  As long as the toy and the food are separate there's no problem, but encase the toy in the food and it's a problem.

a bit tinfoin hatty and pushing the off topic discussion, but why is Milka chocolate so hard to find in the USA? was the ban of kinder surprise eggs and milka chocolate scarce just put on as a lobbying effort by companies like hershey to have a better chance at a market here in the US?

 

[dflatline]

I heard that Hersey's created a method of using almost rotten milk to make chocolate, which is why American chocolate tastes vaguely of sick. It also probably altered perceptions of how chocolate is supposed to taste which maybe why its hard to find other types.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Some simple economics of manufacturing and packaging.  Every time you allow a 'choice' to the end consumer it adds cost beyond the materials.  Don't assume that 100% of the material costs are avoided by giving an option to -not- include something in the box.   Example:  Assume that these chargers cost $5 each.  Adding a branch/decision point to the packaging (boxing) process might add $1 to ALL orders.  Assuming 1000 orders of which 20% (huge) of the customers opt to not get a charger, at that point it's a wash just to add the decision point WITHOUT giving the consumer any discount.   I.e. if they add an option to nix the charger, you're not going to be able to get the whole root cost of the charger back (if anything).

Didn't want to derail this thread with minutiae so made a thread here.

 

[Binky]

Likewise, if people want to continue talking about chocolate-encased toys, they should do so in a separate topic.

 

[ibisum]

Yay!  I like this:

We now added key signing to our repository, tweaked the scripts a bit more and are now able to create working rootfs to our likings.

PS - I have an Omap devboard, and would love to help the OS effort .. is there a forum/list for it, or so?