We've started to order things!

[rygD]

Suggestion for next news thread title: We've ordered all the things!

Am I mistaken in my understanding that the next batch of cases will not be the fan favorite clear, but will still not be the final cases with the hardened molds; they will be used for prototypes, and the color may not be the final choice for the first run? I am really looking forward to seeing them. I would love clear and red cases sometime down the road (and beige and others), so make sure to send a few to @Link from time to time to sell from his shop. Also batteries. And other replacement parts if he has space for them.

The wifi has me very concerned. Should we also be concerned about 4G strength?

I am pretty curious what color the keymat will end up with.

Plenty of pictures should be coming soon since everything is Almost Done.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I'm absolutely loving these photos, especially with diagnostics writing attached. Fan-bleeping-tastic.

Need. Input.

 

[jonlad1]

@zmatt @hns - thanks for the photos and info!!

More please!! I think we're all info junkies here

 

[rygD]

Wow, don't ask to much questions. They don't like that.
News will come wenn news come.
Just chill and be patient!

Or our entire posting history could consist of complaints and negative comments sprinkled with demands for more updates. Just a change in attitude and phrasing would probably help a bunch.
[doublepost=1487269256,1487269143][/doublepost]Oh, and my questions are to anybody that understands better than me.

 

[TrashyMG]

Wow, don't ask to much questions. They don't like that.

It's okay, that question doesn't imply EvilDragon is dragging his feet or mishandling things.

 

[kabaiakh]

The evolution of all prototype generations of the PCBs in one picture...

I'm curious about the timestamps those different prototypes came to life.

 

[kabaiakh]

I am pretty curious what color the keymat will end up with.

Mmmm, purple nubs!

Fuschia goes well with pretty much everything.
Pyra would be pretty in pink.
Hello Kitty limited edition for early pre orderers.
Release estimated on 2017-04-01 ... ;=ppp

 

[Caine]

Oh dear... more non-final stuff. Oh well, delays were to be expected

<edit>Strictly speaking not a delay since no date has actually been announced, but despite better judgement I was hoping it to be further along.</edit>

 

[Blue Shadow]

Because of the ridiculous reaction to my (yes, maybe critical) question of some, i regret the preorder the first time.

Err...

So, just two more years???
Preorder? Never ever again...

which seemed to be your very second post on this forum.

btw. at that time, there was not those harsh reaction yet. I would guess, it is basically about mass and onesideness of most of your comments. I can't confirm that this board would dislike critique per se.

 

[FBnil]

I propose we call this prototype "Patient Zero"

Maybe each assembled machine has a totem of sorts, taken from their respective Number Image / Preorder pictures?

But he has no time to make a book

If you use a magnifying glass... the Pyra resembles a small notebook?

 

[zmatt]

@zmatt @hns - thanks for the photos and info!!

More please!! I think we're all info junkies here

More photo!

More random info! (unrelated to above, snippet from a kernel startup)

[    0.156495] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ...
[    0.237729] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 0, mpidr 80000001
[    0.238211] smp: Brought up 1 node, 2 CPUs
[    0.238226] SMP: Total of 2 processors activated (24.57 BogoMIPS).
[    0.238234] CPU: All CPU(s) started in HYP mode.
[    0.238241] CPU: Virtualization extensions available.

 

[Grench]

There is a difference between to regret something and to not to something again the next time.

So, why is there no critique? The Pyra has a big 2 year delay!
Bad things can happen, sure. But you have to learn from them and than be extra fast with things that can be done fast.
That new "news"post just says: nothing really happened. Right?
Accept: CPU boards "have now been ordered" Why not 4 Weeks ago? Isn't that a valid question?
Maybe there is a good reason. But that question pops up.

Pyra has been in development for 2 years. It is not delayed.
Missteps happen, hindsight is 20/20.
The new news post is a status update - showing progress (prototype in dev hands) - showing additional posts of said prototype and additional background.
It takes time to develop the order - back and forth with the producer, clarification of specs, etc. He isn't ordering 500 generic widgets.

Edit: Also - I don't think he stated when the 500 boards were ordered, just that they have been since the last news post.

 

[ible]

there's a difference between asking critical, interesting, and thoughtful questions (people do it all the time, look at keyboard layouts, power for modem, camera functionality, etc.), and just being impatient (and asking, "are we there yet?").

not that i would fault m@t for being impatient, i'm also ready for a Pyra. most of us here want it "good and ready", rather than "mostly ready", and being a niche device not produced by a big name company, these things take time.

 

[hns]

@hns nice - that corresponds to out pre-preorder bonus bare pcbs declaring themselves as v5 boards.

Out of interest, what does the ~10mm square silver chip above the volume wheel (and with a CPU board cutout since v5.1-ish) do? I can't read the labelling from your image, and there doesn't seem to be a corresponding part on the Pandora boards, so I guess it's not the DAC.

And for completness, when did the keyboard reflector in white come in on the other side? And was the wonky chip always wonky?

1. it is the WLAN/Bluetooth chip (WL1837 module)
2. the audio DAC was planned to sit between this and the potentiometer - but will not be installed (the twl6040 audio works and is good) - except on the V5 board in the photo
3. the white silk-screen (keyboard reflector) came after V4.5
4. the wonky chip is the DC/DC converter for providing 5V on the USB ports and came together with them in V3 and space was always tight forcing us to make and keep it wonky.

 

[tmlind]

More random info! (unrelated to above, snippet from a kernel startup)

[    0.156495] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ...
[    0.237729] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 0, mpidr 80000001
[    0.238211] smp: Brought up 1 node, 2 CPUs
[    0.238226] SMP: Total of 2 processors activated (24.57 BogoMIPS).
[    0.238234] CPU: All CPU(s) started in HYP mode.
[    0.238241] CPU: Virtualization extensions available.

Hmm how about some more random info from your dmesg.. Is the 4GiB part working now with LPAE?

 

[levi]

Suggestion for next news thread title: We've ordered all the things!

My suggestion: 4GB works! or maybe 3D works! Or any of the other cool stuff our intrepid bunch of prototype developers feel like working on!

Am I mistaken in my understanding that the next batch of cases will not be the fan favorite clear, but will still not be the final cases with the hardened molds; they will be used for prototypes, and the color may not be the final choice for the first run? I am really looking forward to seeing them. I would love clear and red cases sometime down the road (and beige and others), so make sure to send a few to @Link from time to time to sell from his shop. Also batteries. And other replacement parts if he has space for them.

ED calls them 'the next batch'. They sound like they might be quite close to gunmetal grey with a tint (dunno what colour). The way he explains CPU boards are the stickler, and many batches of cases could be produced in the time suggests to me this isn't necessarily the colour for the first 600 units. So the next news title could be 'Look at this cool case colour!' and I'd be happy!

The wifi has me very concerned. Should we also be concerned about 4G strength?

Completely different frequency == completely different range and coverage. Wifi works at 2.4GHz (or 5GHz) while cellular frequencies top out at about 1.3GHz currently (though I read that 3UK bought a big chunk of 1.5GHz the other day, but that probably won't roll out for another few years). Lower frequencies go round obstacles better than higher ones, but have much lower bandwidths. But in practice, in a little plastic box under a fibreglass and copper board, your guess is as good as mine as to how it will actually perform.

I am pretty curious what color the keymat will end up with.

I'm not sure we'll really be able to see a difference. I assume it's the colour of the side-wall of the keys (and the underside, but we won't see that unless we open our pyras) and maybe the surround for the key legends. Actually, if it is all of that it might be quite a change, depending on how far from blackest black we go.

 

[Grench]

"been in development for 2 years" What?
Just look at the News Forum. First news posts are from 01/2014. And that was not the beginning of the development.
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/updates-in-all-areas.74214/page-2
2015...let me think a little bit...how long ago was 2015...oh wait: 2 Years.

Actually, if you want to go back to the beginning of discussions of what could/should be in a successor to the Pandora, you would need to go back to 2009 (ish).

Your 2015 estimated arrival link looks like discussions of forum members, not a delivery date from ED.

What is your actual objective with your continued insisting that this project, which has no completion due date, is late?

The timeline has always been, "It will be done when it is done." From the orders threads it is pretty clear that there have been a few people un-order here and there, so in theory you might be able to request a refund for your order - assuming you have ordered at some point - or ask that the amount be used toward the purchase of something else from the DragonBox shop.

There is no 'rushing right'. I.e. we all want the project to ship working Pyra handheld computers. That takes time and money. Lots of both. Consider the optimization between the three of Time Vs Money Vs Quality. Choose two.

 

[rygD]

4. the wonky chip is the DC/DC converter for providing 5V on the USB ports and came together with them in V3 and space was always tight forcing us to make and keep it wonky.

And oh how it is beloved, representing how much wonderful can be squeezed in so little space.

ED calls them 'the next batch'. They sound like they might be quite close to gunmetal grey with a tint (dunno what colour). The way he explains CPU boards are the stickler, and many batches of cases could be produced in the time suggests to me this isn't necessarily the colour for the first 600 units. So the next news title could be 'Look at this cool case colour!' and I'd be happy!

Gunmetal or black, or even the sample grey he showed long ago, are fine. I just couldn't tell if the next batch was another test batch with the unhardened molds, or if they would be the first production run. I think I poorly attempted to get answers to different things with one messed up sentence:

Are the case molds still being tweaked, with the next batch still being used to check out fit and such?

Is the color of the next batch of cases final for the first production run of the dark grey/black, or is it still just a test sample for the color?

To me it sounds like the molds aren't finalized but the color might be. I hope the cases don't end up holding things up at some point (except the weight people use to test the strength of the case ).

Regarding 4G and wifi, for some reason I thought for a moment that they used the same antenna module thingy. I still don't think any of us want a repeat of the Pandora wifi, least of all ED, and it would be nice if the 4G worked great.

On the keymat, I might find it amusing if the black gets removed except on key tops, with just the reflective layer between the keys. I kinda doubt it will go so far as removing all paint from everywhere except key tops, although that is probably fine (I know more backlight LEDs were added, so the layer needed to spread the light isn't as necessary, and then we would just need to accept a bit of light leaking out around the keys, which I expect to happen eventually anyway).

 

[0x14f]

Love it. I wanted to cancel my order because am a little tight with money and I was not really sure how I will use it, but somehow with every post I believe in Pyra more and more.

Reading the the updates is like an adventure in the land of technical and scientific advance with new characters popping up and even evil antagonists here and there who want to ruin everyone's fun (there's even a dragon involved!). It's like an ultimate "scratch build log", but with an abundance of gritty hardcore details from industrial design and material selection to electronics and multi-thousand dollar software for schematics prototyping. So much fun!

P.S.: My dream for this project is to be able to run Octave with charts and graphs to be able to learn math like machine learning and statistics on the go. Does anyone know if it will be even remotely possible?

 

[Kev2442]

Consider the optimization between the three of Time Vs Money Vs Quality. Choose two.

When you ain't as big as your average smartphone mastodon, it's almost as if you could only choose one.
@m@t : put this way, I perfectly understand it looks like so. But they've always been projected manufacturing dates. Hopes have never been certainties.