Pyra-news October 2014

pyra-news@pyra-handheld.com

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Schematics and packages
by Michael Mrozek 27 Oct '14

27 Oct '14

Just in case you wondered why you haven't heard many updates from Nikolaus lately: He was busy. Busy creating the schematics... that's a LOT of work. But now he's almost finished with it! About 98% are done. The only thing left is the power circuit for the OMAP5 (about 50 condensators) and some other small things. So in theory, the Pyra is almost finished... the next step is layouting the full schematics. This will be quite a bit of work - but after that, we're ready for a real Pyra prototype PCB! While working on the schematics, he was also working on the latest kernel (3.18 RC1) and almost the full hardware of the OMAP5 EVM works now as well. Quite a bit of progress, I'd say :) In the meantime, aTc, Vagrant and me have been working setting up the package build system for the OS on my server. We now got a neat script that grabs our own packages from the GIT, builds Debian packages from it and sorts it into the repo. The next step will be building our own rootfs with a preinstalled package list on our server. aTc has already done that - but I need to do that on my own server as well. Shouldn't be too hard now, though, as he already figured everything out. That will be quite a bit of progress as well - as then we can start to shape the default PyraOS setup. Now, I wish to say hello to all our newcomers who arrived here after my talk at the Hackover2014 in Hannover on Saturday. It was fun, and I was happy to see so many interested people there. I hope you enjoy your stay here, join our community and have fun as well :) Discuss about that post on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17232-schematics-and-packages/ Follow me on twitter for short news inbetween: https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717 -- Greetings, Michael Mrozek ----------------------- OpenPandora GmbH Geschäftsführer: Michael Mrozek Schäffbräustr. 11 85049 Ingolstadt Deutschland Tel.: 0841 / 13 177 33 http://www.openpandora.de/ HRB 4879, Amtsgericht Ingolstadt ----------------------- eMail: mrozek(a)openpandora.org

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First round of audio tests done
by Michael Mrozek 16 Oct '14

16 Oct '14

I just finished the first audio tests today, comparing the audio output of a semi-professional USB Interface (FocusRite Scarlett), a Pandora and the TWL6040 on the PandaBoard (which is the same we plan to use for the Pyra). The test I wanted to do today was testing the audio output of the DAC, not the quality of the amplifier (which will be tested with a different test). I'vee created an Audio file (48kHz, Uncompressed, 32bit, Mono) has been played back with a PC (FocusRite), a Pandora and a PandaBoard (also uses the TWL6040). Each device was then being recorded (with another FocusRite Scarlett) and analyzed with Adobe Soundbooth (just a quick analysis). The result was quite surprising: I expected the TWL6040 to be the worst one, but actually, the TWL6040 DAC seems to be a bit better than Pandoras one - except when it comes to noise: Then the Pandora wins of all devices. I guess the bad audio quality with these days devices is the amplifier, not the DAC. But that will be tested as well. Well, and it seems DACs have become better within the last few years. You can download the full report with graphics from here: http://evildragon.openpandora.org/AudioTest.pdf And here (http://evildragon.openpandora.org/AudioTest.zip) is a set including the following: 1. Original WAV-File (that was played back) 2. Each recording from every device (compare the playback quality yourself) 3. Three small WAVs where the audio device is switched while audio is playing (see AudioTest-Report for more information). Questions? Requests? Discuss about that post on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17161-first-round-of-audio-tests-done/ Follow me on twitter for short news inbetween: https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717 -- Greetings, Michael Mrozek ----------------------- OpenPandora GmbH Geschäftsführer: Michael Mrozek Schäffbräustr. 11 85049 Ingolstadt Deutschland Tel.: 0841 / 13 177 33 http://www.openpandora.de/ HRB 4879, Amtsgericht Ingolstadt ----------------------- eMail: mrozek(a)openpandora.org

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An interesting setup involving a Pandora
by Michael Mrozek 13 Oct '14

13 Oct '14

Well, this is not really a "progress" report, but I think it is a fine example how useful a small computer like the Pandora or Pyra can be. Nikolaus is too busy with finishing the hardware design, so he doesn't have time to try to get the Solomon (SSD) Rotator chip to work. notaz offered help out a bit when he finds the time - but doesn't have the hardware. So we created this little setup (you can view the picture at the webboards post, see below) In the back you can see the OMAP5 EVM, which has the BOE LCD connected to the Display PCB (incl. the SSD Chip). You can see the LCD in the middle of the picture. In the front you can see a Pandora with a small webcam mounted. The Pandora is connected via USB2Serial cable to the debug port of the EVM. It's possible to hard-reset the EVM there as well as get the direct serial output (which is useful for debugging). The Webcam is setup to show the BOE display on the Pandora. Both the EVM and the Pandora are connected to the internet as well. notaz can login to either one via SSH and poke around. Additionally, the Pandora acts as a VNC server, so he can also connect to Pandoras desktop and see the webcam live video stream. Here's a summary: He can connect to both the EVM and Pandora, see the serial debug of the EVM and reboot it and poke around with the display. With the webcam he can see whether the display shows something on the screen or not. Well, and all that with pretty low power usage :) Once again, it shows how flexible something like the Pandora is - and the Pyra will be even more flexible. But please don't expect results within a few days. notaz doesn't have much time, and we probably also need to send more questions to Solomon to get it to work. Things like these won't happen over night, but hopefully, we can show a working display with rotator soon! I've attached the picture as MPO file as well - that's a 3D picture. If you got a 3D-Viewer, you can see the setup in full 3D :) Discuss about that post on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17143-an-interesting-setup-involving-a-… Follow me on twitter for short but faster news: https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717 -- Greetings, Michael Mrozek ----------------------- OpenPandora GmbH Geschäftsführer: Michael Mrozek Schäffbräustr. 11 85049 Ingolstadt Deutschland Tel.: 0841 / 13 177 33 http://www.openpandora.de/ HRB 4879, Amtsgericht Ingolstadt ----------------------- eMail: mrozek(a)openpandora.org

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It's the end of the nubs as we know them
by Michael Mrozek 10 Oct '14

10 Oct '14

Today is the start of multiple blog posts again - that worked fine last time, so I'll continue doing this. Let's start with the Nubs today. You probably read it via Twitter already: The nubs we wanted to use for the Pyra have reached their EOL (End of Life) - they will not be produced anymore. Orders until end of the year will still be produced and fulfilled, but that's it. Just as a quick reminder: The nub we've chosen consists of two parts: The mechanical cage (which is basically a magnet you move around with springs for autocentering) and a hall sensor (on the other side of the PCB) which reads out the movements and converts them to coordinates. Not the full system will be EOL - only the mechanical part. The hall sensor is still available. There will be a (smaller) replacement, but that one will have 1mm less travel distance (so only 1mm instead of 2mm), which is probably too little for gaming. So, what will happen now? Will that cause a major issue? Probably not. Basically, our choices are... 1.: Keep the hall sensor and try to create our own slider mechanism with a magnet. 2.: Order more than enough nubs needed until the end of the year and find a company which can produce compatible replacement nubs (maybe even the same one that produced the current ones for AMS) 3.: Switch to different nubs 4.: Use the replacement ones with less travel distance Well, what's our decision? We didn't decide yet - but here are some thoughts I'm currently having: Solution 1 would be nice to have - but it would need to be reliable, not wear out easily. Sure, we only need to take care of the mechanical part, no electronics involved, but I'm still not too fond of that. Solution 2 is basically Solution 1 with a bit of safety. And instead of designing our own one, it would be a clone of what we currently have. Could be a solution, but I'm not sure... well, if we can get the original manufacturer to produce the nubs for us on demand, then it would work. Solution 3 is currently my favorized solution. We still got multiple nub samples for testing (the ones that Fatih sourced for us last year). My favorite one is the one that the 3ds uses. That's the one we're testing now. The travel distance is even a bit more, but it doesn't have a stick click. We KNOW it's reliable and well-tested though. It's approximately the same size, so no huge redesign needed. What I never liked with the 3ds nubs was the disc: My finger often slips off. But the nub is WITHOUT the disc - so we'll still use our own one :) Sounds like a pretty good solution. Solution 4 doesn't really sound like a good idea to me. Nothing is set in stone yet, but as you probably found out, I think Solution 3 seems to be the best one for us. Well, unless we can get the manufacturer of the current ones to produce them for us on demand - but that needs to be checked. In any case, it's important to test new ones to be ready to switch. I'll let you know what'll happen. Discuss about that post on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17133-its-the-end-of-the-nubs-as-we-kno… Follow me on twitter for short but faster news: https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717 -- Greetings, Michael Mrozek ----------------------- OpenPandora GmbH Geschäftsführer: Michael Mrozek Schäffbräustr. 11 85049 Ingolstadt Deutschland Tel.: 0841 / 13 177 33 http://www.openpandora.de/ HRB 4879, Amtsgericht Ingolstadt ----------------------- eMail: mrozek(a)openpandora.org

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Pyra-news October 2014