As promised a few days ago, here is the video where I assemble the Pyra
case and show you some details.
This case has been printed by a different company this time and cracks
VERY easy (unlike the last print), so excuse a few cracks here and
there.
http://youtu.be/16fsuqyct70
Hopefully, YouTube will have it processed soon!
Well, first of all, sorry that I'm really really late posting the news
this time. Yes, really late, as the latest 3D printed cases actually
arrived March 30th... so over a week ago, and I didn't post any
pictures, videos or informations here.
I was caught in the Matrix! ... well, not really, but I had very
little time, as the Retrode2 also arrived back in stock (with tons of
orders to ship) and then there was easter and I was working on my new
online shop (which should go online within the next few weeks).
Additionally, I had to do more live video mixing (my main job), as our
icehockey team reached the finals in the PlayOffs.
So I didn't really find the time to post, but of course things were
still moving forward.
1. The Case
-----------
As mentioned, the latest 3D prints arrived and it's now 99% finished in
my opinion. The edges are rounded which is a lot more comfortable with
your hands, the shoulder buttons are easily reachable and feel fine,
the PCB fits nicely. The only changes I had were related to the LCD
cable (to make it easier to assemble the unit), the area around the
display (to improve it a bit and make it easier to assemble /
disassemble) and we need to check the tolerances for the shoulder
buttons so that all PCBs will work with all cases out of the box.
Apart from that, I'm happy with the case and hope to make you a video
soon :)
2. The Rotator Chip
-------------------
We had a small step backwards 1,5 weeks ago but now catched up and are
a step further. Maybe you remember: We were able to communicate with
the SSD (rotator chip) last year in June / July, but didn't setup the
panel back then. Well, Nikolaus wanted to test the rotator chip in the
final unit last week - but each time he tried to set it up, it stopped
communicating... a hardware issue? He checked all possible causes,
disabled all other devices and power lines on the mainboard that could
cause issues, but the issue still remained.
After some research and testing, we found out that the SSD has a
smaller tolerance regarding the clockspeed than the normal MIPI
standard is - it was written down somewhere in the large datasheet. And
yes - once that was fixed in the software, communications with the SSD
worked! We can successfully read and write registers and it
successfully reports all details about the connected LCD Panel- It also
shows some stuff on the LCD - Nikolaus calls it garbage, I think it
just shows us the Matrix :)
You can see it yourself by following the link at the bottom of the mail.
What does that mean?
Well, we know the hardware works fine, so another important step done.
What's left is to write the driver for the chip, and then our next step
would be finishing the CPU board so we can build and test a final
prototype of the Pyra!
3. Battery and LCD Cable
------------------------
Both the new battery and LCD Cable prototypes have been finished and
are on the way to me. So once the CPU PCB is finished, we can REALLY
assemble a full unit inside a case! That will be a milestone - and then
it's not that far off the mass production!
That's all for today.
I'll try to read the keyboard layout discussion soon and also make a
video with the printed case.
See you soon!
http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17938-its-the-matrix/
Follow me on twitter for short news inbetween:
https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717