Pyra-news October 2016

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Rock solid battery and MicroUSB-Port
by Michael Mrozek 28 Oct '16

28 Oct '16

Following up the last blogpost where I posted that the battery contacts needed to be realigned, we now received the test PCB with properly placed battery connectors. 1. The optimized battery connection ----------------------------------- The position of the battery connection has been optimized and on first look, it seems to fit a lot better. Of course, how it looks like is not important, important is that it is being tested! So here is Nikolaus test setup: The test PCB in inside the case, including the battery. And the battery connectors are directly attached to a real working Pyra PCB. Nikolaus can then test the contacts by checking what the charger chip reports and whether the battery loses contact. And guess what: It's rock solid! Charging, discharging is now working properly, no wrong readings anymore! Nikolaus tried wiggling around the battery as much as he could, but the contact never failed or lost contact. That's how it's supposed to be! But on the same test PCB is something else... and that's... 2. The new hole-through MicroUSB-OTG port ----------------------------------------- While sourcing parts for the Pyra a long time ago, we only found a surface-mount MicroUSB-OTG port. However, sometime during development, a new hole-through-port has been released - which we just bought and tested on the test PCB. The port works exactly the same as the old one - however, thanks to the hole-through pins, it's rock solid and you will not be able to break the Micro USB port! Before you break the port, it's more likely that the cable or even the PCB breaks... Anyone who ever owned an N900 will surely appreciate that. With these two final tests we made, the mainboard can now be finalized and go into production for the prototype run as well! Now ALL PCBs are finished - and if everything turns out fine, no more revisions or changes are neeeded. 3. The LCD-Cable testing PCB ---------------------------- As reported a while ago, the LCD Cable had some improper connections because I thought the ears were too close to the port? Well, it turned out that was okay - the cables actually work. The reason the prototype boards here had connection issues with the LCD cable was something different: Back in July or August (can't remember the exact date), we received samples of LCD Cables where the stiffener was a bit too thick. Because of that, it was really hard inserting the cables into the mainboard - but not impossible. And for GamesCom, these were the only cables we had - so we used them to assemble all the units. After GamesCom, we received the update cables with proper stiffener - but those didn't work properly, so my first idea were the ears. But it wasn't! Actually, an original 3M cable (not custom made) we were using with the EVMs also stopped working. And the one in my unit also stopped working after I unplugged and replugged it a few times. So... the too-thick stiffener killed the LCD Cable connector! This is good - because it means we most probably don't need to change the LCD Cable design - which means they would be ready for mass production now! The connectors on the mainboards will be reworked (no big deal). However, we want to be sure everything is fine, so we designed this little LCD-CableTesting-PCB: On the PCB, there will be both types of connectors (the one that's on the displayboard and the one that's on the mainboard) and each connection has a test point. With that, we can simply plug in the LCD Cable, and test each connection with a multimeter so we can be sure both the cable and connectors work fine and don't lose contact easily. Of course, I'll let you know the results of the LCD Cable test. But if it works fine (as we suspect), we could easily get all the needed LCD cables for the mass production during December. That's it for today! Moving along with those small tweaks, but I'm happy they work out so well. Want to discuss about that and see some pictures? Check the thread at the boards here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/rock-solid-battery-and-microusb-po…

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Comprehensive Status update
by Michael Mrozek 19 Oct '16

19 Oct '16

Everyone was asking for the current status of things - so here's a newspost that hopefully covers everything (unless I've forgotten something - in this case, just ask me!) 1. The status of the PCBs ------------------------- The bare CPU boards for the next 30 prototypes are already in production and should arrive any day now at Global Components. The parts for those are already there. They have all fixes included we manually applied to the first prototype series as well as two that couldn't be changed on the old board: The fix that should enable the 1,5GHz mode for the SoC (current ones crash when running higher than 1GHz) and a small physical change as the current ones collide with the Wifi module. About half of the CPU PCBs will be populated with the 4GB memory RAM so we can send those to developers so they can enable them in the kernel and they'll hopefully work without any issues. There's not any reason why the memory shouldn't work, so I'm positive about that. Once the CPU boards have been thoroughly tested, we can order the needed CPU boards for the mass production run! We can even do that while developers are working on the 4GB RAM, as the layout is exactly the same. As the current CPU boards work well already, this could happen pretty fast - but of course, we won't rush it (we don't need 2000 non-working CPU boards :)) The bare CPU boards are the ones that take the longest time to produce, so these are the main priority to order. Let's move on to the display boards: The layout for those has been finished a while ago, and as the rotator chip isn't used anymore, they are very simple two-layer-boards. Not many tests are needed, and the production of the bare boards could easily be done in 2 - 3 weeks. And finally, the Mainboards: As posted in the news yesterday, we needed to move the battery connector. A new special testing PCB, which has only the battery connector at the new position and some measurement points, which allow to check that the battery has proper contact and no shortcircuits anymore is already in production. It'll take 7 - 10 days. Once that has been confirmed, we can order the PCBs for the next prototype run. These should take approximately 2 - 3 weeks, so they'll arrive later than the prototype CPU boards. That's not a big problem though, as we can already fully test the CPU boards with the mainboards we already have, so no time is lost there. Once the mainboards have been tested, we can order them for the mass production as well. They're not as complicated as the CPU boards, so the production only takes half of the time - but we still would need to be very very lucky to get them produced in time for christmas (we'll try our best, but time flies, damn!) And especially as production ALWAYS takes longer before christmas (as ALL companies want to produce their stuff for christmas), it doesn't make things easier. So all in all, except for production and testing, there's nothing that needs to be done to the boards anymore! 2. The status of the case ------------------------- That brings us to the next important part of the Pyra: The case. According to FormAction, all changes I discussed with them last time have been applied, so the case should be finished. They received a final physical dummy PCB from us last week which they use to test and confirm everything is now working as it should. Once they've done that, they will produce the next series of cases for the prototypes and ship them to me. If I'm content with everything, then mass production can be planned as well for those. Mass production can basically be done immediately after the molds are finished, so we could in theory still tweak them until middle November and still get the mass produced cases in December. What might still need some tweaks is the DPad - as I'm very, VERY picky with that :) 3. The status of the keymat --------------------------- The keymat is currently receiving the changes I discussed with the company end of September. There was a chinese holiday early October, so that slowed things down a bit. I don't have a date yet for the next set of keymats, but I'll let you know as soon as I get it. I'm almost 100% sure these will be the last samples we need. Once I receive and confirm them to be fine, production will take about 4 weeks as well. So that would also be in time for December. 4. The status of the LCD Cable ------------------------------ As posted yesterday, the LCD Cable needs a small change (the ears are positioned wrong), but that change can be done within a day. Producing new samples will take 3 weeks, mass production as well. The current samples can be manually fixed, so we can use them to build the prototypes. 5. The status of the LCDs and touchscreens ------------------------------------------ The LCDs are already produced and waiting for us in the factory, and as we finally found touchscreens that are very accurate, sensitive enough to also work with a bare finger and don't degrade the picture quality, we can order those as well. The delivery date for them will be middle of November, the LCDs with the touchscreens applied can be delivered early December. We will receive 30 samples upfront which can be used for the prototypes :) 6. What else is there on the todo list? --------------------------------------- There are still a couple of things that we need to do, but they shouldn't take too long. a) Source and order heat dissipating material: I've already found a few companies who are offering such material, just didn't have the time to contact them yet. The production shouldn't take long though, as we simply need pre-cut rectangles from a self-adhesive heat-dissipating material which will be put into the case. The thickness can be up to 0,5mm, most of the materials are 0,3 - 0,4mm thick. What I also want to find out is what kind of material would be best for our use case - but hopefully, an experienced company can help us out here. b) Produce the sealing for the speakers That's a bit more work, but nothing that should take too long as well. The sealing will be produced with a very simple mold and rubber material. I didn't find the time yet to take exact measurements and deliver that detail to FormAction, but they already have the material for the mold. The mold can be CNC'ed within a day (as it's just 0,5mm thick without any specials), so we should have that ready mid-November as well. c) Calibrate the Wifi antenna The Wifi antenna needs to be calibrated using a proper resistor value. So basically, what needs to be done is to have a standard setup (Wifi router at a certain distance) and change the resistor value until you have the best possible reception. It's nothing too complicated, just takes a bit of time - and Nikolaus can do that once he finished the mainboard layout and while we're waiting for the prototype PCBs to arrive. d) CE-Testing Can't be done before we have the prototypes finished. Usually takes one day. e) Produce the box and packaging and manual We already decided for the box (remember the samples I showed to you months ago), so we only need some box design and then produce it. Production takes 3 weeks, so I plan to have that finished early November. the boxart should be VERY simple, nothing fancy. Nice, clean and beautiful :) f) Work on the software That's where a LOT of work still needs to be done. But similar to the Pandora, the device will mature best after is has been delivered to everyone! I still remember how simple the first version of Pandoras OS was and how much it has been improved overtime... it was fun. I hope we'll have as much fun with the Pyra as well! :) 7. Quick summary and overview ----------------------------- So, here is a quick summary: CPU-Boards and display boards: Done, waiting for the bare PCBs (30 for a test, then enough for mass production when these have been approved) Mainboards: Waiting for a dummy PCB to test the position of the battery connection, then 30 prototype PCBs will be ordered and after approval, enough for mass production will be produced. Cases: Finished, currently being checked by the manufacturer with the latest mainboard dummy we sent them. More sets will be produced for the prototypes, and after approval, enough for mass production will be produced. Keymats: Awaiting a delivery date for new samples with the final design changes. Will be mass produced after they have been approved. LCDs: Final touchscreens have been ordered, will arrive middle November and then be applied to the LCDs (already finished). Packaging / Manual: Needs to be designed and produced. Samples for the packaging already exist and are fine. Speaker sealing / Wifi calibration / Heat dissipating material: Will be worked on during the next few weeks 8. Some personal words ---------------------- Wow, what trip! Honestly, when work had started on the Pyra, I never, ever thought it would take so long and we'd run into so many issues again! Seriously! While I was part of the Pandora team, I wasn't involved very deeply into the whole design / production process (until I moved the production to Germany). I was mainly the one speaking to the community (with as many details as I was allowed to), but this time, I didn't only do that but was responsible for all the decisions and handling all the various companies and involved persons... as well as the funding. This surely wasn't easy, it was a lot more complex than I feared. It was exhausting, and partly discouraging (especially when the first prototypes we produced didn't really work at all!) I am more than happy now that things FINALLY seem to come together, and I want to give out my respect to EVERYONE who was involved with the design process of the Pyra - and with the Pandora! It was an achievement, a HUGE achievement! Probably much bigger than most would ever think. But having experienced the design and production of such a complex device with all the issues myself, I can only show respect. A huge thanks to Nikolaus, Fatih, my contacts in Greece and Austria, Global Components, everyone involved with the software development for the Pyra (OS, Kernel, anything), all investors, the prototype-preorders and of course: You. Even though it took much longer than planned, I only had a couple of refund requests - and most of them were people who had some misfortune in life and urgently needed the money. I am REALLY grateful for your support and your patience, I am happy you've been with me here during the development, kept us going and the spirit alive. I hope I'll be able to give that all back to you by delivering the Pyra as soon as possible. And as it looks like: We're almost there. Well, that's it for todays post. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope I haven't forgotten anything - and of course: if you have any questions, feel free to ask :) Want to discuss about that? Check the thread at the boards here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/comprehensive-status-update.78390/

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Two tales to tell
by Michael Mrozek 18 Oct '16

18 Oct '16

Phewww, sorry for the long time without any updates. I catched the flu last week and while I could continue to work, I was a bit dizzy - so not in the best condition to post an update :) Many of you have asked "so, with the last known issue fixed, what's left now before we get our Pyras?" You shall get an answer in the next post (tomorrow or the day after). But first, let me tell about two more small issues we found last week, which we already fixed (most probably :)) 1. The tale of the battery that was overheating without getting hot ------------------------------------------------------------------- No, the tale doesn't have anything to do with a korean company ;) As you know, we fixed the power stability issues last week, so we hoped that now battery charging, etc. should work properly as well... Umm, well, nope sadly, it didn't. But the reason for that was very, very simple. While testing the battery circuit, Nikolaus saw that the charger chip reports the battery is overheating... even if it's still cold. There's something wrong, that shouldn't be the case. It didn't take long to find what's wrong: If Ground and the middle Test pin of the battery have a connection, the charger chip thinks it's overheating. Well, I made some pictures where you can see that the battery pads aren't sitting in the middle of the case but the connectors are! (You can find them - as usual - at the boards!) Aaah, yes. Pretty clear this can lead to a short circuit. But good news: Unlike in the Pandora, the battery in the Pyra sits rock-steady in the case and doesn't move around. I was only able to move it around by 0,1 - 0,2mm. And the battery connector on the PCB will also always be in the exact same position. Aaaand we got about 1,8mm tolerance (so the battery can move 0,9mm to each side without losing contact or causing shortcircuits). So there's only one thing wrong here: The position of the battery connector. We measured the exact position and ordered a testing PCB already which should arrive within short time. That should be the final tweak needed for the battery. And as we're still waiting for some parts and the cases for the prototypes, we don't even lose any time with that. But more importantly: No more contact issues as we have them on the Pandora. Yay :) 2. The tale of the prototypes that resisted to boot --------------------------------------------------- With the power supply issue fixed, I wanted to build some more prototypes to ship them to some of our kernel developers. However, I couldn't get them to work properly, whatever combination of CPU Board, Mainboard and Display-Board I tried. BUT they worked find without a display board attached to... eh? Still some power issues? But my prototype runs rock steady now, off a normal USB AC Adaptor without any battery. That's something I had to investigate... First thing I tried was plugging all the CPU boards into my working prototype. If they would all boot up fine, it would show that the CPU boards are intact. And indeed, they booted up fine. So the CPU boards were okay. Hm. But I couldn't imagine that ALL other mainboards and display boards were broken... so what could it be? The LCD cable...? And yes, it seemed like it: I tried reseating the LCD Cable and even tried different ones. The interesting part: The reasons the unit didn't boot up were different, but consistent each time I reseated the cable. That means: As long as I didn't touch the cable, the reason was always the same one. And reseating it changed the issue. Sometimes it didn't find the display, sometimes not even the LEDs on the mainboard could be found - and sometimes, it worked! The mainboard LED one was interesting: The LEDs are on the same i2c bus as the LEDs in the display. But if they don't work, it's something more serious - like a shortcircuit in the cable somewhere. And THAT was the clue: The cable and connector we're using have two pin rows: One at the edge of the cable and one a bit further up. But what happens, when the cable is not fully inserted? Right, the lower row makes a shortcircuit, connecting both rows together. Hm, but why should that happen now, we've tested the cables and they worked without any issues... well, except that so far we only used the FIRST version of our cables - and for the prototypes, I used the SECOND version of them! And yes, it seems we accidentally moved the EARS a bit (those two things at the side of the flex cable that make it easier to insert the cable into the connector). And due to that accidental movement, the cable only goes in by 2,2mm into the connector before it's blocked by the ears - and according to the spec sheet of the connector, it needs to be inserted 2,5mm! Geez! That's the reason it caused various issues and sometimes even worked when I pushed it in real hard. The fix is easy: For the prototypes, cut the ears and the cables work. For the final units, move the ears further up again. So yay, also fixed, and also not any time lost as we found that all out while waiting for other parts :) Wondering what's left, what will happen next and what the status of everything else is? You need to be a bit patient. I'll do a comprehensive update post soon. Hopefully tomorrow, but that depends on when I can find the time to do that. Want to discuss about that and see the pictures? Check the thread at the boards here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/two-tales-to-tell.78381/

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Last known issue fixed
by Michael Mrozek 01 Oct '16

01 Oct '16

Last known issue fixed! As mentioned before, I met with Nikolaus for a day in order to find one of the most annoying issues we had with the prototypes: Power supply. And as usual, the fix is just adding two lines of code... 1. The problem with the power supply ------------------------------------ Here is a summary of the issues we had: * Charging was unreliable when the unit was running. Sometimes it was charging slowly, sometimes it just didn't charge at all. * Running without a battery was even more unreliable. With a 5V 2A USB AC Adaptor, it crashed most of the times during the boot, sometimes it booted but froze shortly afterwards... * The most reliable way to run it was using an AC Adaptor together with a battery. * Without a screen attached, it booted up reliable all the time. * With some AC Adaptors (i.e. Nikolaus' one) it also was a lot more reliable. So clearly, it sounded like we really had some issues with the internal power circuit. But what could it be? Is the connector between the CPU board and the mainboard a problem? Does one of the traces have a too high resistance and causes the power to break down? There are many, many different possibilities with such a complex system. It could be the charger chip, the battery monitor, the PALMAS (power supply chip of the OMAP5), the traces itself, a software configuration issue, etc. It puzzled us for quite a long time now and was the main reason we didn't send out more prototype units to software developers yet. And now, we fixed it. What was wrong and how did we find it out? Read on for the details or jump to the end of the paragraph to read on. ------------------------------------------------------------- Well, the main idea actually came when some developers using the EVM (OMAP5 evaluation board) reported some instability with some kernel versions. However, others (like aTc, TrashyMGs and my own one) was still running reliable. So what was the difference? The difference was that everyone who had stability issues used a 5V power source while everyone else used a 12V power source. Then TrashyMG made a few tests with a bench power supply, finding out that it runs stable with 6V, but the lower you go, the more unreliable it runs. Well, the power supply of the Pyra is totally different, so it COULD have something to do with it, but most probably not. And yes, in fact, it's not the same issue, but very similar. However, this gave me the idea to create an USB adaptor for my bench power supply and connect the Pyra from it. The power supply can easily provide 5V with 6A, so more than enough for the Pyra. The results for the tests were interesting: * While running, the Ampere the Pyra pulled was somehow limited to 1.3A. * With 5.5V (and without a battery), the Pyra was booting up reliable! So VERY similar to the EVM. Okay, 5.5V with 1.3A clearly provides more power than 5V with 1.3A. But why does the charger chip limit the current? We already changed the parameter so that it allowed to pull 2A out of the USB port. With these results, I met with Nikolaus. After a few hours, Nikolaus had a very good idea: A USB cable (especially cheap ones) have a resistance. Often 0.5 - 1 Ohm, which means that with each Ampere used, the voltage drops by 0.5 - 1V. And indeed, measuring the voltage at the end of the USB cable showed that it only had 4.4V going into the Pyra - whereas the AC adaptor provided a stable 5V. Hmm... which gave us another idea... one look at the datasheet of the charger chip confirmed our idea: There is a MINIMUM voltage allowed - and that's set to 4.36V per default. Well... that explains why the Pyra didn't draw more than 1.3A. If it did, the voltage would've dropped lower - below the minimum voltage setting. So here is what happened: * The AC Adaptor provided 5V with maximum 2A. * Because of the inner resistance of the USB cable, the voltage dropped to 4.4V when drawing 1.3A. * Booting always needs a lot of power (as it initializes all the hardware). As the charger chip didn't get enough power from the AC adaptor (because of the minimum voltage setting), it tried to get the remaining needed power from the battery - which wasn't there. This of course lead to a lot of instability and freezes. And the fix? Well, according to the datasheet, the charger chip minimum voltage setting can be lowered to 3.7V. That would mean that it would be able to draw more power from the AC Adaptor. Changing that setting are two lines in U-Boot... and Nikolaus added those and sent me the new U-Boot. ------------------------------------------------------------- Well, the result: I was able to run my Pyra without battery from a stock 5V USB AC Adaptor without any instability. I tried to max it out: Running a high-load script while running apt-get upgrade while playing around with GIMP. All LEDs and the LCD brightness was also set to maximum and it was one of the units where the SSD was still included and which has wrong resistors for the LEDs, meaning the power usage of those also is 10 times as high as it should. I let it run for 1 1/2 hours without any issues. So yes, that last remaining known issue is now fixed as well! And it was a very troublesome issue, as it could've been anything. I'm really relieved it turned out to be a simple change in the configuration in the end... 2. Why the numbers of preorders suddenly went down -------------------------------------------------- I didn't really want to say much about that, but as some were asking whether we suddenly got so many cancellations... nope, that's not it :) Here's what's happened: As you know, we offer various payment methods, for example a bank transfer. Unlike credit card payment, a bank transfer needs to be done manually by the customer, it's not automatic. All I did was delete all the orders of customers who preordered but never actually did the payment (from May 1st until August 1st). And those were about 20 orders. So no cancellations, just preorders that never have been paid. 3. What's left? --------------- Well, it seems we fixed all the hardware issues we found. The bare CPU boards are expected to arrive around October 20th, we'll produce 30 more prototypes then, these will be enough for more devs and the Prototype orders. The case is currently getting the remaining tweaks, the keymat as well... well, that's it. We're getting closer :D And I'll keep you informed - as usual! Want to discuss about that? Check the thread at the boards here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/last-known-issue-fixed.78253/

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Pyra-news October 2016