Pyra-news April 2016

pyra-news@pyra-handheld.com

1 participants
4 discussions

Preorders will start in about 1,5 hours!
by Michael Mrozek 30 Apr '16

30 Apr '16

We're nearly there: The preorders are about to start in one and a half hours, as this is when it's 00:00am in Germany, which means it's May 1st! We had to do some last-time changes with the downpayment price to be sure we will have enough funds to fund start of the production, even if something bad happens. We kept the promise to keep the normal Pyra at 500 EUR (without VAT), the downpayment for it will be 330 EUR. The 4G version will be at 600 EUR (without VAT), the downpayment for it will be 400 EUR. In case you want to get two or more units of the Pyra, you will get a discount of 5% (which are applied when you do the final payment). As many were asking for a 4GB unit, we added that one as well - for 30 EUR more. However, we do not yet know if that works well, so in case it doesn't, you will get a 2GB unit (and of course won't have to pay the 30 EUR more in the end). The downpayment is the same. As some users have asked to pay more upfront, simply buy additional shop vouchers from here: http://www.dragonbox.de/46-gift-vouchers You can then use these vouchers for the final payment. If you want to further support us (which would be very welcome, as we can need every cent!), simply add as many donations as you want from here: http://www.dragonbox.de/103-donations The following payment methods will work: ---------------------------------------- * Bankwire transfer (cheapest for us) * Credit Card payment * BitCoin payment PayPal payment is not available since they didn't allow crowdfunding. Please note that for security reasons, the credit card needs to be registered in the same country as your IP is registered to. In case you still have issues with the payment, please contact your bank as international payments might be blocked for your card (this depends on your credit card company) Both Bitcoin and Bankwire payment will take a while, but your place in the queue will be decided when you placed your order. The 200 pre-preorderers don't need to hurry, as they already have their place in the spot. You can find all available units and place your preorder here: https://www.dragonbox.de/45-pyra Be sure to carefully read the product description as well as the Preorder FAQ (https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/preorder/) which I will update during the next two hours based on the questions you had. Now... let's get things started. I hope we will get enough preorders pretty soon, but I still wanted to keep everything low in order to give you followers the chance to preorder first! I'll concentrate on a nice video of the Pyra and official press releases soon :) Really, I can't thank you enough for your ongoing support. Everyone here at the "Lange Nacht der Computerspiele" who tried the Pyra prototype was amazed by it - and all Pandora users loved the new nubs. It's great seeing so much interest, especially considering how much time and effort we've already put into it! Thanks... just thanks :D I love you guys :D You can discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/preorders-will-start-in-two-hours.…

1 0

Finalizing everything!
by Michael Mrozek 23 Apr '16

23 Apr '16

Whew, what a busy week! I didn't even find the time to post what happened during the days, so you'll get a huge newspost update here! 1. Finalizing the case ---------------------- During the last two weeks, the last missing parts of the plastic case have arrived: The stylus and stylus holder as well as the nubs and the DPad. The only thing missing now is the metal frame for the logo, but that will have to wait until early May. Just as a reminder (or in case you didn't know): This case is a first physical test with the real plastic molds. It is not intended to be perfect yet (and it isn't), so now the company will start to work on tweaking the small details. For example, the shoulder buttons are too wobbly and don't even reach the button. Why is that? Simple: A mold is a negative of a case (which is logical, as the plastic is being injected in there), so making a peg LONGER (like the one on the shoulder buttons to actually reach the switch on the PCB) is easy. You just need to remove a bit more steel. However, if a peg is too long, it's hard to shorten it in the mold, as it means you need to fill it up with steel. As things like the shoulder buttons need VERY exact measurements, the best way to achieve that is to make the peg to short, measure how much is missing and drill some more steel. And that's what they'll do now. Measure, drill and tweak until everything is fitting perfectly! So how well does the case work? Overall, I'm pretty happy so far. The nub discs work perfectly, and even though the nubs themselves are a bit noisy (you can sometimes hear the springs moving inside), they feel great and moving the mouse is just awesome! Every key of the keyboard is easily reachable, thanks to the rounded corners, the Pyra is comfortable to hold, the DPad works great. I can't wait until all the tweaks have been finished. What's great is that you can easily unscrew and open all parts. You can access the LCD and display board without the need to open the base part and vice versa. It's very repairable and moddable, which is great! You can see a picture of the nubs and DPad on the forum post. 2. Finalizing the LCD Cable --------------------------- The current LCD cable works fine but it is too short and therefore damage to the cable will happen eventually. Now that we got the real case, we could create some more paper dummys and finalize the LCD cable design as well. A picture of the gerber can be found on the forum post as well. As you can see, it's pretty simple compared to Pandoras LCD Cable, as it simply connects two PCBs together whereas the Pandora had a PCB built into the cable. This makes the cable a lot cheaper, of course. 3. Finalizing the keymat ------------------------ While the current keymat works okay, it also can be improved, and I was working on that during the last week. * The keys will become a bit more rounded (this feels a lot better when your fingers are gliding over the keymat). * J and F will get little markers (which improves blind typing a lot) * The ABXY buttons will be lifted up about 2mm (otherwise you easily hit the backspace button while playing games) * The normal keyboard keys will also be lifted by 0,5mm to make them more accessible * We're trying three different material types to determine the best feel for the material We should have the new keymats in a couple of weeks, and we ordered enough so we can create all the needed remaining prototypes from them :) 4. Finalizing the PCB design ---------------------------- Last week, Nikolaus has worked on the whole battery charging circuit and already made a few small improvements to it. We will probably also replace one charger chip, as the current one can only handle one charger port input, but want that you can charge through both MicroUSB ports so you can use the other one while charging. He also built prototypes of the S-ATA adapters, which will need to be tested. The PCBs are working really well now, and most of the remaining work is software stuff. Nikolaus worked on the SSD kernel driver and seems close to have it finished. Once he's done that, I can finally simply use the official PyraOS and start playing games with the framebuffer :D Maybe that'll already work until next week, when I'll be at the "10. Lange Nacht der Computerspiele" in Leipzig (Germany), a free event with tons of playable retro consoles - and I'll be there and have a table with one or two Pyra prototypes. Everyone is welcome to come and play with them! It happens on April 30th, so if you're near Leipzig, you should really visit it (it's a lot of fun!) 5. Finalizing the calculation ----------------------------- We're almost through doing the calculations, and as promised, the 500 EUR price tag for the normal unit can be kept, the 4G unit will be approximately 100 EUR more. I'm also browsing through the part list to see whether there's a useful way of making a cheaper unit (by e.g. removing the keyboard LEDs, etc.) We don't want to make something crippled, just removing parts that not everyone needs to help customers who don't have that much money. 6. They're multiplying! ------------------------ We've also continued to build some more Pyra prototypes now. Two are fully assembled, next week I plan to assemble a few more. These will go to devs (one is already on the way to one) and will hopefully help us increase the software faster. After the devs units, I'll also start to assemble the sold prototypes, but I want to wait until they have the final case and keymat, so they will be more useful. 7. We're listening to you! -------------------------- Quite a few of you have cried for a 4GB version, and we MIGHT be able to provide one. When we started, there only were 512MB versions of the RAM chip available that we're using for the OMAP5. Now there's also a 1GB version available, and if we're using 4 of them, that would add up to 4GB RAM. And for the 2GB version, we would only use two of those chips That would have some advantages: * Two 1GB chips will probably be a few EUR cheaper than four 512MB chips (though this is marginal) * Two chips will probably use less power than four chips, and every mW of power we can save is useful. * Both the 4GB and 2GB CPU board would use the same RAM chips, which means we wouldn't need to buy different types of chips but just populate two or four of them. This is REALLY helpful for the MOQ (Minimum order quantity) and for an easy production run. However, take this info with a grain of salt right now. We first have to check whether the OMAP5 works with only two memory chips instead of four, and we need to make sure maintaining both versions here is not a lot of work. What we also don't know yet is whether we'll offer the 4GB as an optional upgrade or include it with the 4G version. It'll become pretty complex for the production run if we have so many different version. Of course, once we'll know more, I'll let you know. 8. Preorders! ------------- My current plan is to start the preordering May 1st. No final delivery date will be given then (I rather make sure everything is working well than rush things just to get the units to you for a fixed date), but as soon as enough preorders are there, we will order all the parts... so once everything has been finished, the production can start shortly after. We're getting there! :D You can find the pictures and discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/finalizing-everything.77289/

1 0

Bugs and Calculations
by Michael Mrozek 10 Apr '16

10 Apr '16

Time for another update! Slow but steady we're moving along. Let's start with some... 1. Bugs! -------- Luckily, no hardware bugs, but some more software quirks that make the hardware look bad. Remember that we currently are running the Pyra prototypes with a maximum speed of 1GHz because otherwise it freezes? Well, seems like Nikolaus finally found the culprit for the power issues. It's not hardware, it is a buggy driver. To be exact: The driver we used for the battery charging / power distribution chip. Nikolaus used an Android driver he found, but that one doesn't work as it should. For example, VSYS (the system voltage) is always set at 3.2V - which is the absolute minimum to run the system, and therefore will cause instabilities when there's the OMAP5 needs a lot of power. Additionally, even though it claims it charges the battery with 900mA, it only provides 150mA. The chip itself can do that, but the driver doesn't really do as it should. So it's time to study the datasheets and fix the driver. That was basically the last bigger issue we had, and it looks like it' finally fixed soon. 2. Calculations --------------- Askarus and me are currently working on the calculations of the Pyra to find out how high the preorder downpayment has to be and how high we have to set the final price. It's no easy task, balancing out everything. Our money is little, we will need every cent of profit we can get, but setting the price too high will lower the amount of preorders we get. The problem would be fully gone if we can reach 1500 preorders, that would lead into normal production runs without any further preorders needed. If we reach less, then the second batch also needs to be done with preorders - so hopefully, we can sell enough units so that no further preorders are needed. We'll finish the calculations, we're still missing a few parameters (like costs for the case or the packaging) before I can let you know the details. Also, I need to contact PayPal and ask about taking preorders. Once all that's done, the preorders will start. Yes, really :) Let me know if you got any further questions :) You can find the pictures and discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/bugs-and-calculations.77212/

1 0

We're still alive!
by Michael Mrozek 03 Apr '16

03 Apr '16

Well, I hope I didn't shock you on the forums too much on April 1st. Don't worry though, the Pyra is alive and well :) So it's time for some real news... 1. Updated keymat design ------------------------ As I mentioned, the keymat is working fine, but the hard edges of the keys makes gliding over the keyboard with your thumbs a bit uncomfortable. That's why they will be rounded a bit. The design is now finished, it will go into production next week. You can find an updated rendering from me showing how the keys will look on the forums (linked to at the bottom) 2. Calculating the price and some more hardware infos ----------------------------------------------------- We're almost finished calculating the price, so we're also almost ready for the preordering. The good news: We can almost certainly keep the projected price of 500 EUR for the normal unit. We're still working on the price for the 4G unit, mostly because we need to discuss with the module manufacturer. Usually, the minimum order quantity for one module is 1000. However, as we need both US and EU modules, we need to work out a deal with them... we don't have a use of 1000 each at the beginning. I'm sure we can get lower quantities as well, but that will raise the price - so we can't determine the final price (yet). Onto the hardware infos, or, to be exact, the eMMC: 4GB eMMC cost between 3 - 4 EUR, 8GB eMMC also cost between 3 - 4 EUR (so it's a no-brainer to NOT use 4GB). The 16GB one is between 6 - 7 EUR. I just checked my working PC: My ArchLinux needs 15GB. That's with ALL programs installed I can imagine, KDE5 (Plasma), FireFox, Chromium, Vivaldi, FreeCad, Inkscape, Gimp, Krita, Scribus, LibreOffice, Claws-Mail, and so on. So honestly, for something like the Pyra, where the eMMC is mostly being used for the OS and the preferred storage are SD Cards, 8GB would be enough - but I think 16GB would be nice. This should be more than enough for a normal OS with the most important programs installed. After all, we're not using Windows, where the base OS without any applications needs a lot more already... What do you think? 3. The Case ----------- I've received the next case part, which is the back lid. So now I've got an almost fully assembled Pyra with real case parts! Not yet finished is the mold with small parts: DPad, Stylus, Nubs, Stylus Holder, Logo. Everything else is finished and assembled, here is a quick picture I posted on Twitter two days ago, which you can also find at the forum post. One thing you will probably notice is that the LEDs are not properly aligned behind the logo. Don't worry about that, the Display PCB will be vastly changed as well: Right now it weighs 20g (which is a lot). The final version will have quite a few holes cut in, which will lower the weight quite a lot, and the LEDs position will also be fixed then. I'll make more hires pictures of the assembled prototype within the next few days. 4. The OS / Drivers ------------------- Nikolaus had a crashed harddisk, so he couldn't do much last week, sadly, he needs to reinstall his computer. I did work on the OS a bit more, the keyboard layout is now fully working. BTW: Using the right nub click as left mouse button and the left nub click as right mouse buttons works nice and is pretty comfortable! I am now looking for devs who can help us finishing everything right now. The LCD / SSD driver combination exists as shell script only right now: http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=blob_plain;f=Letux/root/ssd2… This script needs to be changed into a kernel module. Anyone here who would like to do that? Send me a PM! And maybe you could help with that too, but this is very specific: The OMAP5 is not using PRMC (which are power saving functions) as good as it could - so there's a lot of potential to save battery. Is anyone here experienced with that or wants to take a look at that? Send me a PM as well :) 5. Website ---------- As mentioned, I plan to overhaul the landing page a lot. Christoph.krn has already contacted me with quite a nice list of hidden features, which is a great start. I'm looking for a HTML coder who could code a small page based on our input (layout, text, pictures). Nothing too fancy, just some standard HTML, but it should be responsive (which is what I can not do myself). I've also updated the blender file (which was used to render the pictures above), which will be used for that landing page to create various nice pictures. I'll clean it up a bit and will release it as well, so any 3D artists here can play around with it a bit. We need to let new users know what the Pyra can do and what's special about it! You can also help working on the Wiki: (https://www.pyra-handheld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) The login is the same as on the forums, so if you got an account, you can login and work on it right away! That's it for today. More news soon, some pictures tomorrow. You can find the pictures and discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/were-still-alive.77184/

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Pyra-news April 2016