Pyra-news June 2016

pyra-news@pyra-handheld.com

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News from all fronts!
by Michael Mrozek 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

Here I am, sitting in my plane for Greece, listening to some Arcade soundtracks and writing up a newspost. It's way overdue, I wanted to write one last week, but well... let's just say I'm all up for a 30-hour day :) I still will try to keep it short :) Anyways, let's skip any long introduction and start right away. 1. The Case ----------- As you can imagine, the reason I'm heading for Greece is to discuss the final tweaks of the case. I've prepared a nice printed documentation (over 10 pages!) with all issues that still remain. Don't worry, most of them are just tiny issues, like decreasing or increasing the size of some holes. Or adding some peg to fix the MicroUSB port so it can't break off the PCB (how many smartphones have died because of this...?) We should have finished cases for the GamesCom in August! Monday, we'll work together on the physical aspects, on Tuesday we're discussing about colors (also for the aluminium metal frame). 2. The status of the PCBs ------------------------- Nikolaus is currently finishing the design files and BOM for the (hopefully!) final board revision. The one for the CPU board is already finished, the Display Board is almost finished and the Mainboard will come next. We have also put the new 4GB RAM chips on one of our existing CPU PCBs. Once the new timings have been implemented into the bootloader, we can test these as well. There have been many many small changes since the last revision. Nikolaus has almost finished all 30 topics he had on his to-do list in January. Those were trivial things (like testing the sensors, etc.), optimization things (like improving the position of the LEDs for the keyboard backlight) and bug fixes (like only one of the two Space contact pads working). Two a bit annoying things remain: The speakers are overdriven (could be a simple fix like adding a capacitor) and some boards frezee when running at 1,5GHz with 200% CPU Power for more than 10 minutes. We've pinpointed that down pretty much already: It's most probably a bad soldering of the OMAP5, probably small micro-breaks that happen when they get too hot. Such micro-breaks cannnot be found when X-Raying and they usually happen when the whole production process is not fully optimized yet. So very unlikely to be a hardware design issue, but more tests will be done later. We'll also make a second batch of prototypes, these will then also be the one that will be delivered to the prototype orders and most developers. These should be bugfree in Hardware. That one is planned to happen in August. 3. Part ordering! ----------------- As we're approaching the end, we started ordering parts with long leadtimes (like the OMAP5 or Palmas). This is to speed up the production. Once we have all the parts in stock, we can start the production anytime after the prototypes have been confirmed to be fully working. So yep, we're still hoping to deliver all preordered units within this year. 4. The new keymats ------------------ The improved keymats will arrive within July, so you can test them yourself at the GamesCom this year! 5. The new touchscreens ----------------------- We'll receive three more different touchscreens (matte and clear) in order to improve the touchscreen quality. Samples are expected before the GamesCom as well. The clear ones will also have anti-glare filters applied, so they shouldn't act as a mirror. We still hope to be able to use a matted one though. 6. Some software news --------------------- With the final hardware coming closer, it seems more and more developers show interest in the Pyra! Some interesting developments have happened: One devs working for ImgTech (the manufacturer of the 3D driver) has started to help us to get the 3D driver to work. This is no official support from ImgTech, and of course he can't use or leak any internal sourcecode and details, but as he knows the driver, he should be a huge help! So maybe we have working 3D at the GamesCom as well - fingers crossed. Then another dev popped up who has worked with the TILER (the internal 2D rotator of the OMAP) and was wondering why we need the rotator chip and don't use TILER. He hasn't used TILER on the OMAP5 yet, but on various other TI processors. He ran a direct benchmark (without using Linux), and he thinks it should be possible to use TILER to rotate the image globally and transparent to Linux. He did a quick check and has the impression that the Linux driver for TILER has some issues and bugs - and instead of fixing them, workarounds have been coded, that cause the huge slowdowns we were encountering. This does mean: We MIGHT be able to rotate the screen using the internal OMAP5 hardware. No one knows if that's true or possible, but it would make things a lot more easy: We wouldn't have to code some VSync into the SSD driver as the LCD timings would be enough, etc. He will receive an OMAP5 EVM (devboard) on Monday and tries to work on it whenever he finds the time. This would be awesome, and of course I'll let you know as soon as we have more details about it! So, we're moving ahead, slow but steady. 7. The GamesCom 2016 -------------------- As usual, we'll have a booth at the GamesCom 2016 in Cologne. Everyone here is very welcome to visit us, have a chat (or coffee) with me and of course try out the Pyra. Hopefully, we'll find the time to make a daily video from there. Hope to meet you! You can discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/news-from-all-fronts.77594/

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A few Colors and Packages (with a poll!)
by Michael Mrozek 14 Jun '16

14 Jun '16

I don't know the exact reason, but I only received two colors (out of 6 we wanted samples of) this week, but maybe the others didn't make it in time. It's quite time consuming to clean the molds after usage in order to make a new color, so it's very likely they didn't make it in time for the courier. No big deal, as I'll visit Greece again soon for the final case tweaks, so I can take the remaining color cases with me then (if I don't receive them until then). Okay, before looking at the pictures and the video, here are some VERY important informations: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The cases are almost done, but not 100%. So some areas still have some gaps. Don't mind them, they will be gone in the end. * Especially the front looks bad (with the bent case and a huge gap): This is because the protoype PCB of the CPU board is colliding with the Wifi chip (an edge needs to be cut out there), so that additional height pushes the whole case open. This will NOT happen with the finalized PCBs :) * You can see shrinking marks and discolorations on the cases. This is because the mold is not yet hardened and the machine has not been adjusted. Want to know more details? Read the snippet. Otherwise: Just be assured that the cases will NOT look that ugly when they're finished :) --------- SNIP ----------------- So you want to know more about finalizing the mold? Okay :) Once everything is physically 100% correct, the steel will be hardened. That means: It cannot be changed anymore afterwards but it also will not wear out during production (the hard plastic affects the steel as well). It will be a lot more robust. Because the molds are not yet hardened, you can see some discolorations. They're not fully cleaned yet and the plastic doesn't flow into the mold as good as it should. Also, the temperature is not optimum to not affect the mold too much. This leads to small density issues and therefore also has discoloration. This will not happen for mass production. Now about the shrinking marks: Shrinking marks are areas where parts of the plastic sinks in (most often when there's a peg on the other side), because the weight of the peg pulls the still warm plastic down a bit. Thinner areas of plastic cool down faster - and so the area with the peg needs longer to cool down and therefore can sink in. There are various ways to fix that: Leaving the plastic piece in the mold for a longer time, until everything is 100% cooled down (this increases the prodution time and therefore the price) Change initial temperature of the plastic as this affects the mold flow Adjust cool-down termperatures in certain areas (the mold does not have to be evenly cooled down, you can set up the machine to cool certain areas stronger than others) So there are quite a few parameters in the machine that can be used to adjust and optimize the production process. As you can imagine, this takes quite a bit of time, so it won't be done before the mold is 100% finalized. --------- SNAP -------------------- At the boards you can find a few pictures of the cases I received. One is gun-metal grey which doesn't look too bad, but for my opinion, it would look better if it's darker. The second one is a violet one. That's not a color I actually wanted to use, but it was the color one of the Pyra Prototype orderers wanted to get :) It will truly be a very unique device :) Now some more information about fingerprints and the scratch resistant case. The best way to describe that is a video. Here you go: https://youtu.be/fQW3fE2tHtw The packaging ------------- As mass production is coming closer, it's also time to think about the packaging for the device! The packaging should be nice but as environment-friendly as possible. That's why I'm looking into boxes which are fully made of paper (without foam or plastic) and I also want to get them FSC certified. We started creating two different packagings so far: One smaller one where the battery is kept below the Pyra One bigger one where the battery and the Pyra are on the same level Here is a small video introducing both of them: https://youtu.be/A6nGxRcIHfU Now it's your turn: Which packaging do you like better? Vote at the thread at the boards! I hope you liked the news today. I'll keep you updated as usual. You can discuss, vote and view the images here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/a-few-colors-and-packages-with-a-p…

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Colorful week
by Michael Mrozek 05 Jun '16

05 Jun '16

The week ahead will hopefully be a colorful one. Why? Find out in todays newspost :) Let's start with... 1. The RAM ---------- Upgrading to 4GB or RAM was not as simple as we had hoped to, but we're now ready to test it. What was the problem? Well, the main problem was the rare use. The same manufacturer offering the 512MB RAM chips we use (four of them make 2GB) also offers 1GB versions, which should basically work out of the box on our current CPU board. However, as they are not requested that often, the price for them quadruples - so 4 times the price for double the RAM. It would be possible, but not my favourite solution. A second solution would be to use Samsung RAM chips. They have a neat 4GB solutions using dual-channel 2GB chips. Those require additional wiring to the SoC, so we thought at first we'd need a new CPU board for those... but then Nikolaus found out that he actually DID that wiring just in case (he just forgot about it, as that was over a year ago). That means: We've requested samples of chips for both solutions and will put them on a current CPU board as a test. We will also check for idle power usage, as there might be quite some differences as well. So yep, 4GB will happen, but I hope this little information shows to you that it's not just a simple plug and play replacement as it is on a PC. 2. The keymat ------------- The keymat company has done some accurate testings to make sure the keymat will work as good as possible. There is special test equipment for stuff like that available, you can see a sample picture at the boards. They also have a Pandora keymat as comparison, so we can make sure the DPad works as good :) Test results have shown that the pressure point of the Pandora keymat actually was as good as it could get, based on the physical limitations (button size, etc.) Still, some improvements can be made with the Pyra keymat like lowering the distance from the carbon pad to the PCB to get a smaller travel distance as well as using a softer material so it needs less force. We decided to lower the carbon pad / PCB distance by 0,1mm. The moulds are already being adjusted, we can expect the (hopefully :)) final samples in a few weeks. The samples will come in different material stiffness so we can choose the best one. 3. The Touchscreen ------------------ As you know, I wasn't too happy with the touchscreen, as it added some grainy colors (especially in bright areas). Funny enough, not everyone even saw these (so it depends on how sensitive you react to them), but it's still something I wanted to work on. I'm now 100% positive that the grainyness is a result of a matted touchscreen combined with a display with high ppi. The GPD XD has a matted protective film included in the package, and if you put that onto the GPD XDs display, you can also see these grainy colors (although less visible with our current touchscreens). So I can see two different solutions: 1. Use a matted touchscreen with grain that's fine enough to be usable with high ppi 2. Use a non-matted touchscreen with various other anti-glare effects applied so that it doesn't turn out to be a mirror. Two companies are now working on this. The company that provided the touchscreen for the Pandora and another partner of BOE directly. 4. The cases ------------ Now it's time for the colorful news: According to my contact in Greece, 20 prototype sets of the cases should have shipped last Friday, so they should arrive sometime within this week. These should hopefully have all tweaks included (so almost if not already final versions) and they should come in the various colors I've chosen in January. As mentioned: We'll use black (or something dark) as main color, but I'll also make pictures and let you all decide on a possible second color! The metal plate for the logo is also finished, so let's see how this will all look like combined together. You can discuss about that here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/colorful-week.77519/

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Pyra-news June 2016