Finally, I found a few hours for a news update!
Sorry (once again) for the delay. I haven't had a free day for the last
two weeks... and it won't happen until after GamesCom as well.
You might've also noticed I wasn't visiting the boards or IRC a lot -
I'm not hiding, I'm just overwhelmed with things to do.
I even tried to do a newspost multiple times last week but literally
fell asleep on top of the keyboard.
Anyways, you all deserve an update!
I'll also try to answer some questions I've seen here at the boards,
but if I missed some or you have some more, let me know at the thread
on the boards and I'll try to answer them ASAP.
Okay, let's get started with some annoying news...
The cases
---------
You probably guessed it: I didn't receive any final cases yet. If I
did, I would've posted pics right away, you could be sure of that.
That would've been awesome!
According to FormAction, the material from the company in France hasn't
arrived. Which sounds a bit like an excuse - they could've at least
received enough for samples in that case.
Sadly, there's not much i can do right now (as August is the hottest
month in Greece and no one is working there right now), but at least
I'm planning the next steps with my contact.
We're currently evaluating to move the molds to a different production
company. It's just round the corner, so the molds could be transported
there within a day or two.
The company is Uniqueplast (http://uniqueplast.com/en/), and we've
worked with them already (they're producing my SNES, N64, MegaDrive and
NES shells).
They would've been the first choice of my contact as well, but they're
more production based, they don't really do designs (except for simple
ones, but the Pyra is anything but simple!)
Productionwise, they're a lot more advanced though, they've got 14
modern mold-injection machines (which means they could produce all
cases easily within one day!).
Whenever I ordered 1000 of the above mentioned shells, I received them
within 1 - 2 weeks.
So, we've already given them a Pyra case and are waiting for a
quotation. If nothing really happens at FormAction within the first 1 -
2 weeks in September, then it's very probable we move.
This is REALLY annoying (why is it always the case? It was the same
issue with the Pandora... and here we thought moving to a European
company would make things easier...)
I'll keep you informed, but nothing will happen here until September.
So let's continue with better news, shall we?
The PCBs
--------
I know it always seems nothing is happening here - mainly because
there's nothing here that can be shown or seen.
But the prototypes we had had still a few issues and quirks left
(nothing major though, thank god).
And all known majoe issues except for three have already been
eliminated.
And one of those is not really an issue but needs some measurement with
professional tools.
Those three are:
1. 4GB RAM units freezing
2. Really bad Wifi reception (which is what needs the measurements)
3. Whirring noises when you connect something to USB or switch off the
screen
Let's start with 1.:
Nikolaus tried a few things, but he can mostly do hardware design
checks and these seem to be fine.
So it's time for an expert to step in - and luckily, there's someone
who really knows everything OMAP: Tony Lindgren (the maintainer of the
OMAP kernel).
He mentioned he already helped out with memory issues with other
projects (and they even had a faulty memory chip design on one project
- let's hope that's not our issue) and he just received a prototype
last week.
Besides the memory issue, he'll also work on some other patches (like
the OMAP5 hanging when we're doing a warm reboot).
So let's all hope that issue will be solved as well!
Once the 4GB works... we can already produce the CPU boards (they're
waiting to be populated at GC!)
And Nr. 2.:
It's not an issue, but we're lacking the tools to professionally
measure the trace from the Wifi chip to the antenna.
HF is a very complex and delicate issue - if it's not 100% correct, you
lose reception quite a lot.
Luckily, Nikolaus knows an expert in that area who also has the tools
needed available.
He didn't have the time until now, but will have a timeslot ready end
of August.
Nikolaus prepared a special PCB for the measurements. Once they've been
done, another PCB will be made with the suggested changes and to
confirm them.
Production time for those is only about a week, as these are simple
PCBs with only the stuff needed for testing the reception onto them.
Nr. 3:
This is a bit tricky. Whenever you connect something to the USB Host
port, you can hear the Pyra make sirring noises.
Everything works fine, but this is a bit annoying.
This often can be a coil, but we've replaced the one responsible for
the USB port with different ones (all with the same value though), but
that didn't help.
It's pretty hard locating the part that sirrs... once we managed to do
that, a fix would probably be easy. But locating is isn't.
If there's any hardware expert here (or if you know one) who has some
additional ideas how to locate the part: Please let me know :)
When that has been done... well, I guess there's nothing left to do
here, so we can produce the mainboards as well!
Let's move to...
The Prototypes - who received them and why?
-------------------------------------------
I've seen that question somewhere on the boards, here's an answer for
you.
First of, unlike planned, I have NOT contacted any of the Protoype
orderers yet. Sorry for that.
There are two reasons for that: I first wanted to make sure that enough
prototypes are there for devs and second: I simply didn't have the time
to write the needed informations for the preorderers.
I hope to find some time for that during GamesCom. But right now, only
mainboards with bad wifi reception are available - so that's something
you'd need to cope with.
But, as promised when you ordered, I will send you a fixed mainboard
once they're available in case you still want one of those prototypes.
Now on to the devs.
The following members have a prototype:
* aTc: Working on the OS. He packages everything together and provides
us the Debian packages as well as the rootfs. He also adds some fixes
himself.
* notaz: He doesn't have as much time as with the Pandora, but he still
tries to help out with some low-level fixes as well.
* zmatt: You probably know him best for getting the rotation on the
Pyra to work without the rotator chip. He knows quite a bit about the
OMAP and has also discovered most of the hardware issues with ideas how
to fix them.
* ptitSeb: Who doesn't know him here? :) He's working on various ports
for the Pyra.
* sebt3: Also a well-known member here. He is working on things like a
proper touchscreen calibrator, the volume wheel daemon and similar
helpers.
* Tony Lindgren: Introduced above, an expert with OMAP-things.
Currently working on analyzing the 4GB RAM issue, but he's also helping
fixing other small quirks we still have with our setup.
* Askarus: He's working on a proper default setup for the desktop
environment suited for Pyras screen as well as on scripts that are
being binded to keyboard shortcuts (to increase or decrease brightness,
etc.)
* SneHebNor: He has only been lent a prototype for a short period of
time, as he was visiting the DebConf in Montreal. So yes, we had a Pyra
prototype over at the DebConf (Debian Conference) this year :)
Quite a nice setup of developers here :)
That state will the OS be when we deliver it?
---------------------------------------------
I've seen this or a similar question at the boards somewhere.
Well, the answer is simple: Whatever state it will be in!
That's similar to how it worked with the Pandora.
We won't wait for some OS state when the hardware is finished and can
be delivered.
Sure, it might not be polished, but since we're using an almost vanilla
Debian, you'll have all the software you need.
Optimizing and improving the OS will still happen when we delivered the
units - the same as it was with the Pandora.
Open and close... open and close... open... and...
--------------------------------------------------
While the LCD cables are finished and waiting for production, I haven't
placed the order yet.
Why? Well, production time is 15 days whereas the mainboards will take
5 weeks.
So we're not that much in a hurry to order the LCD cables right away.
Instead, I'm using the additional time to stress the LCD Cable.
That means: Whenever I'm at home, watching a movie with my wife or
similar, I'm opening... and closing... and opening... the lid. Over and
over again.
Right now, I've opened and closed it about 8000 - 10000 times and it
still is working fine.
I will continue doing this - until the time has come to order the
cables!
GamesCom 2017
-------------
In about 1,5 weeks, GamesCom will start in Germany!
Of course we'll be there with a Pyra - and ptitSeb will be there as
well (I think from Thursday on).
So if you're there, come over to hall 10.2 to our booth, play around
with the nigh-finished Pyra, have some coffee, chat with me.
And as mentioned: If you have any additional questions, feel free to
ask them at the thread here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/open-and-close-and-open.81191/
#post-1420206
--
Greetings,
Michael Mrozek
-----------------------
OpenPandora GmbH
CEO: Michael Mrozek
Schäffbräustr. 11
85049 Ingolstadt
Germany
Tel.: +49 841 990 5548
http://www.openpandora.de/
HRB 4879, Amtsgericht Ingolstadt
-----------------------
eMail: mrozek(a)openpandora.org
