Yay, some news again :)
And I guess it's mostly good news this time.
Let's just jump straight in!
The hardware
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After all the drama we had with the 4GB RAM issue, it seems that this
has now found a working solution.
Disabling DLL (delay-locked-loop) made the units run perfectly stable
and I could start to work on the tests.
Which means we finally will be able to give feedback about potential
production issues to Global Components.
While we're still figuring out what exactly the issue is (we've got a
few ideas), it seems this "fix" works without any drawbacks. DLL is
basically needed for high frequencies and longer traces (for example,
DDR modules in a normal PC), as it synchronizes the timings of the RAM
chips. But it could very well be we don't need it, as our RAM chips sit
close to the CPU. And after all, we didn't have any more freezes
disabling it - and that's what would happen if the timings are not
properly synced. So yes, that should be it!
I've done a few Wifi tests and am pretty happy with the final revision
of the motherboard.
My Wifi Router is in the room above me, so the signal has to pass a
floor. And with both 5GHz a 2.4GHz Wifi, I get download speeds of about
4.5 - 4.9MB/s. My laptop manages to get 5.3MB/s for the same download.
So that's pretty good! Pings to google take around 30ms, which is also
neat for a mobile device.
So Wifi seems to be fine!
The list of things we need to thoroughly test gets smaller every day.
Now... onto the biggest annoyance right now...
The case
--------
While I receive the latest news on the status of the cases and
production from FormAction tomorrow (and lets hope it's not just
another set of excuses here), I've visited the Fukuma exhibition in
Germany, one of the biggest plastic production fairs out there.
I've met up with Ilias and Dimitri (the two junior bosses of the new
company) and we checked for new materials and ideas for plastic
production.
There are some interesting things out there!
3M has some silicon glass bubbles which you can add to the material. It
makes the material more scratch resistant and also around 25% lighter.
We have no idea yet whether this can be used for the Pyra or not, but
it would be interesting.
Also, we've checked out various coatings, as that's basically the only
way to make it an AWESOME looking color (like some smooth matte glossy
red). It's probably too expensive, but we're checking it out anyways
and will get some quotations. It would be a nice addition or we could
even make special edition cases for a higher price.
But even without coating, there are quite a few ways to make it
properly scratch resistant and nice-looking (just not AWESOME looking).
We'll receive some samples to we can test out various new materials and
evaluate them.
Another thing is way more important for me though:
These guys want to help me.
They're both gamers, Ilias is especially annoyed if shoulder buttons
are bad, so he wants to make them as good as possible.
Also, they want to improve the design and already have a lot of ideas
for that.
Of course, creating completely new moulds is not possible in a short
time (exept maybe for the shoulder buttons, as these are small parts),
and as you all know we want to start delivery asap.
But as the case is not glued or anything, It can easily be replaced by
anybody, especially if it's just the backside with the shoulder buttons
and battery (that one can easily be replaced without having to touch
the PCB).
So our current plan is this:
As soon as the moulds are at the new company, we'll check what needs to
be fixed with the cases to make them perfectly usable (mostly the
shoulder buttons, probably).
Depending on the amount of work and time needed, the shoulder buttons
will be FULLY remade (only the small parts, not the big mould), as that
might be possible within a very short timeframe. Or the current ones
will be fixed so they will work.
After the first case production run, we'll start on improving things.
Like the shoulder buttons (if that hasn't happened yet), making the
backside of the case thinner (using a sliding battery door) etc.
These cases will be available to everyone who already has a Pyra for
production cost price, so you can easily upgrade your unit if you like.
That's the current plan, and I'll let you know as soon as I have more
news!
Want to leave feedback, comment or see the pictures? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/its-the-speed-that-counts.83415/
--
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
