Just some quick newspost, as it's late and I'm dead tired already...
But I hope you'll like it :)
Cooling, part 1
---------------
I'm still waiting for some small copper heatsinks that have been
shipped to me.
These will be placed below the USB Port and the heat from the CPU will
be moved there with a special heat-distribution material (self-adhesive
tape).
However, I finally had the time to measure out and finish the first
part of the cooling:
A 0.4mm thick aluminium plate which will go between the CPU-Board and
the case and battery.
This will be self-adhesive as well and will be glued to the case
backside, so you can open the unit and still access everything without
any problem.
Check out the thread at the boards to find out how that aluminium plate
looks!
I will test how well the cooling works once I have part 2 finished as
well.
In normal operation, the Pyra still is cooler than my GPD Win, so we
should be fine.
The Sealing
-----------
The design for the sealing (which will be done with an adhesive tape)
is now also finished.
You can find a picture of the sealing on the boards as well.
I haven't tested it yet, as the speakers aren't properly setup in our
OS version right now (Pulseaudio configuration) - and therefore,
playing sound right now drives the vibra motor :D
This is cool.... but not really useful ;)
I'll let you know once I can test it :D
The keymat
----------
Everything is good here :)
DPad now also works fine.
There's a small tolerance issue where some of the produced DPads are
too close to the PCB and aren't as nice to use.
That's already fixed (only 0.2mm needed to be cut from the mould) and
we don't really need another sample here.
So: Keymat is now also ready for mass production!
The case
--------
Will these be produced before August or not?
Well, I don't know myself yet.
They should be, the slot is planned, but I haven't heard exactly when
(as I certainly need to inspect them before mass production!)
Of course, I'll keep you informed! Most important thing for me right
now is getting final, properly looking cases with shoulder buttons,
even if it's just a few samples.
Because if everything is fine, we can do the production run right after
the holiday. We won't have the PCBs before that anyways!
Deadline for hardware bugs
--------------------------
Quite a few devs have units already, and except for the few bugs zmatt
found months ago (and which have been fixed), nothing new has been
found yet.
So it's time to move to the next step: Setting a deadline for finding
remaining bugs - and if none are found, start the PCB production.
So far, the units themselves are working, so any remaining hidden bugs
shouldn't be anything major. And at some time, we need to make a
closure.
I'll set that for the start of the GamesCom middle of August.
This should also give Nikolaus enough time to thoroughly test the 4GB
RAM.
So much for today. Quite a few things have now been finished and are
final as well.
We're moving slowly, but still towards the mass production, so that
you'll all receive units soon :)
Discuss about it and view the pictures?
Check out the thread here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/keep-cool.81021/
--
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
As there were recent news about the PGS and the SmachZ, I thought it's
time to finally tell you that I've scammed you all as well :D
Naaah, just kidding.
There are two reasons it took so long from the last one to this
newspost:
1. Like you, we were mostly playing the waiting game: Waiting for parts
I ordered (to test cooling solutions) or waiting for new samples (like
the keymat).
2. I've been busy with a lot small tasks and setups that I didn't find
the time to summarize everything up and post it.
Well, now's the time to do it :)
Regarding the keymat:
---------------------
The new samples have arrived in Austria two days ago and are already on
the way to me, together with the new DPads.
This will probably the final one!
And yes, it's all white (as you can see on the picture if you check it
out at the boards!)
Why? Here's the answer:
You probably remember that we need multiple colors for the keymat:
White, orange and black.
The lowest layer was the white one (to diffuse the backlight), then we
had black on top and the orange only on the keys.
These two paint layers made the keymat thick and very stiff.
So it was modified to only have one full layer of paint (the black one)
and the white and orange one just on the keys.
That made the keymat work perfect (it's the one that's currently making
the rounds in the community) - but with the white layer missing, the
backlight wasn't as nice as before (some keys received more light than
others).
The simple solution was to put the white paint onto the full keymat and
black and orange only on the keys where needed.
Easy change, huge improvement.
I'll let you know about the DPad as soon as I receive the keymat for
testing :)
All the small things I did...
-----------------------------
I'll try to remember all the small things I did...
First some good news:
I didn't plan to include an AC Adaptor, but I found a good one with
2,5A and world-wide plugs for a good price. So you will most probably
receive an AC Adaptor with your Pyra!
Shoulder buttons
----------------
Then I was working on the shoulder buttons. You know, they mostly
worked on the latest case revision, but still not as good as I want
them (which mostly has to do with tolerance issues).
I wanted to make sure they get it right this time, so I grabbed the 3D
data files to explain exactly how needs to be taken care of.
It's simple and logical, but it still took some time to measure all of
this and write it down.
I think nothing can go wrong with these instructions now.
Sealing
-------
Next, I was working on the sealing. The idea with the silicon pads was
good in theory - but not working that well in reality.
It looks the only way to properly seal the speakers is with some pre-
cut adhesive tape which seals everything except the contacts.
Even though it looks simple, it also took a while to measure everything
properly, to make sure it sits perfect.
I will hand-cut this within the next few days to test it!
Next up: Cooling solutions!
---------------------------
Well, some good news first: ptitSeb has played around with his
prototype a bit.
The unit doesn't have ANY cooling solution installed.
Doing processor-intensive stuff (like compiling) does heat up the unit
quite a bit. That was to be expected, since it doesn't even throttle
yet (unlike all smartphones or other devices with modern processors).
It mostly heats up between the nubs though, the DPad and button area
stays cool.
And while doing normal stuff or playing games, the unit normally stays
cool (unless the game needs 100% CPU...)
Still, we want to throttle as little as possible, ideally never (which
is unlikely though).
So, a simple solution to cool things down a bit would be ideal, so I
started sourcing existing parts.
I've planned two things:
1. Move the heat away from the CPU to some heatsink.
2. Spread the heat and shield it from the battery.
Regarding 1.:
We've got 19x12x5mm space below the USB Port. There are existing
12x13x5mm heatsinks (for DDR RAMs) available. I also found a 12x18x5mm
heatsink for power transistors, which would work as well.
I also found self-adhesive material stripes. These can go directly
between the CPU and mainboard and move the heat away onto the heatsink
(which is not far away).
A larger pad like these (also with copper material) can be used between
the CPU board and the battery.
We will also add a few venting holes below the USB port. No worries,
the mold doesn't need to be changed for that - an inlay for the mold
will be created for that.
I even found a small fan that fits there. While I'm not really planning
right now adding one there, the case will be prepared for that in case
future CPU boards might need one - or in case someone wants to mod a
fan into his unit :)
For normal operation, the heatsink solution should work fine.
I've got all parts except for the heatsink yet. As soon as that one
arrives, I'll assemble one unit with all these changes and see how well
it works.
As these are ALL existing parts and nothing custom made, we can get
them without any problems within a few days :)
And finally: Software development
---------------------------------
Since a few devs have now units, it was time to organize the software
development and set up a proper platform for that.
Therefore, I've installed GitLab on our dev site:
https://dev.pyra-handheld.com/
You'll find the gits for all our custom debian packages there as well
as the kernel, the source code to the repo and more stuff.
It also has an issue-tracker built-in, so once the Pyra has been
released, you can use it to post any issues you find or post feature
requests.
You can also join projects and provide patches as well.
Everyone is welcome to help - check #dragonbox-dev and #dragonbox-pyra
on Freenode IRC if you're a dev and want to help!
Not all tasks require a unit.
Kernel-Hackers welcome!
-----------------------
While help with the OS is important, it's also important that drivers
are being written for all the hardware.
For example, the battery monitor chip needs to be programmed so that it
knows everything about our battery, the ABE drivers would need to be
ported from an older kernel the the current one and so on.
Anyone here who has experience with that? Please do contact me if you
have experience and do have time!
So, that's for todays post.
I probably have forgotten half of what I did - but simply ask questions
in case something is unclear or you want to know something else.
Check the webboards to ask any questions:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/its-all-white.80935
--
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
My normal daytime job is still giving me a lot of work... I had to edit 3 commercials and one cooking show last week, so combined with the daily shippings in my shop, I didn't have much time for anything else.
Of course, that doesn't mean nothing has happened, as there are other people working on the Pyra :)
1. The mainboards
-----------------
The bare prototype mainboards (which most likely won't be different from the production run mainboards) will arrive at Global Components December 12th and will be populated shortly after (like the CPU boards, 30 in number).
As soon as we have the cases and the keymats for those, we can assemble them for devs, Pyra preorderers and the remaining ones will be auctioned so anyone can get them (yes, the vouchers for the Pyra can be used to get one of those if you like).
These will clearly be marked being prototypes, so they might be of some value to you :)
Speaking of keymats and cases...
2. The keymats
--------------
I received some inbetween sample of the keymat, but it was a bit rushed (as they wanted to finish it as fast as possible) and in my opinion, it was way too stiff.
I told them to hurry but not rush. It's more important to get perfectly working samples one or two weeks later instead of imperfect ones as fast as possible.
The good thing is, once they're working perfectly, mass production of them won't take long and can be done within a few weeks.
I'll keep you posted. This won't prevent me from building a new prototype though, as the look of the keymat won't change, only the stiffness and feel of it.
3. The cases
------------
According to UPS tracking, a sample of the new case including the sealing for the speakers has been shipped November 28th and will arrive tomorrow until the evening.
Let's hope everything will be fine now - but we won't find that out until tomorrow or Tuesday (depending whether UPS will keep their time :))
Of course you can expect some highres pictures of those - but don't expect them to LOOK perfect, as the moulds won't be hardened before everything is 100% okay physically (and therefore you will probably see a few discolorations in there).
Once the new mainboards are finished, I can finally built a prototype that works perfectly fine using a battery, as these will have the battery connectors in the proper position (running it with battery was a bit of hit and miss before).
Exciting times :)
Feel free to ask any questions here at this thread!
Check the thread at the boards here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/prototype-mainboards-coming-soon.7…
This week (or more precisely: yesterday!) Global Components made a surprise attack!
They did the production run of the 30 prototype CPU boards - without telling us upfront.
1. Prototype CPU boards finished
--------------------------------
The first thing I heard about them was from Nikolaus in the evening... when he told me he just grabbed 6 produced CPU boards, fully X-Rayed and looking fine.
What a surprise!
He made a quick boot-up test of a CPU board and it worked fine.
The remaining ones are currently being checked thoroughly by GC (X-Rayed, etc.) and Nikolaus will check the one he received next week.
The most important thing is to find out whether the system still freezes with 1,5GHz or not - as that was the only change on the CPU boards we couldn't test upfront.
The second important thing is to test the 4GB CPU boards (I'm going to send one to zmatt as he wanted to work on that).
If both works... well, then the CPU boards are ready for mass production!
2. The remaining boards
-----------------------
Nikolaus finished the work on the Mainboard early last week as well and we have now submitted the final design files as well as the BOM (Part List) to GC.
These should hopefully be the final revision as well as all known fixes have been included.
The production of the bare PCB will take a few weeks, but not as long as with the CPU boards, as they are A LOT simpler boards (the CPU board is 12-layer... the display board 2 layer and the mainboard 6-layer).
Once I receive more details, I'll let you know.
Well, this is kind of a milestone for the project.
With all known hardware errors squashed, it should be ready for the mass production!
3. The LCD Cable
----------------
The LCD Cable tester we created were really helpful, as it helped me a lot analysing why I had issues with the LCD Cables for the prototypes.
One important thing first: As it looks like, the latest revision of the cables works fine, so no more prototype needed!
Now the explanation what I did and why I had issues:
As mentioned, the company accidentally produced cables that were a bit too thick but those were the only ones we had ready for the GamesCom, so we used them.
They were hard to fit into the prototype units, but they worked.
Then, a few weeks ago, I wanted to build more units for developers and planned to use the newly produced LCD cables (which had proper thickness).
However, I couldn't get any unit to work properly with those... so we first had the suspicion that the ears were too close to the edge which could cause short circuits or that the too thick cables caused damage to the LCD cable connector, which would mean that we'd have to replace them on our existing prototype PCBs.
With the small tester PCB we created, I could do more tests and check how well the cables work with the connectors.
Good news: The latest revision cables fit perfectly. No shortcircuits, no broken contacts, everything working fine.
But what happens to the connectors when we use one of the thicker cables?
Tried that.
The thicker cables work fine as well, they just are hard to fit into the connectors (well, for the first 2 - 3 times... after that, they're an easy fit).
Then I used one of the new cables which has been proven to be working fine: And yes, some connections are broken!
Seems like the thicker cables bend or damage the pins inside the connector so they don't have proper contact with the normal cable anymore!
That's a VERY good reason I had issues building the prototypes!
Last test: Putting one of the thick cables into the broken connectors.
Result: Working fine!
So yes, the pins are just BENT, not broken. Which means: Once we cramped the too thick cable in there, it will only work with the thick cable in the future.
Tried that. Build a prototype with one of the older, too thick cables: Worked like a charm on first try!
So the conclusion is:
The cables are working fine, no change needed. And for the old prototype boards we will build using the thicker cables.
4. Case and keymat
------------------
I decided to let the keymat company produce the DPad as well and apply it directly to the keymat (similar to the one on the Pandora, just more reliable and we don't have to do it ourselves).
This is simply because it doesn't really add more costs and I've made a lot of tests - but without glueing the DPad, it just doesn't feel as good.
I'm waiting to receive samples of both of them.
5. The wandering prototype
--------------------------
I am thinking of maybe use one prototype to send it to interested preorders for a couple of days and then they'll send it to the next one on the list.
While the software surely won't be fully working, everyone can at least try the keyboard and overall design.
I'm not sure I'll do it, but it seems like an interesting idea.
The only thing the interested user has to pay are the shipping costs to the next one on the list.
It would ship without a battery though, as shipping items with batteries included isn't cheap.
What do you think?
6. Server move
--------------
You have probably found out that the current server has some networking issues right now.
Sometimes I've got up to 80% of package loss... so it feels unresponsive.
Don't worry about that though, I am currently moving to a new server anyways!
This'll take some time as moving all the files will take quite a while, but I'm already doing that.
There will be a few downtimes here and there until the move is done, but after that, the server should be faster than before.
The details of the new server:
Intel® Xeon® E3-1275 v5 Quad-Core Skylake incl. Hyper-Threading Technology
RAM64 GB DDR4 ECC (twice as much as on the old one)
Hard Drive: 2 x 4 TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 rpm Class Enterprise
Guaranteed Bandwidth: 1 Gbit/s (200MBit/s on the old one)
Those were the news of the week. If you got questions, feel free to ask :)
Check the thread at the boards here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/surprise-attack.78515/
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…
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/
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/
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/
Who'd have thought it would be THAT complicated?
Well, but finally, we've got a fully working touchscreen that does not degrade the image quality!
It is the very same that has been used on the late Pandoras.
It's very accurate, doesn't jitter, doesn't degrade the image quality. Well, if you bought a Pandora within the last 6 months, you know how good it works.
I'll try to do some video with it this week, but I'm still so much stuffed with work I'm not sure I'll find the time to setup the video equipment.
But I'm more than happy to finally have one that works!
So much for the short news of this weekend... one issue less on the list, one step closer to mass production :)
Want to discuss about that? Check the thread at the boards here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/finally-a-touchscreen.78210/
I'm currently sitting in the train, on my way back from Vienna to Ingolstadt.
It's a five hour trip, so I got the time to summarize everything that happened.
Quick meeting up with torpor and the MetaLab team
-------------------------------------------------
I arrived in Vienna yesterday at 9:20pm - so still plenty of time to meet up with long-time community member torpor and pay a visit to the local MetaLab (with a Pyra in my bag, of course).
It was a fun meetup and everyone was impressed by the Pyra hardware (case, keymat, PCBs), as they know how hard hacking something together like this is.
There were quite a few questions which I happily answered and I arrived back at the hotel at 1am and went to bed at about 3am.
You can see some pictures torpor took here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/travelling-to-vienna.78146/page-2#…
The keymat-meeting
------------------
10am, it was time for the meetup with the company taking care of the keymat.
And it REALLY was good that I paid them a visit.
It's a lot easier discussing issues and finding fixes when meeting up in real life, having samples with you and can test things.
So there was quite some weirdness going on, but I think we now found out why it's not yes as good as I hoped it should.
Here's a quick summary of what happened during the development of the keymat:
* Pandoras keymat has a travel distance of 1mm. I wanted to improve that a bit, so we changed that to 0,7mm for the new keymat.
* I also wanted to make it softer, so you need less force to press the keys.
* Then the first samples of the keymats were made (the one with the flat keys). It felt good for a first try, but the travel distance still was too high in my opinion. The flat buttons were uncomfortable (because of the sharp corners) and the buttons were too recessed in the case, so we moved them up a bit. And the keymat also felt a bit too stiff in my opinion.
* So we made the following changes: Round the keys, increase the height, decrease the travel distance by 0,1mm to 0,6mm. And try different softnesses of materials.
* The new keymats arrived. The height and feel of the key caps was now perfect - but even the keymat which was made using a lot more soft material than before felt more stiff. And the tactile feedback got a lot worse.
So... um... yeah. I was confused. What exactly went wrong and how can we fix that?
A mixture of the old and new keymat would probably be best... and as I was confused, I decided to visit the company here and discuss it with them.
Which was a fantastic idea!
After a few tries, everyone was certain something is wrong here - something in the production of the samples went wrong. (The keymats are still being produced in China, btw. There are no companies doing something like that in Europe).
But what exactly went wrong? That's what we needed to find out!
We couldn't do exact measurements as the designers didn't have the machines for that yet (but they will get the machines soon, they're already ordered).
But they had a sample keymat by the manufacturer which has multiple travel distances and softnesses to test out.
0,8mm travel distance with 80gr force needed just feels PERFECT for the normal keyboard, whereas 1mm travel distance seems to be great for the action buttons and DPad.
Hmm... but the first sample was supposed to have 0,7mm travel distance, so why did this feel like it was too far?
Comparing the sample keymat with the Pyra keymat (just by pressing it with your fingers!) made something clear:
It seems something went wrong with the production of the FIRST keymat.
The travel distance CLEARLY was more than 0,7mm (more felt like 1 - 1,2mm). So something went wrong there!
However, as I based the changes for the second keymat on the sample I got (lowering the travel distance as it still felt too far), we changed the travel distance from 0,7mm to 0,6mm.
Well... the second keymat seems to have been produced properly: So the travel distance now was 0,6mm - which is WAY to little. Which is while the tactile feedback felt worse.
Argh!
This is another story of things that happen during a production which you don't expect!
Welcome to real life :)
Ah, and before you worry: No, the chinese company is not incompetent, they design company in Vienna has produced keymats with them for the last 5 years without any issues, but sometimes something simply goes wrong.
(they're all humans, after all).
However, it's not hard to fix that. Just something to remember for future projects :)
The fix will not cost anything, as it was a manufacturers issue.
The company in Vienna is paying the manufacturer a visit next week anyways, so they're taking the keymat samples with them, do proper measurements (the chinese company has the machines to do exact measurements) and will discuss the fixes and changes.
As the stiffness and travel distance is the only thing that needs to be changed, it could very well be we've got final, fully nicely working keymats in about 4 - 6 weeks :D
The touchscreen
---------------
I think I already mentioned that I received a new touchscreen from Fatih a while ago (the same that's on the current Pandora models).
BOE will visit me tomorrow with another new touchscreen-sample and I'll test both of them.
However, if that STILL won't work: The keymat-design company is also specialized on touchscreens (I didn't know that...).
They can also easily do custom designs - and they're not as expensive as I feared (500 - 600 EUR tooling costs, Minimum order quantity of 500).
And yes, they DO know a lot about touchscreens.
I always thought it's the thickness of the foil that defines the sensitivity - but that's not it: The grid size is what defines that.
So yay, I learned something more about touchscreens as well here :D
Well, let's see how the new touchscreens tomorrow will turn out. But it's good to know there's a company that's also specialized on that not too far away from me, sitting in Austria :)
Stability issues with the EVM and the Pyra
------------------------------------------
As I mentioned with my last post, there are some stability issues using the latest kernels when using the EVM (the OMAP5 development board) and the Pyra.
Me, Nikolaus and some members from the community (who have an EVM at home) did some various tests.
It seems the EVMs run stable when feeding them with 6V or higher. The reason for that: The EVM has a switch included that changes the power suppply at a certain level.
And it seems that once that switch changes to the direct jack input, everything becomes unstable.
Right now it looks like that it only happens when having HDMI connected (we're still working on that).
The Pyra however uses a power circuit that's more similar to the one that runs stable on the EVM. So that probably isn't the issue.
So I ran various tests with different setups and different Pyra PCB combinations.
And found out some interesting things:
* Without a display board attached, they always boot without any issues and run stable.
* With a display board but only a 5V USB AC Adaptor connected, it either froze after about 21 seconds or didn't find the display. Sometimes it booted up fine.
* With a display board and only a battery connected, it didn't freeze as often, but also often simply didn't find the display. Sometimes it booted up fine.
* In both cases it worked without any issues once it booted up properly!
* With a display board AND a battery as well as AC adaptor connected, it almost ALWAYS booted into the system.
Both MIPI (the display connection) and HDMI are handled by the DSS subsystem of the OMAP5.
So it points like something goes wrong there - and it seems to be connected to the power supply.
Mabye there's a driver bug that causes a short peak which either leads to a freeze or a not-being-found display?
Maybe it's a different driver bug where the power management chip and the DSS have some issue?
As it runs stable once it's booted up, it can't really be an issue with the power supply. I can even do 200% CPU usage for a longer period of time once it has booted up, so the power supply is stable.
But something seems to go wrong whenever DSS is being initialized.
Are we on the right track? It's too early to say that, but these were just some thoughts I had.
But we'll continue!
We will squish that bug, you can be sure of that!
Phew, that was quite a long newspost.
Didn't think it would get that long!
But I hope you enjoyed it.
I'll arrive back in Ingolstadt in about 2 hours and will continue playing Dragon Quest VI now.
See you later!
Want to discuss about that? Check the thread at the boards here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/vienna-is-worth-a-trip.78172/