Well, it looks like Nikolaus has mostly (or completely) resolved the power issues now.
While not 100% sure yet (more testing needs to be done), he was able to run a stresstest (100% CPU load) for 10 minutes - and then he manually did shut it down - no freeze so far!
Doing normal stuff, he let it run for a few hours and it didn't freeze as well.
Turns out it wasn't a hardware issue (yeeha!), but mostly just a not yet properly configured power management chip.
There are still a lot of other parameters to tweak, but at least we know that the hardware seems fine.
Nikolaus still has a few more tests to do to confirm the remaining hardware, but the list got REALLY short now!
What does that mean?
Well, he can now send me a set which I can assemble into the case (as soon as I got the remaining parts).
That means: The time to make videos of a real prototype can soon be made!
And when that happens.... well, it's time to start the preorders!
By the way, in case you didn't know:
The Pyra can charge the battery even when the system is switched off.
It even charges the battery when the CPU board is not even there - it's all handled by the charger chip.
That's something a few of you probably know :)
Okay, then a few more words about the heat:
As I saw some discussions about that in a thread, here are some informations:
Yes, the OMAP5 can get pretty hot. But in case you think that's only the case with the OMAP5: Nope.
Almost every new CPU has that issue.
Just check this information about the Raspberry Pi3.
So why don't you hear much about that with modern smartphones?
Simple: First, the tasks you do are usually not that demanding. You don't compile on your smartphone (though you might do that on the Pi or the Pyra), and most apps don't really stress the CPU a lot. You get occasional high peaks, but that doesn't raise the temperature a lot.
If you run something demanding (i.e. Drastic with HiRes Rendering), smartphones get pretty warm as well.
Well, and second: The CPU is being throttled when the temperature rises to lower the temperature again.
There's no magic SoC that doesn't produce heat when they're fully used. Yes, modern ones are a bit better and provide more CPU power before they get too hot but they will also heat up when 100% stressed.
So we're not a special case. That's pretty normal these days.
Okay, so much for the short, but pretty good news (at least in my opinion!)
See you soon!
Want to leave feedback? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/and-suddenly-it-works.77045/
Last week, the shoulder buttons arrived at my place. They aren't too spectacular, so I didn't take any pictures yet. :)
The case part received a small last-minute change:
In order to improve the logo on the backside, it was decided to make the logo surrounding with laser-cut aluminium.
Doing it fully in plastic would make it either look cheap or would extremely difficult to produce reliable and seamless.
The laser-cut aluminium will be a rectangle with rounded corners and the transparent logo inside.
I think you can imagine it a bit better with the picture found on the forum thread.
This does not cause a long delay, btw, as the change to the mold is minimal and while they were working on that solution, they simply continued to work on a different mold (the one with the DPad, as that is important so I can test the keymat and submit the final changes).
So I will get the molds in a different order than planned, but that's mostly it :)
Okay, what did Nikolaus do last week?
-------------------------------------
He didn't find the time yet to dive deeper into the stability issue as he would need a full day without any breaks for proper testings and he was a bit busy last week.
However, he continued to work on the remaining tests, and here's the current result (only the newly tested stuff listed):
* All SD Card slots are now working fine without errors in Linux
* Headset (incl. automatic switching and microphone) working.
* Vibra-Motor working
* Audio works
* Touchscreen works
* Display with rotator chip works
* USB ports work
Most other things (sensors, Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G/4G, keyboard, etc.) have already been tested before.
What's left to do before we consider the prototype finished:
* Fix the stability issue
* Test HDMI
* Test USB3.0 (we only tested the port with 2.0 so far)
* Implement and test the SDD AntiTear-Driver (code is almost finished)
* Test the fuel gauge and charging circuit for the battery
* Fix eMMC/MicroSD-Switch (needs a different part)
So... that's mostly it... the list was quite long a few weeks ago, now most of the main components have already been tested and confirmed to be working. Only a few things remain!
Want to leave feedback? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/the-tests-continue.77003/
Sorry again for the long time without an update - once again, I'm stuffed with work... so running out of time.
This post will be a quick summary, but at least I'll have some nice pictures for you, which you can look at at the boards (link at the end of this mail) :)
Let's start with the status of the case...
------------------------------------------
The first parts of the case arrived last week (the full basement, so the most complex part).
And even though the last details to make it fit perfectly have not been implemented yet, it fits almost perfectly and looks and feels great!
The PCB fits perfectly, all ports and openings work without any problems as well, the keymat also fits fine.
The screws fit so much better than in the Pandora case as well (even though this is not yet the real material).
The shoulder buttons and the top of the case have been finished end of last week, so they will be shipped soon as well (I'll probably get them next week), the DPad and stylus should follow one week later.
So yes, we're getting there!
Okay, now we'll continue with the keymat...
-------------------------------------------
Now that I got the real case, I could finally start testing and tweaking the keymat as well.
Basically, it is working, but it needs some improvement:
The ABXY-Buttons need to be a bit higher. Right now, they don't stick out too much and when you press them, they are flat with the surrounding. This makes it hard to navigate from one button to the next one. I've checked different buttons (PlayStation and SNES controllers, Pandora, etc.), and they all stick out more than what we've got right here. This is an easy fix!
While the flat keyboard buttons look awesome, there certainly is a reason why all mobile keyboards I've seen so far are curved a bit. While typing works okay, accidental button presses easily happen, as the space between the keys is narrow. The mobile keypads solve that with a bit of an elevation in the middle and a recession at the edges of the key: Your finger automatically finds the absolute middle of the key, and as the area surrounding it is a bit recessed, you also don't easily hit that key. This also is an easy fix, I just need to do some more testing.
So not perfect yet, but we're getting there :)
And finally, the status of the PCBs...
--------------------------------------
As Nikolaus solved the issue with the I/O-Errors of the SD Card slot, he is now able to boot into Linux to do some testing.
Finally, we could test the remaining parts: The Wifi module (incl. Bluetooth) works fine as well, the LCD including the rotator work, the 3G/4G-Module works, etc.
However, there is one thing Nikolaus is fighting with right now:
The system runs a bit unstable if it uses too much power. Running two cores at the same time will cause the system to freeze at some time, running only one core will run mostly stable (except for if you stress the CPU).
This is another one of those issues where the solution will probably be simple, but finding it is a long and hard way.
He already traced it down to most likely be the charger / power management chip setup we're using.
It could be a software issue (both ICs are being configured by software during bootup), it could be a simple hardware thing where only a capacitor needs to be added.
This seems to be the last hurdle we need to take, as all the other hardware has been tested and is working already :)
Now, let's guess:
Will Nikolaus solve the issue or will all the case parts arrive here first?
My guess is that both will probably happen around the same time, which would make me a happy camper.
Want to leave feedback and see the pretty pictures? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/an-almost-naked-pyra.76975/
Time for some (very very good!) news!
While I've been in Greece, Nikolaus has been busy as well, working on the CPU boards.
There was one nasty issue, that was hard to trace, but which has finally been found this weekend!
Which means: We're now 99,99% sure that the CPU Board is working perfectly fine!
And the mainboard looks great as well, but this will get more extensive testing during the next week.
So, what was that issue?
Well, while the CPU boards were booting, there were some CRC errors when booting from the first MMC slot on the mainboard.
Interestingly, this never happened when using the debug MMC slot which can be soldered directly onto the CPU board.
So... the question to solve was: Why?
Want to know why?
Then read on - otherwise, scroll down to the SNAP!
------------ SNIP! --------------------------
Was that a reflection from the bus from that debug MMC slot?
Were the traces to the SD Card slot on the mainboard too long and caused issues?
Putting a finger onto the open pads of the debug MMC slot caused these issues to improve... adding a capacitor there didn't do any fixes (and we couldn't deliver the Pyra with a finger included ;))
Also, some PCBs were not impacted by that issue at all.
And to put some sugar on top: It only happened with the first four tries. After that, the errors were gone and everything worked as it should.
Taking all that into account, it sounded like some tolerance issues - something which is annoying to debug... VERY hard and annoying.
So, based on what we knew, we suspected the following:
1. Open pads causing a reflection / receiving some other distortion signals
2. Timing issues in the MMC driver (software setup). Could also be timing issues with the DRAM, as CRC errors could also be the DRAM and not the MMC.
3. Too long traces which cause a bit of a power loss (would also explain why some work and others didn't, as all PCBs have a bit of tolerances).
4. Some other software programming of the power chip (the PALMAS) that causes the voltage to drop.
5. Soldering process issues causing bad contacts (which could explain why the work after a few seconds, as it makes good contacts when the chip is heated up a bit).
That was quite a bit of possible causes, and finding the real one was a VERY time consuming task.
Nikolaus spent a lot of time studying datasheets of the battery charger chip and the PALMAS power management chip. As the EVM doesn't have a battery charger, the setup is different in our case, so some software configuration for the PALMAS could be wrong.
And while he found some things that needed to be changed in order for the charger to work properly together with the PALMAS, it wasn't the cause of the MMC CRC issues.
Well, at least the work was not useless :)
As we use a different DRAM than the EVM, Nikolaus rechecked the timing settings as well and made a small program to test the memory.
This was time consuming, as every single change in the timing settings needed a recompile of the bootloader and another long run with the memory tester.
After one day, we knew that our DRAM is working fine - but still the MMC issue remained.
Testing with different temperatures (a cooled PCB, etc.) showed us that the temperature doesn't affect it. There were only read errors for the first few tries, then everything worked fine.
So no temperature problem (and therefore no solder process issue, which would've been bad).
So, next up: Figuring out whether the longer traces could be the issue.
A good idea is testing whether the second SD Card slot also has CRC errors, as the trace length is similar.
However, as the EVM only has one SD Card slot, the second one was not yet included in the bootloader.
Another task for Nikolaus: Adding the second and third SD Card slot to the device tree.
Once that was done, testings showed that no other SD Card slot had any CRC issues, so it's unlikely that the trace length itself was the issue.
So... what COULD be the issue?
What's different using the SD Card slot on the mainboard compared to the one on the CPU board?
Finally, Nikolaus found ONE thing that's different:
There's one condensator on the MMC bus which had been chosen for optimum GPS reception.
And yes: After experimenting a bit, Nikolaus found out that it was IN FACT the condesator!
A tiny change: Using 15pf causes CRC errors, using 12pf already fixes everything!
We'll use 10pf (to give it a bit more tolerance), and that's still good enough to not worsen the GPS reception.
That reminds me a bit of the wrong resistor Michael had to replace on the first few hundred Pandora PCBs, that caused Wifi to be horrible!
I hope I explained everything correctly - I might have not understood everything exactly and maybe have forgotten something, but it should be mostly correct :)
-------------- SNAP! -----------------------
Well, while it took a while resolving that issue, the good thing is that now all the other MMC buses are included in the device tree as well - that work had to be done anyways.
So, what's next?
Now that the CPU board is up and running, the next step is booting a real Linux system and testing all the remaining hardware components on the mainboard as well.
We don't expect many issues there, as a most of them had already been tested with the debug board and the remaining ones have already appeared on the bus they use, so that should be pretty straightforward.
After all, connecting and using sensors, Wifi modules or other chips to an existing I2C or USB bus is nothing hard (if Linux drivers exist).
I'll keep you informed, but it now put the biggest hurdle behing us!
Want to leave feedback? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/next-huge-milestone-reached.76922/
I hope you're not fed up with newsposts yet... but that will be the last one during my Greek-visit :)
Okay, before we start, one more video of the current CNC Milling:
https://youtu.be/nsDE2f4E8u0
First you can see the final step of the tooling for the keyboard part. The copper slowly cuts into the metal using electricity.
That takes quite a while.
The second thing you can see is basically the LCD frame being "stamped" into the metal... you can imagine how long that takes.
It's a slow process, but the only way to do it accurately without any issues.
The last thing you can see is a typical CNC drill that mills into the metal block. That ALSO takes a while, as you can it is moving slowly.
Yes, creating molds suitable for plastic injection is a quite a lengthy job, if done right.
Altogether, the Pyra will have 7 molds.
Okay, let's talk about the colors now!
--------------------------------------
So, the material we're using for the Pyra is the transparent one you've seen in the video yesterday... nearly unbreakable Polycarbonate.
How does the color get into the case?
Well, while the process itself is easy (you mix some powder together with the plastic pellets), this also needs quite a bit of preparing.
Depending on the plastic you use, you also need to use different color types.
Different types of plastic have different melting temperatures, so the powder you use has to be the correct one as well.
Otherwise, the color wouldn't melt or would burn. Both would lead to horrible results.
Also, you need to find the perfect mixture to make the color look good. This also depends on the wall thickness of the plastic part itself...
And as there are so many different types of colors available, the initial selection is very limited.
Usually, you get the typical industrial colors (bright red, yellow, green, etc.). For anything decent looking (a nice dark blue or red), you often need to get a customized color, made especially for you.
Additional stuff like a metallic look or the scratch resistant coating will also be included within that custom color.
Of course, custom colors need to be bought in higher quantities as well, and they take a while (3 - 7 weeks) before you get them from the manufacturer.
We will make samples in 5 different colors. To save costs and speed things up, we've decided to use 3 readily existing ones that look good and make 2 custom made ones. None of them will have any special coating or anything added, as that adds more costs and will take longer.
The mass produced case will have a nice, decent color with matte scratch resistant coating and maybe a tiny little bit of metallic (just to make the color look good, I'm not aiming for a metallic look!)
It could very well be we'll produce more than one color for mass production, but they will all have the matte scratch resistant coating.
As the plastic itself is colored, it can never rub off (though I doubt it would even rub off with that coating :D)
Okay, so here is how we proceed from now on:
--------------------------------------------
The mold for the lower part of the basement (with the battery compartment) is already finished.
The battery lid, LCD frame and keyboard main part mold will be finished end of next week.
They will then produce transparent physical testing versions of those parts and send them to me so I can test that everything fits and make sure the shoulder buttons, etc. are working fine.
This will only be a physical sample, it will use a cheap plastic and fast production run, it will not look pretty (so do not be scared when you see the pictures in 2 weeks :))
Once I confirm the samples to be working, these parts will immediately be produced with the chosen colors. These will look better than the physical sample, but not as good as the mass produced one as the scratch-resistant coating is still missing.
Of course, while I'm testing this part, the last two molds, the logo and the LCD backside will be finished (approx. 1 week as well), there won't be a break in the mass production.
They will also be produced in the chosen sample colors and then it's time to assemble the units for the prototype customers (who have given me their three favorite colors).
As soon as I make the decision about the final color (maybe you can help here at the boards ;)) or final colors, the custom color mix will be ordered, including the scratch-resistant coating any maybe some slight metallic look.
Once the colors have arrived, mass production can take place in any quantity.
2000 case sets would take approximately 1 week.
While all this is happening, Nikolaus and I will continue to work on the PCB testing and assembling as well as setting up the mass production with GC and ordering the parts once the hardware is confirmed to be working.
Want to leave feedback and look at the pictures? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/lets-talk-colors.76884/
First day here in Greece is over. Quite a shocking start, but a lot more confidence in the afternoon.
What happened?
Read on :) With spicy pictures (only on the boards) and news :)
Let's first start with the shock. You'll hate this. I hated this:
I can't show you a finished case set. I didn't get one. All I got was one ugly looking basement part.
Looks similar to the first Pandora case without paint we got... what a start of the day.
And it was the start of me learning how plastic mould injection is working in detail.
It's quite complex. But I've learnt so much new things today! And I'll try to tell it to you as good as I can :)
So, why did they tell me they've got a full set for me?
Because they have. Not a full set of finished cases - but a full set of the molds. I simply understood that wrong. Probably combined with the anticipation of getting a final case :D
What they have is the first step of the molds, to be exact: They're done, you could produce cases with them them, but they have no tweaks applied yet and no surface modification.
This probably is comparable to the final molds we got for the Pandora: Physically, they were correct, but they had shrinking marks (as they weren't tweaked yet) and they didn't have a surface modification, so they looked ugly (and we decided to paint them...)
So our step 1 here was basically the final step of the Pandora molds.
Here is a basic overview how plastic mold injection works. If you're not interested how that works, skip the part between the lines :)
---------------------
1. 3D Design
------------
The first thing is the 3D design. CAD. That's the 3D model where we got the renderings from.
2. Creating the molds
---------------------
Then you need to turn these models into molds. And THAT'S a very tricky part.
If you think it's comparable to 3D printing: Nope, it isn't. Totally different.
A mold is basically like a box:
You close it and pump hot plastic into it. It then cools off and gets hard. Then your plastic part is done.
So the mold needs to be a negative (inverted version) of the plastic part, enclosed in two metal parts.
No problem for simple parts (like the LCD frame of the lid). It gets trickier with more complex parts though, like the keyboard part of the case: There are holes in the area where the hinge is. Holes inverted mean: The Metal needs to float in the air! You cannot create such a complex part with fine details (metal still needs to be CNC-milled, after all), so you need to create another part for the mold that you can put inside when you assemble the mold.
With complex parts, the mold is a bit like a puzzle, with various inlays to create the inside-holes and special shapes.
That's also needed for the clips of the battery lid, for example.
When 3D printing, you have your 3D data in the computer and tell it to print it out.
With mold creation, you need to first think how to achieve what you need and then create the molds including various additional tools with a CNC mill.
However, that's not the only complex thing.
CNC milling the steel molds is not accurate enough for fine details like the grid for the keyboard part.
You need to create ANOTHER tool to do slow, and slowly cut them directly into the hot steel (with permanent oil cooling).
You can see that in the picture here (and also in the video below):
Creating ONE row of these key rows takes approximately five hours.
In the end, however, you will have nice, clean and perfect steel mold that can be used for about 1 Million cases...
Now I can totally understand why mold production is very cheap in China, but very expensive in most parts of Europe: It's a LOT of labour work - and wages are usually very high in Europe.
A full case set like the one from the Pyra takes a couple of months until it's finished.
3. Testing and tweaking the molds
---------------------------------
Creating the molds is already a complex thing, but it doesn't automatically mean they will be perfect right away.
Similar to tweaking the machine file and PCB layout for pick & place mass production (which is what we did the pre-production run at Global Components for), you also need to test and tweak the molds.
Producing plastic works like this:
Melted plastic is pumped into the mold and there it cools off. The important thing is that it EVENLY cools.
Otherwise, various problems can occur: Color differences, areas where it automatically can develop cracks after a while (remember the Pandora?) shrinking marks or slightly bent parts.
Imagine, for example, that you have a huge peg in the case. If that one cools off faster than the ground plane, then the weight pushes it down and affects the still melted plastic - that's something that can be seen on many cheap plastic parts.
Also, when cooling off, the plastic can also shrink a bit, so the size is a tiny bit different than in your model.
This is also something you need to test and then fix in the mold.
I am almost sure that was the problem with the LCD frame of the Pandora, the reason why the lower side has such a gap: The outer link shrank a bit and hasn't been tweaked, therefore the frame is being pushed together from both sides resulting in the gap.
While the mold flow can be simulated to some extents, it's nigh impossible to accurately simulate it.
So you need experience (to choose the correct places to inject the plastic before creating the mold) and need to analyse the produced parts, doing small tweaks to the molds or the machine program (you can change the pressure and heat for the plastic injection, which also improves things).
4. Creating the material surface
--------------------------------
After everything has been tweaked so that the molds are basically ready to produce the plastic parts, you should improve the look of the plastic by applying some material surface to the mold.
Otherwise, the plastic will simply look plain and glossy (and totally ugly), and it easily receives scratches.
By applying material surface, you can create a smooth surface on the plastic that makes it look matte and it even covers smaller issues (small shrinking marks you can't prevent).
We will use a very smooth surface for the Pyra, which gives it a nice, matte look.
You get this effect by eroding the mold. The finer you want it, the longer it takes. That part needed about 30 hours, just for the material surface!
5. Plastic injection!
---------------------
Finally, once the molds are finished, the plastic injection can happen!
That's pretty straightforward (as it usually is when you do mass production, mass production has to be well prepared, simple and reliable to prevent huge failures).
The plastic we use is a fully transparent one (the same one you can see in the video below) and by adding some pulverized color, you create the color you want.
Once the molds are finished, thousands of case sets can easily be produced within a few days.
Except you want...
6. Special treatment afterwards
-------------------------------
Some things like a scratch-resistant coating can directly be applied at FormAction (so that won't need much more), but some effects are being done with a partner company, for example, textures on the case like these:
Yes, we will produce some units looking like these - but those will be special editions, as it add approximately 30 EUR to production costs on top!
It's cool seeing what's possible though!
So much for our small introduction to mold injection... let's continue with our plans.
---------------------------------
Okay, so as mentioned, the basic molds are finished, currently they are tweaking them to make sure they don't have any issues as well as applying smooth surfaces on top.
One mold (the lower part of the basement, with the battery compartment) will be completely finished tomorrow (though I don't know if it's still in time so I can at least take one sample with me).
The mold for the top side (the keyboard area) will be finished until end of next week.
Then we'll have a complete base to test.
Next will be the shoulder buttons (so we can test those, as these are the parts with the lowest tolerances), and after that, the lid will be finished.
Then we got a full set!
They will produce samples shortly after each mold is finished, so I will get regular shipments of new sample parts regularly until the set it complete.
The samples I get will be dark transparent which helps finding out any issues, as you can see if some parts don't fit properly.
When I've tested and approved everything, the cases will be produced in various colors.
We've chosen about 10 colors to try out (so the prototype buyers will get one of their favorite case colors as well!) and then it's time to choose the mass production colors... then we're done here.
We've also decided on the plastic we'll use.
The base plastic is transparent, but by adding pulverized color, it will be completely opaque in that color.
The material is very flexible and durable. If you bend it, it doesn't break but immediately move back into it's original position.
According to the manufacturer, it is bulletproof (though I will NOT suggest you test that...)
I've captured a bit of the durability test using my camera... though I missed the best part: someone jumping on that plastic part, and the small hook you can see on the case didn't break.
Should be good enough for the battery lid, eh?
BTW: A quick physical test of the ugly-produced base part was successful.
I could put in the mainboard, insert a battery (and got some LEDs light up, so it works) and opening / closing the simcard as well as the MicroSD-card slot worked as well.
Here is the small video, first showing a bit of the production of the keyboard mold as well as the durability test of the plastic we've chosen.
https://youtu.be/q0X97nV2yaM
Phewww, what a day.
I am sure you can imagine how shocked I was at the beginning, learning that I won't have a full set to assemble here, and the one part I've seen was ugly... but learning about all that above was interesting.
And it was really a good thing I came here, to decide about the material surface, the plastic and the color!
I hope you enjoyed the newspost, even though it was looooong and too much to read, probably :)
Want to leave feedback and look at the many pictures? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/youll-hate-this-post-and-youll-lov…
Well, here I am. I just arrived at the hotel in Greece after having some great lunch with FormActions CEO and some other workers... and some coffee by the sea side :)
But now it's time to post what you're waiting for... the latest status update.
The status of the PCBs
----------------------
Well, I've visited Nikolaus yesterday to pick up a PCB set for the prototype case production run here in Greece.
He showed me what you can also see on this video here (you probably have seen it already):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk6ZB-MBezY
So, what is it that you can see on this video?
This is a prototype setup that has fully been booted into X.
It boots off the CPU PCB (right now, that's Nikolaus testing PCB, but there's no difference than with the normal ones, only that he can debug a bit more here), the display works (incl. touchscreen), the rotator works, the LEDs work, all the hardware on the PCB physically works (means: we haven't made extensive tests i.e. with Wifi connections or usage, but the module is there and answers when we talk to it).
The LCD doesn't show anything really useful, as it's Nikolaus' testing card, but it booted into X (LXDE).
The only connection going into the set is the Micro USB Power cable. Nothing else.
So that's the very first really working booted up prototype (except for the missing case) :)
Oh, and it also works with a battery, but it's hard to make a video with that, without having a case that keeps the battery in place.
So YES, we're getting there :)
The low-level software is still not yet finished (only almost), some things still need to be implemented (some power stuff), so I couldn't take a full working set with me to Greece, but hopefully, when I come back, we can start building them soon :)
The status of the Case
----------------------
I am here in Greece, currently in my hotel, and I'll be at FormAction (the case manufacturer) the next two days.
The moulds are all finished, they already produced a sample case (and I can't wait to see it!).
We're doing multiple things these two days:
* Check that everything fits physically. Especially test the shoulder buttons, keymat and DPad.
* Check different material samples and coatings. We're looking for a matte, scratch-resistant plastic which does not show every fingerprint in the world.
* Check what colors are available and which one we can use.
* Check lighting for the logo.
* Check the seating and enclosure of the speakers
* Check whether maybe it makes sense to use some rubber coating or similar on the nub surface
So, yes, we'll be busy for the next few days.
I will take one sample home with me, and different colors and materials will be shipped to me later.
As usual, I'll keep you informed and will make some pictures :)
Want to leave feedback? Visit:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/the-flight-has-been-booked.76833/
The time has come. The flight to Greece has been booked.
I'll leave on Tuesday morning, January 19th and will come back Friday noon, January 22nd.
That's two full days to test out and tweak the cases!
Exciting times, isn't it?
Oh - you're also asking what Nikolaus has been doing during the last week?
Okay, here's your answer: Fixing some small hardware bugs while working on the boards.
The Display Board
-----------------
None of the display boards was working when we got them - something that cries out for some hardware bug.
Nikolaus debugged it for a day and luckily it was a simple fix: To save some costs, we replaced a power supply part for the display board with a different ones but that one did provide a bit lower voltage.
Easy fix: Change the resistor. Now everything is working fine here, including the rotator chip using our own display cable.
Oh, and as Nikolaus was working on the board anyways, he checked the sync output generated by the SSD and could confirm it sends sync signal each frame which we can use for tear free rotation with some software tweak.
The mainboard and CPU board
---------------------------
There was another slight issue with the mainboard power circuit which also could be fixed by simply choosing a different resistor.
What happened: Booting the system only worked using a battery or through the Console / Charger port.
When trying to power it through the USB OTG port, it didn't get enough power.
Why's that?
Well, usually, there's 1,8V set on the USB OTG port, so that a computer connected to it recognizes it as a high-power device. That works fine with a battery.
However, without a battery, the Pyra doesn't work and doesn't provide 1,8V there - so the Pyra thinks it's a low power device and limits it to 100mA, which is not enough to boot the system.
There is a way to tell the Palmas (power management chip) using some software and a resistor to also accept more than 100mA.
And yes, that worked, and the system boots up to U-Boot now. It doesn't start the kernel, which is something Nikolaus is looking into right now. That's some software tweak that needs to be implemented.
This would've only been an issue if you're using the Pyra without a battery, but as some probably want to do that, we wanted to fix that.
With a battery, it boots into the Linux kernel already, so don't worry about that.
So we're moving ahead slowly, but we're pretty close to having a fully bootable system - though it's hard to tell how fast that will go, as some software changes require reading hundreds of pages in a datasheet and take days to solve whereas others are found within minutes.
Still, it could very well be we've got a fully booting system when I leave for Greece - which would be a milestone, together with the case :)
I'll keep you updated, as usual :)
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A final newspost!
Well, for this year - because there's no time to rest for us in January.
The move to the new forums was successful, I am personally really happy I can use my Pandora to browse them again! As far as I've seen most of you like them as well. So it was really worth moving!
Finally, I found some time to edit the Pyra Prototype production video!
So, here it is - our day at Global Components, producing the first Pyra prototype boards:
https://youtu.be/58RDWUecwAQ
And as it's the end of the year, here's a quick status summary:
I am personally happy how much we moved along. Some things took longer than I had hoped for (especially getting the rotator chip to work used up some time!), but we nearly managed to finish prototypes until the end of the year.
What's the status? Here you go:
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* Keymat: 99% finished. It's done and working, only thing left to do is test the feeling in a full prototype. I don't expect anymore changes here though.
* Hardware PCBs: 95% finished. All PCBs have been produced and are now being tested by Nikolaus. He found one small issue on the CPU boards that has already been fixed (even on the existing prototype boards). If there are no more issues found during testing, they are 100% finished!
* Case: 90% finished. The design is finished, molds are being created (most of them are already done) so the only thing left is producing the first cases, testing and tweaking them. Not much left to do!
* Production Run Setup: 98% finished. With the prototype run, we found some smaller issues thanks to the analysis (i.e. some vias need to be changed as they can cause air blobs inside the solderings). Analysis will continue together with Nikolaus on January 4th. After all those tweaks, we are ready for the production run.
* Production Run Parts: A lot of parts that have a long leadtime have already been ordered and will be ready in April: The LCDs, the batteries (3000 are already lying at Global Components), the Nubs (over 10000 are lying at Global Components). So if all goes well and no issues arise, we could start the mass production in April / May. Don't take that for given though, that's a best-case date!
So we're really close with the hardware!
The OS itself is already running nicely on the devboard, but it needs to be adapted to the Pyra hardware. Mostly drivers and some design files. This'll take a bit of time, but when the prototypes are in the hands of the devs, it should speed things up.
The currently planned timeframe for me to visit Greece for the case production is January 20th - January 28th. Until then, all our prototype PCBs will hopefully work fine!
So much for the current status.
We've come a long way, and we're really close. Thanks for all your support, I hope you a really happy new and exciting year 2016!
Thanks again from the whole team!
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