Today is the start of multiple blog posts again - that worked fine last time, so I'll continue doing this. Let's start with the Nubs today.
You probably read it via Twitter already: The nubs we wanted to use for the Pyra have reached their EOL (End of Life) - they will not be produced anymore. Orders until end of the year will still be produced and fulfilled, but that's it.
Just as a quick reminder: The nub we've chosen consists of two parts: The mechanical cage (which is basically a magnet you move around with springs for autocentering) and a hall sensor (on the other side of the PCB) which reads out the movements and converts them to coordinates.
Not the full system will be EOL - only the mechanical part. The hall sensor is still available. There will be a (smaller) replacement, but that one will have 1mm less travel distance (so only 1mm instead of 2mm), which is probably too little for gaming.
So, what will happen now? Will that cause a major issue?
Probably not.
Basically, our choices are...
1.: Keep the hall sensor and try to create our own slider mechanism with a magnet.
2.: Order more than enough nubs needed until the end of the year and find a company which can produce compatible replacement nubs (maybe even the same one that produced the current ones for AMS)
3.: Switch to different nubs
4.: Use the replacement ones with less travel distance
Well, what's our decision? We didn't decide yet - but here are some thoughts I'm currently having:
Solution 1 would be nice to have - but it would need to be reliable, not wear out easily. Sure, we only need to take care of the mechanical part, no electronics involved, but I'm still not too fond of that.
Solution 2 is basically Solution 1 with a bit of safety. And instead of designing our own one, it would be a clone of what we currently have. Could be a solution, but I'm not sure... well, if we can get the original manufacturer to produce the nubs for us on demand, then it would work.
Solution 3 is currently my favorized solution. We still got multiple nub samples for testing (the ones that Fatih sourced for us last year). My favorite one is the one that the 3ds uses. That's the one we're testing now. The travel distance is even a bit more, but it doesn't have a stick click. We KNOW it's reliable and well-tested though. It's approximately the same size, so no huge redesign needed.
What I never liked with the 3ds nubs was the disc: My finger often slips off. But the nub is WITHOUT the disc - so we'll still use our own one :) Sounds like a pretty good solution.
Solution 4 doesn't really sound like a good idea to me.
Nothing is set in stone yet, but as you probably found out, I think Solution 3 seems to be the best one for us. Well, unless we can get the manufacturer of the current ones to produce them for us on demand - but that needs to be checked.
In any case, it's important to test new ones to be ready to switch. I'll let you know what'll happen.
Discuss about that post on the webboards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17133-its-the-end-of-the-nubs-as-we-know...
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