Weekend, time for a newspost about the Pyra, isn't it? As you know, I was in Greece on Monday and Tuesday last week, discussing the final changes and tweaks with FormAction about the case production.

But apart from that, I got some other news for you, but let's start with

The Case --------

I sat together two days with the designer and plastic expert of FormAction to discuss the final tweaks needed for the case. The reason the case didn't close properly on the pictures you've seen was a rib that was colliding with one part on the PCB as well as a too thick wall between the battery compartment and the inner life of the Pyra. Removing the rib and milling the case a bit down makes the PCB fit perfectly and the case closed just fine.

This also was the reason, why the holes for the ports had so much spacing. You can't make the final tweaks to those as long as the PCB is not sitting properly in the case (makes sense, eh?)

So, these things will now be fixed so we should get a completely finished and tweaked case for the GamesCom in August.

The hinge will also be modified a bit to add fraction to it.

The rest was already fine, so these really are the final tweaks that need to be done. I took 25 of those sets with me, so we can use them to build the prototypes once the PCBs are ready :)

Let's move on to...

The Colors ----------

Getting proper colors is actually harder than I thought. Well, not harder: more expensive.

Black, Transparent and various vibrant colors you often see used in kids toys are easy to get: These are standard colors which you can buy in any quantities from the market.

However, if you want to get a REALLY good looking color (like dark metallic or non-metallic red, blue, or whatever), you need to get the color custom made from the manufacturer. All RAL-Colors (http://www.ral-farben.de/en/PRODUCTS-SHOP/) are available, not only plastic ones but also effect ones.

There are some that really look gorgeous - however, the minimum order quantity is 1t. And that's quite a lot. I still want to do an awesome looking color version at some time, but maybe that'll have to wait until the first batch is out - or we could do some Kickstarter / Indiegogo for that.

Nevertheless, you can see some pictures at the thread at the boards.

The red, grey and blue one looks okayish... but still not what I imagine as awesome looking color :)

But black is always a proper solution, eh? :)

The PCBs --------

Nikolaus will be finished with the new layout files this week, so new PCBs can be ordered - and if all goes well, that's the final revision, so those will also be the ones used for mass production.

And I've got some other nice news for your: The parts with long lead-times have been ordered!

Yep, that DOES mean that the mass production has started a bit, at least we'll soon have the parts to start it anytime, once we're ready. So no waiting time once we're done. Yay!

The 3D Driver -------------

Thanks to a community developer effort in IRC, we also have a first working 3D driver! Thanks a lot to everyone involved!

It still needs improvements (i.e. it only uses one core right now) and packaged up for Debian, but they're working on that. But still, it does run and runs glxgears and other 3D programs already, so it's a very good start! Hopefully at GamesCom, we can show some nice 3D games running!

Some sad news -------------

Unfortunately, I also have some sad news for you.

My main contact for the Pandora production at Global Components died this Sunday after a long struggle with a disease. He didn't have to suffer long, which is good, and usually with the illness he had, you often only live for two years or less... he lived six years with it.

He was the one who managed moving the Pandora production over to Global Components, who had trust in me even after the whole Pandora fiasco, who helped me get everything going smoothly. He personally brought thousands of Pandoras to my company, mad sure everything worked out, organized solving every issue that occured.

He was always available, even at night times, he loved his work and lived for it.

And even though he stopped working at Global Components a few years ago because he couldn't do it anymore, he still was there as their advisor and always followed the Pyra development and asked how I was doing.

I am both relieved that he didn't have to suffer too hard, but it's also sad seeing someone like him go. Especially as I already knew shortly after the Pandora production was moved here that he will be gone at some time during the next few years.

I want to honor him with this newspost, wish him all the best whereever he will be and thank him for everything he's done.

Best wishes of also to his family. He has a special place in the Pandora history as well.

You can discuss about that and watch the pictures here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/tweaking-and-finalizing.77624/