You probably all seen the latest pictures of the PCB, but as I visited Nikolaus today and grabbed some things for the GamesCom, I've made some nice photos for you :)

Similar to the last pictures, you should visit the boards (link at the end of the mail).

1. PCB Status -------------

We got multiple populated main PCB Rev. 3 now. They are not fully finished yet - the Wifi module is still undecided (we still have 2 to evaluate) and we didn't populated the 3G chip on all of them. The one I took pictures of has most of the parts missing, as it's the dummy I can show around at GamesCom and send it to the case company so they can do the final design tweaks to the case as well.

All the components on the PCB will now be tested (there are some more surprises for you hidden on them), and then it's time to design the CPU PCB.

2. The displays ---------------

The BOE display is working, the one from Success is still staying black. Something in the code sequence we got is still wrong, but we're hoping to get more details here. But at least we got the BOE one working fine, and honestly, Half HD suites the screen size much better than Full HD.

The rotator chip seems to have some timing issues right now - probably some traces on our PCB are too long or not properly shielded, so it has issues receiving the signals. We're getting awesome support from Solomon though, and they sent us an accurate design guide now. So we probably need to update the display PCB once more, but right now, these PCBs are for testing anyways, they're not in their final design yet.

3. Heating ----------

I'll do some more heat tests soon, but from what I've tested so far, things are looking good that we can handle the heat properly. I've got a testing algorithm from notaz that stresses the CPU including NEON, so that's the worst case scenario the SoC can get into.

It works fine without downclocking, even without heatsink, and with plastic inbetween, the plastic didn't even get too hot - I could still touch it with my fingers. It gets pretty warm, yes, but not unbelievably hot.

Still, we need to distribute the heat as much as possible, and we've got some good plans for that. First, we'll have multiple layers full of copper in the PCB which we'll use for heat distribution. The top of the CPU board will also have a copper layer, so we can still add something more there as well (or connect the copper to the SD Card cages, etc.)

This way, the Pyra should get mildly warm when you fully use it for a longer period of time (which you'll probably never even do), but it won't get too hot.

4. GamesCom and Holidays! -------------------------

Nikolaus will go to a well-deserved holiday until August 17th while I be at the GamesCom, showing the Pyra to everyone who wants to see it. We'll have a devboard there, so you can test out the speed. We'll have a near-final case there (including the new shoulder buttons), including a dummy keymat so you can test the new keyboard as well.

I hope to meet as many of you as possible there :) That sure will be fun :)

So, work will resume after the GamesCom - but I'll make some pictures there for you as well.

Comment to the blog entry and view the pretty pictures at the boards: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/16746-populated-mainboards/