Gamescom will start Wednesday, and we have a booth with some nice stuff there. We will also have six Pyra prototypes with us, two without the rotator chip, as it looks like we can show them working using the TILER function instead of the rotator chip as well!

So, here is what happened lately...

1. New keymat and updated backlight -----------------------------------

The new keymat samples have arrived a while ago - and boy, they're great! The keys feel fantastic, the rounded edges really make a difference, typing is very comfortable now.

The DPad and ABXY Buttons aren't as good as before though, but that's a simple fix: No color on the DPad and the walls of the buttons, as the paint makes them slightly stiff. Also, moving the carbon pads of the DPad ans buttons up 0.1mm again should make things perfect.

You can see a picture of the new keys on the boards.

So yay, we're pretty much finished here.

We also rearranged the keyboard backlight-LEDs on the mainboard, now having a perfectly even light.

A picture of that can also be seen on the boards.

2. Sensor upgrade -----------------

The Pyra just received a sensor upgrade! Instead of the planned BMG160 (3 axis rotation) and BMC150 (6 axis accellerator and magnetic field) sensors, we will now use the BNO055, which has all of these and a bit more (https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/bst/products/all_products/bno055).

This one has been discussed and requested at a thread on the boards, so I hope you'll all be happy about that.

3. TILER rotation almost ready! -------------------------------

zmatt has continued to baffle me and now got TILER rotation working as framebuffer - with rotation set up as default in the kernel. So we should have some Pyras using TILER working next week (yes, we'll have them with us at GamesCom).

It still needs to be cleaned up a bit and thoroughly tested, but yay! :D

This actually is a huge step forward. Right now, as the SSD driver is not working correctly, I only ran Nikolaus' testing OS on the Pyra. With a working TILER, I can now also run the normal PyraOS - and games!

So once I get back from GamesCom, expect a couple of videos!

4. Gamescom -----------

As mentioned, we're having a booth at the Gamescom. In hall 10.2, Retro area, right beneath the Arcade machines (same spot as last year, in case you've visited us).

You're all very welcome to visit us, play around with the Pyra or GPD Win prototype or try out other stuff from the shop (new Retro games, McWills GameGear LCD Mod, the MIST, etc.) And, of course, have a chat with me or grab a free coffee!

Hope to meet some of you there!

5. After the Gamescom... ------------------------

Those six prototypes will go to devs to finalize the software and test the hardware. Another (7th) one has the 4GB RAM on which needs to be enabled in the bootloader, so it will go to another dev.

Middle of September, there'll be another prototype run with all the changes we did, hopefully leading to final or almost final units. Those will go to the Prototype Preorders. And after some test period is over and all remaining bugs have been squashed, it's time to mass produce. As we already ordered the parts, there won't be any more leadtime for those.

The cases still need a few tweaks, but those will also be done in September (I hope).

See you soon!

You can discuss about that and see pictures here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/gamescom-sensor-upgrade-and-other-n...