Travelling to Vienna


EvilDragon

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Waiting for Pyra News?
Well, I got some for you, it'll be a short post, but I hope you appreciate it anyways.

The bare PCBs for the CPU boards are still in production and we're also still waiting for some parts, so there are no news on that front.
Similar to the case: It's being worked on, they have a to-do-list from me and are working on it step-by-step.

But regardless, I got some news for you:

I will be travelling to Vienna on Monday.
And as you can imagine, it's no vacation I'm after, but another meeting:

The designer company of the keymat has their office there, and I'm discussing the last few changes I still want to happen with the keymat.
For comparisons, I'll take various other good controllers (and of course the Pandora) with me.
These should lead us to the final tweaks for the keymat. :)

The hardware

While waiting for the next prototype run, we're also working with the current hardware.

aTc has received a prototype unit so he can work on the OS directly on a unit.
He's struggling a bit with powering it and crashes at boot time, which could have various reasons:

  • The latest kernel versions have become more and more unstable on the Pyra AND on the uEVM. This has been checked and confirmed by multiple developers.
    We need to find out what has been changed that leads to these issues. Interestingly, the igepv5 (also using an OMAP5) is not affected - which might also give a clue where to look for that.
  • Additionally, it also seems that the charger chip is not yet properly configured: I know it doesn't like all my AC adaptors, and aTc has some troubles here as well. Funny thing is: It always works properly with Nikolaus' adaptor, so he can't really dbug it. The solution for that? I'll build the remaining prototypes and will visit Nikolaus (in about 1,5 weeks) where I'll spent a full day together with him debugging that. My guess is that the fix is just a few lines of code, while finding those will take a while :)
So, a quick summary of the current status:

  • All parts have been ordered, so we can start the mass production shortly after we confirmed everything to be fully working
  • Current prototypes are assembled and will be tested and sent out (one has already been sent out)
  • Case receives the final fixes
  • Keymat is okay, but I'll visit the company in Vienna to improve it (especially the DPad and buttons need a bit of work)

We're moving ahead - slowly, but steady. The last few % are always the ones that take longest.
But we're getting there, I'm sure of that :D

Thanks for your ongoing support!
 
I refresh this site multiple times a day. Nice to hear you're dealing with the keymat folks in person!

When you say the parts are ordered, you mean the screen, LCD cables, chips, etc, but not the cases or keymats yet, right?

Looking forward to the next update and especially the next video, whenever you're able to actually show things running on the current prototype!
 
I have no trouble on both EVM and IGEP with the kernel.org's unpatched 4.7.3 kernel.
How is the instability seen/triggered ?
4.8-rc5, on the other hand, have some USB problem, keyboard or mouse don't work.
 
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YES, d-pad tweaking! I'm so excited for a Pyra with an amazing d-pad, only heard good things about the Pandora's one, so I trust you to do it right - this is an important key feature to me.
Prototypes being send out to developers is also great, especially because it seems you guys already found a problem. I just hope it's a relatively easy software fix. I'm always happy to get these bugs reported, it's one thing less to worry about with the final unit (spending 745€ + shipping + accessories can be a bit worrying to a college student) and it's also just a lot more honest than most, if not all, other companies.

And thanks for the update in general, I personally prefer your shorter, but more frequent texts.
 
When you say the parts are ordered, you mean the screen, LCD cables, chips, etc, but not the cases or keymats yet, right?

All finished parts with a long leadtime. LCD Cables, cases and keymats can't be ordered before they're 100% finished and working and their leadtime is only 4 weeks, which is less than it needs to get the CPU PCBs :)

I have no trouble on both EVM and IGEP with the kernel.org's unpatched 4.7.3 kernel.
How is the unstability seen/triggered ?
4.8-rc5, on the other hand, have some USB problem, keyboard or mouse don't work.

Some info from the kernel mailinglist:

> When it boots, I can work for some time but an apt-get update
> did make it hang during the % completion display (where both
> cores are fully active to scan the package database).

> > On igepv5 I can compile kernels no problem, but on omap5-uevm
> > things fast hang if I do:
> >
> > $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null &
> > $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null &

Feel free to test it and I can also add you to the mailing list if you want to comment on it :)
 
Good news, things moving forward, I always get a little antsy between updates. I haven't been following the Pyra as closely as I did the Pandora but I remember this last stretch taking FOREVER and I hope it sees the end soon.

EDIT: Oh yeah, how many units are in the first run? Is it going to be 1000 in this first batch or is it going to be a smaller batch?
 
It's looking likely it'll be 1000 in the first production run. At the moment of writing, 896 units have been preordered, and we only need another 54 preorders to absolutely, definitely ensure ED has enough money to pay for parts for 1000 units, according to a news post in this thread which I'm too lazy to actually find at this present moment.

Edit: It's here: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/current-statistics-and-some-predictions.77437/
 
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It's looking likely it'll be 1000 in the first production run. At the moment of writing, 896 units have been preordered, and we only need another 54 preorders to absolutely, definitely ensure ED has enough money to pay for parts for 1000 units, according to a news post in this thread which I'm too lazy to actually find at this present moment.
Hmm, maybe I'll order a second to help out, I did that with the Pandora and also to play multiplayer games with my nephew and the Pandora was lacking in that regard other than FPSs but I prefer keyboard and mouse there. . .
 
I'm glad ED is taking his time to ensure everything is working correctly and parts fit etc.

Although I am going to revise my release to retail date, I'm going to guess early next year now, somewhere in the first qtr
 
Hmm, maybe I'll order a second to help out, I did that with the Pandora and also to play multiplayer games with my nephew and the Pandora was lacking in that regard other than FPSs but I prefer keyboard and mouse there. . .

If he's still short of the funds needed... Couldn't a lot of us just pay off the rest of our orders?
 
As always, lots of tiny bumps on the road to perfection. I am a bit worried about that kernel issue.

Take the time you need, we are patient.
 
Thats a good idea. I would do it. The question is, can I buy one Pyra with two vouchers?
If you mean two preorder vouchers - Technically, that should be possible, but could be problematic if many would do so (as it would distort the predictions)

A better way is to just buy enough gift vouchers equivalent to the remaining payment.
 
I think that's what bitibyte meant anyway. Also, it's the only way to use PayPal, as they don't allow to pay for the pre-order directly.
 
Thanks for the update. Does indeed sound like it will be some time before these last details are ironed out. Hopefully some prototypes can be finished in 2016, so that mass production can happen/ complete first 1000 units at least within 1st half of 2017.

Time will tell!
 
Feel free to test it and I can also add you to the mailing list if you want to comment on it :)
I'm currently doing tests on the EVM + Slackware armhf.
Both vanilla 4.7.4 and letux-4.8.0-rc6 with letux_defconfig are running ok under a heavy load. No USB problem.
Looks like a thermal issue as I changed the heatsink for a far better one on both of my boards (64°C maximum seen from /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp ).

Ok for the mailing list, I'll PM you right now my email to use.

--EDIT:
Same letux-4.8.0-rc6 kernel with the pyra rootfs, still no problem.
 
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