Headless Pandora.

Have you an usage for a headless Pandora ? May you buy one ?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • No.

    Votes: 17 89.5%

  • Total voters
    19

Linux-SWAT

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Thought of this a long time ago, came back to me as i read the "A further update" thread.


It's pretty simple and costless, as now DisplayPort works, and the TV-out cable may approach: the headless OP. No screen, not even the screen lid.


This is the principle of the plug computers, but with incorporated keyboard, power inverter and an awesome soundcard.


So the price drops certainly below 399€ (but still more expensive than plugs), no screen, no LCD cable, (a lot) faster assembly.
 
Hmmm. I think no. A combo of a raspberry pi and icp2 or other controller would be better for that imho.


DisplayLink is cool and stuff, but it is too slow to watch movies or play games on and takes processing power, so kinda pointless to me.


Maybe a Pandora with a minihdmi instead of the screen would make more sense.
 
Well if your not driving the LCD screen that output could be adapted to drive HDMI ( well minus the audio so DVI-D ).. But this would be a hardware and case change..
 
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Interesting idea, but I don't think it would be that useful. Without the display the device loses any autonomous usability, and if you have to take a monitor or beamer with you, you can just as well take a netbook or laptop with you. Also without the lid I'm worried that when you carry it in your pocket, the buttons could get damaged (since there could be friction in unexpected ways, which could e.g. lead to dpads falling off or something).
 
Interesting idea. I don't know about price (it is already high), but it could be useful as add-on for some other product:


e. g. some tablet that could be connected to.


It could be done by Bluetooth or Wifi HotSpot / Wifi Tethering.


Just as example:


AOCOS PX102 10" (ok price/hw ratio imho), or cheap 7" A13 / PC-421 as add-on to Headless Pandora.


10" LCD is big enough to be "split" at two, for games that support it (in theory).


It should be tested and pre-installed with appropriate software, of course.


Without any display, I doubt it could be sold... only for special purposes.


@_wb_: Blank lid should be attached anyway.
 
Well, we got some Pandora boards from CC that work but don't have proper video output... these could be sold for cheap for such projects.
 
Well, we got some Pandora boards from CC that work but don't have proper video output... these could be sold for cheap for such projects.

I had moved myself to the refund list (craig's queue), but if something was working other than video output..and packaged up in regular screen/case etc...I'd take that just to be done with it.


Edit:


By video output I was assuming you meant tv out, not regular lcd output. If there's no lcd output working then I don't think that would be too useful either.
 
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A "Headless" Pandora can be even without the battery... if you need a monitor, then you have a socket
 
Craig talked about selling this a long time ago. Personally I never saw the point - what can this do that a much cheaper desktop can't? The keyboard will generally be considered inferior to using a real one or a variety of miniaturized options (iCP2 for instance). Same with the gaming controls - iCP or iCP2 will offer more or less the same thing and people will generally prefer a separate controller than being tethered to the TV if that doesn't offer some secondary portable use.


You can buy a discrete soundcard that surpasses Pandora's for $30. If you want something tiny there are a variety of small ARM boards that run Linux, are more powerful than Pandora and are much cheaper than the price point you're giving.


Something w/o added HDMI in place of the LCD would be especially inferior.. you get either low resolution/inferior quality composite/S-Video or video over USB that can only handle a very low frame rate.. no thanks.
 
If the price is right on one of the CC units Evildragon is mentioning, I was considering getting one. I was looking into an LCD to VGA adapter circuit made for beagleboards I could adapt for it. To me it would be fun project, just for something to do in the winter time. Also could recover some of the lost money in that whole CC misadventure so I see it as a win.


I don't really see the it as a viable marketable product though.


Edit: DVI-D (hdmi) is possible, but it would require a chip (TFP410) that would be a pain to work with as it's a small package and would need to create my own circuit board and I'm not that invested in a project like this to deal with that.


And assuming I can get the video out working from that connector if not I may be able to tie into those directly from the BGA connector of the OMAP.
 
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And assuming I can get the video out working from that connector if not I may be able to tie into those directly from the BGA connector of the OMAP.
You do know that BGA means ball grid array. Meaning there are hundreds of tiny solder blobs between the circuit board and the chip - that is already quite tiny (pseudo-edit: the stack is the one marked OMAP NAND RAM: http://urjaman.dyndns.info/pandoraboard/index.html). And that the Pandora has a PoP (package on package) memory device "soldered" in a similar fashion above the OMAP chip. I'm saying 99% sure that one cannot attach anything (any type of wire) to many balls on the solder grid and still succesfully re-ball the whole PoP stack even with professional tools.


If the LCD output doesnt work on the board (unless it is only the LCD SPI configuration interface or something small like power), you propably will not be able to get any useful video out of the LCD interface. Actually, looking at that picture i provided, it might be possible but really unlikely that there is an error in the board after the voltage translator for the lcd. Then it might be possible to recover by just removing the translator and/or patching into the input pins on it. But if it is a CC corroded failure-board I think the failed solders are most likely in the BGA. Which would need some serious re-balling to make work if at all possible.
 
And assuming I can get the video out working from that connector if not I may be able to tie into those directly from the BGA connector of the OMAP.
You do know that BGA means ball grid array. Meaning there are hundreds of tiny solder blobs between the circuit board and the chip - that is already quite tiny (pseudo-edit: the stack is the one marked OMAP NAND RAM: http://urjaman.dyndn...oard/index.html). And that the Pandora has a PoP (package on package) memory device "soldered" in a similar fashion above the OMAP chip. I'm saying 99% sure that one cannot attach anything (any type of wire) to many balls on the solder grid and still succesfully re-ball the whole PoP stack even with professional tools.


If the LCD output doesnt work on the board (unless it is only the LCD SPI configuration interface or something small like power), you propably will not be able to get any useful video out of the LCD interface. Actually, looking at that picture i provided, it might be possible but really unlikely that there is an error in the board after the voltage translator for the lcd. Then it might be possible to recover by just removing the translator and/or patching into the input pins on it. But if it is a CC corroded failure-board I think the failed solders are most likely in the BGA. Which would need some serious re-balling to make work if at all possible.

I do know what BGA mean, I do develop test solutions for ASICs and Custom processors for a living. I was hoping that back side of the board would have some traces. But I suppose that it most likely doesn't have traces through all layers of the board.. I know there would be some debug work, I was hoping it would be just something simple like power like you said or just connection issue with a component.


As for the corrosion issue, at work I do have access to some High temperature ovens designed to reflow the connections of the wafer die and the ceramic substrate for FCBGAs. It's typically used for individual modules.. but I could just depopulate anything that would easily melt and see that may fix it, if not break it worse.. Like I said, it's just a project for fun..
 
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Yeah dont say "BGA connector" or you make me WTF. That just sounds so bad that it made me feel that you had no idea of what that is... sorry. Connector brings to me mind HD-15s, minijacks, usb ports, ribbon cables and such things. For me even a CPU socket (or those old-fashion DIL/PLCC sockets) is a bit of a reach to call a connector, so what you said made it feel like you think there is something atleast as easy-to-use as the real lcd connector (pictured also) between the OMAP and the board.
 
Well, we got some Pandora boards from CC that work but don't have proper video output... these could be sold for cheap for such projects.

I remember for a while you guys were thinking about selling something like this. I think the Pandora Console or some such thing. Unless I'm mistaken, that got shelved in large part due to the supply problems and the fact that it would require additional work that wouldn't help with getting Pandoras shipped.


Also, IIRC the price you guys would have had to have charged would have made it unlikely to sell well enough anyways.
 
Well, we got some Pandora boards from CC that work but don't have proper video output... these could be sold for cheap for such projects.

I remember for a while you guys were thinking about selling something like this. I think the Pandora Console or some such thing. Unless I'm mistaken, that got shelved in large part due to the supply problems and the fact that it would require additional work that wouldn't help with getting Pandoras shipped.


Also, IIRC the price you guys would have had to have charged would have made it unlikely to sell well enough anyways.
But if they had a few lying around that were doing nobody any good and someone WANTED one...no reason one couldn't be sold to them...you never know it just might fund another user on the waiting list.
 
Ed, how much would you charge for such a board?


I could imagine an interesting project:


A Steampunk Picture Frame. :)


Take an old tube TV for a few bucks or for free, a Pandora board, and a TV Out cable.


Simply auto-start an image viewer in slide-show mode (full-screen), using a certain directory on the SD card as image source.


Okay, it would consume quite a lot of power while running, due to the tube, and it takes a lot of space, because the tube TVs are bulky.


Of course a flat screen would also do, but that would not be that cheap.


Another interesting use for a headless Pandora could be a personal server. Web server, FTP, maybe UPnP, NAS,...


Maintenance could be done using ssh (-x) access.
 
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