Pyra dock connections.


An important note to add about the dock it has to be portable  in the sense that I could pick it up and move it accross the room 
Yes, across a room, not in a typical pocket, which I don't see happening with the size of the Pyra.  I may be alone in thinking that the dock shouldn't be intended as a protective shell while carrying your Pyra around.  It is intended as a dock, to make it easier for you to connect everything you are going to use when using it at home or the office.  I have never seen a laptop dock that was designed to protect the computer in transit, and it seems to go against the purpose (I don't see docks following ships around the ocean).
 
Id much rather have a dock i can use for general purpose than one that is custom to the pyra.

Without long cables it can still be used for RaspberryPi or other such development boards, which im sure im not the only one who has.
 
Id much rather have a dock i can use for general purpose than one that is custom to the pyra.
That already exists, it's called a USB hub :p Plus a few extras, of course, the point being that everything that people want in a dock can already be purchased individually and strapped together to form a general purpose block that can be used with other devices, the only thing a Pyra one would have going for it would be to be specifically designed to fit the Pyra.
 
Any news on this topic? Will there be a docking station available at launch date? 
 
Why can't the dock be both top and front loading, just be able reorient the dock? Have the ports on the side or top. Or on the back and have a thing that raises the dock off its surface to allow the cables to bend out of the way.
 
Any news on this topic? Will there be a docking station available at launch date? 

I doubt it. The design team is tiny, and the Pyra itself takes priority.
Once the Pyra is finished, tested and in production, then there will be time to spend on developing a dock.
 
Regarding gigabit ethernet being useless, might it be more useful if one were to use both SD cards at once?
 
Regarding gigabit ethernet being useless, might it be more useful if one were to use both SD cards at once?

Not sure what use cases you are talking about and prior comments in this thread about it being useless was humo(u)r/sarcasm... If the docking station makes use of the USB 3.0 otg port, it's possible that it may just have gigabit ethernet. right now nothing is known about the dock as far as I know it's still just a concept.
 
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Oh, I didn't realize that it was not serious. Anyway one use case would be downloading file a to card a and file b to card b to eliminate the card write speed as a bottleneck.

I also imagine that some sort of raid-like system could be developed to increase performance.
 
I doubt it. The design team is tiny, and the Pyra itself takes priority.
Once the Pyra is finished, tested and in production, then there will be time to spend on developing a dock.

Probably - I didn't really expect it to be ready by then but was hoping for something more concrete.
A docking station would make a Pyra an instant buy for me - looking for a silent laptop replacement.   
 
I doubt it. The design team is tiny, and the Pyra itself takes priority.Once the Pyra is finished, tested and in production, then there will be time to spend on developing a dock.

Probably - I didn't really expect it to be ready by then but was hoping for something more concrete.
A docking station would make a Pyra an instant buy for me - looking for a silent laptop replacement.   
So - having to plug three cables into the Pyra (power, USB, HDMI) instead of the Pyra into one giant molded contraption is enough of a detractor for you to not buy it?

I thought of something around the dock that I'm not sure has been covered above.

The back of the Pyra is a collection of ports all soldered to a single motherboard - but their orientation in space is otherwise unrelated.  Since there is no unified 'docking port', the 'dock' would have to plug into the entire port array.  In theory they're all pointed directly out the back, perfectly flat, parallel and perpendicular to each other.  So - again, in theory, a 'dock' would have the male equivalent of all of the Pyra's ports arrayed in the exact same pattern, plane, pitch and yaw.  

If either the ports on the Pya or the plugs on the dock are not, "so close to perfect as to be immeasurable in difference," there could be issues.  Being off by fractions of a degree in angle (pitch and yaw) or depth on any of the collection on either device could cause the whole thing to put undue strain on the ports.

Maybe the plugs in the dock would need to be mounted independently in silicone or other flexible material to allow some amount of flexibility in port position, depth and angle then wired back to a common board with it's own duplicated ports?
 
So - having to plug three cables into the Pyra (power, USB, HDMI) instead of the Pyra into one giant molded contraption is enough of a detractor for you to not buy it?

uhm.. yes. I already have an old laptop with docking station that is still working fine and a Pandora. Basically pleased with both, but being able to replace a Pandora and the laptop would be a huge upgrade. I don't like to mess around with a couple of cables and love the docking station I use at home and at work. That doesn't mean I will never change my mind and buy one anyway. 
 
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There is nothing stopping anyone from designing a dock themselves on their free time (!=mass produce).  Aren't the basic 3D designs already out there?  If anything, you may get accurate measurements from various photos within the forums.  Could give some bored sap something to do with their time  :p

The measurements for the connector locations would have to be accurate to avoid any stress on them. Better to use the case model files,
 
There is nothing stopping anyone from designing a dock themselves on their free time (!=mass produce).  Aren't the basic 3D designs already out there?  If anything, you may get accurate measurements from various photos within the forums.  Could give some bored sap something to do with their time  :p

The measurements for the connector locations would have to be accurate to avoid any stress on them. Better to use the case model files,
But, how close are the tolerances in relative placement with depth/height/pitch/yaw for each component in relation to each other?

Just pretend...
If the microUSB 3.0 port is 'dead on' left to right, but has a variability of +/- 1 degree in pitch and +/-0.05 mm in depth, just due to inherent variability in the board population process, the board would still function just fine.

Now picture each one of the ports, microUSB 3.0, USB 2.0, quasi USB 2.0+SATA, microUSB charging, microHDMI, each being independently operating and within mounting spec but 'off' relative to each other in some direction.  It may not be possible to build a single inflexible 'dock bar' that can directly insert into all of them simultaneously without jamming or stressing the ports.

I could be off in space on this one though - I have no idea if the tolerances may be adequate to 100% dead nuts on 5 different ports to all hold the exact same pitch & yaw to all point exactly parallel paths through space in all 3 dimensions.  My thoughts are that such a thing would be incredibly hard to accomplish - and is likely the reason why big computer companies resorted to special large docking ports - which there isn't room for.
 
Yeah, I can see the probable issues there. My main point was that "you may get accurate measurements from various photos within the forums" is almost certainly too inaccurate.
 
Yeah, I can see the probable issues there. My main point was that "you may get accurate measurements from various photos within the forums" is almost certainly too inaccurate.

If such a thing is going to work, they could almost need a 'perfect jig' that plugs into all of the rear ports simultaneously and holds them all 'perfect' relative to each other during the board population process while the board goes through the flow-cooling stages.

Something like that or have the ports on the dock mount into a flexible silicone frame with wires/plugs back to the dock's main board so that each plug can have some degree of angular 'wiggle room'.

Either one strikes me as potentially quite expensive.
 
If such a thing is going to work, they could almost need a 'perfect jig' that plugs into all of the rear ports simultaneously and holds them all 'perfect' relative to each other during the board population process while the board goes through the flow-cooling stages.

Ah, I thought the Pyra was created while having a dockingstation option in mind. It now seems to be an afterthought. I don't think something like this is going to work - or are there examples already developed (for other devices)?
 
If such a thing is going to work, they could almost need a 'perfect jig' that plugs into all of the rear ports simultaneously and holds them all 'perfect' relative to each other during the board population process while the board goes through the flow-cooling stages.

Ah, I thought the Pyra was created while having a dockingstation option in mind. It now seems to be an afterthought. I don't think something like this is going to work - or are there examples already developed (for other devices)?
Macbook Pro series for example don't have a dedicated docking solution, but third parties have made docking stations that break out the existing ports. 

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/infiniWing, Inc./LZ008A/?utm_source=Criteo&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=Criteo
or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1100943&gclid=CjwKEAjwhdOwBRDFsYTfhvzX1hYSJAAfCUcLVSSkjMcrEU06pzgfxyvelutfY441D130orlpkoDA5RoCw4bw_wcB&is=REG&m=Y&Q=&A=details
 
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