Rotating random stuff


EvilDragon

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Yay, I finally found the time to post some news!
Upgrading my shop (www.dragonbox.de) and visiting the "Lange Nacht der Computerspiele" ("Long night of computer games") in Leipzig, presenting the Pyra besides organizing various sides of Pyra development surely took quite a bit of time.

Let's start with...

1. The Rotator chip

We've come a long way here, Nikolaus, notaz and the Solomon Tech team were working together and we're not too far away from having it working properly!
There are a lot of parameters that have to be set to make it work, but most of them are now set up properly.
The only thing we're still working on are the timing settings for the video stream.
Setting up the chip and rotation are already working properly!

You can see that on the pictures:
 

DSC02227.JPGDSC02228.JPG

As mentioned, the video stream is not yet setup, so the display simply displays whatever random stuff is in the RAM of the rotator chip, but it's stable and the rotation is working properly as well.

Once the timing settings are correctly calculated and applied to the video stream, that chapter can be closed as well.

2. The LCD Cable

The LCD cable as well as the battery samples have arrived - unfortunately, we need to rework the cable a bit.

Connecting the panel leads to some video, but it's not stable and the display is flickering.

This is because it seems the traces are currently too weak for the power we need to send through them.
Nikolaus is currently measuring which traces need more width or thickness so everything gets through properly.

Apart from that, the cable looks and feels fantastic :)


lcdbatterie.jpg

3. The Battery

The battery fits nicely and doesn't wiggle around as the Pandora battery (so no padding needed anymore).

We've not yet run extensive tests, but it provides power ;)

As it's from the same manufacturer as the Pandora battery, we don't expect any issues here, as the Pandora battery has proved to be quite awesome :)

4. Some Power issues

Not all is well in Pyra-Land, but that's normal when doing some development.

Besides the LCD Cable, it seems some traces on the mainboard also are too thin for the power system.

The voltage that arrives at the LCD Panel is too little, and Nikolaus traced that down to be some traces.

He's now checking which ones exactly need to be a bit wider / thicker. It's no huge issue, but needs a bit of time to measure everything out.

So we're still moving forward. Some small issues like these were to be expected (we would be gods if everything worked fine from the beginning with such a complex system), but thankfully nothing major yet :)

I'll keep you posted :)
 
Great start to May!  Hoping to get the device by Christmas.  2016 will be a Lange Jahr der Computerspiele.
 
I see an arrow in the top-left corner of the (portrait) screen. That is weird "random stuff" in the RAM of the chip :)
 
Thanks for the news.

Have you decided on the TI wifi modules?
 
We've come a long way here, Nikolaus, notaz and the Solomon Tech team were working together and we're not too far away from having it working properly!

There are a lot of parameters that have to be set to make it work, but most of them are now set up properly.

The only thing we're still working on are the timing settings for the video stream.

Setting up the chip and rotation are already working properly!
Do other devices that use that chip and that display also had so much trouble? I mean it must be a bad chip when even with the help of the company that made the hardware need so much time to solve the issues
This is because it seems the traces are currently too weak for the power we need to send through them.
Sounds scary familiar.  :ph34r:   Please test the final cable samples ALOT before marking them as mass production ready.
Besides the LCD Cable, it seems some traces on the mainboard also are too thin for the power system.

The voltage that arrives at the LCD Panel is too little, and Nikolaus traced that down to be some traces.
Sounds like there is alot of power in the Pyra, right? ;)  
 
Do other devices that use that chip and that display also had so much trouble? I mean it must be a bad chip when even with the help of the company that made the hardware need so much time to solve the issues
Other devices have teams of engineers working on things like the display, we just have Nikolaus...
 
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This is wonderful! Thanks for the update, I'll be patiently waiting :)
 
We've come a long way here, Nikolaus, notaz and the Solomon Tech team were working together and we're not too far away from having it working properly!

There are a lot of parameters that have to be set to make it work, but most of them are now set up properly.

The only thing we're still working on are the timing settings for the video stream.

Setting up the chip and rotation are already working properly!
Do other devices that use that chip and that display also had so much trouble? I mean it must be a bad chip when even with the help of the company that made the hardware need so much time to solve the issues
That's perfectly normal, you just usually don't hear about that as that happens behind closed doors (and with engineering teams specialized to that, not just one electronic designer)

Every display has is own timings, setups, etc. and often datasheets with some stuff missing.

Just remember how long Nikolaus needed to get the LG Display to work, as well as the BOE one.

This is because it seems the traces are currently too weak for the power we need to send through them.
Sounds scary familiar.  :ph34r:   Please test the final cable samples ALOT before marking them as mass production ready.
It does?

I can't remember that issue before.

If you're talking about failing LCD Cables because the copper traces were too thick is something completely different than traces not wide enough to get enough power through. 
 
Other devices have teams of engineers working on things like the display, we just have Nikolaus...
...and Notaz and especialy Solomon Tech, which I actualy meant. ;)

That's perfectly normal, you just usually don't hear about that as that happens behind closed doors (and with engineering teams specialized to that, not just one electronic designer)


Every display has is own timings, setups, etc. and often datasheets with some stuff missing.


Just remember how long Nikolaus needed to get the LG Display to work, as well as the BOE one.
Sounds like that chip/display are the Internet Explorer 6 under that hardware. :D


I'm not an expert but woulden't "global" standards for such stuff make things ALOT easier than always specialized "island" solutions? I just don#t understand these companies. They WANT to make it complicated it seems.  :rolleyes:

If you're talking about failing LCD Cables because the copper traces were too thick is something completely different than traces not wide enough to get enough power through.
Yupp, that was my concern. I'm sure it will work out at the end, even if it sounds challenging to find the right spot between to thick and to thin traces on that cable.
 
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Other devices have teams of engineers working on things like the display, we just have Nikolaus...
...and Notaz and especialy Solomon Tech, which I actualy meant. ;)
Notaz will help with finding out the correct timings (and has helped with some register settings), but he's not the one to take care of the hardware part. 

That's perfectly normal, you just usually don't hear about that as that happens behind closed doors (and with engineering teams specialized to that, not just one electronic designer)

Every display has is own timings, setups, etc. and often datasheets with some stuff missing.

Just remember how long Nikolaus needed to get the LG Display to work, as well as the BOE one.
Sounds like that chip/display are the Internet Explorer 6 under that hardware. :D I'm not an expert but woulden't "global" standards for such stuff make things ALOT easier than always specialized "island" solutions? I just don#t understand these companies. They WANT to make it complicated it seems.  :rolleyes:
No idea what you mean with Internet Explorer 6, but there are Global Standards like MIPI, etc.

But each panel has different characteristics, timings, hardware, etc.

And your hardware needs to drive the panel properly, so you need to apply the timings.

You can't compare it with consumer standards like HDMI, as each HDMI device already has the timings set up for its panel.

But this needs to be done for every single LCD panel out there.

And it's no different with other hardware components like SoCs or other chips.

Industy isn't plugging together already finished developped devices via USB :)  
 
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