"the Zephyr", And Other Potential Pandora Rivals


nubie

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I just wanted to post about this thread: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?act=S...=28&t=43590

I like the "idea" of "another console", not in the way you might be thinking though.

What if you could transform the BeagleBoard into a console? They are $150 and come with just about everything.

This way anybody who wanted their own with a slide keyboard or a 7" mini laptop style Pandora would be all set to go.

Think of it as a benheck way to sell the Pandora.

As long as there is support for the Pandora OS/Gui/apps/games/emulators/media players on the BeagleBoard this could work right?

It wouldn't really "compete" with the Pandora as it wouldn't be nearly as small or "together", besides the fact that there is no way to build anything like the Pandora for $330 on your own. (lithium Ion, Dual SD, touchscreen, case, keyboard, wifi and BT just to name a few.)

What you DO get is DVI/HDMI video output (DVI and HDMI are really the same for video), and a lower price point.

This is perfect for ideas like this "pandora/PSP clone" as they can play with the beagleboard and be part of the community on the software side while they enjoy their own hardware features.

I wouldn't even mind $200 knock-off pandoras based on the BeagleBoard, cause lets face it, they will never be as good and you will always buy a pandora anyway. I am sure there is a way to slap a crap LCD and some buttons into a case with the BeagleBoard and sell it for $50. It probably would need 6 AA batteries or a wall charger, and they wouldn't be included. But hey, opportunity is the mother of chinese crap.

You might notice that myself and other board members sport benheck style projects in our sigs, I am sure that a BeagleBoard spinoff of the Pandora software will be forthcoming (and who knows, maybe most of the homebrew/emulators would work on a BeagleBoard with the Pandora OS on it?)
 
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I've only gotta say one thing. Fly away on my zephyr..Were gonna live forever Forever! XD
 
nubie said:
I am sure there is a way to slap a crap LCD and some buttons into a case with the BeagleBoard and sell it for $50.
Do you think that $50 is realistic? I'm not convinced it could be modded for that amount, never mind sell it for $50?

What controllers would you use, ie internal or external? That could be a significant chunk of your $50.

Why not compile a list of parts, with prices, to achieve this - you could update it in the first post.
 
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tkeely4777 said:
I've only gotta say one thing. Fly away on my zephyr..Were gonna live forever Forever! XD




I've never actually seen tumbleweed go through a forum before. Well done.
 
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TaG said:
nubie said:
I am sure there is a way to slap a crap LCD and some buttons into a case with the BeagleBoard and sell it for $50.
Do you think that $50 is realistic? I'm not convinced it could be modded for that amount, never mind sell it for $50?

What controllers would you use, ie internal or external? That could be a significant chunk of your $50.

Why not compile a list of parts, with prices, to achieve this - you could update it in the first post.

Interesting. I was thinking that an LCD isn't hard to come by in China with good bulk prices.

The shell could be really cheap crap, it could look like a PSP for all I care.

Buttons might as well be just membrane switches. Ditch the keyboard or use a USB or Serial keyboard (not included). I don't care about the analog controls, it won't have the touchscreen anyway.

My theory is that there are already game systems selling for $30 with a screen and shell and a couple buttons. Just make one that a BeagleBoard drops into and sell it.

If a Chinese company was to do this they would likely make their own PCB for cost reasons.

If you wanted to build a competitor and you started with a BeagleBoard you would be a heck of a lot closer without much effort or cash outlay at all.

It wouldn't really need to be cheaper, especially if you are looking at a 7" DVI screen laptop style one (and why not? It would make a heck of a good media player!)

This is kind of directed toward all the people who come on here asking for feature/form factor X, Y, and Z. Instead of bitching they can get a BeagleBoard, DVI monitor, USB keyboard, and take a trip to Benheck.com to learn all about how to build their own console.

The beauty is that it can never compete with the Pandora, the Pandora will still be smaller and better designed and have all these cool features, and be cheaper ;). But it will still fulfill the niche for crazies like me who want a 7" PSP form factor handheld that can connect to an HDTV with HDMI.
Fishbong said:
Hm, nice idea. So if the BeagleBoard ran the Pandora OS, would there be 100% software compatibility between the two?
Well, I am thinking that it will be compatible as far as the devs allow. I think some of the devs are currently using Beagle Boards :D.

Basically if games allow the OS (Linux) to handle everything (SDL for input/output, X for video, OpenGL for acceleration), then theoretically any device using the same OMAP processor and Linux with the proper libraries should run the game.

I don't know yet if this will happen. I would like to know how the Pandora Specific controls/touchscreen will present themselves to the system, and if this can be faked with a simple driver on other OMAP systems when the application doesn't support standard USB.

I am hoping that the Pandora OS supports USB as a main control interface out of the box (or so soon after that we don't get incompatible programs).

I am sure that people who just want to code for any OMAP with SGX will probably choose BeagleBoard, so maybe Beagleboard will have more software than Pandora for the first couple months and we will be porting BeagleBoard apps to the Pandora :).

As long as everything is open and simple I hope the SDK will be geared toward producing platform agnostic OMAP compatible programs (assuming you have the correct libraries.)

We just don't know though, currently the BeagleBoard is sold out (at DigiKey), and the Pandora isn't released yet.
 
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The thoughts here and the posts on the other thread are similar. What is your preference - BeagleBoard, PandaBoard or both? What would sway a decision in favour of one or the other?

There was a discussion on BeagleBoard about hooking up an LCD Panel. The final post was: QUOTE
Subject: DVI-D to LCD panel conversion

There is a way to purchase a DVI-D to LVDS board for $40. But it limits you to a LVDS panels. As the output is 1.8V on the OMAP3, buffers need to be added to convert it to a higher voltage to support a typical LCD panel.

If we added $25 in cost to the board to support this feature, is it worth it? Would the community pay $175?

Gerald (Covey)

The Pandora board appears to have the keyboard and sticks contacts etc attached direct which if not used would be an added and pointless expense. It has connectors for a panel display. It also cannot be used to hook up to a normal monitor. But it may not be an option if the dev's won't sell spare boards.

Beagle has the HDMI/DVI connector, but currently no LCD panel connector. In fact the Beagle appears to be a bit unusual as the OMAP SoC is generally perceived as being for an embedded device but can't easily be used to put together an embedded device in it's current form, unless I've missed something.

So you have to make fundamental choices at a very early stage.
 
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TaG said:
The thoughts here and the posts on the other thread are similar. What is your preference - BeagleBoard, PandaBoard or both? What would sway a decision in favour of one or the other?

There was a discussion on BeagleBoard about hooking up an LCD Panel. The final post was: QUOTE
Subject: DVI-D to LCD panel conversion

There is a way to purchase a DVI-D to LVDS board for $40. But it limits you to a LVDS panels. As the output is 1.8V on the OMAP3, buffers need to be added to convert it to a higher voltage to support a typical LCD panel.

If we added $25 in cost to the board to support this feature, is it worth it? Would the community pay $175?

Gerald (Covey)

The Pandora board appears to have the keyboard and sticks contacts etc attached direct which if not used would be an added and pointless expense. It has connectors for a panel display. It also cannot be used to hook up to a normal monitor. But it may not be an option if the dev's won't sell spare boards.

Beagle has the HDMI/DVI connector, but currently no LCD panel connector. In fact the Beagle appears to be a bit unusual as the OMAP SoC is generally perceived as being for an embedded device but can't easily be used to put together an embedded device in it's current form, unless I've missed something.

So you have to make fundamental choices at a very early stage.


You make several interesting points. You can use an inexpensive S-Video screen from an ebay/second hand DVD player if you wanted to DIY.

See posts by Bacteria, or his sig (I don't know what he is called on the benheck forums ), he made the GP2X into a rotating screen device so that he could play the portrait games.

The cost can be higher for a unit with a bigger screen or a higher resolution. The Beagle offers this, the Pandora does not.

I honestly don't know whether modifying the Pandora mainboard or the Beagle board would be easier. I have also not researched whether there is an LCD monitor that accepts DVI.

What would sway me? I can't honestly say, I don't think there are enough of either in the wild to let me know how the software or hardware interfaces. If the Pandora bare board would work as a bare board with USB devices and cost under $200 then I would say it is clearly the winner for a portable. (assuming you could later add the screen, even if it was just into a custom case). On the other hand the BeagleBoard seems to win the console and media player side because it has DVI and such low cost. I have no money and don't really use portables, so the Beagle looks good to me (unless of course it wouldn't support the OS/software/homebrew, then the Pandora board would almost be a necessity.)

Knowing that the Pandora OS and any SDK/minimal library would work cross-platform would be enough for me to look at the Beagleboard seriously. It would make a KILLER media center or game console with the right software.

If I was looking into production I would check to see how cheap connecting up the screen in the same manner as the Pandora.

Honestly S-Video would be fine for movies or playing games on a handheld, then you could connect to an HDTV or a monitor for other uses.

I have seen those LVDS boards from when I was active on the Lumenlab forums, they do add to the cost.

What I figured was that it didn't really matter if the project wound up more expensive, as you were getting a custom setup instead of one you might not like (I love the pandora though, just can't afford it.)

You could also build it cheaper if you couldn't afford or didn't need all the features and just wanted to use the software in a simple console (or maybe you have an old LCD from a DVD player that can take S-Video).
 
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nubie said:
or a 7" mini laptop style Pandora
I wonder if the VIA OpenBook CAD files would be useful for something like this, at some point...? :p (I know that ARM SoCs are meant to start showing up in mini-laptops at some point soonish, but it still might be cool to make something out of a BeagleBoard by one's self. :p)
 
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