Yet another of these: My ideas for a pandora 2


slaeshjag

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Since there aren't enough of these or flamebait overall, I decided to waste a few hours of my morning thinking this up.

Flaws I would like to see fixed:

 

  • Better battery contact system. I'm tired of my pandora resetting all the time when I'm using it.
  • Better case around the battery. Mine's bulging a bit even though the battery is completely flat.
  • Better nub controller. And make the ICP lines accessable for the system so that any community attempt at making a better controller firmware is eased, in case the improved firmware is still crappy.
  • Battery isolation. When the battery is done charging, the system must be capable of disconnecting it so that the system can continue running from AC. The current situation is just ridiculous.
  • The case overall could do with a quality upgrade. Anyone had an old gameboy? Those things felt indestructable. My pandora started chipping off corners of its case while sitting untouched on a shelf :|

Future CPU/memory upgrades etc.:

Something that has been mentioned as attractive by some is having the board upgradeable with a new CPU. I'm imagining this as a tiny daughterboard simlar in size to the Gumstix® modules. This would connect via two high-density board-to-board connector, one on each short-side. These connectors should bring out all the system io needed (USB, LCD, HDMI, I²C, SDIO etc...) This interface should be kept for as long as possible, for the boards to remain forward and backwards compatible.

 

Where to mount it? I suggest making the pandora one cm wider, and making the battery 16 mm shorter (from 136 mm wide, according to my mesurements, might be a mm less) to 120 mm. The loss in capacity will be compensated by increasing the battery thickness from 7 mm to 8 mm.

((120 * 45 * 8) / (136 * 45 * 7) = 1.00840336 -> pretty much no change in volume.)

I know the idea of making the pandora thicker isn't liked by everyone, but I'm sure craigs visions could be used to flatten the overall unit out by more than 1 mm.

 

This side compartment will create a space approx 25 mm wide, 8 mm high and 55 mm deep. In this space, I would hope it's possible to squeeze in the CPU/RAM module, an extra side-ways mounted headphone jack and maybe, just maybe, a small PCB holding two full SD card slots, one on each side of the PCB.

 

The main PCB would now serve as an IO port board with one side used to mount keyboard/buttons/nubs and all the connectors. Not to mention all aux hardware like sound hardware, WiFi/bluetooth etc..)

 

Among connectors, I would like to see analogue video out. However, I doubt this is a very wanted feature, sadly. So the main board would externally hold

  • two headphone jacks
  • volume wheel
  • power switch
  • two shoulder buttons (I'd really really like four, but I can't see how this would be done,)
  • HDMI out
  • some connector bringing out: I²C, UART and possibly line-in
  • mini OTG USB
  • USB host port
  • DC jack.
Internally, a µSD card slot would be mounted and accessed via a cut-out in the battery compartment. Maybe it should be considrered to mount the USB host connector on a board of its own, to make it replaceable for heavy users.

Software:

 I like the idea of the PND system, but it could use some shaving (eheh, get it? No? Didn't think so.) And the system needs to be easier to maintained so that we aren't stuck with system libs from the middle ages. Hopefully, .next will solve this. Whenever that become a reality. Android as the only officially supported system would make me leave this community without hesitation, as it is clearly wicked.

Just some ideas that has popped up in my head over time.
 
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  • two shoulder buttons (I'd really really like four, but I can't see how this would be done,)
Four shoulder buttons are indeed possible if we place functionality before form. A la nVidia Shield:

wi-fi_connectivity.png


I understand this device will be less pocketable than the P1, and quite frankly the more I think about it the more I prefer it over the alternative of an inferior controller.

All in all, I like the ideas, hopefully the fixes will be focused on first. But since our first glimpses of the device through Craig's eyes show a very different device, the fixes may not even be necessary or relevant.
 
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Why exactly is the current battery situation ridiculous ?

Leaving the now and then appearing bugs aside the Pandora more or less implements industry standard behaviour when its about using thresholds during chargeing. I know of no device that disconnects (do you mean physically ?) the battery after the chargiung process is finished.

Regarding the shoulder buttons: what about arranging them beside one another instead of ontop (like - |  L1 |  L2 |  ......................... |  R2  |  R1 | ) ?
 
Every laptop I've had with an Li-on battery has managed to keep 100% charge without blowing up the battery. My problem with the current situation is that it doesn't work well. It is not uncommon for me to unplug my pandora in the morning and it's at like 80% battery.

I have thought of side-ways arranged shoulder buttons, but would that really work comfortably? I find the current ones bad enough.
 
Every laptop I've had with an Li-on battery has managed to keep 100% charge without blowing up the battery. My problem with the current situation is that it doesn't work well. It is not uncommon for me to unplug my pandora in the morning and it's at like 80% battery.
They use charging thresholds too - in devices from some manufactureres the battery is even used to compensate short power demand surges. They have to use thresholds as even if the battery is physically disconnected the battery looses its charge. WizardStand and notaz had to do a lot of trial and error and testing and came up with the charging mechanisms as it is right now. It is not optimal and possibly depends heavly on part tolerances, as I never experienced the behaviour you descibe (with both my CC and the RB Model). The battery usually is charged in the range between 93% and 97% when I disconnect it.

I have thought of side-ways arranged shoulder buttons, but would that really work comfortably? I find the current ones bad enough.
There are some cheap handheld devices already around that implement them it that fashion. It won't be optimal, but having the devices size as a constraint it may be a good compromise. I agree on that the current ones need a heavy redesign, I would suggest not using the whole edge of the P2 beeing the button, they get activated too easily (which can be very annoying, especially in combination with the key mapping of the current rockbox build).
 
Your plan creates more PCB area, and takes the big complicated chips off the peripheral board.

In fact, another 26cm2 (more if you keep a full-width peripheral board) of it.

Thats more than enough for two fullSDXC slots, isn't it?
 
Possibly. I guess as few boards as possible is desirable. But it also depends on how much crap is wanted on the board that isn't there now.
 
I say the processor board should have pins for:

  • digital video out 0
  • digital video out 1
  • USB3.0
  • SDIO
  • I2C
  • Line IN
  • Line Out
  • Mic
  • Power
The peripheral board should have connectors for

  • internal display
  • HDMI/ out
  • headset
  • line in
  • volume wheel
  • internal speakers
  • fullSDXC4.0
  • Internal fullUSB3.0 - use for 400MB/s data storage (using a tiny USB thumbdrive) or something else
  • external USB3.0
  • microUSBotg
 
Dunno - Ask someone who understands audio hardware design :unsure:
 
I don't know what your pockets are like, but mine are deeper than the pandora is wide. It slides down and abuses the headphone connector badly.
 
I don't know what your pockets are like, but mine are deeper than the pandora is wide. It slides down and abuses the headphone connector badly.
I can't say that i've had that problem thankfully, but I can see where you're coming from.
 
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Wouldn't it be nice if the screen could be spun around to play Portrait orientated games. 
 
Regarding the shoulder buttons: what about arranging them beside one another instead of ontop (like - |  L1 |  L2 |  ......................... |  R2  |  R1 | ) ?
I have been repeating myself about that layout numerous times, it's the only possibility to arrange four shoulder buttons without making the console thicker than desired or the buttons smaller than usable, as seen on the Wii classic controller. The question is if there will be enough room left for all the connectors people want.

I don't know what your pockets are like, but mine are deeper than the pandora is wide. It slides down and abuses the headphone connector badly.
That's a real problem, I dislike using the pandora to listen music on the go for that reason. On the other side: having the headphone jack on the side would make the opa difficult to hold, when inserted the plug would stand out under one hand.
 
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