Just to catch up, here are some of the updates for July:
- Final AV connector has been selected. It has enough pins to support line level inputs and outputs, TV output, UART, power and some GPIOS. It has 14 pins but looks like a larger USB OTG port so it has a lot of strength for hanging cables off of it.
- The new analog nubs will be showcased on final pre-production PCBs in August. They are all black with 2mm of travel in each direction. They have a nice smooth travel, but no center click. It was debatable whether this feature would have been a pain due to accidental pressing anyway. The nubs have a large 15mm diameter disc with a concave surface. Their position in the Pandora has remained the same as before due to some constructive negotiations with the nub manufacturer.
- Wifi/BT is now integrated into the final pre-production PCB. Software testing will begin in August.
- Several emulators that run on the GP2X have been ported over to Pandora to show that they work and that everything you have come to enjoy up to this point will carry over with no trouble, and in many cases (where needed), run faster.
- Early testing of the battery at 500MHz, full screen brightness, audio section powered but not providing sound, and no power management has yielded 8.5 hours before the system shut down. A lot of software can run at slower speeds, plus screen brightness control and power management should make 10 hours an easy reality.
drk||Raziel has posted some very interesting news for fans of his Dreamcast Emulator and also those interested in getting a Pandora Console and owners of PS3 and Nintendo Wii
After the code is cleaned up/rewriten there are plans to port to pandora and possibly other consoles (wii seems like a nice target, ps3 if theres a way to get 3D access). ALL THIS MAY(OR MAY NOT) COME AFTER THE CODE IS REWRITEN, SO DONT ASK ABOUT IT NOW(you’l just waste your time, realy). The code will be open sourced as soon as it gets stable.
Craig one of the forces behind the Pandora Console posted this Pandora News
Hello everyone, Craig here,
It's been a busy month and if you visit the forums I'm sure you will have been following all the recent news posted there, if not Chip has made a great sticky post with all the little nuggets of information we post which is updated almost immediately, well worth checking out.
Now, interesting news for those of you who didn't get a MK0 dev kit, TI have now started taking orders for the Beagle board OMAP3 development kit. It shares some main parts with the Pandora and those of you eager to get in to the development scene can buy one of these now, check out their site for more info, programs written on the Beagle should be quite easy to port over to the Pandora, it is certainly the closest thing to a Pandora devboard you can currently buy on the open market.
Now, there have been a lot of videos posted in the last few weeks of Pandora dev kits running software, here are the direct links to some and we will post a highlights video soon.
Now, another area which has a lot of strong opinions is the Pandora default GUI.
The original plan was keep the GUI simple and put as much time and effort in to getting as much cool software running as possible, but after a poll we have changed direction.
Since most potential customers seem to want a more advanced GUI as standard it's likely the default will be kDrive (X11 derivative) and any CPU intensive apps/games/emus can just kill kDrive when ran, set their CPU speed, have the system to themselves and just reload kDrive on exit.
For less CPU intensive games/apps/emus they can just run within X, so you can have your desktop like GUI (if you chose to set it up like that) with multitasking (ideal for browsers, media, chat).
Currently the Pandora defaults to 500mhz. As we know it can clock a lot higher. You will be able to change that to whatever you like, as you may have read the battery life is looking like it will be even longer than the estimated 10 hours, and clever CPU speed changes will be the key to optimising this even further.
We will have a real final MK0 Pandora complete with case later this month for photo goodness, if you write for a website or magazine and want to do a feature please get in touch.
Here are some size photos with the latest FDM. The LCD is in, the PCB isn't as that would have involved me fitting every key one by one by hand!
These photos mostly show how small it is, the video will show how well the control layout works and how it is very much like playing games using a classic SNES Dpad.
The Homebrew Community is bigger now than it has ever been, more sites from all corners of the world cover it and more consoles are now open to emulators and Homebrew games and applications.
The Mainstream have even embraced the homebrew community but also some sites taint the homebrew scene by posting apps and news that is clear piracy, but the good sites and users are far more widespread than the bad ones.
The Homebrew scene in each console has to fight against efforts to stop homebrew. But soon a console called the Pandora may persuade all of us to maybe add one to our collection, the price wont be the cheapest, for those in the USA it may be as high as 330 dollars but what youll be getting is a console thats basically as powerful as an Xbox.
The Pandora wont replace our Wiis, PS3, PSP or DS because commercial games unless it does extremely well wont be much of a factor but if you like homebrew and to be fair most who come to DCEmu like homebrew, it will however be a very interesting console, already the list of homebrew coders developing for it reads like a whos who of the homebrew scene.
Whether your not interested or indeed are interested theres no doubt that a new dawn of homebrew is coming, it should make every homebrew scene even more open to the mainstream and thats something that benefits us all.
Perhaps a pre-preorder for GP32X people can be established on September 15th for those who know they want one and don't mind paying sooner to guarantee their system? I guess that will be up to individuals to decide; totally optional of course.
This is my closest estimate based on lead times I see today. The 13th is my birthday, but mid-November is more accurate. smile.gif Sorry, it's a big project with few people. I'm trying for October, but why kid myself? This is more realistic. The launch will happen, but it will blow every time line we have ever established. Everyone here knows this isn't being done by a huge company with a mega staff so I truly hope the core of this community understands and respects that. As Craig always says, this has to be done right the first time.
Anyone who thinks they can come along and just whip one of these devices out (like the Zephyr) is totally kidding themselves. It is a huge, huge task! I haven't seen Chad in a while but I'm sure he'll be back to rip me a new one, but what can I do? I'm just one guy and I am already on this seven days a week. My focus will remain to make solid hardware, a strong functional case and a stable kernel with support for every piece of silicon inside the Pandora. That is basically what I am attempting to wrap up over the next few weeks. I already have a nice list of things based on the last batch of prototypes. As far as any application software goes, I really don't care. That's the easy part that any code savvy person can handle and we have lots of people dying to jump in on that.
There really isn't any "secretive crap". It just seems like nothing takes the time expected. We lost an entire two months with slow assembly and broken boards. It was a freakin' nightmare but now we are moving ahead again. We have to post some estimation date on the website for people viewing the site to see that this is in development and not some far off in 2009 project and at the time of posting, it always seems logical to expect completion by that date.
Basically, it's nothing new - a Pandora DevBoard running some emulators. Okay, this time, it'll also show some Linux
BUT: Those videos are HiRes Enjoy them!
Some notes:
* Yup, I know Dinosaurs & Cadillacs as well as Picodrive is a bit blurred. I realized that while editing but didn't have the time to reshoot it.
* I know the graphic overlays I did look a bit cheap... as I'm going to the GC tomorrow and had some other work to do today, I didn't have time to make much of a real design here. I thought you wanted to see something quick instead of waiting a few days just for nicer overlays After all... this is no commercial... it's some nice video for you guys here on the boards
* The LCD looks a bit like it smears with the 720p and 640x360 videos. That's because of the downconversion from i to p. It's smooth in real life
Most of you might have heard of the Games Convention in Leipzig - the biggest European Games exhibition.
Well, I've been there (together with the mysterious girl in red who is on our openpandora.org frontpage). Not as an exhibitor - as I don't have the final Pandora case yet. But as visitor... with a fully working Pandora MK0 Devkit in my bag. And a preview-case.
I had some appointments with different magazines and webzines there - and they were all baffled how well the controls of our little unit are layouted. And impressed by the few emulators I showed them on the system.
Interest was VERY high among those who saw the system.
Chip.de a major magazine in Germany even did a nice interview with me and mentioned the Pandora as "secret highlight" of the Games Convention. A very nice video. new post by EvilDragon on the pandora dev blog
While public press is good, here is something that might be of higher interest for some of you:
RedSpotGames, publisher for Last Hope and Wind & Water Puzzle Battles for the Dreamcast announced that they will produce and publish commercial games for the Pandora. They already have some licenses for ports (I can't tell the titles here), this als means there will be most probably an enhanced version of Wind & Water Puzzle Battles, one of the greatest puzzle games I know!
So, interest is high here in Germany, things are looking good.
What else did we see at the GC? Hmm. Nothing special. Except for Hall 2, which was the retro hall with tons of Arcade machines and old computers and consoles. That was some great fun!
To help all users who visit our Sites we are asking for the DCEmu Public to help us gather as many links for each console and a little bit of info about the site in question.
It Should start like this, for example heres our site that covers Pandora
Description - DCEmus Site that covers all things Pandora such as Emulators, Homebrew, Development, Hacking, Gaming and Hardware News with discussion forums too.
Please add as many Pandora sites to the list as you know
I thought you might be interested seeing a few renders of the latest case (the nearly-final one, but still missing holes for the LEDs and the touchpen).
I know the lightnings a bit dark and the resolution a bit low.
I was in a rush as I'm going to an exhibition for the next days - and I wanted to show you the renders before that.
When I get back next week, I can do higher res renders or do some closeups.
