OpenPandora-Console

Good news, everyone! After some successful tests, it's time to move to the next step! If you followed the twitter posts, you know that Nikolaus was constantly working on the CPU board, and we have been able to do quite a few tests. But let's start at ... [More] the beginning...The CPU-Board with a slight failure We received the bare PCBs two weeks ago and after some fights with populating the RAM properly, we finally got the kernek to boot. However, it didn't reach the login screen, it hang while initializing the hardware components, so something was wrong. After investigating a bit, Nikolaus found out that there was a layout mistake in the CPU board: Two traces had been swapped - the communication line (I2C bus) between the CPU and the Powermanagement controller. Which means: the Powermanagement controller is running in some default mode (which is good enough to start and boot the kernel), but whenever Linux wanted to change some voltages (i.e. SD Card slot), it couldn't communicate with the controller and simply hang. That's why we couldn't get into the login screen. With some software workarounds Nikolaus managed to boot into Linux and was able to do some simple tests with the processor, for example showing the Heartbeat of the Linux system on an LED!You can see that here: (For those who don't know what the heartbeat is: It's basically some small timer built into a Linux system that triggers similar like a heartbeat and shows that the system is alive). What looks like some simple thing (probably one of the most expensive blinkenlights generator out there) was actually a breakthrough - as it showed that - except for the power controller - RAM and CPU are running stable (over hours and hours).The fix of the CPU-Board But of course, we'd like to test the FULL hardware, so what should we do? Unfortunately, swapping the traces with manual solderind won't work as the traces that need to be swapped are fully buried within the 10-layer PCB. So we either need to produce new CPU boards (takes about 5 weeks) or create some small PCBs that go between the powermanagement controller and CPU PCB so we can fix the boards we already have. We had hoped that those small inbetween PCBs could be produced cheaply within five days, but it turns out they'd cost about the same as new CPU boards and would take 3 weeks - so we wouldn't gain much here. Still, without full tests, we couldn't know whether there are any other bugs in the CPU boards, and waiting 5 weeks for more CPU boards only to find out they have some more issues would be annoying.Some more software workarounds Nikolaus tried some more patches - and that actually made it easier for us to make a decision how to continue! He was able to test a lot more of the Pyra hardware with these tests - so we now know the following: LEDs on the Mainboard work! USB works (a connected USB stick could be accessed) LTE Modem could be started and successfully found networks Keyboard, Nub and Touchpanel work fine! Not yet tested: SDIO devices (WLAN/BT/Audio), as we need to work on the device tree for that (which is what Nikolaus plans to do next) and MIPI Video Stream (turning on the backlight works).So yes, we got the CPU PCB plugged onto the main PCB working fine. And all of that was running stable for hours, without any issues! It shows that most likely, the swapped traces on the CPU PCB are the only issue we have with the CPU board, which is awesome news!Quick power consumption test With disabled power management and everything enabled except for the Wifi module, the rotator chip and the display (background lighting was on though) we had a power usage between 500mA and 900mA (so 2,5 - 4,5W), which is not too bad. It's similar to what the Pandora had before all the power management functions were properly included. With the battery of 30Wh, it would mean between 7 and 12 hours with all components enabled (even with LTE!). Take that with a grain of salt though - these are just a few quick tests, but they are very promising.The Plan! Okay, with that, we now actually have a plan! Test the remaining hardware with the current CPU Board, make some minor fixes to the main PCBs if needed. Fix the layout and order some more fixed CPU and mainboards (probably 10, maybe a few more), which will be produced "like mass production" (means: they will be fully populated with the machine) While waiting for these boards, assemble a prototype which can finally be used to demo the system... and take care of the preorders. Those newly produced units will be assembled and delivered to some developers to work on the software (should probably happen early to mid October) Once these units had been tested for a few weeks by multiple developers... it's time to give the green light for the mass production! And the rest of the parts? Oh yes, right. Keymat and case, haven't talked about those in a while now, have I? Well, the mould for the keymat is already in production and will be finished within this month. For those interested what the printing looks like, here you go:   As you can see, the power button is transparent. That is because there's an RGB LED below which can for example be used to show the battery status with a color, etc.We should receive samples within this month as well. The work on the case moulds has also begun now. The only area I still want to do some changes is the lid with the LCD, so they started with the moulds for the base parts. Until they are finished, I should have the changes for the lid finished and then they can work on these moulds as well.Moulds take about 2 months, so we should have samples early November as well. Stay tuned - we're getting there! [Less]

Whew - finally, I managed to find the time to make a newspost for you guys!The last one feels like an eternity away, since so much has happened.Why is the Pyra crying, you wonder?Well, I'll come to that later.First, let's start with...The GamesCom ... [More] 2015As you hopefully know, we attended the GamesCom this year (Hall 10.2, Retro-Area).Besides other stuff from my shop, we had a Pyra devboard with us and an assembled printed case.The interest was great and people were stunned of how many things you can run at the same time on the devboard.I wish I had a final prototype with me, but that didn't work out by a few days.If you are interested to see some pictures from our booth there, head to this thread.I also made a small video with the running devboard there - you can find that here:https://youtu.be/89cZHdEO-p8So much for the GamesCom, let's see what happened afterwards...The Pyra PCB CPU BoardsWhile we were at the GamesCom, the bare CPU PCBs finally arrived!We got 14 of them, and Nikolaus started to populate them right after he came back from holidays mid August. Unpopulated PCBsTo test them without wasting too many parts, we didn't immediately populate all of them, but rather only the power circuit first including some switches and other stuff that helps testing the power circuit. This is the testing setup stuff. PCB with only the Power circuit populatedThat way we could check that at least the power circuit was properly working before populating the expensive parts (OMAP5, RAM Chips).Nikolaus had to add some interim traces manually to the OMAP5 pins to be able to test all power sources - look what he did under the microscope! Some interim traces added manually to the OMAP5 padsAnd guess what: Those tests were all successfull!First step done - meaning: We can populate the important parts onto a few test PCBs!The OMAP5 didn't cause any issues - but the RAM chips didn't want to stay where they should.When soldering them, they were floating away, causing short circuits. One fully and one partly populated PCBIt took just one question to the manufacturer to find out the issue: It looks like our stencil mask for the solder paste is a bit too thin, therefore there's not enough solder on the pads.No big deal, just takes a few days to create a new stencil layer. Picture of the PCBs with the old stencil layerBut now... the MOST important part:Nikolaus connected a CPU board which had the OMAP5 but not the RAM chips populated.Switching it on... connecting the serial output to see the debug output from the OMAP5: U-Boot SPL 2013.01-gdc6238c (Mar 27 2013 - 14:33:47) OMAP5432 ES2.0 die_id1: 14fa5e2 Hack! Disabling faulty EMIF1 lisa_map_2: 0x80600200 SDRAM: identified size not same as expected size identified: 4 expected: 20000000 ### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ### The first signs of life from the Pyra prototype!It's working, but it's crying for RAM!IT'S ALIVE So, yep, we reached a new milestone:We KNOW the OMAP5 boots and works together with the mainboard. Of course, once we get the RAMs on, we need to check that ALL hardware aspects are actually working, but the most complex stuff is done and confirmed to be working.Hopefully, this or next week we'll have the RAMs populated properly and then... it's time for the prototype!Can't wait for this!Of course, I will keep you informed about all that.Feel free to ask for any questions here [Less]

No Prototypes for GamesCom I'm really sad to tell you that we won't have fully assembled prototypes ready for the GamesCom. The CPU PCB WAS to complex - the company that promised to be able to produce them within 5 days (for double the price) found ... [More] out they couldn't. They further increased the price and pushed back the delivery date to July 24th - but apparently, that still wasn't possible... we still didn't get the bare PCBs yet. So they'll be too late for GamesCom and Nikolaus goes on a (well-deserved!) vacation this Saturday until August 14th, so he won't be able to do anything until then. As soon as he gets back, he'll create the prototype PCBs as planned, so we should have them shortly after the GamesCom. Of course, we will NOT pay the full price for those PCBs. We won't pay more than a non-express production would've cost us... but still, it's a bit annoying. WHAT we'll have at the GamesCom is still a fully working devboard and maybe even connected to the original LCD in a case! We'll keep you up-to-date, but you can be sure to fully test the current version of the OS and play around.That's the only bad news for today, so let's continue with the good stuff!The solution for the Wifi Chip While the chip we originally had planned still has a leadtime of at least 30 weeks, we found a replacement that is available from stock - and it even uses the more recent WiLink8 chipset (and it's well supported in mainline kernel). Nikolaus managed to squeeze the slightly bigger chip onto the mainboard. So the last missing hardware puzzle piece has been added as well. The chip is available in various versions: With and without bluetooth and with or without additional 5GHz channels. Of course, Bluetooth is a no-brainer (it only adds 1 EUR to the price anyways), but the additional 5GHz doubles the cost (from 14 EUR to 28 EUR), so that's something to think about. The different versions are all pin-compatible, so we can use any of them without a redesign. The question is whether 5GHz is worth the additional costs. My experiences with 5GHz weren't too good, to be honest. I didn't really get more speed, but a less reliable network connection.   What do you think? Do you use 5GHz Wifi?Finalizing the keyboard layout Thanks to the poll and your comments, we were able to finish a keyboard layout that should be usable and satisfy most of you. We will still work and tweak on the look of some of the symbols and char, but the functionality should be finished (unless someone finds a huge flaw here). So, here it is: Some renderings for you In case you missed them on Twitter (or in the various threads here), here are some of the latest renderings I created, using the real case and keymat data! Please keep in mind that the color is not finished, I just used some grey as case color now, but we haven't even thought about the real case color yet. And here is one that shows what the keyboard will probably look like when you're in the dark (although it's hard to tell how accurate that will be): Well, that's it for today. Hope to meet some of you guys next week at the GamesCom in Cologne! [Less]

PLEASE READ BEFORE VOTING! This is it: The final, yes, FINAL keyboard layout poll! There were thousands of discussion threads, many different approaches, and this poll is the result of the hard work. Before you vote, read up the following: 1. A ... [More] keyboard should be easily understandable for common keys and symbols. If you need to read an instruction manual for simple things, something is wrong. 2. As the Pyra is a flexible device, the keyboard should be usable for various tasks: Coding, writing posts, emails and letters, Linux shell, etc. It's not possible to create a keyboard that's perfect for every task - but it should work fine for MOST. 3. When choosing your favourite layout, do NOT be affected by the labels of the keys. We're ONLY choosing the functional layout right now - it does NOT mean stuff will be printed exactly like you can see it on the keymat (i.e. L-Shift will not be printed on the keymat, it will be Shift. The function will be the left key though) 4. The poll is only here to HELP me choose the layout. The final choice will still be made by myself, but I'd really like to see what you guys think - this will definitely affect my decision 5. All creator names have been removed from the layouts to make the poll as neutral as possible. 6. You can do multiple polls if you can't decide what keyboard you like best. Don't overuse that, though 7. The poll will end Monday, 20th of July 23:59pm (German time)   Well - so much for the introduction.   Here are our candidates:     EDIT: Just to make things clear: This poll is NOT intended to find out what you want to use the Pyra for, so please DO NOT choose a layout simply because you only want to use it for one task and do not care about the others. The primary goal is to find a keyboard SUITED for as many users and usecases as possible - so when looking at a layout and choosing your favourite one, widen your horizon and carefully think if it is useful for a wide range of tasks. [Less]

Geez, another newspost already? Has something changed? Yes, definitely Thanks to a reply in the last newspost, we found a company which can do the bare CPU board within 5 days. Seems they got one special machine which can do that, as that speed is ... [More] not common. It costs about 1500 EUR more, but we save 5 weeks which can be used for further testing - AND demonstrating the Pyra at the GamesCom! Nikolaus already finished the CPU PCB layout, over 1000 traces have been laid. I received the final case design yesterday, with the last small changes we had, so that should be finished now as well. So... it was time to create the final plan. And here it is:1. Early prototypes. 6 PCBs will be created before GamesCom. These will be used for testing and debugging purposes. Two of them will be shown at the GamesCom, completely assembled in printed cases (except for the keymat, which won't be ready at that time). After the GamesCom, when we also get the keymat, some of them will go to low-level devs to help with the hardware integration. Maybe I'll even sell one or two - but they will be a lot more expensive than the final unit. We will also test whether Pandoras audio circuit (which is still optionally included in these PCBs) will be needed or not. We'll also recheck the lead time of the Wifi Module - or change to a slightly bigger one (which can be done without Pandoras audio circuit) which is available within one month. With those working prototypes, it's also time to start the preordering.2. Pre-Production run When the last issues of the case and PCBs have been fixed and they are confirmed to be working, the moulds for the case will be made and PCBs will be ordered for a pre-production run. The pre-production run will be produced under mass-production conditions - meaning: The same companies producing the final product will produce the hardware. This is to test, setup and tweak the machine and make sure everything is ready for the mass-production (remember the Pandora? That was the video I made shortly before christmas, the one where I looked like a dead Zombie in the end). About 20 units will be produced here. Some will go to more devs to ensure we got a good software library to start, the rest can be bought as pre-production units.3. Mass-Production When the Pre-Production run has succeeded, parts will be ordered for the mass production, based on the amount of preorders we got. Those parts will probably take 2 - 3 months to arrive, and then it's time to mass produce, build... and ship it to you guys!Some more information about pre-ordering: As mentioned, a prepayment needs to be made. Not the full price and we'll try to keep it as low as possible. Quite a few customers have asked how they can use their iControlPad2 voucher they got from Link and their Pandora voucher if they didn't get the Pandora yet: I will discuss that with Link and we'll find a proper solution. No worries, you WILL get the information before preordering starts! Thanks for supporting us - and have a nice weekend [Less]

Some things in life are bad... they can really make you mad. Yep, we got those as well - but thankfully not that many and not that bad. Let's start with todays news post and find out how good and bad things are The CPU board As you probably know ... [More] , basically the full hardware except for the CPU board is finished. If you followed us on Twitter, you already know the progress Nikolaus had. If not, here's a nice summary picture attached.   Since June 18th, more than 400 traces haven been routed - and now we're down to about 50! Things are getting narrow, so we're switching from an 8-layer PCB to a 10-layer PCB. With that change, the CPU PCB should be finished and going into prototype production about end of this week!So, what's the bad news? Well, we won't have the CPU boards in time for the GamesCom. Producing an 8-layer PCB takes at least 4 weeks - and there's nothing to speed that up (it's the process that takes so long). A 10-layer PCB 5 weeks - and as GamesCom is 2 weeks earlier this year than it normally is, we won't get it in time. However, we still try to assemble a full unit as good as possible, so the display, the case, etc. should all be finished and working fine. But it will be externally connected to the devboard. BUT: Shortly after the GamesCom, we should have fully assembled, fully working prototypes available... then I'll finally be able to spam you all with videos. And preorders could start in September... yep, we're really getting close The keymat We had some last changes for the keymat as well. All keys (not only the action buttons) will now fully be of plastic, no more silicone surroundings anymore. This should further improve the keymat, which will be great!The bad news: That change will take another week, so we also won't make it for the GamesCom, BUT again it should be finished mid September. We need to send submit the printing file for the keymat next week, so we're currently heavily discussing about the keyboard layout (in the keyboar layout section of the boards).The case Well, not much to report here. It's finished, the last print showed that everything fits and is working fine, so we will have printed cases ready at the GamesCom. In case you missed it on twitter, here is a picture of the backside of the Pyra with the latest printed case. The shoulder buttons work REALLY well! You can easily press one, the other one or both comfortably Shortly after the GamesCom, work will start on the mold, so real plastic cases should pop up in October / November... and then we can create thousands of cases within a few days 3D driver The bad news: As the OMAP5 is in legacy mode for TI, the 3D driver will not be further developed. The good news: We are in luck to be in good contact with some TI employees. Two other SoCs from TI use the same SGX, and the binary blobs should work on the OMAP5 as well. The GFX team will try to test them, so we should get updated drivers (though it will take time until early 2016).Pyra Mobile Internet Yay, we got out own internet tarif! The offer is only valid in Germany, but I think it's pretty good (I compared it to others, and they were all more expensive).Speed: Up to 21,6MBit/s (4G/LTE)Network: D2Contract Period: 24 Months, Renewal possibleIncluded volume: 3GB/month with 21,6MBit/s, after that it will be throttled to 64kbit/s (no additional costs!) It can be used with any mobile internet device in Germany. No simlock or similar. Perfectly suited for the Pyra when it's out (of course), but also perfect for tablets, Mifis, LTE-Router, etc. Normal price is 12 EUR per month - but right now, I got a special deal. If you order it until end of July, you get 3 months for free. And you can also use this voucher: 5GFKT2BM This will lower the price to 10 EUR per month. Together with those 3 months for free, you've got 8,88 EUR per month, for full high-speed mobile internet!You can find more information and order it here: DragonBox Shop Pyra MobileOther quick information Updated LCD Cables are in production and should be finished until the end of July. 3000 batteries are on the way to us and should arrive middle until end of August. In case you want to help us with donations, you can now donate using our shop and therefore do that via PayPal, Credit Card or Bank Transfer. Go here to do that: https://www.dragonbox.de/de/103-spenden And if you want to support the project with a larger investment (and interest), contact me directly ([email protected]). While it's not necessarily needed, it will surely help us getting all parts in time. The BEST way to help us though will be sharing all our videos and posts when the final prototype is ready. We need at least 1000 preorders - but the more we get, the easier it will be for us That's it for today - feel free to ask any questions here in case you have some [Less]

Finally, 500 more (and further improved) LCD Cables are on the way to us, which means we'll be able to create the very last Pandoras ever available!We'll have about 40 1GHz Pandoras and 100 - 150 Rebirth and Classic Pandoras available.I'll let you know when these'll be available at the shop

We've made some good progress - so time again to make another summary   1. The Rotator Chip   The only issue left right now is that we got some tearing when using the rotator chip. For those who don't know what that is: When writing to and reading ... [More] from the framebuffer is not properly synchronized, the picture you can see of the LCD is from two different frames (i.e. top half frame 1, bottom half frame 2). This gives an effect as if the screen is torn into two halfs when you got videos or games with fast movement.   To prevent this, you need to synchronize the OMAP5 with the SSD (rotator chip) so that the framebuffer is not being overwritten while it's being read.   This is a bit more software work than we thought. There's a special signal line from the SSD to the OMAP that is being used to synchronize both devices, but that only works in MIPI Command Mode, whereas we are running the OMAP5 using MIPI Video Mode. So as a solution, we'd either need to change the existing driver somehow so that the TE line can be used in Video Mode as well OR try to use the OMAP5 in Command Mode instead of Video Mode.   We don't know yet which one of those two will be easier to achieve, but both of them might be a bit time consuming.   Nevertheless, the hardware itself is working fine, so Nikolaus now concentrates on the remaining hardware - fixing the software can happen while we're waiting for the mass production to start (or even afterwards).   So the display including the rotator works fine, but we currently have some tearing issues with fast moving content until we improved the driver.     2. The case   Basically, the case is finished. I've printed the last revision and am just waiting for some final prototype boards to assemble everything - and once I confirm that everything fits, the real mold is being created. I expect it to be finished about October.   Of course, as soon as I assemble it, I'll create a video of it!     3. The keyboard   The keyboard design is basically finished. The normal keys will be surrounded by a bit of transparent silicone mat (but will be 0,1mm higher), which will give a nice feeling and also light up the key surroundings as well as the characters.     The only exception will be the gaming buttons: Here, the plastic of the buttons will be glued on top of the mat, so they feel like standard gaming buttons (yes, this has changed within the last few days).     Mold production here should start within the next week and will take approximately one month.   The means: Yep, there's no way I can run away from reading the keyboard layout threads anymore         4. The hardware   Nikolaus was working on the rotator chip as well, to find out what was hardware and software related. As you probably can imagine, fixing hardware later will be hard, but fixing software is possible   A week ago, Nikolaus restarted the work on the hardware. Within this week, he created 106 traces within 15 hours work (so about 7 traces per hour).     410 traces are left to be created - so if he continues in the same pace, the CPU board will be finished in about 15 days. Could be a bit faster as well though (some non-critical traces could be made using the auto-router), but we'll see.   Our goal is to have the full hardware finished within July, so we actually have real prototypes ready to show at the GamesCom in August. Yep, if you're visiting there, you might be able to play on a real Pyra prototype!     Shortly after that preorders will start (unless we find some major issue with the prototype) - with a lot of videos following.   Well, that's what we're planning anyways - let's hope we can keep that and it will work out!   Nikolaus also started to work on the e-SATA adaptor which plugs into our USB port for those who want to connect a SATA device to the Pyra.     Some good progress, I'd say Hopefully back with more good news soon. [Less]

Well, first the good news: notaz got the rotation with the SSD working! We now have a stable, nonshifted and proper picture rotated by the SSD on the LCD. One issue remains: The LCD has some tearing right now, be we haven't setup the AntiTearing ... [More] system, so that was to be expected. It'll be the next thing - and then that's it for the LCD part.   In case you were wondering why it took so long: It was a mixture of hardware and software issues. As mentioned, the hardware had power issues, so even with the correct software setup, the SSD didn't work - so we poked around with the software for a while, but it could've never worked. Once Nikolaus fixed the power issues, the SSD started to work with proper timing setups, and then rotation REALLY was easy (compared to the rest).   notaz did all the testing via remote connection on my dev setup. Many of you have asked how this worked and wanted to see a picture of it - well, here it is, picture and explanation:     As you can clearly see from the background, the setup is standing around in my gaming room   First, let's list the parts we have here:   Pandora Webcam OMAP5 EVM LCD Pyra Main PCB Pyra Display PCB   The device above the Pandora (where the webcam is clipped on) is simply a cheap old DVD player, only there to keep the webcam in place. The RaspberryPi2 box is just there to keep the LCD in place   Now what's connected with what and why?   The Pandora   The Pandora is setup so notaz can access it externally via SSH and VNC. The webcam plays back the video stream using mplayer on Pandoras display which can be accessed by notaz via VNC. The Pandora is also connected to the serial output debug port of the OMAP5 devboard for low-level terminal access (without network). He can also reset the devboard with that in case it crashes. Another USB cable connects the Pandora to the devboard and features a direct network connection (g_ether). This is simply because using Wifi on the Pandora is not that good for VNC and SSH, so he can also connect to the Pandora from the devboard and cable ethernet.   So: If the Devboard runs, he can connect to the Pandora from there, if the devboard has crashed, he can connect to the Pandora via Wifi and restart the Devboard, debugging it using the serial out connection.     The Devboard   The devboard also is setup so that notaz can access it via SSH. It has a normal ethernet cable which connects it to the internet, and it also provides internet access to the Pandora using a USB cable (as mentioned above). The second USB-Cable (MicroUSB) is the debug / serial out port connected to the Pandora.   We have a special adaptor attached which connects the devboard with Pyras Main PCB (so the devboard is a replacement for Pyras CPU PCB right now), and Pyras Display PCB is connected to the Main PCB the same way it will be connected in the final device. Finally, on the Display PCB, the LCD is connected.     That's a pretty neat setup, isn't it? It shows how versatile the Pandora is (and the Pyra will be).   Let me know if you have further questions [Less]

And here it is, as promised: The second part of my Pyra News post     1. The Hardware   Well, we had quite a few issues to solve which slowed things down a bit, but it seems the solution has been found. I'll try to explain what happened and what ... [More] took us four weeks to solve.   As you know, we were trying to get the Solomon (Rotator) chip to work. This is not an easy task - there are quite a lot of timing settings between the OMAP5, the Solomon Chip and the Panel Driver which need to be properly setup and which even affect each others. Calculating proper, usable values alone is quite a time consuming task, but it's even harder when you have a hardware issue you didn't really know about.. as you first need to find that out...   Well, without the rotator chip, the display works without any issues. With the rotator chip included in the setup, we didn't really get a picture anymore - sometimes a bit of flickering, but nothing really. Of course, we thought the timings were not properly done yet and tried to fix them... but without much success. Nikolaus checked the hardware and found out that the voltage for the solomon chip was too low. So he started looking for the issue, After some more tests, he found a quick workaround by adding some wires to the setup. Apparently the LCD cable and some traces were too thin for the power needed, which was a good guess. With that workaround, the timings could be tried. Nikolaus managed to get a picture... but slightly shifted (as you can see at the picture).     However, Nikolaus needs to continue to work on the hardware, so I made a setup at home involving the OMAP5 devboard connected to the Pyra Mainboard and the LCD, a Pandora and a webcam. notaz can use that setup to fiddle around with the LCD and see the result - and he got it to work stable and properly, no shift anymore. That's for the unrotated image, but fully going through the Solomon chip, which is the most important step! Next step is to enable rotation and find the proper setup, but with the timings we already found out now, it should (hopefully) be not a too hard step.   In the meantime, Nikolaus made a lot more tests found the weaknesses and improved the setup to be A LOT more stable. Since today he knows what needs to be changed to solve these power issues, and once that's done, he can finally finish the CPU Board. So it took quite a while, but the important thing is that there's a solution   As we got all parts to populate the prototypes already, once the CPU Board layout has been finished, populating it should happen within short time frame.       2. Financing   The closer we get to the production, the more detailled our cost calculation is. As promised, there's enough money to fund the full development - but we will not have the money to fund the full production. Which is nothing to be surprised with - as we need to buy a lot of parts upfront in high quantities, we need about 500,000 EUR (half a million EUR!) for the first batch. This is quite a bit of money (at least for us )   About half of that doesn't need to be paid before the production of the units is finished, which is great. And I'll also try raising as much money upfront so that preordering will cost you as little money as possible!   There are multiple possibilities (looking for some more investors, getting a short-frame credit for the production run, the upcoming RetroPi2-project at Kickstarter, etc.)   I don't want to scare you, as we know we can do it (I managed to survive the Pandora!), but as financing the production is also part of the whole process, I thought I'd let you know that.   Well - and donations help as well, which I want to mention here. As you might've noticed, we got a whopping 9000 EUR donation yesterday - THANKS A LOT to the sponsor   We'll have the next goal up within the next few days, as I'll get the accurate pricing for the case mold then. [Less]