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OpenSource Handheld News - Gp2X, Dingoo, Wiz, Pandora, GCW Zero and Caanoo is a News and downloads site for Open Source Handhelds, We have all the latest emulators, hack, homebrew, commercial games and all the downloads on this site, the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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May 24th, 2012, 00:55 Posted By: wraggster
Whew, it has been a long time since I last made an official newspost.
The reason I didn't post was NOT that things are not going well - the reason simply was lack of time due to too much work...
I had a speed-holiday with my girlfriend (one day Europapark in Rust), and as I had my Pandora with me, I could make a newspost while it was her turn driving the car.
This is the first full newspost I made directly on the Pandora - the keyboard is really working well 
So... let's see how everything is coming along, shall we?
1. The overall production
Overall, things are running pretty smooth and well.
Over 600 Pandoras have already been delivered (about 200 of those to long-time preorders) and we're currently getting a stable 100 per week units.
This is not yet full production speed. New test PCBs have been successful produced, so once the next batch of 1000 PCBs is finished, I'm planning to speed up to about 250 units per week.
The company COULD produce more per week - but we also have to sell and ship them, so 250 sounds like a good number to me.
To be honest, I'm pretty happy they didn't do more than 100 per week up until now - as I am flooded with work already and I don't plan to work myself to death...
I've got to catch up a lot of things right now. I got tons of emails left to reply, I had to work on the whole shop and order handling system as it was not suited for so many orders, I got some RMAs left (though MOST of them have been done already), etc.
Aditionally, all the pre-assembled units Askarus, Link and Linux_SWAT created have now been used up... so I'm currently also preassembling the next units.
About 250 left to go, from then on, Global Components will also do the full assembly.
So yeah, there's a lot of work still left for me to do, but I'm slowly catching up and should have most of the work done sometime in June.
Then I'm also prepared for a fullspeed production.
2. Parts and Cases
As usual, the stuff from China is late.
The new cases should've been finished mid-March, but as usual, they took a while longer.
Good thing I ordered them early... Fatih told me that they are already on the way.
So within the next few days, we'll get 5000 more cases. That should be enough
The new cases will also have a new color. It will be a dark silver, looking a bit like aluminium.
The new paint is way more scratch resistant and looks a lot better.
As soon as I got it, I'll take some pictures.
We still got some black cases left, so you will be able to decide what color you want.
We had some issues with the LCD-Cable company, but Fatih did a good job and we already got the next batch of cables now.
Another problem solved.
LCDs are becoming a bit harder to get (they're out of production), but we're not having too big issues sourcing them right now, so that's fine as well.
So all in all, besides that all these things are eating up our time, I don't see any big problems right now.
3. email backlogs...
Well, you probably already saw it on other threads here at the boards: my email backlog is still pretty long... I got about 700 emails left to reply, and though I take some time to reply to them each few days, the queue is only slowly shrinking.
Each day, I receive about 20 more emails I need to reply... so yep, this is a MASSIVE amount of work.
Please don't be mad about that - I'll reply to all of your mails, but with all the other things I have to do at the same time right now, I'm not that fast.
I try to look at the mails when they come in and try to reply to the most important ones, but sometimes one of these hides itself in the massive queue.
Once GC fully assembles the units and I've got less things to organize, this will get better.
4. Where in the world is...
... no, not Carmen Santiego... but we're looking for someone else.
We all know: It's simply not possible that NOTHING goes wrong within Pandora-Land... so yeah, here is something new.
When buying bigger parts in large quantities (like LCDs and AC adaptors), you either have to handle the custom declaration yourself when you want to pick them up at the airport or get an agent who will do that for you.
Agents are not that expensive - and unlike me, they know what they're doing (and doing custom declaration wrong REALLY can cause issues).
So I hired the company SoundMoves at Munich Airport to do that for me.
Sent them the import tax fee right away (5000 EUR), picked up the custom documents and the goods, and everything was fine.
This was in March.
One week ago, I got an invoice from the customs about these 5000 EUR. Apparently, they hadn't been paid by SoundMoves... and SoundMoves are not able to pay them, so I have to pay them again.
WTH? SoundMoves bankrupt? It's a big worldwide operating company... handling transport for musicians like Madonna and U2...
Weird.
As I wasn't able to contact anyone in the Munich office, I emailed the main office in London.
And things got even weirder then.
They told me the company in Munich is a totally different company founded by the same CEO. He simply used the good name of the company to open up a new one... he even used their website for this company... even though the London office tried to tell him to use a different name.
Whew, what a bloke. But it gets even better.
The London office told me he also owes them quite a bit of money.
AND they don't even know where he is - they asked me to tell them his whereabouts in case I get hold of him.
They only know that he sometimes visits the office when no one is there to grab the mail and he most probably is somewhere in Italy... geeez.
Now most of you probably know that it's nigh impossible to get money back from a company that has filed for bankruptcy.
However, the case is a bit different here: They never had the right to use the 5000 EUR from me for themselves. It was not THEIR money, it was money they got simply to forward it to customs.
So this is fraud - which means: the CEO is personally liable for that.
My lawyer is already working on it and I'll pay a visit to the police tomorrow to report him.
Then they'll start a search for him...
In Pandora-Land, there's always something weird happening.
I'm pretty positive we'll get the money back from him soon, so this is mostly simply annoying and eating up some more of my precious time.
So all in all things are still working fine here
I wish it was less work for me, but I'm working towards that
http://boards.openpandora.org/index....rd-2012-05-11/
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May 10th, 2012, 13:24 Posted By: wraggster
Port of PCSX-Reloaded for WIZ/CAANOO consoles by Franxis and Chui:
- ARMv5 recompiler by Franxis and Chui.
- GTE optimized in assembler by Franxis and Chui.
- GPU coded by Unai. Compatibility fixes and improvements by Franxis.
- SPU by Franxis (22 KHz mono with complete CDDA+XA support).
- PAD by Franxis (SCPH-1010 model).
- Beta testing by Anarchy, nintiendo1, Rivroner, buba-ho-tep and Zenzuke.
- Artwork by Zenzuke.
http://franxis.zxq.net/index.html
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May 10th, 2012, 13:22 Posted By: wraggster
Port of MAME 0.37b5 for GP2X/WIZ/CAANOO consoles.
- Support for 2270 romsets.
- Full 64 MB RAM support.
- Complete support for overclock, underclock and RAM tweaks.
- Video modes: standard, scaled, 4:3, rotated, border and TATE.
- Sound options: 11 to 44 KHz (mono and stereo).
- Cyclone and DRZ80 ASM cores automatically selected.
- Compatible with TV-Out (PAL and NTSC).
It has been ported to other platforms by the following people:
- MAME4droid: Port to Android by Seleuco.
- MAME4iOS: Port to Apple iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch) by Seleuco.
- MAME4ALL DINGOO: Port to Dingoo by Slaanesh.
- MAME4ALL GP32: Port to GP32 by Slaanesh.
- mame4iphone: Port to Iphone by Zodttd.
- MAME4ALL CAANOO: Port to Caanoo by Simon.
- MAME4ALLDSTWO: Port to SCDS2 by Alekmaul.
- MAME4ALL PANDORA: Port to Pandora by SteveM.
http://franxis.zxq.net/index.html
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May 10th, 2012, 13:18 Posted By: wraggster
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com
This release is for the Dreamcast, PSP, Wii Wiz, GP2x and Dingoo:
Heres whats new;
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r3691 | utunnels | 2012-05-09 22:52:30 -0400 (Wed, 09 May 2012) | 2 lines
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.c
M /engine/openbor.h
M /engine/psp/graphics.c
M /engine/source/gamelib/types.h
1. Change pixelformat in s_screen and others from char to int to see if fix the mysterious screen shift on psp version (not tested yet).
2. An experimental optimization for mods without obstacles and platforms.
http://lavalit.com:8080/OpenBOR/download.php
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April 24th, 2012, 14:24 Posted By: wraggster
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com[/URL]
This release is for the Dreamcast, PSP, Wii[/URL] Wiz, GP2x and Dingoo:
Heres whats new;
-
r3679 | utunnels | 2012-04-21 11:43:31 -0400 (Sat, 21 Apr 2012) | 1 line
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.c
Make stop before player turns, for keyboard users can press left and right at the same time and will leave the player sliding while turning.
http://lavalit.com:8080/OpenBOR/download.php
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April 9th, 2012, 22:21 Posted By: wraggster
via http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php...dpost&p=965703
Ive been working with the yamagi quake2 port and it now works on the caanoo and wiz with OpenGL-ES acceleration. It runs pretty well for the caanoo and wiz.
So far I have not seen any textures drop and without needing to shrink any of them.
The wiz version does have a hack to decrease memory use, I had it lock up once. So long periods of playing may cause it to lock up.
All buttons can map to a key, and a/b/x/y are all enabled to trigger maps if pressed at the same time, for instance A+X will do F1.
Expansion support is provided, but i didnt test on the caanoo or wiz.
I used the quake 1 bar graphic for caanoo, so if anyone comes up with a better one ill include it.
Caanoo
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/...0,0,0,0,30,844
Wiz
http://dl.openhandhe...?0,0,0,0,30,584
Original Source
http://www.yamagi.org/quake2/
Converted Source
pickle.gp2x.de/source/yamagi_quake2_src.zip
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March 25th, 2012, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com
This release is for the Dreamcast, PSP, Wii Wiz, GP2x and Dingoo:
Heres whats new;
r3673 | utunnels | 2012-03-23 02:07:29 -0400 (Fri, 23 Mar 2012) | 2 lines
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.c
M /engine/openborscript.c
M /engine/openborscript.h
Add current_branch to openborvariant to get the branch name current level belongs to.
Fix in game player select icon palette.
http://lavalit.com:8080/OpenBOR/download.php
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March 12th, 2012, 00:52 Posted By: wraggster
As quite a few of you asked about upgrading their preorder to get the unit a bit faster, I've finished the submission form to apply for that.
This is only applicable if you ordered the Pandora before October 2011.
The money made from these upgrades will be used to fund more pre-October 2011-Preorder-Units, so this will help everyone still waiting patiently for his / her Pandora to get it a bit faster
It will also help us to cover a bit of the loss that the old PCB production company caused us.
It's up to you to decide how much you want to pay for that. The mininum is 85 EUR (or 101,15 EUR incl. 19% VAT)., though you can also pay more if you want.
The Payment doesn't have to be done before your unit is ready to be dispatched - so there's no risk.
To apply for the upgrade, follow this link
Feel free to ask any questions in this thread
http://boards.openpandora.org/index....on-2012-03-06/
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March 9th, 2012, 00:32 Posted By: wraggster
Tools to enable developers to create new games and import existing titles to deviceThe software development kit for upcoming handheld console GameGadget will be released on Friday, the company has revealed.Developers will be able to create games and import existing titles for the open source device, although the console won’t be released till March 30th.Titles will appear on the GameGadget marketplace for download, and its creators say devs will be able to set their own pricing.The new handheld will include minimal specs, featuring 65mb of internal ram, a 433mhz dual core CPU and a 3.5” LDC screen, whilst its interface includes four action buttons, a D-pad and two shoulder buttons.“After two years in development we are very excited to see new content and licensed games being developed for GameGadget,” said the handheld's creator Jason Cooper
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...ts-SDK-release
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March 4th, 2012, 23:35 Posted By: wraggster
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com
This release is for the Dreamcast, PSP, Wii Wiz, GP2x and Dingoo:
Heres whats new;
r3671 | utunnels | 2012-03-03 23:58:31 -0500 (Sat, 03 Mar 2012) | 1 line
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.c
Fix a possible loophole that crashes while doing a branch jump. (Hopefully, because it never crashes on my PC anyway).
http://lavalit.com:8080/OpenBOR/download.php
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March 4th, 2012, 23:21 Posted By: wraggster
Sorry for the late newspost - I was totally worn out after the production start on Thursday and Friday so I really needed a weekend to relax.
Had to catch up some sleep as well.
Well, yes, as you've seen in Link's video: It has finally happened. The mass production run has started
Is everything going fast and smooth?
Well, not yet. But that would've been unusual (not only for the Pandora, but also for other devices  )
With the first units built, you always go a bit slower as you need to test everything and see if you get any issues on the PCBs that would require the machine to be tweaked.
While assembling the first 40 units, we were also trying to optimize the position of the L and R buttons, so that we don't need to scratch or pad the plastic each time.
This took a while, but with the 30 units Link built today, only one R-Button needed a bit of optimizing, however, most of the L-Buttons were still sitting a bit too high so needed a little cut with the blade.
We'll change this in the machine program, so in the end they'll work as good as the R-Buttons
So far, 180 PCBs have been produced, 80 have been assembled, fully tested and are ready to ship. While this sounds like a lot, the theoretical output of the machine is 250 per day (8 hour shift), but mass productions should start at a slower pace to be sure evrrything works.
Only 3 of those refused to bootup at all, while about 8 have a non-working left nub, so it seems there's some part that needs an optimized placement in the machine program as well.
Everything else was working fine on these PCBs, and the other ones can be fixed.
So with 3 non-booting ones, we are currently at a failure rate of 4%, which is pretty nice for the beginning of a mass production (failure rate goes down the more units you produce).
It should be noted that those 3 were all among the first 15 produced
The new stickers for the battery compartment should arrive tomorrow, all the AC Adaptors should also arrive within this week (scheduled to be in Germany tomorrow), so I'm currently preparing the invoices and eMails for the preorderers.
There's another surprise for you which I'm waiting for... hopefully, it'll be at my place within the next days as well, otherwise, I'll start shipping out Pandoras anyways (it's not mandatory).
Regarding mass production, there is one thing left to be solved:
The OMAP is a real beast to populate. With a pitch of 0,4mm and different tolerances regarding PCB production standards (in this case, the solder mask as well as the metal stencil layer), it takes a bit of work to get everything go smoothly.
Currently, quite a few of the bare PCBs couldn't be used, as some pads didn't have solder paste on after going through the machine.
Instead of just ignoring that issue and populating the PCBs anyways (we've had something like that with a different company already...), GC decided to find a proper solution and are now heavily working on this.
10 panels with bare PCBs have gotten their solder mask tolerances measured, so that a new metal stencil layer can be produced based on these values (to find the absolute middle).
If we're lucky, then this will work out and all PCBs can be populated without any risk. We'll get that stencil layer on Wednesday.
GC also has other solutions ready in case the offsets of the solder mask are too high.
While they won't be running at full speed (so... slower than 250 a day ), they will probably be faster than I can ship them out at the beginning, as I've got so much work to catch up with!
It really kicks ass how helpful GC is and how they successfully try to prevent producing non-working boards and finding solutions fast and quick.
They're totally dedicated to what they're doing, and that's awesome. We're totally on the right way
I'll try to find the time to setup the upgrade-info-page tomorrow and let you know how grab your Pandora a bit faster (only classic preorderers )
http://boards.openpandora.org/index....go-2012-02-28/
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March 1st, 2012, 16:24 Posted By: wraggster
ZX81 one of the biggest coders to enter the homebrew scene of the last few years released all his emulators, homebrew games and homebrew applications here at DCEmu, today ive updated the site and now you no longer have to leave his site to see every single release he has made for the PSP, GP2x, Wiz, Caanoo and Dingoo.
Check out the newly revamped site here --> http://zx81.dcemu.co.uk/
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March 1st, 2012, 12:40 Posted By: wraggster
Another of DCEmus sites, Pandora Homebrew News has today been smartened up and revamped. Whats new on this and our other sites that have been revamped lately is that when you click on a news story you stay on the site instead of going to the forums.
Check it out here --> http://pandora.dcemu.co.uk/
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March 1st, 2012, 12:01 Posted By: wraggster
GP2X News has today undergone a revamping with all the latest features added to most of the network sites already inc a better page layout and improved SEO and search engines.
GP2X News is our site that covers everything GP2X, GP2X Wiz and Caanoo related.
Check it out here --> http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/
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February 19th, 2012, 23:59 Posted By: wraggster
News from the Pandora Team:
Yes, really.
It's just a few days until the production starts.
The PCBs have all safely arrived in Oberhaching at Global Components, who are now currently preparing the metal stencil for the production run, which takes a few days.
The machine will be loaded on Wednesday, production itself will start on Friday.
Link and I will both bear witness to the birth... and will start to assemble the units right away in Oberhaching.
So far, Linux-SWAT, Link and me (mostly Link and Linux-SWAT though) have been working on preassembling the cases.
We'll continue to do that on Monday, so hopefully, when production starts, we'll have at least 300 - 400 of them completely ready to just put in the PCB, test and flash.
It's a freaking amount of work, but we'll do our best
The next 5000 cases have been ordered, more LCDs and all AC Adaptors have been checked and shipped to Germany.
A sample of the new LCD Cables has also been shipped to me so I can review it next week and hopefully place the order shortly after that.
This is pretty narrow, we might have a one or two week pause after the first 1000 units before we can produce the next 1000, but then again, let's see if I can manage the constant high shipping rate anyways... I might even need that week to catch on!
I've not yet found the time to create an updated instructions manual, so the first units will probably ship without one, though I finally found the time to contact some German companies for TV Out Cable production, so I hope to give you some good news soon.
notaz has also worked hard on Kernel 3.2 and we'll have some nice new OS testing image for you up soon... while it's just a beta-test and preview of an upcoming 3.2 kernel (with some known bugs still left), you'll probably like what you'll get... well, let's not spoil the fun of surprise here.
So, basically, the only delay in shipping will probably be the amount of work to do from ourselves, but with Link and my parents helping out, we should get there
http://boards.openpandora.org/index....ys-2012-02-18/
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