03-04-2020, 05:19 PM
(03-03-2020, 06:00 PM)buffer Wrote:(03-02-2020, 06:15 PM)thunderweasel Wrote: It looks like we are now up to around 20 proposed hardware changes. From the marketing info and blog posts leading up the release of the Braveheart it was my understanding that the hardware design was for the most part finalized aside from possible antenna optimization - guess I should have paid closer attention. Since the proposed hardware changes would break software compatibility between the Braveheart models and the v1.2 hardware, is there any possibility of a discount or trade-in type of program for Braveheart adopters when our current hardware becomes obsolete?
I hope you get an answer because looking at the wiki, it doesn't seem like they are changing components, just rewiring a few things better. I'm no hardware expert. But especially with mainline linux kernel, I don't think you'll see software incompatibility after these changes. The changes look like they would make the software work better.
They aren't changing components, but the GPIO pinout is being almost completely redone. So my concern would be, for example, that a piece of software designed for the v1.2 GPIO would be expecting ring indicator on PL6 when on the v1.1 Braveheart it is actually on PB2, while a piece of software designed for the v1.1 Braveheart is expecting swap DTR on PL6 when it would have been moved to PB2 on the v1.2. I am absolutely no hardware (or software, for that matter) expert, but it seems like that's going to have to be resolved with either separate codebases that can properly address the different hardware pin locations for each revision, or else some system-wide way of remapping it in software so that the Braveheart models aren't looking for the wrong signals in the wrong places.
It's a moot point for me now anyway - I've sold my Braveheart as I haven't got the time to devote to getting it functional anymore. I hope the changes don't leave the early adopters out in the cold. I know when the Pinebook Pro was released it pretty much killed progress on the original Pinebook. That would be a shame. I'll probably be picking one up down the line once all the kinks are worked out.