Chit Chat about Tick Tock (July News Upadte)

[tllim]

In general will deliver within 30 days period. However, this is the first batch, there is possible 1-2 weeks delay if hiccup happens during production time. We will post the delivery date during pre-order period so that not keeping people in dark.

[tllim]

Definitely kicking myself that I didn't make an account sooner -- I've been following the project but forums have always scared me off. This forum seems well-managed though, so a mistake on my part.

A somewhat important question, also related to storage: what's the max power draw on PCIe devices over m.2? Some of these NVMe disks have wild maximum power draws.

Around 2.5W reserved for NVMe drive. Please don't use the power hungry type SSD which can creates heat and power consumption issue.

[tllim]

Definitely kicking myself that I didn't make an account sooner -- I've been following the project but forums have always scared me off. This forum seems well-managed though, so a mistake on my part.

A somewhat important question, also related to storage: what's the max power draw on PCIe devices over m.2? Some of these NVMe disks have wild maximum power draws.

See, nothing to be scared of, especially since your first question is not only smart but also relevant because we didn't think to test this in particular...
The answer is - I don't know at this time. You may be right that using a NVMe may have a significant impact on battery life.

NVMe SSDs can lower battery life more SATA SSDs/HDDs but we won't have SATA available as far as I know.

With that said, careful research on NVMe power consumption will yield good information on potential best selections. The ADATA drive in this article may be a good choice:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13761/the...d-review/9

Appreciates and thanks on good advise.

[Der Geist der Maschine]

pilot batches are aimed at enthusiasts [...] as a result minor issues (usually fixable with some tinkering) may be present in the pilot batch.

To get a feeling of what to expect, can you list what minor issues have been seen in the first batch of Pinebooks back in the day?

[binarian]

For those who prefer to chat about the July community update on the forum, here is the thread.

@Luke: a concern or two regarding the PB pro privacy switches.  While I like the general implementation, I had two big questions:
1. If you're touting the privacy aspects of your privacy switches but then making them based on keyboard firmware, is the firmware for that keyboard ALSO open source?  I didn't see that specifically addressed in the blog.
2. What happens if I need to replace the keyboard, for whatever reason? Will the machine in general still work?  Will the privacy switches still work?


Looking forward to T=0!

[fire219]

For those who prefer to chat about the July community update on the forum, here is the thread.

@Luke: a concern or two regarding the PB pro privacy switches.  While I like the general implementation, I had two big questions:
1. If you're touting the privacy aspects of your privacy switches but then making them based on keyboard firmware, is the firmware for that keyboard ALSO open source?  I didn't see that specifically addressed in the blog.
2. What happens if I need to replace the keyboard, for whatever reason? Will the machine in general still work?  Will the privacy switches still work?


Looking forward to T=0!

1. The firmware for the keyboard (and trackpad) is open source, and there will be software to reprogram it.
2. The machine will still work, but the keyboard may need to be reprogrammed (see above) for the privacy switches to work.

[bigCamel]

For those who prefer to chat about the July community update on the forum, here is the thread.

@Luke: a concern or two regarding the PB pro privacy switches.  While I like the general implementation, I had two big questions:
1. If you're touting the privacy aspects of your privacy switches but then making them based on keyboard firmware, is the firmware for that keyboard ALSO open source?  I didn't see that specifically addressed in the blog.
2. What happens if I need to replace the keyboard, for whatever reason? Will the machine in general still work?  Will the privacy switches still work?


Looking forward to T=0!

1. The firmware for the keyboard (and trackpad) is open source, and there will be software to reprogram it.
2. The machine will still work, but the keyboard may need to be reprogrammed (see above) for the privacy switches to work.

That's actually really great. My Asus 1000H netbook has an issue with occasional false double key presses. Quite annoying. I guess this could get fixed in the keyboard firmware but as it's closed source... So one more thumb up for Pine.

[User 12559]

Definitely kicking myself that I didn't make an account sooner -- I've been following the project but forums have always scared me off. This forum seems well-managed though, so a mistake on my part.

A somewhat important question, also related to storage: what's the max power draw on PCIe devices over m.2? Some of these NVMe disks have wild maximum power draws.

Around 2.5W reserved for NVMe drive. Please don't use the power hungry type SSD which can creates heat and power consumption issue.

Interesting. Is this the absolute maximum? After reading some Tom‘s Hardware reviews of NVMe SSDs (I know quite a few sites that do hardware reviews, but these seemed to be the only ones who tested the load power draw of the drives they tested), I found out that about all NVMe SSDs can use more than that under full load. Even power-saving drives like the WD Blue SN500 can use 3-4W under full load (average under load was lower though), which was the lowest measured apart from the Crucial P1, which was received bad in general due to the QLC flash, and SATA SSDs. the SX8200 Pro @hmuller recommended has indeed lower idle power draw, but rather low efficiency and high power usage in general. The review of the Seagate Barracuda 510 (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sea...150-2.html) is pretty interesting, as ittshows the power usage of those two drives I mentioned, but also that the  Barracuda has very good power statistics - high efficiency under load and low idle power draw. What happens if one tries to pull more than 2.5W from the M.2 port? Do the electronics fry? Does the system crash? Will some electronics (supposedly the SSD throttle due to power limitations? Or will the battery of the laptop just discharge slowly because the power supply cannot output that much power? Of course you wouldn‘t put a Samsung 970 or so in there, but at least a Barracuda would be nice. Of course it uses much more power during load (2,52 W) average, as opposed to the average 1,8W of the SN500, which only spikes to 3W.

[deltatux]

Hi PINE64 team,

I see that in Luke's post that the 128GB eMMC upgrade option is expected to be only available on the first batch. Does this mean that those who want the ANSI keyboard be ineligible for the 128GB eMMC upgrade as I've heard that the ANSI keyboard option might not happen until batch 2 the earliest?

Thank you!

[fire219]

Hi PINE64 team,

I see that in Luke's post that the 128GB eMMC upgrade option is expected to be only available on the first batch. Does this mean that those who want the ANSI keyboard be ineligible for the 128GB eMMC upgrade as I've heard that the ANSI keyboard option might not happen until batch 2 the earliest?

Thank you!

Unfortunately, that is correct. The logistics would make supporting two different types while doing the 128GB promotion very difficult.

If you want an ANSI keyboard on a 128GB model, your best bet is going to be to buy the normal 128, and later on buy the ANSI keyboard+top panel as a spare part.