C’è ancora da aspettare per il Next, purtroppo. :-(
Le piccole correzioni alla tastiera sono state effettuate e validate su
campioni montati a mano, ma mancano ancora i campioni prodotti automaticamente
dalla linea industriale e finché non saranno validati il via alla produzione in
serie non verrà dato.
Sembra tuttavia che il termine di consegna previsto (giugno 2019) verrà
rispettato.
Attendiamo fiduciosi ... anche perché altro non si può fare!
Carlo
Inviato da iPhone
Inizio messaggio inoltrato:
Da: Kickstarter <no-reply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Data: 31 marzo 2019 16:53:01 CEST
A: carlo.malantrucco@xxxxxxxx
Oggetto: Project Update #45: ZX Spectrum Next by Henrique Olifiers
Rispondi a: No Reply <no-reply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
A month of setbacks
Henrique Olifiers
Mar 31, 2019
View on Kickstarter
Deep breath: This update will start with let downs. What should have been a
month of wrap-ups, turned out to be four weeks of disappointments with little
to no progress on the keyboard.
Last month (February) we got the keyboard to a final state with a
hand-assembled prototype, with a few minor tweaks requested before getting a
small batch produced by the automated assembly line. These tweaks included a
lighter press ‘Enter’ key, longer contact strips and 3mm screws rather than
2.5mm.
While we got all these changes made and two new keyboards were shipped to us
and validated on all these fixes, they were also hand-assembled rather than
produced by the automated assembly line as the final product will be. Because
of this, we’re still waiting for automated samples to give the final go-ahead
for the keyboard production, when we should have done so three or four weeks
ago.
The silver lining is that we baked six weeks into the forecast of delivering
the Nexts to the backers by the end of Q2 (June), so this delay doesn’t
change the shipping date. Still, a very disappointing month where we were
hoping the Next keyboard and case would enter full production, followed by
overseas shipping to the assembly plant in Nottingham.
We’re now expecting the automated keyboard to be done in the next couple of
weeks, then trigger the production.
You might be asking ‘why do we need automated assembly line samples to
validate the keyboard into full production?’ and that’s a good question
indeed, as all the parts used in the hand-assembled are the same parts used
in the automated line, thus no variance should be expected -- except on the
keyboard silicone domes placement.
The Next keyboard matrix (the contacts layer) have composite contacts for
special keys such as arrows, Break, Edit, True Video etc. In order for these
to work well (ie. register the key press of two keys at the same time to
achieve the composite result, such as Shift and 2 for Caps Lock) the silicone
dome that lies on top of the matrix has to be perfectly centered. If it’s a
bit to one side, it will register the press of Shift+2 in the wrong order
(such as 2+Shift), resulting in ‘2’ rather than Caps Lock. Only the automated
assembly can achieve the precision required, the hand-assembled samples do
not produce 100% accurate key presses as the domes can be glued to the matrix
misaligned by human hands.
The keyboard manufacturer promised us a quick turnaround now, we’re on top of
them to make sure this happens fast so we can move on to full production. All
that’s left for us is to apologise for this letdown and double our ‘is it
ready?’ requests rate to the engineers at the factory.
Next discord channel
Michael ‘Flash Ware’ at Rusty Pixel (and also a FB Next community moderator)
has set up a discord for all things Next. Jump into it via the invitation and
meet like-minded Next people without Zuckerberg snooping on you.
Next discord channel
Abductor
Dave Flynn, in partnership with Dominion Games, announced Abductor on the FB
group last week. While the details on gameplay and game universe are scarce,
the screenshot speaks volumes: it looks incredible, with an original Speccy
flair, but taking advantage of new video modes. Keep an eye open for this
game!
Next on Twitch
For the first time (at least that we know of), the Next hardware was used to
stream live to Twitch without using a camera to capture. With an Elgato HD 60
S, Asger Bonnevie managed to stream real video at digital quality -- check
out the stream here.
sjasmplus
Peter Ped Helcmanovsky updated the Assembly Editor sjasmplus to version 1.11,
including support for the new features of the Core 2.00.26. Check out the
Github repository for builds for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Next Pentagon mode on CRT
Franco Bronda attached a Sony TV to the Next using a CRT cable, and went
straight to demos of the Pentagon 128 mode showing correct timings for the
demos’ effects. Worth watching, there’s so much good stuff for the Pentagon
that not everyone outside of East Europe knows of…
Qbee
Daniel Lopez’s re-imagination of Qbert for the Next is close to completion,
and he posted a new video of the game in action. Check out how’s it looking
like -- eager to find out how it plays too! Follow the game’s progress here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dlogames/
POWER BLADE: Delta’s Shadow
Evgeniy Suhomlin updated POWER BLADE with a video on YouTube showing the
racing level, featuring the hero on top of a hoverbike inside parallax
tunnels that are a show on their own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOOdTgTCo18
And that's it for this update... The original plan was to headline with big
neon-lit 'Production started!', but it just didn't happen this time around.
Hopefully we'll be able to get this headline posted shortly, though -- or
we'll storm a keyboard factory 'Stallone Cobra' style.
You better have these keyboards ready, miss...
Show support and stay involved—let Henrique Olifiers know you read this
update.
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