Yeah
, started 2 days ago, and main goal already achieved. At 50 000€, a customization kit, at 100000€, onboard wifi added, 150000€, onboard bluetooth added in addition to the wifi, 200000€ & 500000€, surprise
. It will be my first KS because I don't wan't to wait the availability on the site
, and I want the Clear blue version of the Retrostone 2 Pro (my first Retrostone is Clear Red)
The shedule :
- September 2019 : End of crowdfunding
- October-november 2019 : Production
- December 2019 : Product certifications (CE and FCC certifications)
- End of December 2019 : Shipping to you guys!
More time before going on production needed if we reach the stretched goals of on-board wifi/bt
So, the improvements of the Retrostone 2 compared to the first Retrostone are :
- screen is now digital with a better definition, 640x480 vs the 360x240 flickering composite screen of the first Retrostone
- polycarbonate screen protector added for product durability
- battery capacity has been increased to 4000mAh
- battery is removable now
- ON/OFF button is push type now, pressing it launch a soft-shutdown. Saving you from SD corrupt of hard-shutdown
- new single board computer, this is a Retrostone Pi2 runs an A20 processor which is 2 cores 1.0GHz
- better heat management and battery life : H3 is famous for overheating. Also as screen is driven by A20 directly we save the power that was used by the composite->RGB chip
- battery monitored directly by the CPU, enabling us to read battery remaining % capacity on the display! Also we can add an automatic soft-shutdown when battery is low, avoiding SD corruption of hard shutdown!
This is one big advantage of A20 over H3 is that it has a dedicated power management unit (AXP209), which communicate with A20
- system is stable. Because we had some stability issues on RetroStone1 (boot/crash issues on some units) we conducted a lot of testing in order to make sure there won't be this kind of issue on RetroStone2. The boards boot 100% time and there's no crash/instability issues.
There are versions of the Retrostone 2, the normal edition and the pro edition with the following features :
- 8GB NAND onboard memory for better boot time and better reliability. So idea is to have the operating system on the NAND and ROM library on the SD card.
- SATA M.2 (2242 form factor) connector : This enables you to add a SSD to your RetroStone 2, this enables you to add up to 1TB !
- joystick connector : This small FPC connector enable you to add a P**3000 joystick very easily (only need to drill a hole in the case).
- resistive touch panel connector : Currently RetroStone2 does not have a touch panel as I have not found suppliers willing to work for small quantity yet. However in the future a touch glass may release, having the connector will enable you to upgrade it easily when it release.
- additional glass protector : Your unit will ship with the polycarbonate screen protector, however we'll ship along a glass screen protector. So depending on your preference you can change to the glass protector.
- 64GB SD card instead of the 8GB (or 16GB with facebook share free upgrade! See below)
And like for the first version, a limited Clear Blue edition color of the RetroStone 2 is available on Kickstarter only. Available both for normal and pro versions. You will choose color after the end of Kickstarter, we'll send you a survey.
If you want to know more about the Retrostone 2, follow the KS link
.