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Author Topic: Review - The Dingoo A330  (Read 110773 times)

santino

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #20 on: May 09, 2010, 10:18:04 am »
Did I get it right that you can overclock to 460mhz?

darfgarf

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #21 on: May 09, 2010, 10:38:40 am »
the spec sheets don't say what the difference is...

think it's something along the lines of die size or something like that, essentially the same, but the newer are faster etc


Haas

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #22 on: May 09, 2010, 11:10:25 am »
I read the A330 is a fake dingoo, so isn't it a change that it is just a frankenbuild of the original dingoo. And it won't get firmware updates and the new features could kill your batteri or the processor?

SiENcE

  • Posts: 653
    • Crank Gaming (Dingux Apps)
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #23 on: May 09, 2010, 11:20:35 am »
@Haas: We have a roumor mill in this forum. Please go there! Not here! -> http://boards.dingoonity.org/the-rumor-mill/

ricsi

  • Posts: 151
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #24 on: May 09, 2010, 11:30:01 am »
Wirless controller (They are working to get two player working so you can play two player games with two controllers)

I am quit shocked, that it uses the EXACT same firmware with another theme.
And both show the same date: 23. September 2009
This means NO functional additions at all (except optical Theme/image changes)

Do all the emulators still show version 1.0??
Does the megadrive/genesis emu still shows the vertical tearing?

I am quit sure that the mainboard is exactly the same ... ram chip has been exchanged to a bigger capacity one, and I guess the wireless is on a daughterboard.

How was the wireless integrated?? and how was that done without a new firmware release?
If they directly wired wires from wireless to the physical buttons, than this would be a catastrophe!
Naturally this would also mean that no wireless dualplayer is possible!

I guess it will NOT be possible in the future to use the wireless on the dingoo to connect 2 dingoos wirelessly. So the question is, if the dingoo unit has only a receiver or also a transmitter.
sad .... multiplayer between 2 dingoos would have been a good feature.

or if they would have changed the minisd to 2 microsd slots.

Also what was the thought of the wireless controller analog sticks??

I was hoping that they were included because they updated the processor so that n64 etc. support will be possible.
Are the sticks hardcoded in hardware to the buttons?
Than they would be completely und utterly useless!

Please open up the dingoo and the controller and post high res images of the innards.
So that we can check if the sticks are really independant analog sticks, or just useless second abxy buttons.

Also we could check if there is an optimized motherboard included or not ... the fact that the FW release date is the same as the FW of the a320 is not a good sign.

ricsi

  • Posts: 151
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #25 on: May 09, 2010, 11:42:18 am »
Especially can't wait to see what the devs can do with the revised chip/board and extra Ram.
Also, do the native emulators for SNES and/or Genesis run any better?

What revised chip are you speaking of??

The a330 uses the SAME firmware as the a320!!
This means no real change on ANYTHING important. (Otherwise they would have needed to update the firmware)

Why should the emulators work better.
They are running on near identical HW and the same software (Emulator version 1.0).
The emulators would need to be updated to take advantage of the additional ram.
(Neo Geo would be a good target, which could benefit from an update there)

But than again think about the past.
The Emulators have NEVER (not once!!) been updated.
And the "new" A330 uses the same FW as the a320 which is from 2009.

This does not give me much hope.

At least they updated the FW in the past.
Fixed the X/Y bug and added some languages.
Not much seen when it comes to added features. (like PSP added browser, PSN, Skype and other new features)

ricsi

  • Posts: 151
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #26 on: May 09, 2010, 12:03:51 pm »
From tests omgmog did yesterday the wireless gamepad works in dingux, so that would mean the wireless is handled entirely by the hardware, and the OS has no access to it.

exactly my line of thinking.
Also supported by the fact that it uses the FW of the A320 from September 2009.

Somebody who has samples: open up the controller and a330, and look if the stick in it is an analog stick, or if it is hardwired to the dpad/x/y/a/b digital buttons.

Also somebody ask dingoo tech (or whatever company is now really selling the a330) and ask them what the usecase for the "analog" stick is.

What use is it?? They ship their "new" product with FW 1.20 ... which does not SUPPORT analog sticks!
So what is their storyline about that?

2 possibilities:
1) HW is indeed capable to support the analog sticks, and to have dualplayer, but the SW was not ready, and needs some additional weeks. So they started shipping the old SW and there will be an update when the new SW is ready.

2) they hardwired it. This means that the analog sticks stay "non functional" (ie. are mapped to digital dpad and xyab) and they lied about the possibility of dual player support (with 2 wireless controllers).

please clarify these questions.

At the moment I have the feeling that selling the a320 mainboard in a new case was not "sexy" enough for them, so they threw in 2 non functional analog sticks, because they look good.
This pessimistic view of mine can easily be rectified, by explaining the story of the sticks.
WHAT IS THEIR USE-CASE!!

darfgarf

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #27 on: May 09, 2010, 12:11:30 pm »
wow, a triple post, well done sir :P

the controller does seem to be a little useless yes, but then again there's more ram and it can overclock higher (mog got it to 470)

ricsi

  • Posts: 151
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #28 on: May 09, 2010, 12:25:26 pm »
the controller does seem to be a little useless yes, but then again there's more ram and it can overclock higher (mog got it to 470)

My A320 from mid 2009 can clock to 450 MHz ...

Overclocking depends cooling and chip placement, traces etc. but usually it is the CPU that limits it.
The a330 uses the same CPU ad the a320 ......

Anyways ... we would need either statistical data of many 320 and 330 users to make valid assumptions about overclocking potential. (you cannot do much from 1 single data point!)

To say something positive:
I do not really understand the problems people have with the new case.
The size difference alone makes it virtually impossible to mistake it for a PSP.
And to be honest the new form factor looks quit good, and comfortable.

I like both versions.
I would loved to see a real update which would offer out of the box new features.
Like N64 emulation built into native, with real analog stick on wireless.

Face it: the casual non tech savy gamer has NO USE for the added RAM ... the native FW does not support it. (if you are optimistic you could say does not support it YET)
Anyways it is a very good addition for dingux.

Normally the linux kernel SHOULD recognize the added ram out of the box.
So reviewer could you take a look at dmesg or do a "free -m" to see how much ram is recognized?

Also somebody who speaks to dingoo tech (or whatever they are called now) and ask if they intend to support the added RAM in native.
If so, they would need to change the FW and add functionality ...
reusing 7-8 month old FW will NOT achieve this!


Chris23235

  • Posts: 603
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #29 on: May 09, 2010, 01:14:44 pm »
At this moment I am not interested in the A330 either. The additional Ram is a small plus, but regarding the fact, that most games, that don't run in Mame with 32 MB (e.g. NeoGeo) would be to slow either and run fine in fba or native, it is definitely not worth it.

I would have bought it with a faster CPU, but an additional 32 MB don't help in Snes9x and even if they might help in PSX4All as some suggest, with the current CPU and without a 3D chip it is impossivle to get Playstation emulation at a descent speed with Sound.

So the overall value of the additional 32 MB is non existing to me. If my A320 ever fails, I would buy an A330 but as long as it works, I don't think we will see many emulators, that run better on the 330 than on the 320.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2010, 01:16:17 pm by Chris23235 »

darfgarf

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #30 on: May 09, 2010, 01:21:56 pm »
Like N64 emulation built into native
that'll never happen, get a pandora :P

and of course, more points are needed to see what the processor can get to/etc, i'll make sure to do a few tests and stuff

there's already a couple of games i have in mind for the 330, ones that the 320 can run fine, but once they attempt to load any more graphics to use/sounds etc, there's just not enough ram (visualboy advance should be possible aswell, but no idea for speed vs gpsp, it runs gb/gbc games on the 320, but even gbc ones are pushing the ram to the max XD)

zear

  • * Moderator
  • Posts: 2381
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #31 on: May 09, 2010, 01:47:30 pm »
Normally the linux kernel SHOULD recognize the added ram out of the box.
So reviewer could you take a look at dmesg or do a "free -m" to see how much ram is recognized?
That does not apply to dingux, where the ram is hardcoded to 32M.
Of course it's as simple as to recompile the kernel with support of 64M, but the current dingux kernel will allow A330 to use only half of it's ram.

strider_mt2k

  • Posts: 218
    • Dingoo Scene-Voice of the Dingoo Revolution!
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #32 on: May 09, 2010, 02:01:04 pm »
Thank you so much for sharing all this great info!

I wonder if there could be a market for that wireless controller and the tiny control board that they've grafted into the thing.

I don't have any idea of what protocol it's using, but it seems like it may be an interesting hardware control interface for experimenters all on it's own if used with a microcontroller of some kind.
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omgmog (OP)

  • * Administrator
  • Doesn't sleep.
  • Posts: 789
    • omgmog.net
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #33 on: May 09, 2010, 02:05:47 pm »
Thank you so much for sharing all this great info!

I wonder if there could be a market for that wireless controller and the tiny control board that they've grafted into the thing.

I don't have any idea of what protocol it's using, but it seems like it may be an interesting hardware control interface for experimenters all on it's own if used with a microcontroller of some kind.

You might be interested in these photos of the guts that I took - http://a330.dingoonity.org/photos/guts/

As usual folks, we're discussing this more in the #Dingoonity irc channel on freenode - http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=dingoonity

Stephanie

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #34 on: May 09, 2010, 02:12:28 pm »
Thanks for the internal pics! This is what I've been waiting for :D

Interesting branding on the cpu...


zolini

  • Posts: 23
    • DingooBR
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #35 on: May 09, 2010, 04:56:47 pm »
I translated the review into Brazilian Portuguese, and posted on our website DingooBR. Soon we will also make our review.  ;D
www.dingoobr.com
dingoobr.forumeiros.com

ddragoonss

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #36 on: May 09, 2010, 05:06:29 pm »

You might be interested in these photos of the guts that I took - http://a330.dingoonity.org/photos/guts/


Sorry for the bad words, but "It's all the same sh*t".

With + 32M ram(useless to speed improvement in most emulators) and a wireless receiver soldered in the controller circuit(literally a 'remote' control, a really strange thing to a PORTABLE device), only this two improvements, but still they made it incompatible to change to a A320 case because the reset and L-R buttons soldered in different places.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2010, 05:20:14 pm by ddragoonss »

kswildside

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #37 on: May 09, 2010, 05:26:18 pm »
Just because the firmware has the same version number doesn't mean it wasn't modified with the new theme probably mods to make it access more memory etc. When I was looking into adding more ram to the A320 there were changes that needed to be done at the OS and Firmware level so those changes needed to be done.

As for processor the only options they had were 4740 or 4750 or 4755 the 4750 and 4755 both had too many issues to warrant using them as they would cause more issues then they would resolve. So they decided to revise the motherboard and processor instead.

ddragoonss

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #38 on: May 09, 2010, 05:53:54 pm »
Just because the firmware has the same version number doesn't mean it wasn't modified with the new theme probably mods to make it access more memory etc. When I was looking into adding more ram to the A320 there were changes that needed to be done at the OS and Firmware level so those changes needed to be done.


So if was added more RAM without a Firmware improvement(what seems, not cause the version number, but cause the date too), the +32MB will be literally useless?

Good to know it.

"doesn't mean it wasn't modified with the new theme"
It's very easy to modify the OS theme, anyone can do it(Even I did a really ugly Ys theme), otherwise it's hard to change memory-mapping procedures in a OS.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2010, 05:57:30 pm by ddragoonss »

darfgarf

  • Guest
Re: Review - The Dingoo A330
« Reply #39 on: May 09, 2010, 05:58:46 pm »
not cause the version number, but cause the date too)
if you compare the secret config screen on the 320/330, the os hash is different, so it's not the same, even though the date is

 

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