After a long day, there'll be another one (2011-12-21)


Good luck ED, this new company seems at least >9000 times better than CC.

Regarding dedication and communication: Yeah, that's for sure :)


The rest is something we'll need to find out, but I'm positive here :)


Found some more tweaks that should be done for mass production run. These don't cause problem with the prototype run, but would cause a higher failure rate in mass production :)


i.e. right now we've got panels with 8 Pandora PCBs at once. However, due to the size, the stencil plate isn't 100% accurate for all PCBs on one panel anymore.


This is okay with a prototype run (as each PCB will be manually checked before it's being populated), but it's a no-go for mass production (unless you want a high failure rate).


So we'll have to reduce that for the mass production run.
 
It's a bit of a bummer that it doesn't work out with the production start in January ... on the other hand it might be better this way. It gives a bit more time to prepare everything carefully. No rush now, so less chances to maybe overlook something which will cause trouble later. Also I can think of a whole bunch of potential problems popping up due to the Chinese New Year, a rushed board production to get things done before and similar things ...


And most importantly: this means production will start in two monthsTM :lol:
 
So what happens with the fully-working prototype PCBs, do they go out to preorderers or to devs?

First, we NEED to get fully-working prototypes ;)


First thing I'll do with them is an extensive longtime test.


One or two will go to MWeston so he can check some things as well.


One will be the 1st prize for a coding competition (incl. a white or golden casing).


The rest... well, let's see how many we'll get first.


Some parts (like SD Card slot, etc.) are currently manually being placed on the PCB. This will only be done for the prototype run, the mass production run will be fully automatic then.


After these placements, it's time to bake the PCBs.
 
First quick test:


It's alive and boots :)


With LCD picture :)


Now on to testing all the other things :)
 
What coding competition?


Did I miss something? ;-)


ED, thank you for your hard work and unbroken enthusiasm!


AND for the continuous stream of recent news.


Success is at hand, I can feel it.


(Crossing fingers.)
 
ed is all this stuff being video recorded?

Population and stuff like this, yes.


Testing the PCBs not, as I'm testing them myself.


So far, it seems we missed out one part for the audio component in the machine program, so audio didn't work.


We are manually soldering that part now and add that for mass production run :)


WiFi and Mini-USB are not working right now, but we found a few more missing parts (was a problem when importing the P&P data), so this'll make things work fine probably :)


All the PCBs we got are having exactly the same issues and except for that, all of them are working 100% :)
 
Okay, while they are placing the ferrites manually on the PCB, I've checked the PCB myself.


These ferrites are all in the audio circuit, near the WiFi module, near the Mini USB port and near the AC port.


And these are the only things that are not working right now :)


Looking good. We'll know for sure after the next boards are baked :)
 
All the PCBs we got are having exactly the same issues and except for that, all of them are working 100% :)
"Apart from the things that are not working, we have a 100% success rate" :D :D


Just kidding, it seems only minor things are going wrong, and basically the prototype run is being done because such things are expected to happen and to fix them.

Looking good. We'll know for sure after the next boards are baked :)
Keep up your good work in the Christmas bakery! :lol:
 
Totaly awesome! Things are going so well... This is so exciting!


ED: of course I won't be winning the competition Pandora, but i'm assuming the white or gold will be a paintjob?


Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk
 
All the PCBs we got are having exactly the same issues and except for that, all of them are working 100% :)
"Apart from the things that are not working, we have a 100% success rate" :D :D
More like "Apart from the things we can actually see were done wrong, everything else (especially the things we can't visually inspect) have a 100% success rate".
 
WOW you guys are making these Christmas treats fast and furious! Really digging the updates from the production floor and someone is gonna love that White/Golden Pandora :)
 
I can't wait for the first update sent from a complete, German Pandora :wub:
 
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