Birthplace of a Pandora Board and a power loss (2010-09-16)


EvilDragon

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 4, 2003
Messages
29,986
Age
46
Location
Ingolstadt
Forgive me for not posting much during the last days - it doesn't mean we're trying to hide something, it just means I'm busy with real life... or soldering LCD cables, as I did during the last days.


You might've seen from Fatih's Tweet yesterday, that painting still was not finished and therefore we had to change the shipping date.


This time, there's not really anyone to be blamed - as there was a power loss in China in their area for a couple of days - yeah, something that's hard to imagine in most places where we all live.


So they lost a few productive days...


They tried to speed up the painting to finish in time - but as some samples showed, not a good idea:


brokenpaint.JPG



As you can see, there are ugly paint areas there... something you don't want to have on your Pandora.


Properly painted cases look like this:


goodpaint.JPG



And this is what you will get! As soon as I get more infos from Fatih when the last piece of case has painted, I'll let you know.


We're currently discussing about sending more cases via air and less via ship to have them all here when the boards are finished.


Regarding board production and nub testing, there's nothing new yet, as we usually get a status update each Friday. So tomorrow we will probably have more infos.


However, I got some pictures from the board company, showing their facility and machines. Basically the birthplace of the Pandora Boards!


When they find some time, they will also take some pictures of the actual Pandora production, this will be neat :)


facility1.jpg



facility2.jpg



facility3.jpg



facility4.jpg



Last but not least, we've also been working on some new stuff.


Board Rev6a is finished and prototypes are in production. That revision doesn't add new things for the customer, it just has been designed to make production faster (we don't need to scratch up the boards to connect shielding for CE anymore and similar things) and most important: It has some testing points added near the WiFi chip that makes debugging of the driver more easy. That might help fixing the last WiFi problems out there.


So basically, that revision helps us speed up everything, make CE conformity easier and helps us debugging.


Also, the new revision of LCD cables will be produced shortly.


lcdcable.png



Mainly the same here: The speaker wires moved outside of the connector area, the cable is now completely shielded - and that means we don't have to use tons of copper tapes ourselves anymore to shield it manually. This should also help speed up production in the future and making it more robust.


We're still moving forward, and I guess that is the most important thing for this project. More news as soon as I have them :)
 
And this is what you will get! As soon as I get more infos from Fatih when the last piece of case has painted, I'll let you know.

Well, that was a quick one - just received an eMail from Fatih that enough cases for the air shipment are now ready!


They try to get a free plane shipping slot before this weekend, but in worst case, next week is the pickup.


Finally! :D
 
Great news indeed on the cases. Thanks ED.


I'm loving this flow of info we've been getting.


Those pictures are interesting. Just seeing the factory is satisfying for some reason.


Check out those antique Monitors and printers :lol:
 
Check out those antique Monitors and printers :lol:

A lot of those companies have such antique stuff there - it's usually way more robust than current ones. And very often, the software for such machines runs on DOS as it is way more stable then Windows... so you need stuff that is being supported by DOS ;)
 
Good news are always welcome, seems karma is rewarding your good actions, ;)

Check out those antique Monitors and printers :lol:

This monitor is not old enough as some big Xerox printers with Unix i used to manage, :)


Hope to compile soon with it. Keep up the good work!
 
The old monitors and printers also means they're helping lower the Pandora's carbon footprint too :)


Re revision 6a - colour me surprised. That's very good news - I didn't realise you were able to turn around new board revisions without all the associated hoo-hah.
 
Good to hear some news ED, even though it's (not entirely unexpected) bad news.


We all know October is a best case date and the past has proven this to be at least two months off. I'm still behind my previous statement that I'll be happily surprised if I actually get to see my unit this year. I'm glad they at least have enough cases for the shipment, though I kinda worry about the quality now.

This time, there's not really anyone to be blamed - as there was a power loss in China in their area for a couple of days
I disagree with this statement. Any decent business takes some time into account to cater for unforeseen incidents. The factory is to blame for making optimistic predictions and you are to blame for believing them.


Sorry for sounding so angry. It's just that waiting for my precious Pandora is starting to take its toll. I really appreciate the updates and effort you guys put into this.
 
....<SNIP>


Last but not least, we've also been working on some new stuff.


Board Rev6a is finished and prototypes are in production. That revision doesn't add new things for the customer, it just has been designed to make production faster (we don't need to scratch up the boards to connect shielding for CE anymore and similar things) and most important: It has some testing points added near the WiFi chip that makes debugging of the driver more easy. That might help fixing the last WiFi problems out there.


So basically, that revision helps us speed up everything, make CE conformity easier and helps us debugging.


Also, the new revision of LCD cables will be produced shortly.





Mainly the same here: The speaker wires moved outside of the connector area, the cable is now completely shielded - and that means we don't have to use tons of copper tapes ourselves anymore to shield it manually. This should also help speed up production in the future and making it more robust.


We're still moving forward, and I guess that is the most important thing for this project. More news as soon as I have them :)
Can you please advise, when do you estimate the new revised boards and LCD cables will be used in MP Pandora's?
 
A lot of those companies have such antique stuff there - it's usually way more robust than current ones. And very often, the software for such machines runs on DOS as it is way more stable then Windows... so you need stuff that is being supported by DOS ;)

Yea I get that, we have an antique setup for a wide format copier we use, but its still comical to see high tech equipment with low tech monitors. :D


Although in the case of our wide format copier it had to use dos just because it was so old and was not supported anymore, but it was built like a tank (and weighs like one too :D ) so we still use it. Our new one uses Windows XP. Perhaps its a similar scenario with the board company, they have old machines that still run great so they keep them, even though they are somewhat outdated in the monitor/os department and then they have shiny new ones (see background of last pic) with flat screen monitors that (maybe) run on a more up to date os.


As to the case company, they get no more slack from me. It may be questionable as to if they are to blame or not, but they have dropped the ball so many times, I don't care if someone dropped a bomb on them and the factory blew to pieces, I'd still blame them. Have they ever heard of generators? :rolleyes:


Still though, cases aren't the hold up anymore so I'd say who's to blame for the case delay is a moot point. I think we all agree that the case manufacturers are a pack of unprofessional lying slackers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
As to the case company, they get no more slack from me. It may be questionable as to if they are to blame or not, but they have dropped the ball so many times, I don't care if someone dropped a bomb on them and the factory blew to pieces, I'd still blame them. Have they ever heard of generators? :rolleyes:

You shouldn't drop the bomb before the cases are shipped...


And after that, there's no reason for doing that anymore ;)
 
A lot of those companies have such antique stuff there - it's usually way more robust than current ones. And very often, the software for such machines runs on DOS as it is way more stable then Windows... so you need stuff that is being supported by DOS ;)

I've worked with similar machines for just about 12 years. Every one that I dealt with that uses windows is a nightmare with stability, seen a virus take out every windows based tool on the manufacturing floor that was fun.. I will take the machines that run DOS, QNX, OS/2 and Unix any day.
 
You might've seen from Fatih's Tweet yesterday, that painting still was not finished and therefore we had to change the shipping date.


This time, there's not really anyone to be blamed - as there was a power loss in China in their area for a couple of days - yeah, something that's hard to imagine in most places where we all live.


So they lost a few productive days...


They tried to speed up the painting to finish in time - but as some samples showed, not a good idea:

I'm sorry - could the case factory explain more than this? We had a slot in the airplane for Tuesday () and so the implication is that they were all done, and *ready*. Somehow they weren't. I guess that's why we didn't get picture of the boxes...


I agree they're at fault for not making their deadlines ... ever.
 
wow, so this is where it is made.


really nice to see it.


oh, hi to everyone here! :)


(i really hope to get my pandora asap)


hahahah! >.<
 
I'm sorry - could the case factory explain more than this? We had a slot in the airplane for Tuesday () and so the implication is that they were all done, and *ready*. Somehow they weren't. I guess that's why we didn't get picture of the boxes...


I agree they're at fault for not making their deadlines ... ever.

The information we got from them was Thursday, they were planning on painting the cases Friday, Saturday and Monday and have them ready for pickup on Tuesday.


There was a power failure Friday and Saturday, so they tried to finish them in highspeed on Monday which didn't work out well (as you could see with the sample pic I posted), so they needed those two more days they lost because of that failure. That's why they're now done with painting.
 
Back
Top