Build Your Own Pandora Kit?

[Squidge]

AFAIK in the UK goods are returnable for 4years if a malfunction is due to manufacturing fault or the product not suitable for normal use.

Really? I remember trying to return a kettle bought from Argos a few days after 12 months, and I got escorted from the premises by police after refusing to leave and wanting a replacement.

 

[Orkie]

Then you should've marched straight back in. If your item dies within what could be considered a 'reasonable lifespan' you can get trading standards involved if they won't replace it. I wonder what a reasonable lifespan for a game machine is given that there are many working from the very early days...

 

[peca]

AFAIK in the UK goods are returnable for 4years if a malfunction is due to manufacturing fault or the product not suitable for normal use.

I guess that UK is close to EU jurisdiction and there is 2 years guaranty or product lifetime, if it is smaller (ie batteries,...)

 

[andyB911]

[AFAIK in the UK goods are returnable for 4years if a malfunction is due to manufacturing fault or the product not suitable for normal use.

Anyway, I'm sure the company wouldn't want to show a complete distrust in the quality of their own product by only offering a 30day warranty, it may be a 'loose knit community project' but is still a professional business.

I think Craig said it would have 1 yr warranty, but may be making that up. Odd that suddenly warranties are topic number one - especially as both Craig and Ed have been seen to handle replacements / repairs in the past in a satisfactory manner.

But, to the 4 yr assertion... - its actually up to 6 years max in the Sale of Goods Act. However, there is a caveat in that its 'as long as reasonable to expect it to last'.

Its worth noting that its the retailer and not the manufacturer who is responsible for the repair and it has to be proved that it was not the user who caused the problem.

There is no set definition for a 'reasonable time to expect electronic devices' to last and it seems all very vague. I'd be surprised if you were able to use this act beyond 1 yr in practice. But I'm (thankfully) no lawyer.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

QUOTE

If you want some DIY hack fun, just get a BeagleBoard and build your own equivalent -- I actually think that would be a pretty fun way to spend your free time, assuming you have it.

That's a bit too much DIY hack fun...I like the idea of a DIY Pandora that can be built in an hour or two.

A roll your own beagleboard-based-portable console would probably take months, crazy amounts of equipment and the knowledge to use them, materials...
Do you know what would go into a project like this? It wouldn't take months, crazy amounts of equipment, or much knowledge at all. You'd grab a small touch screen VGA display off eBay, a mini keyboard, some SD cards, a battery, etc. and go at it. Trust me, people do the same thing with picoITX boards all the time; I even made one for a car once. It's not hard, and it's not that time consuming. But it is fun!

 

[Illuminerdi]

Do you know what would go into a project like this? It wouldn't take months, crazy amounts of equipment, or much knowledge at all. You'd grab a small touch screen VGA display off eBay, a mini keyboard, some SD cards, a battery, etc. and go at it. Trust me, people do the same thing with picoITX boards all the time; I even made one for a car once. It's not hard, and it's not that time consuming. But it is fun!

I was more afraid of getting a case for it, really. Sure getting those parts and assembling wouldn't be too hard, but fabricating a case to fit them is WAY out of my league. Even a wood case would take equipment that I don't have, and I'd prefer something...thinner, like plastic, and when you get into plastic fabrication things get kinda tricky. The other alternative would be a "case kit" but AFAIK none of those exist for the beagleboard (a quick google search backs me up on this), and if one is created, I doubt it will be for a portable, I'm guessing it would be for a standalone mini-desktop or some kind of netbook like project, since they're all the rage at the moment.

Not that I wouldn't be excited to be wrong, but it's just not really feasible for me at the moment.

Besides, I kinda WANT to give the Pandora people my money, since they're supporting open platform gaming, whereas the beagleboard is just generic open platform. Good stuff, sure, but I like gaming, so I want the gaming focused project to get my financial support.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Eh, I guess doing what I do on my projects at Benheck, it makes something like making a case seem a lot easier than it really is.

 

[Illuminerdi]

Eh, I guess doing what I do on my projects at Benheck, it makes something like making a case seem a lot easier than it really is.



Impressive Mini-genesis, btw!

And yeah, I'm sure making a case isn't as hard as I think it is, but it's still a decent amount of time/work that I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle yet. Though I've been wanting to build an arcade cabinet, and I think a beagleboard would make a perfect MAME board, esp given the Pandora ports, I just need to acquire a case for it of some variety. Hopefully someone will come up with a prefab case kit in the near-ish future, which I'm betting will happen given how the BB seems to be getting quite popular among the hobbyist crowd...

 

[nubie]

If you wanted to do a beagleboard, or discuss it, the thread is here.

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=43597