"build Your Own Pandora" Kit

[greendots]

It has been asked before, but with all the required parts in the UK with Craigix, I hope we can have a definitive answer to the question: Will Openpandora ship pandora kits to customers who want to avoid longer waits?

The kit would of course contain everything needed to assemble the unit. It also must have the resistor fix. Easier soldering like required to attach the speakers to the breakout board would be done by the customer.

There is at least two old posts on this subject full of opinions so please don't post an opinion until we have a response from one of the developers.

 

[Asiyura]

No.
(Warranty problems)

 

[Alec]

It's possible to break the LCD cable really easily if you don't know what you are doing. That's why we dropped that idea.

 

[BackAssward]

There are many reasons that the idea is not going to work. Not just the above, but examples I don't care to go find for you.

No, and no... and mainly no.

 

[Monk]

Sure, but they'd need to put the PCB, nubs, and LCD screen in some kind of protective case for you before they ship it, to avoid damaging them. Fortunately, your kit includes JUST such a case, so they can put the other components in there to keep them undamged during transit!

 

[greendots]

Is it so hard to resist posting?

We've had a lot of conflicting information throughout the project and I am only looking for the most up to date info. The LCD cables are now covered with shielding tape making them less likely to tear. The warranty would cover the same as it would mods. If you drop solder into the wrong place your liable for it, etc.

 

[Wootson]

It has been said a few times by OpenPandora that this will not be possible due to the warranty issues that it brings.

If they did agree with the idea, it would cause the following issues:

• Shipping via special boxes, which have extra costs.
• Keeping lists of people who had warranty and who didn't.
• Needs to be fully assembled/tested before sending them out to people, which means extra risks for OpenPandora.
• Dead-on-arrival because of shipping problems is very difficult to prove. Who is going to pay for damages? OpenPandora could just tell you that you destroyed it, you tell them the same, and the post office tells it too.
• Etcetera.

That is why it's "NO".

 

[Aninhumer]

Also the amount of time it would likely save is minimal relatively.
At the point they are actually ready to assemble, you're talking about a few weeks at most to actually get yours.
And that's a finite few weeks, not Two Weeks[sup]TM[/sup].

I realise people are desperate to get their Pandora's RIGHT NOW, but it's just not worth all the complications this would bring.

 

[BackAssward]

Those (above) were the reasons I was talking about... and there are still more reasons not yet given, that I won't get into right now.

There are so many reasons why that is a bad idea.

I understand people want them right away... but people don't understand all the reasons why it is a bad idea. They think about what it means to them, not what it means in a larger picture where they are just one customer.... not what it means in the big picture.

Not what it means to the news, not what it means to other customers, not what it means to Open Pandora.

It is just selfish, no real thought to what a request means in the big picture.

 

[Shaun]

I think the warranty is probably the biggest factor. Would you really sacrifice that to get it a few weeks early?

 

[paddy]

No ,i called OPT directly to ask and i even asked for this with no warranty still no.

 

[greendots]

Who said it would void warranty? I would think it would be under the same consideration as moding. That hasn't been stated afaik. Many of us are capable of building it without frying or otherwise ruining the board.

They will, by the start of production, have all the parts organized for assembly. The PCBs are probably individually wrapped in anti-static bags and to box up the parts would take significantly less time then assembling and shipping units.

edit: I started post before the comment above...

 

[Monk]

Who said it would void warranty? I would think it would be under the same consideration as moding. That hasn't been stated afaik.

Modding voids warranty. Shipping as a kit would void warranty. It has been stated by OPT.

for example:

I seriously don't think anyone can honestly expect warranty if you start soldering or cramming stuff inside the case. Even with the best of intentions something can go wrong and that shouldn't be on us to fix. Hell, I've gotten boards back from the factory with little solder balls rolling around the board like a game of pinball and they're supposed to be the pros. An accident like that from a customer could fry something, the ball could roll off during shipping and then we're stuck with the bill replacing the entire PCB because we can't tell what happened. The hacker stuff inside is there for people who don't care about warranty and will mod anyway, like they do with PSPs I see with nasty lights everywhere.

I tried searching the forum for a comment about warranty from Craig but I didn't find anything. The search feature doesn't seem to work well. I know forum users have made up this statement as fact just because that is what they wanted but that doesn't make it true. The EXT port is a more accessible mod feature that doesn't break warranty unless abused (beat with a hammer, probed with a stun gun!) but it is protected against short circuits and ESD up to +/- 15kV (HBM) in order to be as robust as realistically possible.

Or...

L2/R2 spare are still there. This is for hackers that want to modify the case internally (voiding the warranty of course).

Or...

 

[Asiyura]

So, from the beginning of the topic we were saying "No" because of these previous topics where Michael Weston said "No, it would void the warranty".

 

[Monk]

Those and I beleive more. I'm pretty sure Craig got in on the act regarding the "Pandora kit" idea ages ago too.

 

[BackAssward]

If you do something that breaks it, you void the warranty.

If you do something that doesn't break it, and it fails on it's own... that is covered.

However, if you open it up yourself, play with it, and it fails. There is no way OP can know if it failed from your action or if it failed on it's own... so, no, warranty voided.

I believe Mali and I had this talk before.


Remember, given the small amount of cash they get from a sale, they can't cover warranty replacements for people who killed their own Pandora.

 

[Sphinxter]

Should.

 

[BackAssward]

Should.

Should what?

 

[Dunny]

I'm all for this!

With one thing that must happen for it to be shipped this way:

I pre-ordered in Sept '08 - and I want mine fully assembled by OPT. If your pre-order place is before me in line, then fine, yours can be shipped unassembled. If you're later in the queue than I am, then you get your unassembled Pandora after my assembled Pandora is shipped to me. If yours is shipped ahead of mine simply because you don't want to wait for assembly, then I'm gonna play fuck up with OPT.

Other than that, I'm cool with the idea. You still want to do this?

D.

 

[BackAssward]

I'm all for this!

With one thing that must happen for it to be shipped this way:

I pre-ordered in Sept '08 - and I want mine fully assembled by OPT. If your pre-order place is before me in line, then fine, yours can be shipped unassembled. If you're later in the queue than I am, then you get your unassembled Pandora after my assembled Pandora is shipped to me. If yours is shipped ahead of mine simply because you don't want to wait for assembly, then I'm gonna play fuck up with OPT.

Other than that, I'm cool with the idea. You still want to do this?

D.

We already know that it isn't going to happen. No reason to humor him, even if just as a joke. If he doesn't get it, no worries, we know it isn't going to happen.