Cnc Case That Should Be Finished Tomorrow

[_VWV_]

Go to japan....

Each person has like 4 DSes there

Is not one off the sell points in PC vs Console wars, that the Console fanboys claim how expensive PC's are compare to a Console. Expect that a lot off people seem to buy a revision during the lifespan ( like a PS2 -> PS2 Slim, PSP -> PSP 3000, DS -> DSi etc ). Joined with the higher game prices... They might just end up paying more then any PC gamer, but don't realize it

$1,000 isn't that big of a deal, but its something in these tough times. So when I said I was "afraid", What I meant was I am slightly on edge that OP is losing time. The longer it takes for the Pandora to arrive to us, the more there is a chance that a device comes out that steals sales from OP. However small that chance may be.

Your not the only person with that "fear".

If there is one thing i hate, is buying a piece off technology, and only a few months later, finding out that there is something coming / or is out, that has twice the performance. Devaluation your original product almost instantly.

Thats why the OMAP3630 is so problematic. Whats there to prevent a few Chinese clone makers from creating there own "Pandora" with a OMAP3630. The longer the shipping & heaving it in everybody's hand ( i don't consider the first batch complete, if the first person gets it on date x, and the last person only gets it x + 2 months ).

Despite the reassuring words that some people say, i have been in the IT sector long enough to know how fast something can move. And what worries me the most, is the life expectation off the 65nm OMAP3's. If 6 months after we get our Pandora's, TI desires that the 45nm process is way better for there profit margin, and they are at high production capacity, that they phase out the 65nm part ( deliberate production drop, price increase, etc ... i've seen it all before ).

It may be all good & well that Craigex, MW, ... expect the Pandora to be a 2 year minimum uniform supplied system, but like we already saw during the production, you are depended on 3th parties. If TI said to Craigex, "from now on, use the 36xx serie, for the same price price, or lower, and it's pin compatible"... You need to be daft to say no And there might be even little to no choice in the mater.

I look at it from this point off view:

- TI & a few other ARM suppliers are trying to break into the UMPC, nettop etc market. You don't do that with a big press announcement, and then have the customers wait 1 or 2 years. That might have worked for other markets, but not the PC market.

- TI claims sampling starts in Q3. The fact that they now already have the set clock speed, and gpu speed, indicated that they are already sampling now, and are looking for production sampling. From that point, things can go fast if there are no major flaws in the design.

- The 36xx serie has been already know for a while. But was first quoted to being 800Mhz, now we know its 720Mhz to 1Ghz. So, i suspect that this reinforces the point above. That they are already archiving adduct results, to know what there set cpu speed can be.

- Competition seem to be increasing in the ARM market, to deliverer ARM based cpu's to this new UMPC/nettop/... market. In other words, again, those pre announcements can bit them in the ass, so now they don't have the luxury for a 2 year delay.

- Expected delivery date for the first customers is start off April. But MB production is still in batches, need manual os flash jobs, manual testing, etc. If the last customers from the first batch have theres by mid May, consider yourself lucky. Then we come back to point 1, 2 & 3.

- What if there are other upgrades like the memory on 45nm, with increased capacity... And off we go again...

I know that some people have a holly confidence in Craigex, etc, but there also needs to be some realism. May i remember people that the expected delivery date was End off November, last year!

Even if there was not the financial problems, with all the manufacturing problems, it will have been more like January. Now we are talking about April at best, while the final production off the cases is not even started. Don't forget, that case it just another prototype. Its not like it will be delivered on Monday, and production can start on Tuesday.

* Whats even the status off the MB production? I hope that it already started! In other words, that the MB batches are arriving & are getting tested already. If not... What if something else goes wrong again...

* How is the battery production? Going as planned, or not even started yet?

* Whats the status off the finished key mat production? Going as planned, or not even started yet.

* Then we have the CE testing. The hope was a few days compared to a month. No offense, but take a month to be "safe". Based on the track record here. You can push all you want, but like i said, 3th party... If they delay because off any reason...

It does not take a rocket genius to see how many things that can go wrong, and delay the project even more.

My own guess time line for the case:

Case test sample done: 04 March 2009
Delivery at best: 10 March 2009 ( Yes, it needs to be tested again a physical setup again, because there have been changes to the design ).
Production starting off the case: 16 to 20 March 2009.
Required amount for a first batch: +5 days.
Delivery at best 28 March...

For the other elements, there is to little information to be a guess time line.

You know, i have had several people ask me what happened to that "thing" that i ordered. Its nice to keep telling them: "Its not in production", "They are still solving problems"... And you get a look back ... Today we are March 2009... I for one do not see it physically possible to start delivering the first batches by start off April 2009 ( You may always prove me wrong! ).


+1

* Whats even the status off the MB production? I hope that it already started! In other words, that the MB batches are arriving & are getting tested already. If not... What if something else goes wrong again...

They can't start the board production until they get CE and FCC approval.


+1

 

[bzar]

When you buy a gadget, something better is announced. So far, this has been more of a rule than an exception. With pandora though, you have to look at the bigger picture. If you want raw power, buy a desktop. If you want a little less raw power and some mobility, buy a laptop. If you don't really need that much raw power and want good mobility, buy a netbook. If you want to play games with good controls and good mobility, buy a handheld console. If you want to play games with good controls, have a keyboard, great mobility, relatively much raw power (the list goes on), buy a pandora.

Really, if you can find another device that suits your needs better, buy it. In my opinion pandora is more about getting all these things in a single case than being the fastest and most powerful pocket-size computer. I don't think there will be a device as versatile as this for some time.

 

[fusion_power]

I still remember a while ago, the Dev Team said, that making the Case is the smallest part of the Pandora development, it could be done in some weeks/days and that's the reason why they've waited until the last minute to finalize the Case. OK, it was not wrong to wait untill every other part is finished and fits (see Battery-problem) but I hope, that a possible "Pandora 2" will have a faster and better organized development line, I recommend to develop many things as possible in parallel (PCB AND Case), could save some time. (But of course I have no real clue about this stuff, just noob-guesssing and hoping from me. )

 

[PandoraRox]

will the cnc be delivered in a few days?

 

[benjiro]

They can't start the board production until they get CE and FCC approval.

CE / FCC testing has no real bearing on the board itself. Wifi/BT/Battery, thats the stuff that heats up those guys. In other words, anything that can be considered a safety to the consumer, and a lack in product quality.

If they are using a standardized Wifi/BT chip, the amount off power output is not going to create a problem for the validation. If there is a problem with the chips, that are considered standard, then the Pandora is not going to be the only device effected. So its highly unlike that those tests are a major problem ( unless the antenna placement is badly, but thats a case problem, not a board problem ).

I will worry more about the software, then the hardware. The hardware has already had its fair shore off real world testing with the developers. One thing that a lot of devices trip over during CE/FCC testing, is software bugs, preventing the validation process.

Now, that is one that happens a lot. One software bug, and you can add a few more days to weeks to the testing procedure ( new Pandora with new software needs to be shipped for the test ). If the prototype case is used for the test, and there has been no extra production run, they can be forced to produce another case, ship to whoever does the assembly off the test unit ( MW? ED? ), and then shipped to the CE Testing company.

 

[Alpha2]

Isn't it possible that should a new version of the board come along either by TI forcing it or by some other form of market tomfuckery, that we could simply buy a new more advanced board and install it in the pandor ourselves? I mean we alsready have people talking about spare parts and new keymats and whatever.

I mean remember this IS NOT a DS or PSP or even a laptop, it dosent have to be subjected to the same upgrade fears that the "corporate whore" devices are. Just buy the new part and slip it intot he case. Aside from the possibility of a multitouch screen is there something that should keep up from being able to do that?

 

[a.tom]

ED posted some news on the german board:
QUOTE
Die Daten sind mittlerweile angepasst, die Produktion beginnt.

Sie beeilen sich extra, damit ich evtl. zur Olymptronica ein Gehäuse hab - aber wenn das am Mittwoch z.B. fertig wird, wirds vom Lieferservice her wahrscheinlich trotzdem eng.

Sicherheitshalber versucht Craig aber, das gezeigte fertige FDM-Gehäuse mit Tastaturmatte bis dahin zu mir zu kriegen.

CODE
http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6702&start=90

QUOTE
The data has been adjusted, the production begins.
They try to get it ready as soon as possible, so that i have one at Olymptronica (Games Exhibition/Convention next weekend in Germany).
To be on the safe side, Craig tries to get the FDM case with keymat to me in the meantime.

 

[Mithrildor]

Nice.... Thanks for mentioning and the translation a.tom

/edit:

Meh that is at 8 march.. That is exactly when the soccermatch is between NEC (Yay) and AZ (nay).

 

[a.tom]

Nice.... Thanks for mentioning and the translation a.tom
Your're welcome Some guys from the german board are going to meet ED at that exhibition - so hopefully we wil see some pics of ED and the cnc prototype

 

[Zeno Arrow]

Thats why the OMAP3630 is so problematic. Whats there to prevent a few Chinese clone makers from creating there own "Pandora" with a OMAP3630.

TI does not license to Chinese copy shops, its one of their policies to protect their other customers. So that cheap knock off is not going to happen (or if it does it will be tied up in legal shit before being released in the Western world).

Looking forward to CNC pics.

 

[Monk]

Isn't it possible that should a new version of the board come along either by TI forcing it or by some other form of market tomfuckery, that we could simply buy a new more advanced board and install it in the pandor ourselves? I mean we alsready have people talking about spare parts and new keymats and whatever.

I mean remember this IS NOT a DS or PSP or even a laptop, it dosent have to be subjected to the same upgrade fears that the "corporate whore" devices are. Just buy the new part and slip it intot he case. Aside from the possibility of a multitouch screen is there something that should keep up from being able to do that?

I guess a lot depends on how TI's package connects to the Pandora motherboard. I mean, if it sits in a 16 pin IC socket then easy enough - but if it's anything like an Intel CPU with 148 tiny pins that need to be desoldered to remove the old package then solder in the same pins on the new package - possibly rerouting some pins because the pinout changed... then.... how's your soldering capability?

 

[spaceballs3000]

Thats why the OMAP3630 is so problematic. Whats there to prevent a few Chinese clone makers from creating there own "Pandora" with a OMAP3630.

TI does not license to Chinese copy shops, its one of their policies to protect their other customers. So that cheap knock off is not going to happen (or if it does it will be tied up in legal shit before being released in the Western world).

Looking forward to CNC pics.


Who said that? That is just a plain lie, don't spread them if you don't know what your talking about.

Anyone can buy TI OMAP 3550 cpus, goto --> http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/prin...ricingpackaging

Aaron, Digikey, Mouser, Newark all have them, you can buy them now, no license.

Maybe they are talking about the access to the 3D chip, then all it takes is another company to get the license or they can reverse engineer an open source version of it.

Anyways it's not TI, it's the Lawyers that would prevent copy cats, and honestly if Pandora using open source software, they wouldn't have an leg to really stand on anyways. With their lack of cash on hand, I doubt they would have much money to hire a lawyer to fight copy cats. Best they could do is block them from their own country (and maybe USA) from being imported.

-out