Contracts sent out, parts (hopefully) moving in (2011-10-26)


EvilDragon

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While I don't really have much time lately, I still feel I need to let you know what happened lately.


1. Meeting with EBV (part distributor)


As I mentioned in my last post, I had a meeting with EBV, one of the biggest part distributors worldwide. We buy (and bought) all TI parts from them.


And their headquarters is only 80km away from me, which is great ;)


I had the meeting for two reasons:


First, they wanted to know what the Pandora is all about (they only knew it's an embedded Linux device). And second, they help me to move the parts from Texas to Germany.


Some background information:


Batch 2 was planned to happen right after Batch 1 in Texas at CircuitCo... the plan was to start in February / March (yes, 2011...)


We all know this didn't work out - however: the needed TI parts for Batch 2 had already been delivered by EBV to Texas.


So we have these parts lying in Texas but now we need them in Germany...


All we need to do is pack them into boxes and send them to Germany... sounds easy, eh?


Well, nope.


It's crazy complicate... and here's why:


1) The parts are partly owned by OpenPandora Ltd. and partly still owned by EBV.


2) Those parts need to go from a third party company (CC) to another third party company (GC).


3) Well... now try to fill out the documents needed to get these parts through customs. Sounds like fun, right?


Dealing with custom documents if you're not experienced isn't easy. However, dealing with such a complicated case is hard ever IF you have experience with customs.


Luckily, EBV has agreed to prepare the documents for me - so we won't have any custom issues when moving them to Germany.


I am really thankful about that :) It saves me a lot of energy and time.


Some funny side-story:


You might know I've got an arcade machine in my office. When the two guys from EBV visited me, one of them immediately saw the machine and asked if it has real boards or some MAME emulation inside it.


"Heck - he seems to know something about the retro-gaming scene", I thought.


And yep, it's true: He collects pinball machines and likes retro gamings... well, as said, they didn't know what you can do with the Pandora. It was a GREAT background to start explaining the Pandora to them... :)


2. Contracts...


Whew, I sent out a bit over 30 loan agreements, adding up to a total of about 380K EUR now!


That's some great amount to get the Pandora produced in Germany!


So within the next days, more and more money should appear on my account.


We're still perfectly within our planned timeframe, no delays so far :)


3. TV Out Cables


As promised, as soon as I got the investment capital, I'll order the TV Out cables.


I requested an updated quotation and as soon as I get it, the order will be placed.


Finally :)


4. Future Plans


As soon as I'm finished organizing everything, I'll finish the RMAs I got and try to fix boards from CC.


Well, and to reply to all my eMails... a big sorry to everyone who is waiting for his RMA unit or for a reply.


I'm getting help with office work from November on, so things will improve here.


Of course, for November / December, some more promotion is planned as well so that we can really sell all the Pandoras we're producing.


When delivery finally starts, I want to concentrate on software development (OS, apps and games) and support different projects as good as possible.


I'll also try to achieve that ARM Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Arch, etc. will officially support the Pandora as well (with bootable images from SD Cards).


A lot can be done to improve the Pandora, and don't want to miss any opportunities here.


There's a reason that it is open: So that EVERY user can do what HE wants - so the more options there are, the better.


So much for today, more informations as soon as I get them :)
 
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thats awsome news sounds like everythings moving along nicely atm. thanks for the updates they have all been really encouraging reads of late.
 
I'm sure these EBV guys now want a Pandora for themselves. :D Were they impressed by the skills of our Handheld?


Let's hope the Software support with all these alternative OS will happen, but of course first you have to find people who are skilled enough to do this. ;) Furhter improvements of the current OS also should be continued with more Manpower and I hope I will see my TV Cable soon. ^^
 
Yes the tides are finally turning.


There are greener pastures ahead now.


Cheers!!
 
You probably thought putting parts into boxes and sending them to Germany is easy... Nope! Chuck Testa!


Good Luck ED, I'm still waiting for my Pandora but there is nothing like it in the world. So i will wait till the end :)
 
Excellent :)


ED, a question: My pandora has a broken WiFi chip (or something like that). I have not sent it in for RMA yet, since I to start off with thought that Craig should use all the new boards to fill the preorders (back when we actually believed that CC would deliver), and after that...well, there's not much point sending for a RMA when there are no working boards to swap in, is there?


Now, to my mind, it would make more sense to wait until production in Germany has started properly, so that there is a steady flow of boards, and that my RMA won't eat one of those precious 50-at-a-time boards that Craig gets at irregular intervals ( I still think those better go to fill new orders). However, given the timeframe, that would possibly mean that I pass beyond the 1-year-point after which the warranty formally is no more. So, my questions are, basically:


1) Does the above make sense (that I wait until production is steady and send my RMA then), or ought I to send my pandora off to Craig immediately?


2) Would it be OK even if it passes the one year mark? It has been like this all the time (excluding, I think, the first 3-4 times I turned it on), so it is not something recent :D
 
Excellent news, ED!


Keep the course! :)


I'd love to join you in Blackpool, but family and finances won't let me... :(


Have a great time there and good luck with GC as the new production-site!
 
wow, finally some news for the tv out cables


i feel i will cancell my cancellation :p
 
Nice update. Keep on going.


This must feel like a Pandora 2 project. It's almost like starting again. I like this approach. You guys have really learnt from past events.


I almost wish I was still waiting.

That is so not true. The Pandora is well worth the wait and I'm grateful I'm no longer in any queue other than the TV-Out cable queue.
 
This is awesome news (again) ED, thanks for keeping going, it feels like the first time I heard about the Pandora, and couldn't justify ordering one, with all the excitement and expectation, only this time I'm a pre orderer and starting to believe I'm going to get my hands on a tiny linux powered pc, looking forward to angstrom though, but I wouldn't mind a ubuntu (not unity for gods sake!) or arch image as I use Arch xfce & xubuntu, it'd be nice to have the choice.
 
Awesome news!


ED... Regarding those TV-Out cables... How is it going to work?


Are you going to ship them all out yourself, or will those of us who ordered from Craig have to wait for him to send them?


Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk
 
Awesome news!


ED... Regarding those TV-Out cables... How is it going to work?


Are you going to ship them all out yourself, or will those of us who ordered from Craig have to wait for him to send them?

I'm going to ship them to Craig and he'll ship them to his customers.
 
I'll also try to achieve that ARM Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Arch, etc. will officially support the Pandora as well (with bootable images from SD Cards).


A lot can be done to improve the Pandora, and don't want to miss any opportunities here.


There's a reason that it is open: So that EVERY user can do what HE wants - so the more options there are, the better.


So much for today, more informations as soon as I get them :)

OpenSuSE is currently ported to ARM.


As soon as I get my openpandora I'll check out how difficult it'll be to put openSuSE on the openpandora.


This won't be an official support project from openSuSE. I will share the information.
 
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