DIY OpenPandora

[FRZ]

I think this should be an option and I would definitely take it. What if OPT instead of building the unit when they get the populated boards from CircuitCo. and whatever new Co., just pack it up with the rest of the parts and ship to members to build themselves. I mean, as long as we'd get all the parts needed, case, lcd, battery, etc... I don't see why not do this. It would take the load off OPT having to build units, which takes time and the members get their units faster. Less work for OPT, faster shipping and lots of satisfying members who been anxiously waiting to get their paws on their units. Yay! I want mine.

 

[Blue Protoman]

You'd get absolutely no warranty.

 

[Prometheus]

This has come up rather a lot of times.


To cut my post short, I seem to recall that it's not feasible for a number of reasons, possibly including the warranty one that Blue Protoman mentions.

 

[WizardStan]

Assembly is not a bottleneck. This would save no time and would actually cost quite a bit more than you're probably thinking. It's also not safe, and no warranty could be possible as BP has mentioned.


This suggestion comes up every couple of months, you can probably find the posts with some clever google searches.

 

[SavageMind]

I agree with FRZ. You can still have a warranty that covers defects in the manufacturing of the components. Physical damage excluded obviously. Honeslty iw ould rather build it myself if I had the choice.

 

[FRZ]

You'd get absolutely no warranty.

thats ok. I'll take my chances.

 

[DaMummy]

its a warranty issue for one, if you build it yourself, theres a decent chance to mess something up, especially with some of the people out there. Youd be surprised how little it would take to to damage the pcb. People would complain because they broke a part during assembly, demanding OPT to fix it, only causing OPT to throw away parts that were in perfect condition at some point. Also, sometimes broken parts are found during final testing after assembly, and if customer puts it together, OPT have no way that customer didnt damage the part, and customer has no way that the part was DOA.


h34r: ive now realized how badly I dislike touch-keyboards, took me 15min to type all this out

 

[WizardStan]

Honeslty iw ould rather build it myself if I had the choice.

After you receive it, take it apart, reassemble it. Problem solved.

 

[Blue Protoman]

On the other hand, if you really wanna save money or time, maybe you can opt for a Pandora without a board.

 

[FRZ]

Assembly is not a bottleneck. This would save no time and would actually cost quite a bit more than you're probably thinking. It's also not safe, and no warranty could be possible as BP has mentioned.


This suggestion comes up every couple of months, you can probably find the posts with some clever google searches.

Really? I seen to remember OPT saying building units take time, so this would save them that time and get things out the door faster.

On the other hand, if you really wanna save money or time, maybe you can opt for a Pandora without a board.

Ah ah, funny.

 

[FRZ]

Ok. So OPT have all the parts there, waiting for the boards right. So now imagine they have everything set in shipping boxes and once the boards arrive, throw one or two in each boxes, close, stamp and voila, out the door it goes and everybody is happy.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well Board Delivery is the number one reason assembly isn't happening quickly... And if they did have a steady flow of functional boards this thread would most likely never have been started..

Ok. So OPT have all the parts there, waiting for the boards right. So now imagine they have everything set in shipping boxes and once the boards arrive, throw one or two in each boxes, close, stamp and voila, out the door it goes and everybody is happy.

Well except I like my Pandora fully assembled.. putting them together is a little more that just slapping it together quickly for example the LCD cable is very fragile and very tough to get proper through the hinge.. which bring me to another touchy issue with dealing with the hinge and the case.

 

[WizardStan]

Really? I seen to remember OPT saying building units take time, so this would save them that time and get things out the door faster.

EvilDragon made an assembly video where he went very slowly demonstrating how it went together and he still built it in 15 minutes. In an assembly line, I think I recall Craig saying it was under 5 minutes per Pandora, but let's split the difference and say 10 man-minutes per console. At $10 an hour, that's a savings of $1.67. To save that $1.67, you are adding extra complications of shipping, and worries of damage. Against a $500 or even $330 cost, is $1.67 really worth it? Maybe if they did it for all of them, saving about $6000, but to change process for a small handful? If 20 people wanted this, they'd save $33 in assembly wages. At most.

 

[FRZ]

its a warranty issue for one, if you build it yourself, theres a decent chance to mess something up, especially with some of the people out there. Youd be surprised how little it would take to to damage the pcb. People would complain because they broke a part during assembly, demanding OPT to fix it, only causing OPT to throw away parts that were in perfect condition at some point. Also, sometimes broken parts are found during final testing after assembly, and if customer puts it together, OPT have no way that customer didnt damage the part, and customer has no way that the part was DOA.


h34r: ive now realized how badly I dislike touch-keyboards, took me 15min to type all this out

LOL, now that funny, you touch-keyboard comment. things brake and do arrive doa but so what. Thats the reality, look at all the RMAs but, at least we would all have experience with our unit by now and there would be less canceled orders.

 

[FRZ]

Well Board Delivery is the number one reason assembly isn't happening quickly... And if they did have a steady flow of functional boards this thread would most likely never have been started..

Ok. So OPT have all the parts there, waiting for the boards right. So now imagine they have everything set in shipping boxes and once the boards arrive, throw one or two in each boxes, close, stamp and voila, out the door it goes and everybody is happy.

Well except I like my Pandora fully assembled.. putting them together is a little more that just slapping it together quickly for example the LCD cable is very fragile and very tough to get proper through the hinge.. which bring me to another touchy issue with dealing with the hinge and the case.

I'm a handy guy. I taking my laptop apart many times and put it back together, my DS also. The OPenpandora would be no different.

 

[FRZ]

Really? I seen to remember OPT saying building units take time, so this would save them that time and get things out the door faster.

EvilDragon made an assembly video where he went very slowly demonstrating how it went together and he still built it in 15 minutes. In an assembly line, I think I recall Craig saying it was under 5 minutes per Pandora, but let's split the difference and say 10 man-minutes per console. At $10 an hour, that's a savings of $1.67. To save that $1.67, you are adding extra complications of shipping, and worries of damage. Against a $500 or even $330 cost, is $1.67 really worth it? Maybe if they did it for all of them, saving about $6000, but to change process for a small handful? If 20 people wanted this, they'd save $33 in assembly wages. At most.

Saving time not only save you dollars but also put your mind at ease to think better, organize yourself and think of ideas would not have time to think of otherwise.

 

[SavageMind]

Honeslty iw ould rather build it myself if I had the choice.

After you receive it, take it apart, reassemble it. Problem solved.

I plan to. What's the point of having it and not play with it? I plan to order more display cables. I have a plan to fix that once I get mine.

 

[Muggie]

Really? I seen to remember OPT saying building units take time, so this would save them that time and get things out the door faster.

EvilDragon made an assembly video where he went very slowly demonstrating how it went together and he still built it in 15 minutes. In an assembly line, I think I recall Craig saying it was under 5 minutes per Pandora, but let's split the difference and say 10 man-minutes per console. At $10 an hour, that's a savings of $1.67. To save that $1.67, you are adding extra complications of shipping, and worries of damage. Against a $500 or even $330 cost, is $1.67 really worth it? Maybe if they did it for all of them, saving about $6000, but to change process for a small handful? If 20 people wanted this, they'd save $33 in assembly wages. At most.

There is a video of this sort? Can somebody please link me to it. I would really appreciate it.


On topic, I think it wouldn't hurt to be able to purchase the parts from the OPT. Most of the Pandoras would be sent whole, but say if somebody wanted a replacement/extra part like a board or a case or something, they could get it. Or just buy all the parts and build one themselves.


Note: not everyone is incompetent in stuff like that. The people who choose to do it this way would probably most likely know what they are doing and have experience.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well if there was good surplus of boards available sure why not, but frankly there isn't..

 

[bismuthdrummer]

Please listen carefully:


The bottleneck is in the pcb production.


That means whether ED can assemble 4 Pandoras per hour, or just dumps the parts into a box, or just takes a dump in a box, you would not receive your Pandora sooner.


The ONLY instance in which this could possibly make a difference in delivery date would be if the boards were delivered to OPT in larger batches than could be handled in a day. Unless the rate of pcb production exceeds the rate of assembly, the impact would be incredibly minor at best. Ya might save a day, maybe two. That's assuming they never flex a workday, always build and ship immediately, and by and large manufacture Pandoras like optimized robots. Since instead they're human and would hold to a ship-within-7-days guarantee, you would not receive your Pandora sooner.