Have You Encountered Any Defects On Your Pandora So Far?

Does your Pandora suffer from any hardware defects?


  • Total voters
    94

Yeah, hundreds of people and it will be thousands of people when we get there. Is there a point to this typical trolling that seems to be taking over lately?
 
Jesus Christ, another one of those threads?

We know there are some issues, we are working on them, and while there are some RMAs, we're fixing those units and are getting better at building AND fixing them.

If you count the small bezel hole as not being perfect: Nobody got a perfect unit yet, so this thread is finished.


Seriously, what are you planning do to with those threads, except for demotivating everyone which does not even make sense for such a project?
 
Personally speaking. I love my Pandora. I have gotten about 20 requests just at my job alone for one. All whom are retro gamers, coders and hackers.
I don't care nor need a perfect pandora. I do think the trolling needs to stop. I think this project to create an open sourced gaming and computing system IS an absolute success.
I believe we all need to support these guys efforts and give them some good backing. I wish I could do more or do something to help.
 
quartercast said:
I don't see why this question couldn't have been posed in this thread. Maybe mali or ED can move it there.

Done.

This thread is now merged with iorgy's Perfect Pandora thread. Carry on as you were.
 
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TJFBryant said:
Personally speaking. I love my Pandora. I have gotten about 20 requests just at my job alone for one. All whom are retro gamers, coders and hackers.
I don't care nor need a perfect pandora. I do think the trolling needs to stop. I think this project to create an open sourced gaming and computing system IS an absolute success.
I believe we all need to support these guys efforts and give them some good backing. I wish I could do more or do something to help.

TJFBryant said:
Personally speaking. I love my Pandora. I have gotten about 20 requests just at my job alone for one. All whom are retro gamers, coders and hackers.
I don't care nor need a perfect pandora. I do think the trolling needs to stop. I think this project to create an open sourced gaming and computing system IS an absolute success.
I believe we all need to support these guys efforts and give them some good backing. I wish I could do more or do something to help.

That's exactly what I am thinking, too.

Trolling will not help - in fact, it will hurt the project or any future sales. No one is gonna gain anything from that.
If I run out of money, the servers would need to be closed down... no file archives, maybe even no boards anymore (unless hando is in the mood of moving again and paying server costs).

It would not only mean the end of one of the biggest achievements in the OpenSource-Gaming-Handheld-scene, it could kill the biggest scene around any of those handhelds.
Is THAT what people want here? Instead of trying to support and help us fix the few remaining issues the Pandora has and MAKE it the coolest handheld around there?

Are there really so many people who just want to see everything go down in a big bang?
 
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EvilDragon said:
TJFBryant said:
Personally speaking. I love my Pandora. I have gotten about 20 requests just at my job alone for one. All whom are retro gamers, coders and hackers.
I don't care nor need a perfect pandora. I do think the trolling needs to stop. I think this project to create an open sourced gaming and computing system IS an absolute success.
I believe we all need to support these guys efforts and give them some good backing. I wish I could do more or do something to help.

TJFBryant said:
Personally speaking. I love my Pandora. I have gotten about 20 requests just at my job alone for one. All whom are retro gamers, coders and hackers.
I don't care nor need a perfect pandora. I do think the trolling needs to stop. I think this project to create an open sourced gaming and computing system IS an absolute success.
I believe we all need to support these guys efforts and give them some good backing. I wish I could do more or do something to help.

That's exactly what I am thinking, too.

Trolling will not help - in fact, it will hurt the project or any future sales. No one is gonna gain anything from that.
If I run out of money, the servers would need to be closed down... no file archives, maybe even no boards anymore (unless hando is in the mood of moving again and paying server costs).

It would not only mean the end of one of the biggest achievements in the OpenSource-Gaming-Handheld-scene, it could kill the biggest scene around any of those handhelds.
Is THAT what people want here? Instead of trying to support and help us fix the few remaining issues the Pandora has and MAKE it the coolest handheld around there?

Are there really so many people who just want to see everything go down in a big bang?


Besides spreading the "good word" is there anything I can do to help? Frankly, I have no more money to invest. I am not a coder or a developer.
I do work for a sales and marketing company, as well as dable in Freelance journalism. But I don't see how any of this can fix our immediate problem with Pandora Bashing.
I have been here since the beginning.... I would absolutely die and wouldn't know what to do if this forum space closed. Sadly enough its been a serious part of my adult life for some time. We all need to support these guys somehow.... I wish I was smart enough to figure out how.
Even with all my marketing knowledge.... I am clueless.
 
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I dont want to see it go down and I am sorry you see it that way. Your colleague makes it sound quite the opposite, only 61 returns so the rest are immaculate. Much better quality than GPH. I actually started that thread to hear from someone who had a well built and fully functioning pandora in the hope that craigix was actually telling the truth. I guess that is too much to ask. I honestly wouldnt care about a warped bezel or cracked case as long as the hardware and controls worked as they should.

Oh well lots of luck to you all, I am staying away from this place for a while.
 
TJFBryant said:
Besides spreading the "good word" is there anything I can do to help? Frankly, I have no more money to invest. I am not a coder or a developer.
I do work for a sales and marketing company, as well as dable in Freelance journalism. But I don't see how any of this can fix our immediate problem with Pandora Bashing.
I have been here since the beginning.... I would absolutely die and wouldn't know what to do if this forum space closed. Sadly enough its been a serious part of my adult life for some time. We all need to support these guys somehow.... I wish I was smart enough to figure out how.
Even with all my marketing knowledge.... I am clueless.

Just keep fighting the good fight, my man.
 
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My pandora is far from perfect. (I bought one of the pandoras with both nubs broken) Still, the pros out-weigh the cons and I'm generally happy with the device. I'll look forward to pandora two also.

Any one concerned with this topic should remember:
All these units have a warranty.
 
lucidchaos said:
My early unit sent back for RMA did have an issue with the headphone port: To properly seat the headphone jack, more force than usual needed to be used to seat the jack in the socket. In addition, my headphones with built-in mic (4 conductor) did not play back sounds properly. Music sounded filtered as if it were a rear speaker in a surround sound setup. This problem did not occur with 3-conductor headphones.

I will report back if my replacement unit has the same issues.
So I was reading this thread before it got the other one merged in and I came across this post. You actually RMA's your unit because you plugged in some proprietary jack and it didn't work? Unbelievable.

Everyone, be sure to think of this type of RMA when you decide that customers are saying everything is broken and no Pandoras work 100% because there are other stories like this Craig has told me about. It's all very subjective other than the list of people with the legitimate concerns that are being dealt with (because it takes time to find these problems and that is why more are not shipping out like crazy right now) and these topics do nothing but attempt to hurt us as we attempt to start this venture from scratch. If you don't like the Pandora, don't try to bring it down for others who want to see it through. Just get back in your boat and paddle on back to the Cannoo section. We don't mind.
 
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Iorgy77 said:
I dont want to see it go down and I am sorry you see it that way. Your colleague makes it sound quite the opposite, only 61 returns so the rest are immaculate. Much better quality than GPH. I actually started that thread to hear from someone who had a well built and fully functioning pandora in the hope that craigix was actually telling the truth. I guess that is too much to ask. I honestly wouldnt care about a warped bezel or cracked case as long as the hardware and controls worked as they should.

I know you didn't mean any harm. But always think about what newcomers will think: They visit the boards and all they will currently see is that there are problems, etc.
Even if most users who HAVE one say, that while there are some slight problems, if you just quickly browse, it makes it sound like every device basically is broken.
Which makes new interested users go away... and this is a bad thing.
 
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TJFBryant said:
Besides spreading the "good word" is there anything I can do to help? Frankly, I have no more money to invest. I am not a coder or a developer.
I do work for a sales and marketing company, as well as dable in Freelance journalism. But I don't see how any of this can fix our immediate problem with Pandora Bashing.
I have been here since the beginning.... I would absolutely die and wouldn't know what to do if this forum space closed. Sadly enough its been a serious part of my adult life for some time. We all need to support these guys somehow.... I wish I was smart enough to figure out how.
Even with all my marketing knowledge.... I am clueless.

Spreading the good word is more than enough!
Show people what this thing can do. Wake their interest!

Tell them that while there are minor issues, this is a project of a few guys and a community, and they are working on fixing them.

There's no need to deny that there are RMAs and at least the first units had more than a few issues - but it should also not be denied that we're learning from it, fixing all those problems and trying to achieve more and more perfection here! :)

So basically: Spread the word and be honest about everything :)
 
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MWeston said:
lucidchaos said:
My early unit sent back for RMA did have an issue with the headphone port: To properly seat the headphone jack, more force than usual needed to be used to seat the jack in the socket. In addition, my headphones with built-in mic (4 conductor) did not play back sounds properly. Music sounded filtered as if it were a rear speaker in a surround sound setup. This problem did not occur with 3-conductor headphones.

I will report back if my replacement unit has the same issues.
So I was reading this thread before it got the other one merged in and I came across this post. You actually RMA's your unit because you plugged in some proprietary jack and it didn't work? Unbelievable.

Everyone, be sure to think of this type of RMA when you decide that customers are saying everything is broken and no Pandoras work 100% because there are other stories like this Craig has told me about. It's all very subjective other than the list of people with the legitimate concerns that are being dealt with (because it takes time to find these problems and that is why more are not shipping out like crazy right now) and these topics do nothing but attempt to hurt us as we attempt to start this venture from scratch. If you don't like the Pandora, don't try to bring it down for others who want to see it through. Just get back in your boat and paddle on back to the Cannoo section. We don't mind.
It seems to me some people just don't have the common sense to understand if the square peg doesn't fit in the round hole... don't force it!!
wow...
well....
 
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MWeston said:
lucidchaos said:
My early unit sent back for RMA did have an issue with the headphone port: To properly seat the headphone jack, more force than usual needed to be used to seat the jack in the socket. In addition, my headphones with built-in mic (4 conductor) did not play back sounds properly. Music sounded filtered as if it were a rear speaker in a surround sound setup. This problem did not occur with 3-conductor headphones.

I will report back if my replacement unit has the same issues.
So I was reading this thread before it got the other one merged in and I came across this post. You actually RMA's your unit because you plugged in some proprietary jack and it didn't work? Unbelievable.

I'd be quite happy to take this obviously 'broken' Pandora off your hands.


MWeston said:
Just get back in your boat and paddle on back to the Cannoo section. We don't mind.

I see what you did there ;)
 
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EvilDragon said:
TJFBryant said:
Besides spreading the "good word" is there anything I can do to help? Frankly, I have no more money to invest. I am not a coder or a developer.
I do work for a sales and marketing company, as well as dable in Freelance journalism. But I don't see how any of this can fix our immediate problem with Pandora Bashing.
I have been here since the beginning.... I would absolutely die and wouldn't know what to do if this forum space closed. Sadly enough its been a serious part of my adult life for some time. We all need to support these guys somehow.... I wish I was smart enough to figure out how.
Even with all my marketing knowledge.... I am clueless.

Spreading the good word is more than enough!
Show people what this thing can do. Wake their interest!

Tell them that while there are minor issues, this is a project of a few guys and a community, and they are working on fixing them.

There's no need to deny that there are RMAs and at least the first units had more than a few issues - but it should also not be denied that we're learning from it, fixing all those problems and trying to achieve more and more perfection here! :)

So basically: Spread the word and be honest about everything :)

Does everyone know what makes a great company?
Its not when they get it right the first time out. Its when they admit to issues arising with the first go around and stay committed to learning from and fixing them. I will do all I can here in the states to keep the postive energy flowing towards Pandora and the OPT.
As I mentioned earlier..... EVEN WITH a few minor flaws.... these potential customers and co-workers I have saw this device and undstood it was a "prototype first batch." They understood it was more or less a test run device, and its only going to get better. Truly, thats how I see it. Despite all issues.... its only getting better and all the hard work thats been done these past few years.. has paid off amazingly. NOW its time for OPT to see the pay off. Its in everyones best interest to see Pandora Succeed rather than stand by and watch it struggle into failure.
 
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MWeston said:
So I was reading this thread before it got the other one merged in and I came across this post. You actually RMA's your unit because you plugged in some proprietary jack and it didn't work? Unbelievable.

Everyone, be sure to think of this type of RMA when you decide that customers are saying everything is broken and no Pandoras work 100% because there are other stories like this Craig has told me about.

This topic is getting too heated for comfort.

FYI I RMA'd for other reasons (dead 0 key on keymat). ED told me to RMA it for the 0 key. The headphone jack was not a major issue and I posted to see if others were having the same issue, not necessarily claiming it was a defect. (although the stiffer-than-usual jack could be considered one if I were really picky. This occured with standard 3-conductor headphones as well - however this can be thought of as a benefit as long as the solder joints holding the jack in place are strong enough.)

As far as the "proprietary jack" goes, here is the link to the headphones I experience the issue with. They have worked perfect in several computers, a Palm Pre phone, two Blackberries, a Motorola Droid, and an iPod. If I can't use them, that's fine - it's not the end of the world and I have other cheaper headphones I can use. There is no way I would send an RMA just for that.
 
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I would like to know what is being done to fix the bezel bowing issue (my un-painted prototype bezel is next to perfect, maybe a .25 mm gap which would be acceptable even to Sony). As the designer of the case no one has contacted me to revise any CAD files for any mold revisions.

That is the only way to fix that issue is to make the inner lid section smaller to compensate for the extra 4 layers of paint in there now that wasn't designed to be had in. Honestly I should revise more of the case sections to compensate for paint so it isn't so hard to assemble.

Either that or stop painting cases but I don't think that is still an option right? What is the solution so far for that issue?
 
lucidchaos said:
FYI I RMA'd for other reasons (dead 0 key on keymat). ED told me to RMA it for the 0 key. The headphone jack was not a major issue and I posted to see if others were having the same issue, not necessarily claiming it was a defect. (although the stiffer-than-usual jack could be considered one if I were really picky. This occured with standard 3-conductor headphones as well - however this can be thought of as a benefit as long as the solder joints holding the jack in place are strong enough.)

As far as the "proprietary jack" goes, here is the link to the headphones I experience the issue with. They have worked perfect in several computers, a Palm Pre phone, two Blackberries, a Motorola Droid, and an iPod. If I can't use them, that's fine - it's not the end of the world and I have other cheaper headphones I can use. There is no way I would send an RMA just for that.
Okay, that makes way more sense. You definitely don't want to be stuck with a button that doesn't work.

As for the proprietary jack thing, if a standard 3-pin headphone jack works fine, then that is all that can be expected. I wouldn't put it past the phone companies to reverse the pinout on that connector so they charge extra money for their special brand. I also assumed that it was this particular 4-pin jack that was fitting snuggly in the connector which also can't be expected to work since the pins are not what I, and maybe most of the world really, would call standard.
 
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DaveC said:
That is the only way to fix that issue is to make the inner lid section smaller to compensate for the extra 4 layers of paint in there now that wasn't designed to be had in. Honestly I should revise more of the case sections to compensate for paint so it isn't so hard to assemble.
I think we all know that. The problem seems to be that this would mean changing the moult, which basically mean 6 month. That's something OPT cannot afford :(
 
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