I Got My Pandora

[emcee]

I got a Pandora today. I can't comment on too much since the screen was broken (bought it used, I knew the screen was broken).

It seems a little chintzy. And the case on the base part isn't really snapped all the way together. I can probably fix that, and even if I can't, I don't really care. I didn't buy it for looks.

I turned it on before removing the broken screen. It seemed to boot up pretty fast, but I didn't test it out much. Besides the cracked screen, I didn't have any SD cards. The nubs didn't move the mouse, but I guess that's probably a setting. I'm going to reflash when I get a new screen.


LONG BORING STORY:

Tracking down the proper screen was a bit more effort than I expected. The faq claims it use the same screen as the Achros 605. But a few posts on the forum indicated that although the screens themselves are the same, the pinout is reversed. However, the listing on the GBAX site for a Pandora screen (not paying that much), lists it as also being compatible with "Achros", but doesn't list a model number.

So I checked the wiki hardware hacking page. It lists the model number as TD043MTEA2. So I find several people selling that, and some list it as compatible with Archos players, and some don't. And the ones that do, have a different style of ribbon cable (off to one side instead down the center), even though they both list their part number as TD043MTEA2, although some list it as TD043MTEA1 sort of interchangeably. I eventually figured out that the ones that had the cable off to the side are actually TD043MTHEA2, and were the reverse pin Achros screens.

Well, since most of these sellers are overseas, and none offer a refund because "I got the wrong one", I figured I just wait until I had the Pandora and I could take the screen out and look at it. So I got the screen out, flipped it over and looked at the sticker on the back. TD043MTEA1. Huh. Well that's ok, those are cheaper anyway (it's actually the screen used in an iPAQ).

Oh, and that gunk under the bezel around the screen may very well be "double sided tape", but for the person trying to get the screen out, really, it's just glue.

 

[peca]

@emcee: As You have Your Pandora taken apart (obviously), can You make some good photos Pandora's internals? And I'm curious about hinge - I thing if I would be able add one more lock for fixing angled position.

 

[kerplunk]

Would buying a used HP Ipaq save you some money? Found a broken on EBAY $50 Maybe the screen is good??

 

[peca]

... TD043MTEA1. Huh. Well that's ok, those are cheaper anyway (it's actually the screen used in an iPAQ).

Which iPAQ? I'm not sure, but doesn't iPAQ use QVGA resolution?

 

[jutleys]

current second batch queue position is 90 - 120, so early in the second batch.

 

[emcee]

@emcee: As You have Your Pandora taken apart (obviously), can You make some good photos Pandora's internals? And I'm curious about hinge - I thing if I would be able add one more lock for fixing angled position.

I only took the top section apart. I can take a couple of pictures later. There's not much to it, just a screen and two speakers.

Would buying a used HP Ipaq save you some money? Found a broken on EBAY $50 Maybe the screen is good??

Yeah, that's the one. And that's actually $10 cheaper than the screen alone that I was looking at. If it doesn't boot, he might not know if the screen works or not though. I'll have to write and ask first. The other screen I was looking at is only $30, but I don't think I' go with that one. It's not original, and it's in Hong Kong.

... TD043MTEA1. Huh. Well that's ok, those are cheaper anyway (it's actually the screen used in an iPAQ).

Which iPAQ? I'm not sure, but doesn't iPAQ use QVGA resolution?

iPAQ 310 though 316 (maybe others, I don't know). The screen has the HP part number 453761-001.

Edit: Pics. In the second one you can see the screen part number (TD043MTEA1, not TD043MTEA2). And the third you can see the residue from the "double sided tape".

 

[Prometheus]

And now... It's time... For...

THE RETURN OF THE PANDORA 2: THE THIRD PANDORA: THE SEQUEL - IN TRUE LIVING 3D!

Ok, seriously now... As some of you may know, I was ridiculously unlucky and ended up encountering the same Sudden Nub Death problem with both my original Pandora and its replacement. Within the last hour and a half, I have now received my replacement's replacement, hereafter referred to as "my Pandora" or "my replacement" or some permutation thereof. The postman got held up, so it was about 25 minutes late - not his fault, though. Anyway, here's the run-down.

To start at the beginning, there was a bit more bubble wrap this time. When I opened this, I was greeted with a machine bearing the easy-to-remember serial number of 171.

Much like I said of my second Pandora, this is obviously a later unit again - indeed, I was told that it's one of the new batch of 100 that started going out this week. I must say that it feels like it. On checking the response of all of the controls and buttons (something I now more-or-less have a "ritual" for :lol: ), I noticed three things that are very different to my previous two units, which makes it feel like a more consistent machine overall;

1: Both shoulder buttons feel *absolutely* identical, and behave identically, too. There is no difference between them whatsoever. (For comparison, with my previous two there were very minor differences between them, which admittedly didn't bother me.)

2: The keymat seems to be a bit different. It looks like there's less of the epoxy layer (it appears to be noticeably "thinner"), and I can see a millimetre or so of the rubber sticking out above the holes for the keys. It is also slightly softer to press, which seems to make for even easier thumb-typing than before. I don't know if this is due to the keymat being higher somehow, or if the current keymats are slightly different to the earlier ones, but I like this. This slightly different response also applies to the game controls, as well.

3: The nubs somehow feel a little bit "firmer" with how they move. Both are perfectly smooth.

Regarding the nubs specifically, I notice that one thing about them is the same - if you move the nubs in some directions (especially down), the caps will sit slightly off-centre. If you move them down, you can feel the nubs' caps "clunk" slightly downwards when you do this. This is visual only, and does not cause the mouse pointer or suchlike to move, even though it appears as though it would. This was the case with both pairs of nubs on my other two units as well, so I can only assume that it is something that every single Pandora nub does. I hope this is normal - indeed, logically, after seeing it on three units and seemingly spying it in people's Pandora photographs as well, I'm guessing it is normal - but I'd be very grateful if someone can confirm my suspicion on this.

I was able to connect to my wireless router immediately after inputting the info for it. No problems, as usual.

Both speakers are fine, and they sound the same as ever. Still excellent.

Same gorgeous "moving photo"-like screen as ever. Perfect as usual.

The hinge is quite tight on this one, though this is not too different from the previous two units. It stays put nicely when it's in the locking position, as one would expect (I don't like using it outside of the locking position, anyway).

The bezel-bowing is about the same as it was on my first unit, I think. Although my second unit barely had it, this is nothing that I didn't expect. It seems that it's much like my sewing hobby - sometimes it's just not possible to make two things completely identical, even if you're using the same pattern.

I must say that I very much appreciate the PND system right now - after plugging in my cards, I was more-or-less instantly back to the way things were with my previous units, aside from installing the Community Codec Pack and Hotfix 3 (although I do still need to re-do the screenshot script and map the WiFi toggling option to a button combination).

Luckily, this unit clocks stably to 850MHz, the same as my other two. Whilst I know that any overclocking is nothing more than a bonus, I am quite impressed that I've had three machines in a row that can manage this quite high speed.

When I booted the system up, I was able to get through the initial setup just fine, but when I got to the desktop, the battery meter was reading 0%. Almost as soon as I saw this, it immediately shut itself down to conserve power. Oddly, however, once I booted it up whilst connected to the charger it stayed at 0% for half a minute or so, before immediately hopping up to 44%! I hope that this was just the battery meter being out-of-whack and needing to calibrate itself, rather than a sign of a bad battery. It's currently gotten to 63%, a little over an hour after it read 44%, which seems about the same as my previous units as far as charging speed goes, so I'm guessing it was just the meter reading wrongly for a few minutes.

Last of all, and just a small note, now that I think of the charger: Instead of a receiving just a replacement Pandora this time, I was also provided with a new charger of the PowerPax variety as well - this is the type with the replaceable figure-of-eight plug on one side. It seems to function the same as my original one (the Europlug type, supplied with an adapter to connect it to a UK socket) did - indeed, it's happily charging my Pandora right now.

I've already slain a Green Devil and Metal Man with the SNES and NES emulators, and now other video game villains are cowering before the might of the excellent gaming controls, as well. As you might imagine, I'm very happy to have my Pandora back.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[sebt3]

^^
Your unit sound like my one
I realy hope that this is the last time your are without your prefered gadget

 

[Prometheus]

Thanks. As they say, "Third time lucky" - I hope that holds true here.

 

[craigix]

Thanks. As they say, "Third time lucky" - I hope that holds true here.

I do hope the nubs are all good from now on, because if they are we have now eliminated all the major issues with MP.

 

[Prometheus]

Since I was unlucky before, I'll probably be fairly paranoid about keeping an eye out for it. With any luck it isn't going to resurface, but I'll let you know if it does.

Really impressed with the shoulder buttons now, by the way - good work on getting those consistent (not that I had a problem with them before, though).

 

[Bosbeetle]

I hope my third unit will turn out just as good as yours prometheus

(one thing I liked when receiving a new pandora is, just pop in your SD cards and everything is there , also noticed it at the dutch pandora get together pop in your SD card in another pandora and it feels like yours )

 

[WizardStan]

I was able to connect to my wireless router immediately after inputting the info for it. No problems, as usual.

This is the part that I'm going to focus on. You've now had 3 Pandoras with no problems connecting to your wifi where others have had two (I think Paddy had a third as well) that had major wifi problems. This information has me excited because it does tend to suggest problems with the router.
Whether it is normal behaviour to work and some (questionably large) percentage of routers are doing something different to fail, or the other way and there are some routers doing something out of spec that does allow it to work remains to be seen.
I hope I'm somewhere in this hundred, though probably not for another couple hundred to come

 

[Prometheus]

Best of luck, Stan.

By the way, if it would help and you want some more information on my router, I'd be happy to drop it in a PM for you.

A small anecdote while I'm here, though: I picked it up during the early days of online play being available on the Nintendo DS, as it was one of the models recommended back then by numerous sources. I seem to recall that some folks encountered problems connecting to certain routers back then, too - I'm wondering if this is a similar situation.

 

[Trip]

I was able to connect to my wireless router immediately after inputting the info for it. No problems, as usual.

This is the part that I'm going to focus on. You've now had 3 Pandoras with no problems connecting to your wifi where others have had two (I think Paddy had a third as well) that had major wifi problems. This information has me excited because it does tend to suggest problems with the router.
Whether it is normal behaviour to work and some (questionably large) percentage of routers are doing something different to fail, or the other way and there are some routers doing something out of spec that does allow it to work remains to be seen.

My friend couldn't get his Xbox360 working on his wireless. Tried everything to get it going and there was no reason why it wouldn't work but it just didn't. I replaced his router with a spare that he had hanging around and it worked first time no problem.

Moral of the story? Sometimes routers just suck

Glad you got yours sorted out Prometheus. Really happy to hear that the new ones seem to be pretty spot on

EDIT: Just remembered the reason why some routers don't work with certain gadgets.

A lot of the time it's because the router company was trying to get ahead in the market and released the new model of router before the new wireless spec was finalised. This means that the router doesn't completely comply with the full wireless spec and some of the more advanced features don't work.

That can be one of the reasons anyway

 

[jutleys]

Thanks. As they say, "Third time lucky" - I hope that holds true here.

I do hope the nubs are all good from now on, because if they are we have now eliminated all the major issues with MP.

So you still reckon we can get 4000 out by end of september and start batch 2 in october or are we a few months behind.

 

[craigix]

Thanks. As they say, "Third time lucky" - I hope that holds true here.

I do hope the nubs are all good from now on, because if they are we have now eliminated all the major issues with MP.

So you still reckon we can get 4000 out by end of september and start batch 2 in october or are we a few months behind.

Yep, end of batch 1 is still planned for October. Batch 2 parts start arriving in September!

 

[mali]

Congrats Prometheus and good luck with your new unit

(I've split the Wifi discussion to a new topic here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/55751-wifi-discussion/ )

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Alright, I've had a couple of beers and it's time to ask the question... Mali is that a picture of you rocking a supreme beard and tashe?

 

[Prometheus]

Congrats Prometheus and good luck with your new unit

Thanks very muchly. It seems to be fine so far - I'm hoping it'll remain this way.

I'm very impressed by the improvements in build, too (again ). I guess I've been lucky, in a sense, to get an insight into that by ending up with two replacements that were clearly built later and later, as I found it quite interesting to see.