Is Everything On Track For Early April Production?


That made me chuckle like the "analogue volume whee" from a poll from way back... :p
 
To ship the following 3000 units to customers with a possible WiFi defect would be madness. The expensive backlash with refunds and shipping of replacement parts would suck for OPTeam. I say ship the first 1000 in to the wild for some community feedback from the devs. If its discovered to be just software, then it will be easier to fix than replacing all the WiFi bits. The remaining unopened boards could be shipped back. Im on dial up here. I would have hoped the Pandora would snuff that.
 
I disagree with SoleGrave,
I think all 4000 First Batchers should get the choice. Of course I'm in the latter 3000 so I'm entirely biased, but I would happily and gladly take the Pandora with a non working wifi chip and never send it back. I don't even need a Dongle I'll get my own, I just want a Pandora. I haven't been waiting as long as the first timers, but in fairness when I ordered last christmas after months of lurking it didn't look like I would have to. I'm not going to cancel or anything, but I don't think broken wifi is a serious enough problem to wait longer for a fix, when the main uses I will get from the machine are completely unrelated anyway. I understand some will not agree with me, and those people can take the wait option, but I think every first batcher, regardless of queue position, should get a choice to get an immediate wifi-less Pandora. If, for expense reasons, you cannot offer a Dongle to those outside of the first 1000, we at least have the choice to get the Pandora early and have to get our own Dongle or wait awhile and not have to.

The only other problem I can see is in the case of hardware problems and 3000+ people send Pandora's back for the new chip, if that's a worry you could simply only make the replacement offer for the first 1000 who choose early Pandora, and make it clear to anyone beyond 1000 that wants an early one that what they get will never have working builtin wifi and a Dongle will always be needed. I believe a crazy amount of people will not only be fine with that, but find it a very small price to pay to skip another delay.

In either case, I'm just extremely impatient for this thing. But I love the free entertainment!
 
EvilDragon said:
At the moment, we get about 45KB/s max.

45 KBps? That's fine, please ship it and I'll play around with the driver myself, if I really want more speed than that then I'll either buy a wifi dongle or an 100Mbps dongle.
 
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Wifi dongle or no wifi dongle. Either is fine by me.
Thanks for all the hard work guys.
:)
 
EvilDragon said:
At the moment, we get about 45KB/s max.
ED, please use full words when describing data rate. You've now said both Kb and KB, which mean different things. Either KiloBits or KiloBytes please?


wejp said:
SPI is simpler than SDIO considering both hardware and software. SPI's maximum transfer rates are also slower than SDIO's maxmimum speed, but this wouldn't matter much with 54 MBit wireless.
SPI on the OMAP has a maximum rate of 48Mbit, if I read correctly (operates in 12, 24, and 48Mhz modes, I think). SDIO can actually give the full 54Mbit. Granted, it is both a small difference and unlikely to ever actually be reached (therefore no difference) in the real world, but when choosing two things of equal cost based entirely on numbers, the theoretically faster one is likely to be the one you choose, no?
 
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I will definately take mine with or without the dongle, i just cannot wait to use it. I check the blogs everyday for these kinds of updates. SO if it will come out and have a faulty usb driver/hardware with an easy workaround . . . . im all for it, ship'em out LOL!!
 
Even after reading this .. I would still kill to be in the pre-order queue!

And I was thinking, it might be a fun project for those who do get the Wifi dongle, to try and do a hardware mod that puts the dongle inside the case.
 
traylorpark said:
Even after reading this .. I would still kill to be in the pre-order queue!

And I was thinking, it might be a fun project for those who do get the Wifi dongle, to try and do a hardware mod that puts the dongle inside the case.

I have seen this before, as I am sure many people have with the EEE PC mods and such.. In that case it was remove the headers and shells from USB devices, solder a headerless/caseless hub inside the case (just a PCB), solder up memory sticks/bluetooth/GPS/WiFI/WHATEVER-TAKES-YOUR-FANCY to the HUB. Win. Pretty easy to do if you have soldering skills.
 
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Klarth said:
So the blog's last entry states the chinese factory got a new machine. I REALLY doubt a fast working plastic injector can be callibrated and programmed this fast but oh well..

It can be calibrated so quickly that a machine they got this week can be used to to produce the final MP cases that were finished last Thursday.

That's right. It can injection mold back in time.




... or we were told the wrong thing again. Either then or now. No way to know which, really.
 
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nikudorei said:
I have seen this before, as I am sure many people have with the EEE PC mods and such.. In that case it was remove the headers and shells from USB devices, solder a headerless/caseless hub inside the case (just a PCB), solder up memory sticks/bluetooth/GPS/WiFI/WHATEVER-TAKES-YOUR-FANCY to the HUB. Win. Pretty easy to do if you have soldering skills.
A lot easier to do in a small laptop than the cramped Pandora case though. :)
 
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From some of the pictures it looks like there might be a little bit of space inside the lid. I dunno how you'd get the USB connection up there, though.
 
Is it not the case the Chinese company are just talking rubbish as usual? All this time to make a case and delay after delay after delay, and then just before we are expected to have our cases made and sent out, they 'suddenly' acquire this mystery machine that can make better cases? I wonder what will happen next: 'We just heard back from the case company, the new batch of cases they have made on their new machine look very good, which is GREAT news. There are a couple of rather minor problems, which they are fixing up as we speak - they said they'd treat our order as a priority order, so we should get photos of the tweaked cases from the new machine by the end of the week, so all being well they will be in the UK by next Monday' followed by 'it turns out the case company meant they'd have the first prototype from the new machine ready for next Monday' and so on.

That won't happen will it?

:)

Steve
 
VRAndy said:
From some of the pictures it looks like there might be a little bit of space inside the lid.
Indeed. Also someone could remove the stylus and the stylus lock and use that space for mods.

edit:
.
 
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EvilDragon said:
However, we have no money to pay a team to get WiFi working.

This is something I can't understand. You would pay 1000 * 10EURO (that is price at AMAZON I could find). That equals 10k Euro.
I am pretty sure you can find a small expert team which does it for 10k. That are just the minimal costs. i foyu have to send WIFI dongles with all 4000 Ps then it will be even more.

10k Euro is about 1 months for 2 people working 40h a week full time on the problem. OTOH notaz (and others?) are working on this for longer then 1 month hmmm..). If only I had a bit of experience with WIFI and SDIO I would offer my service (as i am currently unemployed)

Just my thoughts. I can imagine that you have checked the prices and such.
 
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mali said:
VRAndy said:
From some of the pictures it looks like there might be a little bit of space inside the lid.
Indeed. Also someone could remove the stylus and the stylus lock and use that space for mods.

or someone could remove the WiFi :lol:
 
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