Is Everything On Track For Early April Production?

[gary_ramsgate]

I'm starting to wonder if we will ever get our Pandoras.
What will be the delay in modifying the boards to fix a hardware problem ?

 

[conso]

I'm starting to wonder if we will ever get our Pandoras.
What will be the delay in modifying the boards to fix a hardware problem ?

What will be the delay to find out what is the problem?

 

[Esn]

Sounds like a very fair offer, ED. I don't know if I'm in the first 1000, but if I am, I'll agree to it.

 

[Grench]

In fact, I'd be inclined to ship all 4000 this way - get that batch out the door and in hands.

That would be madness. If it does turn out to be a hardware failure they would end up paying for every Pandora board twice.
The first 1000 boards are already finished, in case of a hardware failure they will need to be replaced anyway.

The current approach of putting the remaining boards on hold and ship out those boards that are already made is much safer.
Some of those first 1000 can help in debugging the drivers.

Read the rest of my post. I'll simplify it here. I'm proposing that they:
1. SKIP the warranty offer on the on-board WiFi for those who elect to take delivery now with a dongle. Open this option to all 4,000 pre-orders. If the people who opt for option 1 want the batch 2 hardware, they can buy the replacement parts at cost. If the community develops a software fix for the issue, this becomes moot. If there is a hardware issue with anything BUT the on-board WiFi, then standard warranty repairs apply to this set.

2. Offer anyone who wants to wait for the on-board WiFi to be working properly, whether it is a software or hardware fix, top placement in the 2nd batch queue.

The net result is that those who are willing to roll the dice can take option 1 - with the fallback of being able to buy a replacement board or have theirs repaired at cost, or if they want to they can keep using the dongle and the batch 1.0 device. Those who want to play it safe can get a batch 2.0 device with whatever modifications, if any, need to be done at the same price they already paid and know they are in the top of the batch 2.0 Queue.

I think it's a perfect solution, but then it's my solution. ;-)

 

[gibberish]

Your temporary solution of asking us to use wifi dongles (even if bought ourselves tbh) is favourable to asking us to wait anything up to or beyond 6 months for a possible hardware re-design. As others have said, once the problem is out in the open with hundreds of talented eyes to look for solutions then we are way more likely to find a software solution in good time. If the worst happens and a hardware re-design is necessary then so be it. Swapping them for working baords (for free) is what you'd end up doing anyway, whether you ship them now or not. The only disadvantage in shipping them now (rather than waiting until the hardware revision is finished before shipping) is that you'll have the burden of finding a factory to carry out the replacements (or finding time to do it yourselves). I don't think many people will wait for the board to be redesigned.

Build them now with non-working wifi.

 

[Balzac2m]

The answer to this nightmare is simple: Make 1000 Pandoras, ship them as fast as possible, let us help work out the wrinkles in the hardware.

Exactly. I'm only living for another month in Karlsruhe, were I am neckdeep in hackers. Afair torpor is from metalabs, a hackerspace in vienna. Although I can't code shit I have a lot of people on my hands who would sure be glad to help me out. So if you can't figure out whether it's in the hardware, let us find out. I'm seriously considering buying another panda and giving it to the first of my friends here who figures wifi out. Let's see how much tax return I get.

This still is a community project, so let us do some work here!

 

[restless1]

Give me the unit as soon as possible and I would pay half price for the next complete unit with fixed wifi ifs its truly a hardware issue!

 

[Caine]

Read the rest of my post.

Whoops, sorry about that one. My quote misrepresents the body of your post. I stand corrected.

I'll await the blog post before making up an opinion of what's best.

 

[conso]

Hehe, sounds like a great competition. A free pandora to the first one to find a software fix.

 

[Asiyura]

If it's hardware, I will use usb dongle or buy the pandora 1.1 motherboard with working wifi.
(In the second case I may even use the original pandora mobo as low power TV micro computer )
To be honest, as long as the pandora has bluetooth working and that I buy an ethernet usb device, I don't need wifi.

 

[Grench]

Read the rest of my post.

Whoops, sorry about that one. My quote misrepresents the body of your post. I stand corrected.

I'll await the blog post before making up an opinion of what's best.

No problem - lots of action here today and it's hard to keep up with them all.

In another thread there is a translation of a German thread where ED is talking about offering the dongle to ALL first batch orders.

That would be perfect - and it could mean that I might see the thing before summer time.

 

[Evil Star]

Your temporary solution of asking us to use wifi dongles (even if bought ourselves tbh) is favourable to asking us to wait anything up to or beyond 6 months for a possible hardware re-design. As others have said, once the problem is out in the open with hundreds of talented eyes to look for solutions then we are way more likely to find a software solution in good time. If the worst happens and a hardware re-design is necessary then so be it. Swapping them for working baords (for free) is what you'd end up doing anyway, whether you ship them now or not. The only disadvantage in shipping them now (rather than waiting until the hardware revision is finished before shipping) is that you'll have the burden of finding a factory to carry out the replacements (or finding time to do it yourselves). I don't think many people will wait for the board to be redesigned.

Build them now with non-working wifi.

x2

I'm not that bothered with wifi, it would be nice but it's not a deal-breaker, 3 to 6 months delay trying to fix hardware just for wifi for the following 3000 Pandoras is though. It would be madness to do that at this stage of development.

 

[Vitel]

We just wanted to make an offer that you can use WiFi right from the start, that's why we want to offer you a small WiFi dongle and your Pandora NOW.

Does this dongle support WPA2?

This is probably a stupid question, but anyway.
notaz, have you tried this chip with different APs, different channels, etc?

 

[cobaltage]

This is a cool wifi USB dongle:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/buffalos-802-11n-wifi-dongle-small-in-size-tiny-in-price/

I don't know what kind of reception these things are getting these days.

 

[Vitel]

In my opinion it make no sence to delay the delivery (even of all 4000 units) because of a software error. Especially if it's only that WiFi works with 30 kb/s which is of course not the best rate but more than enough for surfing.

You realise that 30kbps would be slower than a 56kbps modem, right?

ED, did you mean KiB/s or Kbps (kilobytes or kilobits)?

 

[quadomatic]

This is probably a stupid question, but anyway.
notaz, have you tried this chip with different APs, different channels, etc?

:lol: You're right, that was a stupid question.

I'm sorry, but if they've been banging their heads against the wall trying to get this working for this long, considering the expertise they have, I highly doubt that this is the problem.

 

[Ollonk]

30 kiloBYTES is great, considering that my connection is only 63 kilobytes.

Kilobits, on the other hand, is crap.

Still, the Pandora's main attraction for me is not the internet access as a whole. This is important, yes, but the gaming and homework on the go are equally, if not more, important.

Holding up shipping due to the WiFi driver is a lame idea, IMO.

 

[EvilDragon]

In my opinion it make no sence to delay the delivery (even of all 4000 units) because of a software error. Especially if it's only that WiFi works with 30 kb/s which is of course not the best rate but more than enough for surfing.

You realise that 30kbps would be slower than a 56kbps modem, right?

ED, did you mean KiB/s or Kbps (kilobytes or kilobits)?

At the moment, we get about 45KB/s max.

 

[VRAndy]

There isn't any accepting to do, these are the MP cases.

We just wanted the photos for a sort of insurance that they had built units.

Okay, got some news. Cases are fine so far, they managed to make it look much better than what we saw last Thursday (they got a new machine and asked if we could give them two more days to test if that does a better quality... Fatih agreed and they did a new test today and according to them, it does a MUCH better quality). Can't wait for the pictures.

What?

 

[kingoddball]

Why does everyone care about the cases? They're fine. Ship.

How many boards have been made?