Juggling with some numbers (2011 - 03 - 29)

[EvilDragon]

Well, you guys asked for numbers, so here are some.


First, I need to apologize - the status I have here from CC is actually a week old... I found it while working through my mails. Sorry about that.


Still, it's the most accurate information so far I guess.


Well, here is the quick overview from one week ago:


Boards shipped to us so far: 2403


Boards currently being tested: 177


Boards left to build: 550


Boards currently being debugged (more info below): 447


Boards currently being touched up: 293


Boards shipped back by us for repairs: about 380


While that's all nice, I guess you also want some more in-depth information if possible, right?


Well "boards shipped" should be clear to everyone, but what's the rest?


"Being tested" means they have been produced already and are currently being tested if they work properly.


"Boards left to build" is the number of boards that haven't been started yet (though, as said, that was a week ago).


They got a new, better oven for the production and have been doing production test runs with that one. The oven was the bottleneck in the production, as they can only put a certain amount of boards into the oven at the same time. If that new oven works well, that bottleneck should be gone as well.


Now to the boards that are being debugged and touched up. That seems like an awful lot! What happened?


While it seems like an awful lot, it isn't at all. A failure rate of 10% for such a complicated board with such a small run is quite normal, and 10% would be 400 boards.


It's a bit more currently, but that has a reason: The bare PCBs have been lying around for a year now - and therefore, the solder didn't properly stick to the boards anymore.


This is normally not that big deal, a quick cleaning of the boards fixes that... however, they didn't realize it needs to be done before more and more boards had issues - and they all need to be reworked, which takes a bit of time.


Let's get deeper into the debugging:


"Touched up" means they already know what's wrong and just need to fix it, which is great. They will go to the testing once they are fixed.


Many boards that are being debugged have similar issues, which is also great, as it makes finding the problem and fixing it way easier.


Here are more in-depth infos for you guys:


Boards with LCD issues: 73 (CC already knows what's causing this, so these will go into touch-up state soon).


Boards with SD Card Slot 2 issues: 22


Boards with various issues (audio, nubs, etc.) but booting fine: 76


Boards that need to be reworked (as mentioned above): 150


Boards that don't boot: 126


As mentioned above, they got some more boards from us (about 380) which need to be repaired, however, most of them just have broken nubs, which is a quick fix.


And don't forget that these numbers are one week old, so touching up, testing and also the test run with the new oven should already be finished, it might even be that they shipped more boards to Craig already.


I've still got 30 finished Pandoras ready to be shipped out and Craig shipped about 40 more to me.


So while the speed is not as fast as it should, I'm actually happy how CC is currently evolving.


They are working on finding production issues to prevent them for the future and are telling us what's wrong with the boards.


They also got a new oven to eliminate the last bottleneck and are trying to optimize the whole production run.


That's A LOT better than before.


The Pandora is a VERY complex board to build, most companies we asked couldn't even do it.... and if they could, they'd do it for a MUCH higher price.


Well, I hope those numbers help you a bit to understand what's going on.


If you have any further questions I can give answers to, I'll happily do that.

 

[Dead1nside]

Thanks EvilDragon. It's nice to know that the delays do have a reason, and the breakdown is helpful.


I'm supposedly 2200-2300 in Craig's queue, but given all the extra things that have to be taken account of, I'm not even sure if my board is going to be part of those 3700 boards from CC anymore.

 

[EvilDragon]

Thanks EvilDragon. It's nice to know that the delays do have a reason, and the breakdown is helpful.


I'm supposedly 2200-2300 in Craig's queue, but given all the extra things that have to be taken account of, I'm not even sure if my board is going to be part of those 3700 boards from CC anymore.

You should, as we didn't sell that many units and there were quite a lot of refunds during the last two years as well.


I always knew the delays had a reason - but CC never really told us. This was some helpful information for us as well... we know they are working on it at the moment, and it's A LOT of work, that's different than before, where we didn't get any boards, any updated, any information

 

[hitbyambulance]

Do you have an estimate of how many of the Batch 1 Pandoras will have the new LCD cable?

 

[EvilDragon]

Do you have an estimate of how many of the Batch 1 Pandoras will have the new LCD cable?

Not sure, I think the last 500 - 700 I guess.

 

[Jumpman]

Thanks Ed, a great post like always.


Chris

 

[Link]

ED,


Thanks for the update.


That looks like ≈ 4000. Do we have a grand total of units sold for Batch 2? I guess the only question then to answer would be parts ordered to fill future orders and if/how future batches will be produced?


Really glad to see some math here. Every Pandora I've received (3 total, 1 RMAd for LCD(repaired), 1 RMAd for FUBAR'd case(replaced)) has gotten better and better. So to everyone waiting, this should be good news.

 

[Norfen]

I do love a good set of statistics. Excellent post ED, thanks for all the numbers. Now if only I knew where I was in the queue...

 

[TylerAW]

So I'm at the end of batch 1 but let's just say I'm at the very back than how many are left to ship out? It is a bit confusing cause I thought it was 4000 but I heard you say 3300 once. Also boards shipped to me means boards shipped to OP can't you just say Pandora's Shipped?

 

[Korlithiel]

These are some excellent numbers Ed, though I would still appreciate an update from Craig noting the approximate recent number from his cue(sp?) mailed out and those planned to ship out next. Though I gather it would be more difficult for Craig than it seems from my perspective.

 

[Lazrhog]

Well, there you go. That is the post that would have prevented me cancelling my order. That was all I wanted. Never mind eh.

 

[bzar]

Nice! Maybe it's entirely psychological, but seeing details like this really makes it easier to wait. I can tell myself a thousand times that things are happening behind the scenes and people are working as fast and well as they can, but for some reason it doesn't come close to seeing this kind of information, even if most of it is not of actual use to me. I guess it removes doubt.


Thanks for posting this!

 

[Nintendo]

Thank you Ed.

 

[juliano]

Thanks for the detailed information. This should be enough to calm down a few impatient guys in this forum.

 

[EvilDragon]

That looks like ≈ 4000. Do we have a grand total of units sold for Batch 2? I guess the only question then to answer would be parts ordered to fill future orders and if/how future batches will be produced?

I don't know Craigs numbers, but I guess that not even half of Batch 2 is still preordered, as many of the Batch 2 people have cancelled during the long nub-redesigning-phase.

I
So I'm at the end of batch 1 but let's just say I'm at the very back than how many are left to ship out? It is a bit confusing cause I thought it was 4000 but I heard you say 3300 once. Also boards shipped to me means boards shipped to OP can't you just say Pandora's Shipped?

I don't know Craigs numbers, and I'm not sure if he knows how many have shipped. With new orders coming in, people cancelling, RMAs shippwd out, etc. you can lose track here. If I wanted to know how many I shipped so far, I needed to browse through all of my invoices and count the ones with the Pandora... takes dome time.

Well, there you go. That is the post that would have prevented me cancelling my order. That was all I wanted. Never mind eh.

Well, before the new guy started to work for CC, we also didn't get such information. Then he needed some time to dive into the whole project and now he could finally present us some figures and work on optimizing the whole build process to increase speed and quality in the future.


If I would've had such figures before, I would've posted them, but most of the time we were left in the dark so we couldn't tell you anything.

 

[andmaz]

Thanks for all that ED I really cannot think of what more you can tell us.


I guess we all now try and be a bit more patient or upgrade to a premium.

 

[matzesu]

As an Premium Pandora Owner, i can say, its wort to wait or to upgrade, the Pandora is quite awesome, sure the last days i played more often whit my nintendo 3DS, but thats because the 3ds is just new and also cool, the pandora i do weare in my pocket side page allday and its cool to play whit it,


glad to hear cc has a now furnace (oven) to ingrease the pandora building speed..


BTW: Are they any 1 Batch Stickers left for my Premium, but 1 Batch unit that ditnt had a sticker from the begining, or do i get a premium sticker insteadt? (I mean the Sticker in the Batterie Slot) it was lost as you know..


good luck for Batch 2 - x meybe you make some profit, and losts a bit of pressure..

 

[kaiserpc]

Thanks for the Info ED - this is just the sort of information we are looking for


One question though - if they have shipped 2400 boards to you, why are we still seeing people on Craig's queue at around 1000 saying they have still not received their Pandora? You get 1/4 of all boards, there are quite a few returns, and 7 day orders have now started - but that still doesn't account for the big discrepancy between these 2 numbers. An actual queue update would be really useful i.e. Craig's queue 1100 fulfilled, up to 03/10/2008 09:00 CET etc

 

[matzesu]

Thats because the rma Boards and One Nubbers i think, not all of the 2500 are gone to customers, and not all are whitout issues, but the most pandorae are great (Mey owne had the shoulderbutton issue, but i was able to fix it easely (even whitout experienc in hardwaremodding but its like building a toy from a surprise egg.just whit screews (and a bit more expensive than a kinder surprise egg (and whitout chokolat).)

 

[laserbeams]

Well, before the new guy started to work for CC, we also didn't get such information. Then he needed some time to dive into the whole project and now he could finally present us some figures and work on optimizing the whole build process to increase speed and quality in the future.


If I would've had such figures before, I would've posted them, but most of the time we were left in the dark so we couldn't tell you anything.

Thank you for posting all this information - I realize you didn't have much say in the matter, but oh if only we could have had details like this a year ago. I think The New Guy deserves some major kudos and possibly some fine chocolate for whipping things into shape and giving us all some real information.


It's just a pity that what should be the usual case is an exception worthy of celebration. Have we learned to take mediocrity for granted? :huh: