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[MWeston]

Well this unit needs to be sent back because the battery/power circuit is dead.

I doubt it.

 

[craigix]

^ I've seen this on pics, IIRC. The plack paint is only applied on the top below the epoxy, the sides are grey. This esthetical problem could be solved by using black rubber for the keymat.

I could have sworn my last keys were all black...

Nevertheless, I'm not exaggerating this. It looks horrible.

I too want to see photos of this.

Edit: Also, we're not using any recycled external parts on any units yet - when the next shipment arrives we probably never will as the cases are so cheap to produce.

Well this unit needs to be sent back because the battery/power circuit is dead. I'll write a note along the lines of 'show this to Craig'

Please do so we know where to refund your money to. (I'll take the photos for you when it arrives).

 

[quartercast]

(My opinion is that I agree that you've done a great job with tightening up the QC - I can see massive, massive improvements in my new unit.)

When did you get your unit? I received mine last month, and it's pretty much useless for playing games. I just use it to charge my iPhone and chat on IRC.

Oh do explain to us how it's useless for playing games?

My pleasure. The Dpad on my unit doesn't work properly, if I hit D or U in games about half the time it registers R. The R direction also does not give a proper pressure response, it feels all deflated. The left nub does not have uniform sensitivity across all directions, although it is quite usable. The right nub cannot sense U/D properly and when used as a mouse button frequently hits the opposite (left mouse instead of right or vice versa) button. My unit also has problems with the gaming buttons, the A button does not respond properly to finger pressure (also feels "deflated") and sometimes does not register presses in games. The other gaming buttons also suffer from this problem but to a lesser extent. The shoulder buttons also click in and out of position, but at least they are consistent.

So, what I'm left with are the shoulder buttons, keyboard, left nub and YBX buttons.

 

[LineOf7s]

it's a bit odd to still hear reports of "the bevel problem" on newer completed units. Perhaps older case assemblies are still coming through. We'll see.

You may have missed this bezel comment then:

You're just going to end up with 'Screen bezel' from almost everyone as there is nothing we can do about it.

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php...a-so-far/page__st__15__p__901154&#entry901154

Oh, yes, I did miss that. Thanks.

 

[craigix]

(My opinion is that I agree that you've done a great job with tightening up the QC - I can see massive, massive improvements in my new unit.)

When did you get your unit? I received mine last month, and it's pretty much useless for playing games. I just use it to charge my iPhone and chat on IRC.

Oh do explain to us how it's useless for playing games?

My pleasure. The Dpad on my unit doesn't work properly, if I hit D or U in games about half the time it registers R. The R direction also does not give a proper pressure response, it feels all deflated. The left nub does not have uniform sensitivity across all directions, although it is quite usable. The right nub cannot sense U/D properly and when used as a mouse button frequently hits the opposite (left mouse instead of right or vice versa) button. My unit also has problems with the gaming buttons, the A button does not respond properly to finger pressure (also feels "deflated") and sometimes does not register presses in games. The other gaming buttons also suffer from this problem but to a lesser extent. The shoulder buttons also click in and out of position, but at least they are consistent.

So, what I'm left with are the shoulder buttons, keyboard, left nub and YBX buttons.

I look forward to seeing this unit. Please include a note saying it's one for me to see.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Well this unit needs to be sent back because the battery/power circuit is dead.

I doubt it.

Why do you doubt it? The unit powered on when I first inserted the power adapter. I then got into the setup menu for the firmware... then after another few minutes the machine froze and the screen turned to random garbage, white and pink lines etc. (it looked exactly when the GP2X or GP32 run out of battery.

Since then it won't charge, won't turn on, and won't power up without battery but plugged in.

Please do so we know where to refund your money to. (I'll take the photos for you when it arrives).

I'm not after a refund thanks.

If this is one of those funny quips, then I'll send it without the note. Unless you painted my keys personally, it's not exactly your fault is it?

 

[WizardStan]

So, what I'm left with are the shoulder buttons, keyboard, left nub and YBX buttons.

So I have to ask, why are you using it as a $330 external battery and complaining about it not working instead of taking the steps to get an RMA and have one not so seemingly disastrous sent back to you?
There are minor flaws you can live with while you still enjoy the device, and then there are major breakages that are preventing you from appreciating it. You have the second, and therefore I can see no reason that you are still holding onto it.

 

[MWeston]

Well this unit needs to be sent back because the battery/power circuit is dead.

I doubt it.

Why do you doubt it? The unit powered on when I first inserted the power adapter. I then got into the setup menu for the firmware... then after another few minutes the machine froze and the screen turned to random garbage, white and pink lines etc. (it looked exactly when the GP2X or GP32 run out of battery.

Since then it won't charge, won't turn on, and won't power up without battery but plugged in.

There have been explainable reasons why this would happen. I don't know exactly what you were doing when this happened. When you say 'setup menu for the firmware' does that mean a failed flash? If so, any number of things could have gone wrong.

Did the battery go dead because the auto shut down didn't work when something got changed or that beta sleep mode screwed up? Again, lots could have happened there. Your battery could be fully discharged now and of course it won't turn on until the PMIC has had time to trickle charge it back up to a safe minimum.

It has also been mentioned that the battery company didn't follow my guidelines for strict placement of the little PCB on the back of it which could lead to slight misalignment inside the case and some fiddling or removal/reinsertion of batteries to get it seated better.

I say I doubt it because lately all I read from you is complaint after complaint about anything and everything. It's tough to read and it feels like you wouldn't even look for the solution if it was out there...hence my comment.

 

[quartercast]

I look forward to seeing this unit. Please include a note saying it's one for me to see.

As they say, seeing is believing.

I'm not after a refund thanks.

What's your order number?

So, what I'm left with are the shoulder buttons, keyboard, left nub and YBX buttons.

So I have to ask, why are you using it as a $330 external battery and complaining about it not working instead of taking the steps to get an RMA and have one not so seemingly disastrous sent back to you?
There are minor flaws you can live with while you still enjoy the device, and then there are major breakages that are preventing you from appreciating it. You have the second, and therefore I can see no reason that you are still holding onto it.

The second? I'm not that rich, I can only afford one pandora. I will send it back once production has been ramped up and QC issues have been ironed out. I believe each batch will get better and better.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Well this unit needs to be sent back because the battery/power circuit is dead.

I doubt it.

Why do you doubt it? The unit powered on when I first inserted the power adapter. I then got into the setup menu for the firmware... then after another few minutes the machine froze and the screen turned to random garbage, white and pink lines etc. (it looked exactly when the GP2X or GP32 run out of battery.

Since then it won't charge, won't turn on, and won't power up without battery but plugged in.

There have been explainable reasons why this would happen. I don't know exactly what you were doing when this happened. When you say 'setup menu for the firmware' does that mean a failed flash? If so, any number of things could have gone wrong.

Did the battery go dead because the auto shut down didn't work when something got changed or that beta sleep mode screwed up? Again, lots could have happened there. Your battery could be fully discharged now and of course it won't turn on until the PMIC has had time to trickle charge it back up to a safe minimum.

It has also been mentioned that the battery company didn't follow my guidelines for strict placement of the little PCB on the back of it which could lead to slight misalignment inside the case and some fiddling or removal/reinsertion of batteries to get it seated better.

I say I doubt it because lately all I read from you is complaint after complaint about anything and everything. It's tough to read and it feels like you wouldn't even look for the solution if it was out there...hence my comment.

Okay, Michael. I'm sorry if my comments are dispiriting to you. That's the problem with people in this community being so close to the people who made the device.

I genuinely wouldn't you personally to feel bad. I don't like the idea of making anybody feeling bad. I go out of my way in every day life to make other people feel good (if possible).

But there are people, and there are things. How often have you gotten frustrated with some machine, maybe a computer and called it a piece of shit? It's easy to be uncaring when you're dealing with a peice of plastic and metal that has no feelings.

I think you did a good job on the board okay? I'm sorry if my frustrations and personal viewpoint is getting you down.

You're a nice, genuine person based on your posts for the last few years. So is Craig, and so is Ed. I dunno about Fatih since he never posts here

Back to the issue at hand:

Ok I forgot about the trickle charge thing. But... uh... shouldn't the light at least come on?

I seem to recall that I did leave it plugged in for a few hours just to be sure (but I could be wrong). I tried loads of times to see if the battery contacts weren't aligned properly, but no luck.

I didn't flash this unit btw. It was the setup menu when the firmware first starts up. I got all the way to XFCE before it went dead.

It was plugged in the whole time. I don't get it.

 

[DynaMight]

I gotta say there does seem to be quite a few issues. Theres more than a few people who are on their 3rd unit already, quite a few have involuntary joined the one-nub club, a fair few who have cracked cases and other issues. I think the reason why there aren't many returns is because there's no Pandoras being built, so no point returning now else you'll be without it for even longer, but I would hazard a guess that once production gets into full swing you'll get more RMA's.

I just hope these issues are now corrected, else it will be a big mess, especially the nubs.

 

[SomeGuy99]

I'm keeping it plugged in overnight, just to be double sure.

We'll find out then

 

[MWeston]

Ok I forgot about the trickle charge thing. But... uh... shouldn't the light at least come on?

No, the trickle charger is pure hardware and the lights are controlled by software. 99% of the system is off during the trickle charge phase.

I seem to recall that I did leave it plugged in for a few hours just to be sure (but I could be wrong). I tried loads of times to see if the battery contacts weren't aligned properly, but no luck.

I didn't flash this unit btw. It was the setup menu when the firmware first starts up. I got all the way to XFCE before it went dead.

It was plugged in the whole time. I don't get it.

I would try to leave it plugged in again for a while. You need to be certain this was attempted as it is the most logical reason for the problem. If you have a voltmeter, I'd check the cell voltage just for reference.

Reflashing it if you can get it to come up would be the second solution but if for some strange reason your bootloader is corrupted, then it will never load even though it will be powered on. For testing, hold down the START button when you turn the unit on with no SD cards installed and see if the SD1 green LED glows dimly. The internal TI bootloader enables the control pin for the LED when it looks for an SD card even though it doesn't actually use it. If you don't see the green light, hold down the PANDORA and START buttons and slide the power switch. Don't let go of the START button for a few seconds and look for the green LED again.

If you see the green light, the board is powering up and your bootloader might be corrupted. It's not bricked but it means you have to create a bootable SD card to reload EVERYTHING into NAND. Let me know these results before speculating further. Can you make sure the power adapter works too? Maybe that died and the battery is dead so it can't recharge.

 

[SomeGuy99]

No green light on either test. The charger works (just tested it on my PSP).

 

[urjaman]

The internal TI bootloader enables the control pin for the LED when it looks for an SD card even though it doesn't actually use it.

Just noting: I was actually a bit surprised on this, "WTF did the TI bootrom just use the SD led?!?"; Also START+R+Power is one of the weirdest finger-excercises I've done on the pandora .

(Yeah I made a booting SD to (someday) work on u-boot without risking the NAND.)

 

[tsh]

I think I managed to leave my unit plugged in for 24 hours without it charging the battery more than 3%, it seemed to be in the trickle charge state when I picked it up this evening. That had been from a auto-shutdown, not a complete battery drain.
Edit: there are lots of mentions of odd power behaviour on the forum, but they usually go away with no further detail of if there was a real problem.

 

[emcee]

I think I managed to leave my unit plugged in for 24 hours without it charging the battery more than 3%, it seemed to be in the trickle charge state when I picked it up this evening. That had been from a auto-shutdown, not a complete battery drain.
Edit: there are lots of mentions of odd power behaviour on the forum, but they usually go away with no further detail of if there was a real problem.

Probably a lot of those were related to the alignment of the contacts on battery. That was my problem. I now have an elaborate system of paper shims keeping it in the right place.

 

[Timstertoo]

I'm 400-500, when they started the first shipping run in May. I rushed out at bought 2 16GB SDHC cards and an invisible shield (which made me struggle money wise for a month), thinking I'd have it in 1 or 2 weeks. We're now in early August. This is getting quite frustrating.

I'm at 3900 and I'm still smiling . AFAIK there hasn't been any real news about the boards and cases other then we're waiting for them.

Yeah, I'm around there too. I emailed in just over a month ago and was told I should have it in a couple of months, so I'm hoping for early September.

Does anyone know how many have gone out, now? I was told about 450 had, last month.

Going to be really disappointed if mine doesn't come by my birthday (Sept. 24). I might even cry.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.


700 out, 1500 cases arriving next week, the rest in 4/5 weeks.

So let's say 5 weeks.

350 built a week best case scenario (no pun intended)

That would bring the 3750-4000 group (which I probably belong to too) end of october in a perfect world.

So personally I'm hoping it arrives before my birthday and that's 29th of dec B)

 

[WizardStan]

The second? I'm not that rich, I can only afford one pandora. I will send it back once production has been ramped up and QC issues have been ironed out. I believe each batch will get better and better.

The second, as in a device so broken you seemingly can't use it for its intended purpose. As you said, you're only using it as an external battery. Surely you could have parted with that external battery for a few weeks, no? You are doing nothing but depriving yourself of a useful device. I don't understand why you would not be eager to get it replaced as quickly as possible. If you were to buy a PSP or NDS, would you not return it at the first sign of fault?

 

[Iorgy77]

The second? I'm not that rich, I can only afford one pandora. I will send it back once production has been ramped up and QC issues have been ironed out. I believe each batch will get better and better.

The second, as in a device so broken you seemingly can't use it for its intended purpose. As you said, you're only using it as an external battery. Surely you could have parted with that external battery for a few weeks, no? You are doing nothing but depriving yourself of a useful device. I don't understand why you would not be eager to get it replaced as quickly as possible. If you were to buy a PSP or NDS, would you not return it at the first sign of fault?

Its like you didnt even read his post.