Microbatches And The First Batch Roadmap.

[Lorkile]

Send them an email about it tonight, they are hoping to hear from people as soon as possible as confirmation and not the money in their bank (I confirmed as soon as I was sure I could get a money order conveniently enough that I was sure I could get it done).

Besides, if a bank transfer isn't right for you the information in the email worked fine for me to send them a money order (and get a confirmation email that it was accepted & linked to my preorder).

 

[TrevorBradley]

Send them an email about it tonight, they are hoping to hear from people as soon as possible as confirmation and not the money in their bank (I confirmed as soon as I was sure I could get a money order conveniently enough that I was sure I could get it done).

Besides, if a bank transfer isn't right for you the information in the email worked fine for me to send them a money order (and get a confirmation email that it was accepted & linked to my preorder).

I've sent them... well, three emails tonight asking for clarification, confirming I want to reorder and asking for more information.

I know craigix said there was some leeway, hopefully it all works out.

 

[j.pickens]

Trevor and Lulzfish,
If you are not financially or psychologically comfortable rushing into renewing your preorder, don't sweat it.
Preorders are really for people who want to live on the bleeding edge, and maybe support the development of a radically different personal electronic device.
However, if you aren't in that frame of mind, and decide to wait until the second batch, what happens?

Worst case scenario, Open Pandora folds up shop, and there is no second batch, and maybe even a limited first batch.
Should that occur, then waiting for the second batch will be a smart move because you haven't risked funds on a nonexistent or really low production product.

Medium case scenario, The second batch is delayed a few weeks or months.
Should that occur, you'll be without a Pandora for some extra time, not the end of the world.

Best case scenario, The second batch is delivered one or two months after the end of the first batch.
Should that occur, you'll be behind on having a Pandora for one or two months, again, not the end of the world.

So, waiting is the prudent thing to do.

I personally didn't wait, but I luckily have the funds to risk, so I don't mind taking the risk in exchange for the possibility of getting the Pandora ASAP, and helping support the project.

So don't worry too much, there's no wrong answer here, just do what you're comfortable with.

 

[TrevorBradley]

Trevor and Lulzfish,
If you are not financially or psychologically comfortable rushing into renewing your preorder, don't sweat it.
Preorders are really for people who want to live on the bleeding edge, and maybe support the development of a radically different personal electronic device.
However, if you aren't in that frame of mind, and decide to wait until the second batch, what happens?

Chip has answered my questions about production times to the best of his ability. That's no longer my concern.

At the moment it's more a matter of being physically capable of renewing my pre-order. I've been quite sick the past week (more than usual) and the one time I managed to get out of the house the bank was closed by the time I got there. I had assumed (perhaps falsely) that we'd receive an official email before we needed to re-order and was taking my time. The true/false status of that assumption appears to be indeterminate at the moment, so I'm erring on the side of caution and mild panic, and am going to try my best to get into the bank when it opens on Tuesday.

I'm slightly miffed about new first batch orders going out before all the re-order emails went out, but at the moment I'm putting that down to a frenzy of activity in the OpenPandora offices, and a desire to get this whole thing moving as soon as possible, so I'm trying to chill out about that. I'll see if I get an email in the morning and take action from there.

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

There's no good in accepting these 3+ months predictions, from both sides of the deal.

all the hardware design is final, everything is working correctly (only a final case and keymat need to get produced, but it's already designed).
now it's just a matter of mass-producing the product, which shouldn't take long to start.

no need to rush, but it's also stupid to go slower at this time of the release.

 

[Chip]

no need to rush, but it's also stupid to go slower at this time of the release.
There's plenty of reason to go slow if we don't want to screw something up.

The main thing we're waiting for is the CNC case (which has been ordered) so we can be absolutely sure that everything fits and is durable. The FDM case is fine for checking out the general shape, but as you can see, it's very "rough", so checking tight tolerances is not possible. The FDM material is also very fragile, so it doesn't give us an idea of where the high stress points are, and just how much stress they can take. We want to make sure the lid won't snap off after a few uses before we go ahead and make 4000 cases.

If (heaven forbid) there is a problem with the case, it will have to be redesigned. New prototypes will have to be made and tested, and shipment could get pushed back quite a bit. That would suck, but not as much shipping 4000 faulty cases and not having the money to produce replacements for them. Better to do it right the first time.

 

[basicmicro]

There is a new SLA material which beats out CNC prototypes. Its as close to ABS as SLA will ever get. For the Pandora case it'd cost around $300 to make and take about 1 week or less.

The CNC process as I've used in the past for many product never truly represented what came out of the mold. Mostly due to ribbing and other fine detail areas.

Also everyone seems to be worrying about price protection. Doesn't economies of scale apply here? In other words as production goes up price comes down?

 

[Monk]

Doesn't economies of scale apply here? In other words as production goes up price comes down?

Should do (though the price to OP has gone up just via currency exchange rates). The converse is also true - the smalle rthe batches, the more it should cost OP to make 'em.

In many ways the more people with earlier orders, the better it would be for OP.

 

[Chip]

There is a new SLA material which beats out CNC prototypes. Its as close to ABS as SLA will ever get. For the Pandora case it'd cost around $300 to make and take about 1 week or less.
What is this process called? Can you give us the names of any companies that are using it? We are certainly interested in looking into any available options.

 

[basicmicro]

There is a new SLA material which beats out CNC prototypes. Its as close to ABS as SLA will ever get. For the Pandora case it'd cost around $300 to make and take about 1 week or less.
What is this process called? Can you give us the names of any companies that are using it? We are certainly interested in looking into any available options.

Theres two materials to choose from for you application. When we use snap fits on anything we use this process:

http://www.approto.com/PDFs/SLA_XTREME_rev1.aspx

When we have something that is just screwed together we go with this material:

http://www.approto.com/PDF/SLA_55.pdf

We do allot of business with APProto. If you want a good discount and fast turn around time PM me. I can run it through our account.