Nubs. What's The Story?

[otherguy66]

Hey guys,

The left nub decided to break on my third Pandora, just as it did with my first unit. Can anyone tell me what exactly the design flaw with them is? I'm guessing this unit didn't have the fixed nubs, but I haven't been following what's been happening recently since my Pandora was working fine and everything.

Can anyone get me up to speed on current affairs? If I send it back now, will I be waiting months for one of these new motherboards?

To be honest, I'm not sure what to do about this - I vowed that I'd sell Pandora number 4 if Pandora number 3 broke. Having a look around, I don't see many Linux handhelds that would satisfy my hacking joys. The N900 seems okay, but I'd certainly miss the gaming buttons and big sized SD slots. Anyone here have one? Are they much good?

Cheers

 

[Alibobar]

I have an n900, but I'm still waiting diligently for my pandora.

I think the pandora is much more hackable. Definetly more for the homebrew and a slightly bigger step to the tiny handheld desktop that I really miss on the n900.

Regret to see you strugling with the old nub. Don't know if the craig recieved a batch of new nubs from the nub nubbers (company that makes them, no idea what their name is).
Considering there are about 1000 pandora's in the wild that still have the old design nubs. They would do good getting some for incoming defects.

 

[Mutilator]

I have an n900, but I'm still waiting diligently for my pandora.

I think the pandora is much more hackable. Definitely more for the homebrew and a slightly bigger step to the tiny handheld desktop that I really miss on the n900.

Regret to see you strugling with the old nub. Don't know if the craig recieved a batch of new nubs from the nub nubbers (company that makes them, no idea what their name is).
Considering there are about 1000 pandora's in the wild that still have the old design nubs. They would do good getting some for incoming defects.

My pandora has a similar fault where the left nub registers a up movement whenever I touch it...its usable but needs sorting out lol.

I've been told to send it back so I'm guessing they have the new nubs.

 

[Asmo]

AFAIK they've not yet received new nubs themselves (existing ones went straight to PCB place in Texas) and even if they did they spoke recently about needing to procure a custom tool to fit them themselves rather than shipping them to Texas for replacement. You might want to await further clarification before sending it in.

 

[Jumpman]

Currently, just sit tight. I am due to contact Jackie at Craig's shop right around the new year, and they should then have a better idea of when to make your return. Apperently the new nubs won't fail in the same way as the originals, and I believe even if the same thing happens, these new nubs are still supposed to function where the originals fail completely.

I was lucky, as I had a unit from the later run once the team fixed some of the Pandora's early flaws. I only had my left nub die recently, and now when I send it in, it will be replaced with the new and greatly improved nubs. Sadly, many of you guys/gals had early breakdowns, and got early fixes that didn't stand up over the long haul. The team has been working hard to correct these problems, as it would be next to impossible to ship 4000 units, and then need to repair the majority of that amount due to design flaws.

It sucks that the early customers got less than perfect units, but now everyone gets to benefit from the extra time spent making improvements. So as soon as I hear back from Jackie at the New Year I will post the info. Happy Holidays to all!

Chris

 

[EvilDragon]

There are two problems with the current ones:

a) Some tolerances weren't strict enough, that's why some start moving weirdly after a while
B) The rubber material was not strong enough and therefore the nubs teared after a while.

The new ones have more strict tolerances and the rubber material has been changed making them more solid.
No units with new nubs have been delivered yet, the first 350 are currently on the way to Craig.
And due to the design change, even IF they tear (they do that after 450K - 500K cycles (the old ones didn't even survive 100K cycles)), then they still are usable.

The new nubs are currently in production, so we don't have enough yet to replace any broken ones on the old boards.
We'll inform you when the time has come.

 

[otherguy66]

Thanks Ed. Guess I'll just keep reading the blogs till some better news comes along. To be honest, I haven't found anything out there that would replace the Pandora anyhow; earlier today I spent about 15 minutes with an N900 and... no sparks... lack of keyboard keys spoilt the party.

 

[Jumpman]

Thanks Ed. Guess I'll just keep reading the blogs till some better news comes along. To be honest, I haven't found anything out there that would replace the Pandora anyhow; earlier today I spent about 15 minutes with an N900 and... no sparks... lack of keyboard keys spoilt the party.

I completely agree! The high end smart phones do nothing for me without proper gaming controls, which none have. For me it's Pandora or NOTHING at this point. I'm sure some company will come along with something better at some point, but I'm sure that is still years away, and even if it does happen down the line, how open will the device be? And how much community support will be there? Who knows?

Some customers got their Pandora's and found it wasn't what they where looking for after the long wait, and that is perfectly cool. For me, since I came into the community at the GP2X era, all I have wanted was a solid open source device that has good gaming controls, a nice picture quality, and some decent horse power. The Pandora was all I wanted, and then some. So unless something comes along that improves on what the Pandora can currently do, I will hang around and support the team so that this device can one day shine and hopefully show the world what a good open source device is all about!

Chris

 

[Mjlink]

Thanks Ed. Guess I'll just keep reading the blogs till some better news comes along. To be honest, I haven't found anything out there that would replace the Pandora anyhow; earlier today I spent about 15 minutes with an N900 and... no sparks... lack of keyboard keys spoilt the party.

I completely agree! The high end smart phones do nothing for me without proper gaming controls, which none have. For me it's Pandora or NOTHING at this point. I'm sure some company will come along with something better at some point, but I'm sure that is still years away, and even if it does happen down the line, how open will the device be? And how much community support will be there? Who knows?

Some customers got their Pandora's and found it wasn't what they where looking for after the long wait, and that is perfectly cool. For me, since I came into the community at the GP2X era, all I have wanted was a solid open source device that has good gaming controls, a nice picture quality, and some decent horse power. The Pandora was all I wanted, and then some. So unless something comes along that improves on what the Pandora can currently do, I will hang around and support the team so that this device can one day shine and hopefully show the world what a good open source device is all about!

Chris

+1

 

[meandu229]

The new nubs are currently in production, so we don't have enough yet to replace any broken ones on the old boards.
We'll inform you when the time has come.

So will RMA boards because of broken nubs have to wait to get new nubs or will the boards be replaced with new ones.