Official Blog- Keep It Going

[torpor]

I've done assembly-line work and this should be a pretty easy job - little or no soldering involved, I imagine .. maybe just the speakers to solder up, I suppose.

Still, its good that you're being open about this, but I can't help feeling a little disappointed. This is yet another month to wait. Damn, that sucks. Good thing I've got a Touchbook to tide me over in the meantime, but geeze .. bummer.

Looking forward to checking back in a month and seeing, hopefully, a shipping report. Maybe I'll just ignore it completely for a while, and try to be pleasantly surprised when my package finally arrives.

 

[taras]

I'm just going with the flow. I've been watching Pandora for a few years but didn't want to order until I could see the final spec, and know that physical units were actually beginning to come together. This week I jumped and ordered (last minute I know - well, hopefully last minute!)

I probably wouldn't have if I didn't have a certain level of trust in craigix & ED who I know were massive supporters of the Gamepark/Holdings consoles 'back in the day', and who have had plenty of my cash in the past (well, Craig has). It kind of sucks when people criticise them constantly, I get the impression they aren't delaying production on purpose.

 

[Creature XL]

I didn't read this thread yet, however, I can not resist to post that the Chinese told Op "After CNY we start with the cases" blah blah if they had done so at least 1000 cases would be doen already and would be on their way to the UK.

Not against OP. I touched the P already in Hanover and now I can wait patiently

 

[Asmo]

I worry that craigix's clan of family and friends will be soldering on nubs and not care if they are off-center.

I thought the Nubs were part of the PCB population process?

 

[mali]

I thought the Nubs were part of the PCB population process?

No, they have to be soldered by hand.

I didn't read this thread yet, however, I can not resist to post that the Chinese told Op "After CNY we start with the cases" blah blah if they had done so at least 1000 cases would be doen already and would be on their way to the UK.

OPT decided to order only 1000 cases first, to check if the quality is as expected.
http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=116188#p116188

 

[Timstertoo]

I'm just going with the flow. I've been watching Pandora for a few years but didn't want to order until I could see the final spec, and know that physical units were actually beginning to come together. This week I jumped and ordered (last minute I know - well, hopefully last minute!)

I probably wouldn't have if I didn't have a certain level of trust in craigix & ED who I know were massive supporters of the Gamepark/Holdings consoles 'back in the day', and who have had plenty of my cash in the past (well, Craig has). It kind of sucks when people criticise them constantly, I get the impression they aren't delaying production on purpose.

Same here.

We have an old joke in Holland about a Belgium (we say they are dumb, they call us stingy, nothing serious) who decides to swim across the channel.

He has a guy in a boat next to him makeing sure he's alright. After two days he's getting close, they can already see the white cliffs of Dover. Suddenly he turns around and starts swimming towards Belgium. The guy in the boat asks him what the hell he's doing. So he says:

"I'm not going to make it, I'm going back."

Had to think of that after reading about people thinking about cancelling now.

 

[TaG]

Good update ED. Shame it's not what we wanted to hear.

 

[Windy]

I suspect I am in the last 1000, but on the positive side, 3000 people will have tested the software and some will have enhanced it.

I am sure the assembly line will be doing a grand job putting the Pandora together - apart from anything else it is in their interest for future orders, and the last thing they want is discussions on this board of quality or assembly issues.

Like everyone I am getting fed up with the delays, but am looking forward to when the delivery starts, and this board moves on to more positive things such as the new software and how to get the best out of the device and the various apps and emulators.

 

[Bigun]

I'm sick as a dog posting this, so excuse any typographical or grammatical errors I may make.

I want to comment about the people wanting to cancel when we are so close.... thank you, you just potentially lowered my place in line (ie - I will get mine quicker - that's what she said). Although I have a suspicion that it's the same troll over and over again, just compare the poor grammar of the posts.

 

[Awakening]

Was there no one at CeBIT to do an interview in English?

 

[Masterfurbix]

The complete assembly process will be broadcasted live via Webcam. That will be fun!

I approve of this development, this should be fun.

"That one could be mine!"
"No, it's mine genius"
" :C "

 

[BackAssward]

I worry that craigix's clan of family and friends will be soldering on nubs and not care if they are off-center.

I thought the Nubs were part of the PCB population process?

The Pick and Place machine that does the board population is not equipped to handle these custom nubs.

Edit: Wow, some people actually edit their posts to include info from 9 hours later than they originally posted, rather than make a new post.

 

[MDave]

I'm glad I'm in the first 500 Anyone who lives close to me want to check it out when I get it?

 

[Nova]

Damn.

 

[MWeston]

I'm assuming the testing process is going to be much like a train ride. It chugs slowly out of the station and builds up speed before slowly getting to that final cruising speed. They had to build more test jigs in Texas in order to test more boards simultaneously and that was only ordered recently after a very long and slow process of getting the procedure right (took longer than expected for reasons I won't get into). Even though those thousand boards were built a while ago (whenever I mentioned it), testing them has been a slow process and as more test jigs get built and tested themselves (lots of soldering work and mechanical fitting of pieces, it's quite a complex rig), more human work stations can be set up to run the automated tests on them.

Some of those first rev5 boards were being manually tested like they have done on prototype boards which involves typing in all commands manually and observing the results. There's no way you would go through thousands and thousands that way but it had to be done so they could lose less time making sure their procedures were accurate and the boards were soldering properly. As more test jigs are built, the process takes more of the human out of the equation.

The idea is to automate as much as possible but a human still has to man the station and load the boards into the jig, run the software, plug in all the connectors, click Y to begin the test sequences, etc. They are keeping their estimated yields low as they chug out of the station (ie. 500...then 500 more...then hopefully 1000, then another 1000, then the last 1000).

ED tells you what we know today but that can change tomorrow. The total time frame is not going to be known until it is basically all done. ED has given the worst case but if we get things rolling smoothly, that time could start coming down more and more. The part that is killing everyone is that if we just wanted to do a power on test of each board and ship them out, we could probably do all 4000 in a week (assuming cases arrive and man power is enough) but both the Pandora team and the assembler are not satisfied with such a thing and so every circuit on the board is being tested in an effort to shoot for a 0% RMA list after launch. Imagine being that guy who finally gets his Pandora, tears open the box only to have to email support an hour later because a bunch of stuff won't work. Nobody wants to be that person. The trade off is time and a fair bit of it but if it means your Pandora runs solid for years instead of minutes, we've got to do it. There's just no other way.

 

[LeChuck87]

Imagine being that guy who finally gets his Pandora, tears open the box only to have to email support an hour later because a bunch of stuff won't work. Nobody wants to be that person. The trade off is time and a fair bit of it but if it means your Pandora runs solid for years instead of minutes, we've got to do it. There's just no other way.

+1 keep the quality high all the way, even if it takes longer.

 

[Esslan]

It always make me happy to hear that you are taking your time to get it right instead of rushing through it just to please the too eager ones on this board.
It cant even imagine what I would do if I got a pandora that was D.O.A or seriously crippled. It would probably involve a hospital visit, by me or someone who happens to be in my general area when I discover it is broken

 

[atomicthumbs]

Optimal Pandora assembly and testing facility:

 

[Kayday]

Good and not so good news but oh well. Such is life. At least this gives me time to play with my new PS3.

 

[borgqueenx]

Optimal Pandora assembly and testing facility:

My drones are at your assistance. Resistance is futile.