Organizing, coding, building, geez. (2011-03-04)


EvilDragon

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Well, these sure are busy times... so many things happening at the same time.


First, some of the good news: CC still is in good contact with Michael now, so the new guy certainly seems to know what he's doing and tries to satisfy us.


We'll have to see if they'll keep their schedule, but if they do, then it's 1100 more units within the next 30 days, which is nice.


According to the schedule, a shipment should happen today.


They are trying to improve their quality control, as with each batch, there were some other faults with some units, and it eats quite some time in assembly if you test everything again.


For example, a few boards from the last shipment had a non-working SD2 slot. Such boards should never have left CC, and that's what they want to improve. They want to try to only deliver fully working boards.


Seems like we weren't the only ones here who overexpected the MASSIVE amount of work that is needed to build such a unit.


As the end of Batch 1 is getting nearer (yeah, I know there are still many waiting, I know waiting gets harder the more units are shipped...), we are also heavily organizing Batch 2.


Production for the NEW, more sturdy LCD cables has started today, this will be the end of all purple haze issues (though it has become quite rare, we want to eliminate it completely).


Those cables will be used for the last 650 - 800 units of Batch 1 as well, and of course for future replacements.


The remaining cases for batch one, including about 800 cases for batch 2 already, have arrived in UK and are waiting to be assembled.


The batteries for Batch 2 have been produced as well and are ready to be shipped to UK... 4000 batteries, that's some weight.


Production of the PCBs will also take place this month.


As CC already mentioned they have quite a few boards that don't work, it might be that some of the Batch 1 preorderers might get boards from Batch 2, so it's important Batch 2 can start right after Batch 1 is over.


Softwarewise, you might have seen that Hotfix 5 for the current Zaxxon OS has been released. This includes a lot of new features and fixes, so I suggest to everyone to install it.


Heavy work has started on the next OS (Yars Revenge), featuring the most recent Angström as well as a new kernel. It will be quite a while until a final version will be out, but first alpha test versions might be out soon. This will heave the OS to a whole new level.


In parallel, work for Hotfix 6 has started.


There's been a lot of organization going on for the OS development as well, so that everyone can help out here.


I'll post more info about that when I find some time.


Speaking of time:


Yes, I KNOW it would be nice, updating the status page more regularly, or keeping you informed about everything that has happened.


However, we are all only humans. Last week, I've been working about 18 hours a day - 6 hours normal job and 12 hours for Pandora. I resurrected some boards that were DoA, built some units, fixed some with broken LCD Cables, etc. It's A MASSIVE amount of work. And believe me, after having worked for 18 hours, you're simply not in the mood to still post updates... you just feel worn out.


I've also got a 2 week big eMail pile lying ahead of me I still need to reply.


We don't do that intentionally. We try to work everything out as good as possible to get the units as fast and reliable as possible to you. But we're just humans, we have our limitations as well.


I hope you do understand that. Thanks.
 
Thanks for the update and get some rest ED you must be exhausted. We don't want you dying on us now ;)
 
How you find the energy to keep this up, I'll never know. I'll hand it to you Germans, you guys have awesome drive!
 
How you find the energy to keep this up, I'll never know. I'll hand it to you Germans, you guys have awesome drive!

No idea myself, but as long as I'm alive, I will keep working on getting the Pandoras out to you... and the iControlPad as well, of course :)
 
No idea myself, but as long as I'm alive, I will keep working on getting the Pandoras out to you... and the iControlPad as well, of course :)

Craig hired some help in UK, I think that you should too. We don't want you to die of exhaustion, instead you should have a staff of people to help you handle all of this.
 
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Well,


I'd just like to say I got a normal (sub 1000?) pandora and apart from


a squishy A button, it's great.


This is a brilliant piece of kit. I'm not much of a gamer, I'm a unix


admin and the OS is already doing nearly everything I could want from


a linux laptop.


Next week will be the first true test where I travel for a few days


and leave my laptop behind for the first time ever.


Keep sight of the positives!


ID
 
No idea myself, but as long as I'm alive, I will keep working on getting the Pandoras out to you... and the iControlPad as well, of course :)

Craig hired some help in UK, I think that you should too. We don't want you to die of exhaustion, instead you should have a staff of people to help you handle all of this.

Yeah... but I can't afford that. It's not just hiring, I have to pay more to my tax counsellor since taxes for the hired people have to be done as well, etc.


I've got quite a bunch of costs per month, I'm happy to keep it all going right now :)
 
I'm also a bit worried for you Ed, but that's because I can barely manage without ~10 hours of sleep a night.


Thanks for the news, I didn't know the latest hotfix was finalized so will get to that soon.
 
I'm also a bit worried for you Ed, but that's because I can barely manage without ~10 hours of sleep a night.

No need to worry now - I'm not dead yet :D


Start worrying when you don't hear anything from me for a few days ;)
 
You know what? This kind of news I can handle. Not the usual "Good News" and a paragraph.... the beauty of the details. Quick bullet point overview:


- CC is keeping in contact


- They've given us a schedule


- They are mentioning the QC they are putting into place


- Working on preparing batch 2 and why it is important


- Batteries are all ready for shipment


- All cases for batch 1 + 800 extra are ready


The quick and dirty bullet point version of this post was longer than what the old news was in unabridged form.... and so much BETTER!


This was what my tech-driven stomach was looking for, it is the proverbial appetizer to what I hope will be a near perfect technological gadget experience.


I know there probably a LOT of missing details that kept you from making a post like this, but now that CC has stepped up to the plate... and now you have... I have 0 complaints so long as these keep coming. This..... THIS..... is what will make the wait bearable for me.


IMHO.
 
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I heard that when you germans go on holiday, you try to do and see as much as possible, then you return home and relax by working.


there is a reason why the title "german engineered" is highly regarded ;)
 
Yeah... but I can't afford that. It's not just hiring, I have to pay more to my tax counsellor since taxes for the hired people have to be done as well, etc.


I've got quite a bunch of costs per month, I'm happy to keep it all going right now :)

Ok, who wants to create a topic on the German forum asking for technically experienced VOLUNTEERS? :)


If it's Pandora related, people are bound to show up and help. Count your Pandora's before though :p
 
:( I'm afraid ED is going to fall dead one day... can't you guys find people possibly from the forums to help out or volunteer?

Oh, I can assure you that I will fall dead one day... but hopefully, that day is not too soon :D


Damn, 5am again already? Geeez :D
 
Well,


I'd just like to say I got a normal (sub 1000?) pandora and apart from


a squishy A button, it's great.


This is a brilliant piece of kit. I'm not much of a gamer, I'm a unix


admin and the OS is already doing nearly everything I could want from


a linux laptop.


Next week will be the first true test where I travel for a few days


and leave my laptop behind for the first time ever.


Keep sight of the positives!


ID

OT -


Heh, love your nickname, we used to use that term (along with pebkac) all the time for some of our choice users. I made everybody stop using terms like these about 7 years ago or so as part of my kinder, gentler IT department. (Oddly enough, my help desk guys gave and got more respect


as a result)..
rolleyes.gif
 
Will u guys stop talking about the chances of death, making me a little excited here. :D


But yeah, we don't want none of the OPT to die. They're good guys and still have to ship our OpenPandoras to us.
 
Heavy work has started on the next OS (Yars Revenge), featuring the most recent Angström as well as a new kernel.

OMFG. is it really going to be called Yar's Revenge‽ please say yes... i LOVE that game so much.
That game was a good time now that I look at a screenshot. So I guess this means we are going backwards across multiple systems, not MAME specific. Cool.
 
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