Pandora self assembly?

[Malvineous]

Hi all,


Given the recent issues with the time involved in assembling the Pandora units, I'm wondering whether it would be possible to have my Pandora order delivered as parts, for me to assemble myself? I'm very confused with how many units are in production and/or delivered (seems every week I read a message about how another 1000 units have been posted, it seems they are up to 50,000 units by now) but as I was one of the last pre-orders I suspect it is going to be many months or perhaps years before mine gets delivered.


I will confess that because of this I am beginning to think about cancelling my order. When I placed it the Pandora was advertised as the most powerful handheld available, but sadly this is no longer the case. I have since realised that the keyboard is not going to be that ideal for the type of things I want to do (not enough keys/too difficult to type punctuation) so I won't be able to do everything I had hoped with it anyway. And having just attended linux.conf.au there are so many nice little devices I could be spending that money on instead...


However as this is an open source community project, I still really want to see it succeed, which is why I have held on for so long. But now with the OP team starting to focus on other projects like the iCP, I'm beginning to wonder whether I will ever see a Pandora.


So in an attempt to both save the team some time and to get a Pandora before I truly give up, what are the chances of getting the Pandora delivered in parts so I can assemble it myself? I'm no stranger to soldering, and to be perfectly honest, one of the first things I would do with a shiny new Pandora is take it apart anyway to do some hardware hacking, so having the team assemble it just seems like wasted effort.


So how about it guys? Would you be prepared to ship me parts, and if so, is it likely to speed up my order at all? My order number is DNO185.

 

[Xenu]

lots and lots of letters

This has been answered before and the answer was that you can't do it yourself. You need special equipment especially for the lcd-cable I think, and you'll loose your warranty.

 

[Malvineous]

You mean I wouldn't have lost my warranty when I started soldering other devices onto the board's I2C bus? Any links to where this has been discussed before? I couldn't find anything with the forum search, and I can't imagine the LCD cable would be anything more difficult than some surface mount soldering...

 

[Sugar_Kane]

The LCD cable needs to be rolled up in a very specific way to make sure that it slots into the hinge joint and won't rip in half when you open the lid.


Also you definitely would not be given a warranty if you built it yourself, as you can't expect them to replace any parts that you might have damaged in the process. The same goes for opening a new unit. Craig did state that he personally wouldn't mind if someone were to open one to fix a misaligned shoulder button, but other than that you're on your own.

 

[Wootson]

You mean I wouldn't have lost my warranty when I started soldering other devices onto the board's I2C bus? Any links to where this has been discussed before? I couldn't find anything with the forum search, and I can't imagine the LCD cable would be anything more difficult than some surface mount soldering...

The LCD cable needs to be rolled and is very fragile.


Also, OpenPandora stated many times before that they are not willing to do this. In other words, you need to wait a bit more.

 

[MarioPandio]

You either wait a little longer, or opt to pay the difference in your order price to $500 USD and you jump up the queue with an express shipped Pandora. It will feature a different sticker (red one) unless you specify you still want a first batch sticker, if you were first batch to begin with?


The keyboard is pretty good tbh though, of course I don´t know what punctuation requirements you may have but most standard typing, coding and compliling on the device is perfectly possible. This was typed from Pandora in only slightly more time than I might spend via laptop. I cant stand any phone keyboards and this is way more useable for speedy thumb typing or at a push, tabletop typing if you have strong fingers.


Hardware wise it may seem slightly overshadowed now but it really does perform well. I suggest you spend a few extra bucks, get one quicker and see if its really not for you. You´ll only lose a few bucks on ebay if you sell it on and you´ll be further helping the project along into the bargain.