Quality Control


Dan Pora

Dan Pora

Still Fresh
Joined
Dec 4, 2009
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57
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In response to the following post;





I can't help thinking that these kind of issues should not be getting through quality control checks.


If it's already known that some of the buttons don't work properly because of a bit of excess plastics in the moulding (for example) then this issue should be addressed at assembly.


At the same, there is no excuse for left and right shoulder buttons not working properly. Surely these are checked at quality control!


And why are there reports of things missing? Foam from shoulders buttons, screws, stylus' (an old problem). I appreciate that Pandoras are being assembled in an old Village Hall in the north east of England, by a small number of people, but at this stage of the process, now that in excess of a thousand Pandoras have been assembled, this issues should have been ironed out.


If the assembly and operation is checked at "Quality Control" then any issues should be fixed before the unit is shipped.


Whilst the Pandora is "Open" not everyone will have the confidence to take it apart to remove bits of plastic from the button mouldings or re-align the shoulders buttons.


I don't like to bash considering the massive achievements by the OP team. I have huge amounts of respect for all parties involved in making this idea a reality, but if the success of the Pandora is influenced by media reviews and people showing off their Pandoras to friends, then the build quality and operation must be of the highest standard possible.


I don't want to be showing off my Pandora to a friend, for them to say, it's crap because the buttons don't work properly.


Come on guys. You're just letting yourselves down and at this stage of the project, there's just no need for that.


Rant over.
 
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The problem with the shoulder buttons is that the switches have not been soldered accurately (see ED's post here).


This means that each unit needs to be manually checked for the need of the foam pads.


My Pandora, for example, has a foam pad on the left, but not the right, I suspect because the right switch is closer to the top edge of the board.
 
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Prbly too busy getting distracted by posts like this ;)


That being said, I believe you are the first to start a rant post on this subject!


QC is actually one of the areas that OPT punish themselves. If the customer doesn't like the quality of their goods, they can either ask for a refund or for a RMA, both costing OPT money.


I got the feeling from a few of the posts people with small issues were willing to resolve it themselves or wait till the pre-orders have cleared to avoid jamming the queue even more.


Also loved the way you answered your own questions :D
 
Mahou Saru said:
Prbly too busy getting distracted by posts like this ;)


That being said, I believe you are the first to start a rant post on this subject!


QC is actually one of the areas that OPT punish themselves. If the customer doesn't like the quality of their goods, they can either ask for a refund or for a RMA, both costing OPT money.


I got the feeling from a few of the posts people with small issues were willing to resolve it themselves or wait till the pre-orders have cleared to avoid jamming the queue even more.


Also loved the way you answered your own questions :D
Click to expand...

I didn't realise I had. Go on. Indulge me. :)
 
Speccy Geek said:
Mahou Saru said:
Prbly too busy getting distracted by posts like this ;)


That being said, I believe you are the first to start a rant post on this subject!


QC is actually one of the areas that OPT punish themselves. If the customer doesn't like the quality of their goods, they can either ask for a refund or for a RMA, both costing OPT money.


I got the feeling from a few of the posts people with small issues were willing to resolve it themselves or wait till the pre-orders have cleared to avoid jamming the queue even more.


Also loved the way you answered your own questions :D
Click to expand...

I didn't realise I had. Go on. Indulge me. :)
Click to expand...


"And why are there reports of things missing? Foam from shoulders buttons, screws, stylus' (an old problem). I appreciate that Pandoras are being assembled in an old Village Hall in the north east of England, by a small number of people, but at this stage of the process, now that in excess of a thousand Pandoras have been assembled, this issues should have been ironed out."


Small number of people = less man power to divvy especially in light of funding issues and the need to clear the pre-orders


Excess of a thousand pandoras = more created = more chance for errors = the need for more QC = need more resources


Personally mine has a slightly fudgy right button and the down button doesn't respond always on first press. Going to wait a while for the pre-orders clear then:


- Hope it clears it self with wear


- Crack it open myself


- RMA it
 
while i agree that it's a major inconvenience to have problems like these, at least OP are working on getting the problem resolved in a permanent way. I would imagine a lot of companies would see these problems becoming common, blame shipping, and at most use OP's temporary fix of using foam pads as a permanent solution.
 
Just thinking about one friend of mine. When I do get my Pandora and I am showing it off to him, where he may not want to stretch to forking out for a Pandora, he is an iPhone fanboy and I might be able to get him interested in the iControlpad. If he were to find my Pandora a dissapointment due to dodgy buttons, how will I be able to convince him to buy an ICP?!


Maybe more thorough qaulity control checking and a bit of "do it again and do it properly this time" ;) will put an end to these minor issues. As far as I understand, the people assembling Pandoras are being paid. It's not like they're doing Craig a favour (maybe they are).
 
There have been some complaints about the issues you mentioned, but I do wonder how many of the units delivered have been absolutely perfect. When you put it into perspective it's probably a very small percentage.


There is bound to be some form of QC going on, but I doubt if it covers pressing every button on single every unit. It sounds like a trivial thing to you and I, but that would mean spending an extra few minutes work to check, then god knows how long to open it back up and scrape a bit of plastic out, put it back together etc, x 1000s.


I expect that in a Nintendo factory the QC process does involve this, and failed units probably go a team that are dedicated purely to fixing these issues while the good ones carry on getting pumped out. Where as OP have about 5 guys doing the whole shebang.


They have to assume that once a unit has been built and passed their checks, that it is fine unless reported otherwise.
 
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Given the fact that the gaming controls are one of the three main pillars that differentiate the Pandora (gaming controls, battery life and to lesser extent the open community), there is really no excuse for the shoulder buttons being of such a terrible quality (excuse the negative phrasing, but I'm annoyed by it).
 
From what ED has said about it, they discovered that CC weren't soldering them correctly, so the team had to spend a lot of time adding in the foam pads and fixing them. They asked CC to take extra care on them, and the next lot of boards that are arriving with Craig will show an improvement in the quality of those buttons.
 
This, I have read. Nevertheless, it should not have passed quality control. I'm glad the rest will most likely be getting better shoulder buttons, but that doesn't help me.


It's already hard to go without my Pandora right now and ED is a bit busy, so I strongly prefer not having to ship it back.
 
Caine said:
This, I have read. Nevertheless, it should not have passed quality control. I'm glad the rest will most likely be getting better shoulder buttons, but that doesn't help me.


It's already hard to go without my Pandora right now and ED is a bit busy, so I strongly prefer not having to ship it back.
Click to expand...
A fix for the shoulderbuttons was described in this thread.
 
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Actually every button DOES have to be pressed.


They all leave here fully tested.


We're really happy with the results, only a fraction of units have any issues at all now. The only reason you see anything is because you're on the same forum where we tell people to report problems. I'm pretty sure our failure rate is equal to or lower than any other hand held.


Sometimes the foam pads compress down after a bit of use and can lose their function, but 99% of units work fine, and on the next 300 boards CC are supposed to have spent extra time (frustratingly at the cost of speed) making sure those microswitches are at the exactly right position.
 
Sugar_Kane said:
There is bound to be some form of QC going on, but I doubt if it covers pressing every button on single every unit. It sounds like a trivial thing to you and I, but that would mean spending an extra few minutes work to check, then god knows how long to open it back up and scrape a bit of plastic out, put it back together etc, x 1000s.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that a visual check of the underside of the ABXY button is sufficient to determine whether the button will press correctly. This has been known about since the Pandoras first started shipping, so there is no excuse for not checking these during assembly, other than time.

Sugar_Kane said:
They have to assume that once a unit has been built and passed their checks, that it is fine unless reported otherwise.
Click to expand...

Or change "their checks" to include the things that are being reported in the forum. If the same issues are being reported time after time, then the obvious answer is to address them during assembly. If anything, the assembly team have a unique opportunity to improve the quality of the Pandora because of feedback on the forums. If potential customers are reading reviews posted on the forum at I doubt they would be particulary encouraged by seeing the same issues crop up again and again after every delivery batch.

Craigix said:
Actually every button DOES have to be pressed.


They all leave here fully tested.


We're really happy with the results, only a fraction of units have any issues at all now. The only reason you see anything is because you're on the same forum where we tell people to report problems. I'm pretty sure our failure rate is equal to or lower than any other hand held.


Sometimes the foam pads compress down after a bit of use and can lose their function, but 99% of units work fine, and on the next 300 boards CC are supposed to have spent extra time (frustratingly at the cost of speed) making sure those microswitches are at the exactly right position.
Click to expand...

Ok. I'll shut up now. :)
 
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I always have to be careful when I'm defending the team. I usually make assumptions and give my opinions because I don't know the facts, and as in this case I have been shown to have been talking out of my anus again.
 
There is an important difference between a button working in terms of "you press it and the system can recognise it", and people liking the tactile response.


My L-side shoulder button was a bit weird, I had to press the button fairly firmly to get it to register. I decided I wanted it to behave like the other one (traditional "you feel a click when it registers" behaviour), so I decided to very carefully do the little bit of mod-work to get it to be like that.


I think the Y face-button is also a little on the "soft" side compared to the others, but I don't mind so I won't be doing the level of open-brain surgery that would be needed to tinker with it. It might well be in the class of "it'll wear in over time" things.
 
I'm guessing nobody here remembers the awful square button fiasco on the first PSP?


http://www.1up.com/news/psp-button-blues


Talk about something missing quality control. And then Sony says "Live with it"


Well at least it didn't affect many units.........Oh that;s right it affected MILLIONS of Psp's.


So I think we can live with a minor problem here or there with the OPT that they fix almost immediately ;)
 
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