Quotes Thread For The Blog

[mindlord]

I can assure you we check and test every unit. The shoulder buttons had to be manually drilled out so there is some variation on them, but they should work.

Over 100 units out there now and no DOA and only one unit being returned so far (wifi/battery issue) is pretty good isn't it? In comparison to the F100?

We can't do miracles but the QC is strict here right now, we're aiming for a <1% failure rate.

 

[mali]

Batch2 ordering will start soonish. We will decide next week if we will just be doing the next 3000 then another 4000 without stopping.

The leadtimes are much better than they used to be.

(cases)

We will be ordering the next 3000 next week.

(modding/warranty)

Well, we will know if you have opened it, it's pretty much impossible to hide the fact as it's glued together inside.

I can tell you that by the weekend just under 400 should have shipped. At that point the wifi mods are done and things should get faster and easiler - however next week will be a week of assembly review with us seeing how we can do things faster and better.

There are no issues with assembly, it just takes time and there is no decent wifi in the hall to come on here.

On the next 3000 there is a lot we can have done at the case factory to speed things up - such as them putting the bumpers and stickers on the cases before they ship. That has taken us 2 days to do!

 

[kjohn211]

New blog post by ED:

The main reason it's next week is so we can make sure all the ones we have shipped are solid.

 

[Mithrildor]

I can tell you that by the weekend just under 400 should have shipped. At that point the wifi mods are done and things should get faster and easiler - however next week will be a week of assembly review with us seeing how we can do things faster and better.

There are no issues with assembly, it just takes time and there is no decent wifi in the hall to come on here.

On the next 3000 there is a lot we can have done at the case factory to speed things up - such as them putting the bumpers and stickers on the cases before they ship. That has taken us 2 days to do!

Is there any need of this thread anymore btw now there is the ultimate openpandora stalker?

 

[mali]

^ Actually I use this thread as a personal info bucket for stuff I find important, so that I find it quickly when I need something. Before MP it made more sense and now its importance is fading, imo. If you ask me it would be best to split things now, like WarmFluffyUK already did by starting a feedback thread. And there is still the second batch info thread, which will start to be more important, soon. Personally I don't use the stalker, as I'm still that old forums trawler sucking up every crap.

We can let this thread die, if there is no use for it any more. I might start a different thread and use it as personal pastebin, then.

 

[juniorm33]

I also found it useful because it wasn't just limited to the Craig & ED etc as the trawler is.
When I don't get time to read the forum, I at least check this out.
But, as Mali(welcome back mate) said maybe more specielised ones are more appropriate, although I wouldn't want this one to die just yet.
Thats just me being selfish though

 

[SomeGuy99]

As much as anything, this thread is also a good reference and archive. I still read it all the time too.

 

[Vitel]

YouTube videos from the first users:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiGbpPeXHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BmiD9FrJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Sk_Tlbtbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slzRrOkGdQ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzja0EBtyKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwqT6AYNN-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CaU9jQQJ1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48lJBPF9AaE

 

[SomeGuy99]

Same Links as above (hope you don't mind)

mjlink: OpenPandora Unboxing
sparkymarksaker: VIDEO0006
astewardson: Open Pandora Unboxing
astewardson: Open Pandora First Power Up
astewardson: Open Pandora Hinge
theworkingmanager: Snes and quake 2 running on MP Pandora
Techmoan: Open Pandora - Hands on. In HD.
astewardson: Open Pandora Day 1

Right on, us being helpful. B)

 

[gruso]

I still like seeing this thread in use, for the record. Sometimes getting news from other people is preferable to an automated scraper. (For example, scrapers don't provide nice lists of links like the ones above - good work guys).

An unlike the scrapers, this thread serves as an archive.

 

[SomeGuy99]

I still like seeing this thread in use, for the record. Sometimes getting news from other people is preferable to an automated scraper. (For example, scrapers don't provide nice lists of links like the ones above - good work guys).

An unlike the scrapers, this thread serves as an archive.

By the way Gruso, you're totally my hero. On a regular basis, you do what I just did with the nicely formatted links but... times one hundred (or any suitably big number). To top it off, I always find your blog posts funny, informative, helpful, thoughtful and very well written. You have a genuine talent for editing and writing. For me, you've added as much to the Pandora experience as the development team. I've been reading the Pandorapress blog since it first started, and I don't see myself stopping.

B) <- You

On the subject of scrapers: Yeah, it's nice to get a computer to do stuff, but it's also nice to have a person do it (with their own personal touch). Anyone remember the internet when it was Yahoo and not Google that dictated the web experience? I kind of miss having a large directory of recommended websites.

 

[gruso]

Thanks man, it means a lot. Stuff like that keeps me going.

 

[mali]

Now here is something pretty important. It's an addition to Craig's glue comment.

(lid disassembly)

It's just double sided Adhesive to make the bezel sit flush with the bottom of the screen. Many laptop manufacturers do this, including HP. unless there is more glue I didn't see

No, that's it. There's no extra glue. The speakers have an adhesive ring around the edge to keep them in the lid front when putting it together too.

The real problem is that the lid front was designed with a bazillion clips that hold it into the back and we can't pull it apart without snapping it to pieces or shattering the glass of the LCD. We should consider getting rid of those clips in the mold at a later date. That would make it more serviceable for everyone.

Anyway after a couple of days of wearing in the dpad appears to be working just fine!

A lot of DPads and sticks are a bit stiff at the beginning.


About opening the lid: It certainly is possible. I opened a few lids as I needed to replace a broken speaker.
It is NOT RECOMMENDED THOUGH! You can easily scratch or break the case or - even worse - break the LCD.

Also, there is nothing in there except for the speakers, the LCD and the WiFi antenna. And there certainly is no space for anything else

(PSUs)

We have two types of adapter. Both are 'real' PSUs (ie not cheap fake ones, both have CE) which you get usually depends on where you are.

Interestingly the USA one is slightly better quality than the UK (powerpax) one for keeping a stable supply even when the Pandora is demanding max power, but they both work great overall. The Powerpax one has the advantage of the figure 8.

I'd just like to say once more - DO NOT use fake PSP power supplies with the Pandora. Either use your Pandora one or a real PSP one.

 

[Vitel]

New pic from Craigix: http://twitpic.com/1rxw1s/full

 

[trooper]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53752-skip-the-queue/page__view__findpost__p__861019

We have a handful of units with one failed nub. These units are up for grabs if some of you don't want/need both nubs.

Just PM me if you want to change to one of these and have it asap. Limited numbers obviously.

Trooper

 

[Lafazar]

Bitte bitte bitte beruhigt Euch
Wir sind hier wirklich ein wenig gestresst und ueberarbeitet.
Ich hab heute Nacht stolze zwei Stunden geschlafen und gestern von 10 Uhr morgens bis 4:30 Uhr Nachts Pandoras gebaut...

Es gibt ein paar Punkte, die wir geaendert haben muessen - die L/R-Buttons sind z.B. ein Problem. Das Bohrloch muss ein klein wenig groesser sein. Ich hab teilweise 10 Minuten gebraucht, um einen Button so zu feilen, dass er sauber ins Gehaeuse passt.
Zudem gibt es Dinge, die unser Leben erleichtern (so koennen z.B. die kleinen Bumper die oben am Gehaeuse sind, gleich im Werk angebracht werden, um uns Zeit zu sparen, etc.) und die Buttons sollten nicht angemalt werden.

Wir schreiben eine genaue Liste und die geht dann mitsamt Bestellung [*I AM STUPID SPAMMER*] Anfang naechster Woche ans Werk.
Im Moment haben wir hier noch genug zu bauen...

Aus diesem Grund wollten wir auch nicht gleich 1000 Gehaeuse bestellen - sie passen zwar, wenn man ein wenig feilt, aber das kostet unendlich viel Zeit. Und wir haben alle auch noch anderes zu tun...

Wir sind leider nur Menschen und keine Roboter.

Uebrigens koennen sich die ersten Besteller hier auch freuen: Heute ging ein schoenes erstes Paket Richtung Deutschland raus

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124780#p124780

Please please please calm down
We are really quite stressed out and overworked.
I slept a two full hours this night and built Pandoras from 10 o'clock in the morning until 4:30 in the night...

There are a few points we have to have changed - i.e. the L/R buttons are a problem. The Drill hole must be a little bigger. Sometimes it took me 10 minutes to file a button so it fits the case neatly. Furthermore there are things that make our life easier (i.e. the little bumpers at the top of the case can be attached right at the factory to save us time, etc.) and the buttons should not be painted.

We write a detailed list and this goes with the order to the factory at the beginning of the next week.
At the moment we have enough to build here...

That's why we didn't want to order all 1000 [he means 10'000, see translations in my next post below] cases - they do fit if you file a little, but that takes infinitely much time. And we have other things to do...

Unfortunately we are only humans and no robots.

By the way, the first customers here have reason to be happy: Today a first beautiful package went out towards Germany.

Uebrigens: Am ersten Tag sind knapp 400 Pandora-Bestellungen bei mir eingegangen - und von den ersten 1000 gehen ca. 200 an meine Kunden raus... also wird leider noch nicht jeder eine bekommen.

Aber es wird schon weiterproduziert, keine Sorge, kommt schon noch

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124782#p124782

By the way: on the first day I received 400 Pandora orders - of the first 1000 around 200 go out to my customers... so not everyone will get one.

But production is going to continue, don't worry, it will come

Nupfi:
cool
Wie viele Pandoras waren da drin?

Puuh, weiss ich gar nicht genau, wir trennen immer auf: 3 Craig, eine ich.
Und heute ging die erste Kiste raus.
Wir bauen immer weiter statt zu zaehlen

Nupfi:
Außerdem vielen Dank für deine ehrlichen Worte ED!
Du kennst uns ja mittlerweile, darum ewiges rumzicken nicht soo Ernst nehmen.


Ja, ich weiss. Trotzdem immer nicht einfach - besonders, wenn man keinen Schlaf hat.
Ich hab manchmal das Gefuehl, dass viele nicht nachvollziehen koennen, was wir tun - nebenher jahrelang an dem Geraet arbeiten (fuer lau), hier tagelang alles zusammenbauen, etc.

Wir wollen Euch nur einen der coolsten Handhelds so schnell wie moeglich in guter Qualitaet bringen.
Und wenn wir pro Geraet wegen eines bloeden Lochs bis zu 10 Minuten laenger dransitzen, ist das nicht produktiv.

Und wer meint, bei dem teuren Preis werden wir reich: Wir (bzw. Craig, der hat das fast alles aus eigener Tasche gezahlt) sind mit dem ersten Batch meines Wissens bei ca. -400.000 USD.
Da muessen noch weitere nachfolgen

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124785#p124785

Nupfi:
cool
How many Pandoras were in there? [package for germany]

Puuh, I don't even know, we separate them like this: craig 3, me 1.
And today the first package went out.
We continue building instead of counting.

Nupfi:
Also, thank you for your honest words ED!
You know us by now, so don't take the eternal whining too seriously.

Yes, I know. Still, it's not always easy - especially if you get no sleep.
Sometimes I get the feeling that many cannot appreciate what we do - working besides our jobs on these devices for years (for nothing), assembling here for days, etc.

All we want is to bring you one of the coolest handhelds as quickly as possible in good quality. And if we sit on every device for 10 minutes because of a stupid hole it's not productive.

And to those who think we get rich at this expensive price: We (or rather Craig, he paid almost everything from his pocket) are at around -400'000 USD with the first batch.
There have to be more after that.

Xant:
wird an den buttons nur die farbe weggelassen und der rest wird produziert oder wird jetzt schon wieder an der form rumgemacht?

Bis auf das L/R-Buttonloch vergroessern wird meines Wissens nichts gemacht. Der Rest passt gut zusammen Die genaue Liste wird aber erst erstellt.

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124795#p124795

Xant:
do you only leave away the paint on the buttons and the rest will be prouced as is, or are you having the mould changed again?

Apart from enlarging the L/R hole nothing will be changed as far as I know. The rest fits together well. The detailed list is still to be made though.

Die haben einfach die Form geaendert, ohne was zu sagen.
Und jetzt passen die Buttons nicht ganz

Dremel-Zeit

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124806#p124806

They simply changed the shape without telling anything.
And now the buttons don't quite fit

Dremel-time

 

[trooper]

What`s That ^^^ ?.

Trooper

 

[greendots]

What`s That ^^^ ?.

Trooper

Apparently ED is a robot

 

[Lafazar]

Böddchi:
Ähm du meintest doch hoffentlich 10000 oder 3000 werden doch wohl Nächste Woche produziert? oder?

Aaaeh, ja, meinte ich
Die 3000 werden naechste Woche bestellt

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124789#p124789

Böddchi:
Ahem, I hope you meant 10'000 or 3000 will be produced next week, yes?

Aaaeh, yes, that's what I meant
The 3000 will be ordered next week

4000 Teile sind bereits bestellt, momentaner Lieferzeitpunkt ist Oktober (ja, die Elektronik-Branche hat im Moment so lange Vorlaufzeiten... dreht total durch).

Die naechsten 4000 werden wohl im Juli / August bestellt, damit es gleich damit weiter geht.

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124860#p124860

[About second batch:]
4000 pieces are already ordered, current delivery date is October (yes, the electronics sector has lead times like that... going completely insane).

The next 4000 will probably be ordered July/August, so it can keep going.

Tja, gegen Vorlaufzeiten kann man wenig machen... ausser alles vorfinanzieren, und das koennen wir uns nicht leisten.
In Zukunft wird sich das hoffentlich aendern, aber noch nicht.

Noch was zu den Aenderungen:
Was bisher so lange gedauert hat waren immer Probleme mit Shrinking und Warping im Grundgehaeuse (dass z.B. einige Pfosten ein wenig schief sind, etc.)
Die Buttons lediglich ein wenig zu verkleinern (oder das das Loch zu vergroessern) aendert nichts am Warping, also insofern ist das keine Wochen- oder Monatelange Geschichte.

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?p=124872#p124872

There is little we can do against lead times... except pre-financeing everything, and we can't afford that.
This will hopefully change in the future, but not yet.

Now something about the changes:
What took so long until now has always been problems with shrinking and warping in the basic case (so that some pillars are a little bent, etc.)
Shrinking the buttons a little (or making the hole bigger) does not change the warping, so that is no weeks or months long story.

 

[mali]

^ Thanks a lot for collecting the German posts and translating them, Lafazar!

(quality issues)

I've been watching Astewardson's videos on YouTube (which are great by the way), and the two hardware issues he has are an unresponsive up direction on the D-Pad, and a sticking left shoulder button. So, if anyone has other serious issues, it would be nice if we could get an idea of what we might expect when it comes to hardware faults.

The sticking shoulder button only happened on the first units, since we already fixed that since we were aware of that problem and posted that days ago in the blog. Same for the DPad, we test all units completely since then - Audio, WiFi, Controls, Volume Wheels (since a few were rubbing the case a bit) etc. before shipping them out.
And all stiff DPads wear out after a while (some user posted that it happened with his DPad already here at the boards).

OP: Are you adjusting the manufacturing process to fix faults that are showing up, such as the bent screen bezel at the bottom of the screen, or are you going to request another case revision?

If you read the other thread, you should've already found out that that doesn't need any case revision as it is simply something you need to be careful while assembling.

So all faults you mentioned are already fixed and we don't know of any other ones.

The only change in the case we need are increasing the holes of the shoulder buttons so that they don't stick - and that's what we currently do manually.
(that happened because the paint made it a tiny bit thicker)