Short But Good!

[hells_dark]

October…

Well. I don't care, I've learned to be patient.

But I'm afraid for the community…

 

[Nation.A.List]

"Always look on the bright side of life"

Every time we get an update like this (especially from ED) one or two (or a few more) things have been ticked off the 'To Do List'. AKA less things left that could go wrong, therefore the accuracy of the estimate gets greater. As I posted earlier, I reckon I'll have mine mid Oct, and when I said '3 months' is the new '2 months' that's 3 months from today, NOT 2 months forward from whenever you check.

 

[EvilDragon]

Humm, that's why I hate giving guesstimations

Who said October? I just said, my birthday wish is that EVERYTHING (including shipping to you) will be done then

If the first boards are finished next week, the case company gets one within a few days and could do some work before that (which I'm pretty sure they can), it should still be in August when the cases are finished.
And from there on... well, it's just a few weeks until it's at your place

So it can be anything between early September and mid October.

 

[WizardStan]

One Month is the new Two Months?

 

[Phawx]

Well, I disliked the waiting game when it was guessing when another step of the process could start. Now we have a pretty attainable date when it will be in our hands. So I am pretty relieved at this point. July is almost over and August will be a dull month, but September will be an exciting month and October, when we start seeing pics of boxes upon boxes of completed Pandora's that are one step away from their homes...man this place will be a shining beacon of joy.

So the wait is almost over and we have an actual-factual goal to look forward too.

Personally, I would love to see videos of ED and Craig shipping out these bad boys in stop-motion.

Setup a netbook or camera and have a picture taken every 10 seconds while they pack and label and ship. And when you take all the pics and join them to be a movie, have "O' Fortuna" as the background music.

 

[Nation.A.List]

Humm, that's why I hate giving guesstimations

ED. Why should you hate it? You gave a guesstimate based on the knowledge available to you at that time and told us the information that lead you to that guesstimate. I'd rather have that than no information at all. That leads to the 'knockers' saying "told you so, its vapourware" or 'somebody else' digging up a post of 20 days ago adding 45 days to that and speculating that it'll be ready in August!
You can't please all of the people all of the time, but you pleased me (and probably a few others) today.

 

[Murgatroid]

ED,

Isn't the final mass production boards the SAME as the MK3 board? I was under the impression that there were no changes to the MK3. If this is the case, couldn't the plastics vendor use one of those?

I'm an EE and have developed and shipped product for over 20 years. It actually DOES take a long time to develop something from scratch! I know folks are skeptical, but I am sure the design has converged both electrically and mechanically at this point. OP saying that systems would ship at the end of last year was WAY optimistic. There are almost ALWAYS one or two design tweaks that have to be made before things are ready for production. It may be a small computer system, but everything on it is custom. It's not a cookie cutter netbook design!

I just put in my pre-order, so I'm sure I'll be at the back of the queue. I'm looking forward to seeing this amazing little device in the coming months!

-steve

 

[anexanhume]

Whatever happened with the FCC/CE testing?

 

[danielliu88888]

Whatever happened with the FCC/CE testing?

FCC testing isn't needed because they won't be distrubuting in the US. i'm not sure about CE though.

 

[WizardStan]

One Month is the new Two Months?

Aww, why was my post down ranked? I think it's perfectly reasonable. We've been "Two Months" away for months now, but with EDs recent post, I don't see why we wouldn't be "One Month" (more accurately I'd guess 6 weeks) away.

 

[anexanhume]

Whatever happened with the FCC/CE testing?

FCC testing isn't needed because they won't be distrubuting in the US. i'm not sure about CE though.

I'm just going by what the front page says:

"* CE / FCC testing (can be done once the prototype case is here)"

 

[Vorporeal]

Whatever happened with the FCC/CE testing?

FCC testing isn't needed because they won't be distrubuting in the US. i'm not sure about CE though.

I'm just going by what the front page says:

"* CE / FCC testing (can be done once the prototype case is here)"

From more recent updates - CE testing is needed, but can be done with a prototype (and, IIRC, ED said it can be done in just a few days). FCC testing is only needed for distribution within the US, so until redistributors in the US pop up (for the second batch), FCC testing isn't needed.

 

[spaceballs3000]

Whatever happened with the FCC/CE testing?

FCC testing isn't needed because they won't be distrubuting in the US. i'm not sure about CE though.

I'm just going by what the front page says:

"* CE / FCC testing (can be done once the prototype case is here)"

From more recent updates - CE testing is needed, but can be done with a prototype (and, IIRC, ED said it can be done in just a few days). FCC testing is only needed for distribution within the US, so until redistributors in the US pop up (for the second batch), FCC testing isn't needed.

Curious who says this?

I'm pretty sure that if a company/person took orders in, and then ship the electronic product to customers with US address, then the product has to go through FCC testing.

 

[gruso]

"...we only need FCC if [I'm stupid spammer] WITHIN the US. We don't do that yet, [I'm stupid spammer] from UK and Germany, so FCC is not necessary. It WILL have to be done once there's a US based reseller, but that's nothing to worry about for the first batch." (ED)

http://openpandora.w...-status-report/


[edit] Damn this board's stupid word filter. What a blunt instrument that is.

 

[spaceballs3000]

"...we only need FCC if [I'm stupid spammer] WITHIN the US. We don't do that yet, [I'm stupid spammer] from UK and Germany, so FCC is not necessary. It WILL have to be done once there's a US based reseller, but that's nothing to worry about for the first batch." (ED)

http://openpandora.w...-status-report/


[edit] Damn this board's stupid word filter. What a blunt instrument that is.

Thanks for the source.

 

[spaceballs3000]

"...we only need FCC if [I'm stupid spammer] WITHIN the US. We don't do that yet, [I'm stupid spammer] from UK and Germany, so FCC is not necessary. It WILL have to be done once there's a US based reseller, but that's nothing to worry about for the first batch." (ED)

http://openpandora.w...-status-report/


[edit] Damn this board's stupid word filter. What a blunt instrument that is.

I'm 99% sure about this now.

The moment Pandora are shipped to US customers (with US address) these units should be FCC certified, regardless of what ED says (i.e. US reseller or not.)

In a nutshell, the Pandoras shipped to US customers could be held up in customs, although chances of this are unlikely, it can still happen. Additionally Pandora could get hit with additional fees/fines.

A quick search turned up information below.

http://www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form740/740.pdf

http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/997460674.html

The change is that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has apparently convinced the U.S. Customs Service to begin vigorously enforcing FCC compliance on all imported products. This means that any imported products may be impounded by Customs if they don't carry the required FCC indicia (A special logo or mark, often molded into the plastic camera case.) It sounds like this could result in very substantial financial losses, if a number of cameras are involved.

As part of their new aggressiveness, the FCC is apparently also stepping up their pursuit and prosecution of persons or organizations found to be selling non-compliant electronics. If true, this could mean very substantial fines or other legal problems.

http://www.canadacustomer.fedex.com/ca_english/customsguide/fcc.html

When is It Needed?

This form must be completed for each radio frequency device, regardless of value, imported into the customs territory of the United States.

A radio-frequency device may be considered to be anything that is electronic, battery-operated, or capable of sending, receiving, or interfering with radio signals. Examples include radio and TV receivers, computers, converters, transmitters, microwave ovens, industrial heaters, and ultrasonic transceivers.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/25/business/fcc-waives-import-rule.html

The program, which relies on assistance from agents of the Customs Service, allows the F.C.C. to check imported equipment and turn back those shipments found to be unacceptable. The rules cover virtually any type of electronic equipment capable of generating radio frequencies, including computers, TV sets and radio receivers.

Now I could still be wrong, as I'm not a FCC certification guy, but I very recently worked with one to ship a product, so if I'm wrong please let me know this (also with source), and I'll update this post with the correct information.

 

[Poem58]

This is a big maybe, but I am hoping that since they will be shipped individually to each address it won't be the same as a whole crate of Digital Camera's or something going to a seller. Does customs really stop every package of any kind coming into the US? Seems to me it was in the news a couple of years ago saying just how easy it would be to ship a Nuclear device into this country due to our lack of checking cargo.
My dream is that they ship it off to me and it just goes from plane to truck to center to truck to center to truck to my door. But I do tend to dream unrealistic things.

 

[spaceballs3000]

... Does customs really stop every package of any kind coming into the US? ...

I hear they are very random, from 1 small package to 1 person, to large shipments to billion dollars companies.

BTW The odds of them checking are unlikely though, an example would be the knocks off stuff sold at http://www.dealextreme.com/ and most all of that gets through.

 

[gruso]

This is interesting:

http://usaimporthelp...electronicgames

Doesn't apply to Pandora of course... unless you plugged up the power sockets. h34r:

Also found this book, some might find it interesting: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=SVoVKSXBTzwC&dq=USA+import+FCC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

[Alpha2]

I've purchased all sorts of devices that werent FCC certified from over seas and never had any of them held up in transit. MP3players, phones, game devices even the original GP32 doesn seem to be FCC certified... or even CE certified either for that matter. So for the most part it seems that they really DONT need FCC testing unless they have sales distribution in the US.