The following is based on a true story.


EvilDragon

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Well, hopefully. I can't tell how much of it is true, but if it is FULLY true, then the curse of the Pandora is still valid.

But let's start with the story right away...

It was about 1,5 weeks ago, just after the easter holidays.
My plan was simple: Receive the cases, assemble a Pyra directly in front of a camera, boot it up and post the video.

The Pyra PCBs were ready, the camera was ready... the cases... well.
That was the reason there wasn't a newspost for a while... I was waiting for more information.

According to FormAction, they've been given to a courier before easter and they should arrive shortly after.
So I waited... and waited... and nothing. No note, no cases, nothing.

Geez... we know at least a few samples of the fixed cases existed, as we posted some pictures - so what about the rest?
50 of them had been made and shipped to me.

Well, last week I had daily phonecalls with my contact in Greece. It's good we have him!
He paid FormAction daily visits, trying to find out what's wrong and where the cases are.

So they got in contact with the courier... and, well. They accidentally crushed the cases.
They put some VERY heavy boxes on top and this crushed all of them.

Result: Redo the cases - as fast as possible.
They planned that on Friday. My contact was still daily visiting, to make sure they are REALLY doing the cases.
They were half-through with the production on Friday - but had some issues with some parts.
My contact wanted to pick the cases up Saturday noon, make some pictures (so I can show you they really exist) and personally bring them to the airport so I can pick them up shortly after.

Weeeeelll.... Saturday morning, they found the reason why some parts had issues during production on Friday:
The injector nozzle of the machine was broken. That's why injection mostly failed - even though the same parameters had been used as before.

Urgh... a repair company has been hired to fix the machine today - and after that, they will finish the production and bring everything to the airport...
And I'll personally pick them up in Munich, without any courier or anything involved.

So - how much of that is true?
I honestly can not tell. I'm not sure what to believe myself.
A lot sounds like excuses to delay shipping the cases to me...

Let's take a closer look at everything:
  • New black case samples: Have been made. We've seen pictures of them.
  • 50 cases shipped via courier and crushed: Claimed to have happened by FormAction, but neither me nor my contact has seen the cases - so we don't know.
  • 50 more cases in production since Friday: True. My contact personally has been there and checked that.
  • Machine nozzle broken: Also true. My contact is experienced with plastic injection (he studied that) and he's been there on Saturday.

So the first 50 cases might've never existed. We don't know. I don't want to claim anything here. We just don't know and everyone can think about it as he likes.

What we do know is that Form Action has been VERY slow with all the changes in the molds, which is a bit annoying, but can't be changed now.
At least they MADE the molds and the cases I received have been of great quality. A lot more robust than the Pandora cases.

It's always a bit of hit or miss when working with new companies.
We know Global Components was a big hit when we moved the Pandora production to them.
The company creating the keymats also has been a hit. Yes, it took a few tries to fix all issues, but they did it and all changes resulted in new samples shortly after.
And no one could've known that the special coating which has been used to prevent air bubbles when glueing on the caps would have such an effect on the paint that the keymat becomes stiff.
After all, have you ever seen a keymat with multiple layers of color, transparency and plastic key caps on top? But they successfully solved the issue.

Form Action... well, it's not really a miss. They've been pretty slow, sadly, and they apparently didn't have much experience with small devices, hence the case is probably more thick and robust than it needs to be and the shoulder buttons needed a lot of tweaking as well.
And they've been a lot less pricey than other companies (about 40% less - and with 60,000 EUR costs, that IS quite a difference!). You get what you can pay for, I guess.
And doing such a project on low-budget is not really easy, let me tell you :)

So, you might ask - what happens if Form Action is unable to mass produce them properly?
While that's VERY unlikely, that wouldn't be an issue. There are a LOT of companies doing mold injection in the same city, and I just recently moved molds for NES and MegaDrive cartridge shells to another company as well due to quality reasons.
That just takes a day, and the molds as well as the full design are owned by us, so that would work as well in worst case.

What are the next steps?
  • Wait for the cases to arrive this week
  • If they do arrive: Test them and assemble some Pyras (with video, of course!)
  • If they still don't arrive: I'll pay a visit to Greece once again to discuss everything and in worst case plan to move the cases to the other company (the one that successfully produces my cartridge shells already).

I know that's not the news you've been waiting for - and it's certainly also what I've been waiting for!
That's real life, I guess - and whether you believe the reasons for the delays or not... just try to imagine being in my shoes and having to DEAL with all that as well.
These things are no fun and most annoying in such a project. I'd rather play with the prototype :)

Well, let's wait a few days and be prepared for a new newspost. Hopefully with good news!

Thanks for your continued support. You can be sure I'll do everything I can here :)
 
Thank you for the information as always ED, it's very cool to know what's exactly happening. Hope this week, we will have some good news :D.
 
Thanks for the update.

While it is annoying that the cases have seen so many delays, it can't be helped, as you can't tell what a company is like until someone tries...

At least, assuming the quality is good, and I do like the idea of a super-sturdy case, even at the cost of a little thickness, the end results should be fantastic :)
 
Thanks for the update,
It's a bit confusing: shouldn't the cases be "bulletproof " according to foam factory ?? So why should thy can easily destroyed in a Package??

So let's Hope you get the Caseparts this week, and there are also good enough to massproduktion..

So Black is now the Pyra Collor??

How is the status whit the other parts??
 
Thank you for the update EvilDragon :)

Don't despair, take a deep breath, then another one, ... :D
Really looking forward to the upcoming video(s)!

My plan was simple: Receive the cases, assemble a Pyra directly in front of a camera, boot it up and post the video.

No no no, you've got it all wrong, man.
  1. Receive the cases
  2. assemble a Pyra in front of the camera
  3. boot it up
  4. run awesome and loud media players, terminal applications, a full-blown Web browser, colorful games and trying not to mad laugh too hard in the background
  5. ...and then post the video
See, it wasn't that hard, right ?

Keep it up and cheer up too : I find it great we're just a week from "playing" with a complete Pyra! Virtually for the rest of us, literally and ecstatically for ED :D
 
Thanks for the update... We know shit happens all the time in real life. And even if this can sound weird... and being through all the pandora loop in the past... I feel thinks are moving swiftly with the Pyra.

Thanks Ed, amazing work! You have my support.

AR.
 
I guess, those heavy boxes were shipping containers - at least three of them - each filled up to the ceiling with anvils. That might break even 50 Pyra cases at once. Pretty plausible, if you ask me.
Yeah, if they were dropped from a height and/or the cases aren't that sturdy after all.

It does sound like an excuse to me.
 
In theory they could've been crushed by something like an engine block at some temporary storage warehouse. Only a totally incompetent forklift operator would even try placing a package like that on top of smaller boxes but in theory it could've been "the new guy" at the warehouse.

It could also have been a malfunctioning forklift. If it dropped the forks with another package on there then a "very heavy package" would probably crush whatever is below it. I think the courier would rather say another package crushed it than say their forklift made a stack of pancakes.

I'm not trying to defend FormAction but it doesn't sound that unbelievable to me.
 
It's a bit confusing: shouldn't the cases be "bulletproof " according to foam factory ?? So why should thy can easily destroyed in a Package??
If I understood correctly the cases were never going to be bullet-proof, the case plastics simply aren't thick enough for that.
The case would be tough, but not indestructible.

I would like to see what's left of the package though... (not that that seems likely to be possible)

-Neelix
 
I need that news like I need that szechuan mcnugget sauce. Even if it takes nine more years I'll get me some of that mcnugget teriyaki dipping sauce and I'll get me some of that news. Why? It's my series arc. that's what this is all about, Th-that's my one-armed man! Just need my news and my szechuan dipping sauce and that pyra news. Straight from ED! Every day for a hundred years!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
I need that news like I need that szechuan mcnugget sauce. Even if it takes nine more years I'll get me some of that mcnugget teriyaki dipping sauce and I'll get me some of that news. Why? It's my series arc. that's what this is all about, Th-that's my one-armed man! Just need my news and my szechuan dipping sauce and that pyra news. Straight from ED! Every day for a hundred years!

What did I just read?
Did that even make any sense?
???
 
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