The grand day is nearing (2011-12-12)

[PokeParadox]

Oooh this a great belated birthday present, some nice good news, hope things carry on from here!

 

[Timstertoo]

Yay!

 

[Gein07]

I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers at the same time!

 

[ikreos]

Great news!

I would be willing to pay for this upgrade. Better yet, for the enthusiasts... a full aluminium body.


I am willing to bet my own Pandora that the advocates of such an upgrade would provide sufficient income to justify the expense of a limited run aluminium body optional upgrade for a fairly pricely sum.


It might be something to consider for the 'relaunch' of the Pandora.

I like that idea but it would be a lot of work. (Haha the spellchecker incorrectly identifies aluminium as misspelled.)

 

[EvilDragon]

ED, I have a question about the revised cases, if I may ask...


Will it be possible to have a Pandora with cracking issues re-cased in one of the new ones? (Mine's got a few at this point, and more are currently threatening to leave holes in the hinge!)

Same here, would be very interested to know that, too.

I will sell them for sure, and when I will replace cracked cases, I will replace them with the ones I've got with me... so sure, if it's cracked, I can replace it.

Glad to hear things are moving along. Are all currently undelivered Pandoras going to be built by the new company?

Hopefully not - I still hope CC will be able to deliver some PCBs... but that's something not even god knows (I think )

Evildragon: Will you get pictures (and perhaps videos) from the production test run and from the new Pandora case? That would be very interesting for us to see how it works. I remember you wrote that the new company would let you do so, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, sure. I'm there for the full day, doing the tests, helping to get things going and also taking videos.


I will also do a video once the mass production has started (it's a bit different).

Is there a decision on having the inside of the battery cover signed?

Um... I could sign it when I ship out a unit, but then the rest of the team would be missing.

Since the Production is in germany, everything now seems to work like it was planed, a fresh new feeling in Pandora History.

Production has not yet started, so let's not be overjoyed before it actually happened.

And do you still have to assemble all the LCD Cables in the future?

The next 1200: Yes.


The remaining ones: Nope, probably not.

I would be willing to pay for this upgrade. Better yet, for the enthusiasts... a full aluminium body.


I am willing to bet my own Pandora that the advocates of such an upgrade would provide sufficient income to justify the expense of a limited run aluminium body optional upgrade for a fairly pricely sum.

Well, an aluminium body would cost at least 60,000 USD to make, and then about 10 - 15 USD per case.


So if 1000 Pandora users would want such a body, it would cost about 80 USD more... and I have no idea how WiFi would work.

 

[EvilDragon]

I still think it might be worth talking to Craig and coming out with an official statement that lets people know how and in what general order their pre orders (with you & Craig) will be fulfilled.

Hard to tell right now..


Basically, it's like this:


When the first 1000 have been produced, the goal is to gain enough money for the next 1000.


This money either comes from sales to new customers, premium upgrades, investors, etc.


However, there are some other aspects: Some parts cannot be bought in small quantities, so I need to buy 4000 at once. And there are some refunds as well.


So I have no idea how many need to be sold to new users and how many will go to old preorders from the first batch right now.


However, half of these remaining units will go to Craig, half of the remaining units to my customers.


BTW: If two customers upgrade to Premium, enough money is made to send one more unit to an early preorderer as well.


So here's an example:


Let's assume, producing the next 1000 Pandoras would cost 250,000 EUR.


With a sales price of 375 EUR, 667 of the first 1000 Pandoras would have to be sold to new customers to have the needed amount of money.


The remaining 300 would split up to old preorderes.


If there's 30,000 EUR from investments left, we'd only need to sell 586 Pandoras to new customers.


And if 100 of the remaining preorders would go Premium, only 400 Pandoras would need to go to new customers, meaning that 600 would go to old customers.


It's a pretty complex calculation I've got there... it's more complex than I mentioned here, as USD / EUR conversion also needs to be included, etc.

 

[C0smikD3bris]

This is fantastic news!


Since i dropped my dingoo and knocked the top right button off its solder joints i have been hoping for some good news.


After reading this i am not so sure i can be bothered re-soldering it now :lol:


Nice one ED.

 

[mmKALLL]

Definitely beats getting a new Dingoo. Too bad I'd want one before the year changes, though - the new batch sounds awesome.

 

[Nintendo]

Thank you, ED.

 

[Foxgod]

Good news, it already seems that things are going much smoother now then we are used to.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Many thanks for the update ED, it really is great to get such clear and concise information relating to deliveries etc.


All the best for Thursday, German engineering for the win!

 

[EvilDragon]

Just an update: The parts have safely arrived at Hallbergmoos (EBV / AVNet) and will be transported to Global Components right away.


So they can check if they are all fine and complete tomorrow.

 

[milkshake]

wow im excited for you

 

[klaxonn]

It's a great news about the hardware side, but what about the software one ?


Is there any progress about the major OS update ? If not, have you some ideas to improve the situation, or will you still rely on the community ?

 

[Mr Rob]

Is there any progress about the major OS update ? If not, have you some ideas to improve the situation, or will you still rely on the community ?

Hello Klaxon. I know there's been talk of (and work on) a Hotfix 7, though there isn't a beta out for that yet. I'm sure when they release a build for mass testing soonish.

 

[Binky]

Anything on Yars development?

 

[Darkknight512]

It's a great news about the hardware side, but what about the software one ?


Is there any progress about the major OS update ? If not, have you some ideas to improve the situation, or will you still rely on the community ?

I think it has been stated before, once production is in full force some money will be spent on software development. For now, yes HF7 is in development but I think it has been stated that it will be the last HF for Zaxxon.

 

[Binky]

I thought:


HF6 is the last, but the kernel proddings weren't finished so


HF7 is the last, ...

 

[Another]

Great! Sounds like things are going smooth.


Hope I get my Pandora before my birthday in March.


So CC still have some broken boards?

 

[F_Slim]

or will you still rely on the community ?

You say it like it's a bad thing ... I thought this is has always been the main idea behind the whole project?