I wish to disagree with a small point in this debacle.
Azure has not received 3 defective units. Neither has anyone else.
Azure has stated himself aswell, that he has infact not received 3 defective units at all but rather just 1.
His first two were otherwise fine, (except being early models from batches prior to the lay off for nub re-design), but have unfortunately suffered death of one or other nub, which can and will happen eventually perhaps to many, of the many more already wild Pandorae. ED and Craig still have original prototype units that still work fine for example. As must a silent majority. Prometheus was a case in point of how rapidly this can ironically strike however.
The LCD cables again are a random issue aswell, as many of the first 100-200 (OPT claims vary) are still going strong. ED and Craigixs' for example.
Then the tool was used on further units and as we have no definite database of which units have received which treatment (i.e the 2nd 100 units made in non-sequential stickers, mixed in with everyone since), we have no way of knowing how many of the original cable type, since the tools implementation, have failed.
The new cables still aren't in mass production, or useage yet. Thus they also, have yet to be proven to have fixed this potential issue.
I highly doubt all the old cables will be dumped in favour of the new ones once mass produced either. To do so would be financial madness, so this issue is also to be expected to occasionally continue on unlucky units.
Nubs on first nub design boards, cables from the first 100 in sequence and the 2nd hundred mixed in with the others 'tool placed' ones, until the newer cables are the only stock in use, can imhho, be expected to fail at some point.
Hence grievances with those issues, is a non issue to any Pandorian that has followed the project via the boards since they pre-ordered.
Those that forgot about their investment maybe valid in being initially disgruntled on receipt of a unit that soon dies from one of the above 2 issues. Everyone else should accept it, as par for the projects ongoing development, as Azure clearly does.
The remaining issues breakdown into two more categories:
1) Case defects: It is well known as DaveC has just posted, that the molds for the cases, after many delaying tweaks, still suffer from a few very minor cosmetic issues due to the painting process required to mask an unsatisfactory result from the Chinese factory. Bless them for trying under possibly better than mosts crappy conditions out there.
a) Bezel Bowing, a potential to crack around the USB ports and an enigmatic smile created from the hinge assemblies pressures maybe present on/or manifest to various degrees after arrival.
B) Shoulder button issues - original units can be perfect or suffer from some degree of less than desirable shoulder button functionality. Usually this is user fixable by those capable of not damaging the rest of the unit under warranty.
c) Face buttons or keymat buttons are squishy/stuck, or harder to press than others - These issues are again mold defects of either and usually can be corrected through some useage or opening the cases and trimming some flash of plastic from the molds, or excess resin on a keymat button. Again these are currently to be expected BUT given the ease of correction during assembly they should not be occurring anymore.
2) New defects - Anyone receiving a unit from the initial return to mass production can expect that CircuitCO had a mishap they priorly had avoided, in that these newer boards can suffer from 3 new issues.
a) Shoulder buttons - a mishap has caused some boards to be populated with shoulder button microswitches which are positioned incorrectly. This has led to OPT adding foam pads to one, both or neither of the buttons to compensate. The feedback is that the feel is improved but in some cases, the pads have slipped during final case assembly (should've been caught by QC) or unavoidably during shipping. This issue has again been caught early and production slowed, to fix this and correct any boards that have this issue prior to further shipments being made. Given case 1) B) shoulder buttons can still be odd even if the motherboard has correctly soldered shoulder microswitches and this should be bourne in mind.
B) Melted volume wheels - This has happened a number of times and frankly if this isn't a part that CC add to the boards, then this is simply sloppy workmanship during assembly and poor QC.
c) SD card slot problems - A number of even more recent boards from CC have proven to have defective SD card slots that will not accept a card or jam a card in place. This is usually fixed by the user, a screw driver and simply pulling the card back out. On re-insertion often the spring locking mechanism is fine and everything is normal thereafter. In a few cases these are being RMA'd to more fully examine and re-solvve this issue.
d) Carbon contacts on keymats missing - This has also hit a few users, where certain keys don't function correctly, as somehow production has missed some carbon/graphite from the contact points of the keymat. Somehow the QC OP-input applications testing has missed this. The fix offered by Evil Dragon has been the purchase of a graphite spray to apply manually with a matchstick, a small amount of this material to the underside of the affected key, to complete the circuit properly.
e) D-pad issues - DaveC's Dpad is among the best ever designed and a few folk have been unfortunate enough to receive units that are defective in this respect, as some have had to either wear in their d-pad in a certain direction, or in Azure's case, it clearly has severe issues, rendering an important part of the Pandoras' control set redundant. Its unclear what is the cause of this issue, unless its a mix of lacking carbon, molding errors or assembly mishaps.
f) Strange Battery behaviours - Since the 2nd resumption of mass production after the shoulder button issue, a number of users premium bought or otherwise, appear to have units where the battery contacts are giving issues, resulting in random charging behaviour, incomplete charging cycles and spontaneously sentient self awakening Pandora's. Mostly this is fixed with the older boards solution of loose battery contact giving erratic behaviour and a simple piece of paper under the battery cover and perhaps on the empty end(to keep the battery from moving laterally), has solved this issue. It is still being explored in the cases of incomplete charging cycles.
I've personally had 2 fantastic early units, with nothing but the minor cosmetic case bezel bow. However the LCD died on number 1 and was RMA'd. I received a replacement rather than the same machine fixed that I expected and it again was flawless, except its left nub later died and its LCD cable is almost dead. A part of me would like the same unit returned with the newer nubs and the latest LCD cables (which still aren't in mass production or general assembly units to my understanding) but that would be a hassle and no doubt introduce huge delays to any RMA. The other part simply wants an RMA and a fresh unit, whether salvaged from previous or entirely newly built. Both are equally likely and I doubt I would be able to tell, as my 2nd unit must have been a re-conditioned one (from the first 100) and yet appeared to be brand spanking new!
I therefore feel that any existant users from the first batches should've expected and not grumbled at, any issues in :
1) a) i.e a smiling bowing crack
as it was loveable that way on arrival and only with the passing days and increased useage may it begin to fail to appease your gadget love.
B) Shoulder buttons - as this is an ongoing issue and user fixable under OPT instruction and we should be thankful we have earlier boards that dont have a physical defect in this area. Merely an issue with the paintwork.
c) Face/Keymat button issues - As the first of batch 1, any with these issues should have them sorted by now by themself or via an RMA. Anyone newer than that has a right to bitch, as this should not be occurring in any of the newer board batches that have been passed as shippable.
People with newer boards since January:
You should potentially expect any of point 2 :
a) Shoulder button issues - due to early new board batch with duff positioned microswitches.
B) Melted volume wheels - No excuse here.
c) SD card slot problem - Another CC production issue since January like a). This cannot be helped and will be fixed in future boards. It should prove user fixable on any units it affects for now. Or RMA.
d)Carbon contacts missing on keymats - This is again a mass production error where a few rogue examples have slipped through. User fixable. OPT shouldn't really be blamed for this, except QC tests beyond the use of the op_input_test program are clearly needed to ensure that the full control set is not just registering a button press but is in fact fully playable. Perhaps some volunteers from the community could actually spend time play testing units before they are packaged for postage?
e)D-Pad issues - this is new and goes with d). Sufficient play testing of the controls is not happening and thus this is getting missed at QC as it is beyond its current remit. Which clearly needs expanding.
f) Battery issues - This is to be investigated. Slightly erratic behaviour was priorly easily fixed and no doubt the under-charging issues will be sorted out soon.
Everyone should expect their 1st version nubs to possibly fail, as could their 1st version LCD cable, tool placed or otherwise.
Therefore anyone embarking afresh on a purchase of a Pandora / or those still waiting from a pre-order, should expect and accept some of these issues may occur to the unit you receive. As it is just getting going for now.
They should also bear in mind that that history has been made here.
A few guys with the know how, got together and asked a community of disgruntled users of other manufacturers incomplete feeling machines to group huddle and 'imagine' a better device.
Pandora is the birth child of that collective process and she's not even out of her swaddling yet making a mockery of many devices before her, now her equal and those that will follow.
If you follow, despite her teething problems, she will reach maturity and she is gonna rock many worlds with alot more than hope alone!
