A couple of renders, a couple of weeks
September 18, 2009
Once again, a fairly slow news week book-ended by a few signs of life. It’s not all great news up in this post, but it’s not that horrid either. First up are a couple of nice new renders from Evildragon. You’ve probably met your dietary intake requirement for renders by now, but a couple more can’t hurt. Especially when they show off some details that more than a few people have been hanging on. Up top is the keymat, showing the final font and (some of) the final layout. At bottom is the revised Pandora base, showing more secure battery clips and other minor refinements.
Now though, we must get to finding out when these renders will be actual photos. It’s looking like there could be an additional week or two of waiting to see the case moulds finished. The culprit: Golden Week celebrations in China. The delay is not set in stone yet; there’s still a chance that the moulds will be done before tools are downed in the factory. Asked if we’re likely to see the whole first batch this year, ED said:
Well, seeing that the boards are here and working and the only thing left is the case (which will be finished just before October or middle of October, depending on if the Chinese factory can finish the mould just before the chines holidays), I can’t think of no reason why we shouldn’t be able to ship [the whole batch] within this year – unless something is seriously wrong with the case. But we checked it with a few prototype cases, the chinese factory checked it with actual boards that everything fits and they are also the ones producing the keymats, so they also checked that the keymats fit with the case.
So chances the case will work from the very beginning are very high.Then we can almost instantly deliver the 100 first finished Pandoras – and after that it’s a few weeks to mass produce the rest.
What ??
Delays again and again ?
By the way, I though most of the stuff was build in USA and UK for some reason. And now it’s Chinese or whatever.
Best bet for Christmas no ?
No more wild guesses! You right…
But probably something else than the Pandora until then which probably mean refund !
Why did I spent so much on this while my savings are slim.
I’m probably more dumb than I though…
Bullshit
the boards will be manufactured and the cases in china, i believe. there’s no reason you should think you were scammed based on this blog post.
whoops i meant the boards manufactured in the us
So, two more months then?
Yup!
‘two more months’™ have just been upgraded to ‘within this year’™, or pessimistically ‘within this year’™ starting now!
yay back to the old 2 month rule, i was starting to think murphy had died and i would miss the old chap…. or rather than miss him be annoyed that it wasnt me that killed the git
Have all the boards been mass prodused now that they passed all the tests and are ready and waiting to go straight in the cases? coz done and here makes it sound like it’s all ready and waiting to go into cases the minute they arrive.
Missed the bit at the bottom, so we have to wait till the 105 are finished and shipped before they start mass produsing the rest
oh well I can wait. Doesn’t sound like it’ll be this year though guys if I’m honest. Don’t get me wrong I’d love one for or before christmas but I can’t see how this is all gonna happen in this short space of time even if they can run so many off a day. Guess I’ll just wait and hope eds prediction will come off right this time 
There’s been a couple of hints that make me think there will be quite a delay between shipping the 105 and producing the rest. Along the lines of checking that those users are willing and able to give feedback, and waiting on that feedback before pulling the trigger on the rest.
They’ve been justifiably cautious thus far, I think they’ll want to be very sure that things are ok before committing to the big board production.
Just a hypothesis.
Yes it seems that there are going to be subbatches out of this first wave, this is all due to the board mainly, because they are sending the whole 10.000 batch of cases (if everything goes right)
so talking about boards, they can shipout about 300 a day so do the math
I don’t understand why this is coming like some sudden surprise. Doesn’t this sort of come up when they ask for a range of time that the product will be ready?
For that matter, here’s a nice reference so we won’t be surprised in the future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_holidays
Looks like Mid Autumn festival on Oct-03, so the case mould stuff could indeed be delayed a bit. After those first cases are sent out, the next holiday is October 26th, which may or may not cause slowdowns with actual production beyond the initial 105. The next one after that would be the 22nd of January, and I think people would raise serious hell if the Pandora will not have been actually shipping well before then.
…so looks like a February release date is in the cards.
Delay? Again? No way!
You guys missed a noteworthy news(at least for developers), cpa2juste’s Gles2D lib. http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=49620 I find this exciting.
cpasjuste*
Who will get one of the first 105? Is there any way to see what number I will be on the list of those that get shipped out? It’s been over a year now since plopped down my cash and I suspect that I am at least in the first 500 to have paid. I know there was some talk of having the first 105 go out to “testers” however I’ll be as good of a tester as any
I just want to get my unit (and accessories) in my hands and then move on….
Gruic
The talk of sending the 105 to testers was knocked on the head a while back – you’ll get your pandora when it’s your turn, as will everyone else
How dare the Chinese stop working for a holiday — whatever happened to the sweat shop work ethic??
Those chinese and their holidays.
I’ve seen quite enough flaky, half-baked shit rushed to market. I’m glad some people still care about getting this stuff right.
All this panic… geez.
Here’s how I figure everything.
*IF* the Chinese holdidays interfere with production it sets the WHOLE thing back 8 days. Just 8 days, not 2 weeks, not 2 months. Why? Because all the cases for all the Pandoras will either be made before the holiday or after. In one shot. They are making enough cases for the entirety of the pre-order almost instantly (comparitively). They are not just making 105 cases, they are making thousands.
The few weeks between the 105 and the rest of the pre-order batch is simply because they can’t make the boards as fast as they can the cases. 400 at a time, so the story goes. It will be a few weeks between the 105 and the last of the pre-orders regardless of holiday interference or not.
What happens if the holidays do interfere with case production? More Pandora boards will get made in the meantime? I would hope so. It doesn’t make sense to halt board production just because they can’t check the cases for fit. It’s not like they are going to change the board to fit the case at this point, that would be silly.
Now that they know that the boards are coming off the line hot, ready, and with an acceptable failure rate. I don’t see why they just don’t ramp up production. Why wait? Unless the assembly line expects the cases to be there as soon as the boards come out of the oven, it doesn’t make sense.
So instead of just 105 getting boxed up and shipped out before/during the holiday, it *might* be 505 or maybe even 905 shortly after the holiday.
Before Christmas! Hell, I bet the last one ships before the end of November. I don’t see how it could not happen at this point. Unless as ED says, something is terribly wrong with the cases, and the moulds need to be remade from scratch. That seems highly unlikely.
Thank you Mindlord!
Finally someone who actually READS and doesn’t just freak out and panic.
This is exactly the impression I got too… 8 days is NOT two months, lol @ panicking fools.
And there’s even a chance that they’ll finish the cases BEFORE the holiday… so everyone put your pitchforks down please.
If you’ve never worked in high-tech manufacturing then you have no reason to complain because you have no clue how things like this work.
So far we can consider ourselves LUCKY that we have a product manufacturing team so willing to inform us of what’s going on… Nintendo never told us about their production woes for the DSi, Sony never told us about any delays or mishaps making their new PSP Go… and believe me they had their fair share of problems too, that’s how the manufacturing game goes.
Other than the AmEx and Bank woes, the production for the Pandora has gone AMAZINGLY smooth… shame on anyone who doesn’t realize how NICE they’ve been to us to even TELL US ANYTHING about how the production process… and they COULD just be like Blizzard and say “it’ll be done when it’s ready”!
You know, comments like yours make me feel closer and closer to cancel my order, as they make me realize there’ll never be a Pandora, but there’ll always be people like you yelling out loud how ignorant we are not to see how lucky we actually are not to ever have one.
Gallos is exactly right. People who act so righteuos even though there arguements don’t make sense makes me want to cancel my preorder with there ignorant arguements. Ok look I want somebody to prove me wrong about what I’m about to say cause nothing these guys say makes sense.
Firstly the 8 days delay. The mould production started at the 21st of july. 45 days later its the 5th of September but they estimated 10th just incase. Ok it should of already been created in that timeframe. Now an 8 day delay would mean the 18th of September (its the 19th now). Now how the hell is just before October and the middle of October 8 days. Somebody please justify this.
Ok secondly I’m sick of people saying we’re lucky about hearing all these excuses just because Nintendo doesn’t tell us about its problems. Let me make one thing clear. We paid a large sum of money to these people originally hoping that it would be ready in a month or 2. Because of this WE HAVE THE RIGHT to know why there is hardly any progress being made because we were given false hope and this needs to be explained. Nintendo announces the DSI and release it several months later. They don’t really owe us anything and its none our business what they do and the only time we should complain is if they had something that belong to us.
“More Pandora boards will get made in the meantime? I would hope so. It doesn’t make sense to halt board production just because they can’t check the cases for fit.”
Board production IS currently inactive. They can’t make the rest of the boards in the meantime, primarily because they have yet to submit a complete unit (required) for the FCC/CE testing. ED mentions this as the ‘next step’ recently on the German forum.
>>> I bet the last one ships before the end of November.
That sounds like a losing bet.
Did anybody say CE/FCC marking?
No, but I sure wondered it when I read that post. Strange that ED doesn’t mention it…
Wonder if this stuff can take weeks or worst : months
Chill people, here’s what seems to be up:
# The board passed with flying colors – done with board and messing with nubs
# The AV cable seems to be done
# Batteries are done too (?)
# Everything is waiting on the mould finishing, which will take late october, tops.
# No legal or financial qualms are left to deal with (right?)
I see November as the worst case scenario. If it doesn’t happen by then, lynch OP team by all means
Whoa, whoa, whoa… Wait a sec… Is that a wrist strap loop on the back of the Pandora? Oh please tell me it is!
Well I think you are right !
It seams to be one.
But nothing really exciting.
The board already have the hole to fit.
There’s all the testing of the first 105 isn’t there? Stress testing everything, I remember reading something about that. Or have I got the wrong idea?
@Volvagia yes, yes it is
@Jon Pritchard that would appear to be mostly done from what i have read
The truth, they have no idea on when the case will be complete. If you read the unofficial road map, there no longer is a date for when the first complete Pandora will be assembled.
If it takes until the end of October to get this accomplished for the first 100, they will have ship out 600 a day to complete the rest of the orders and ship them overnight delivery if they want them in their customers hands before this year ends.
I took that date off because it was only my guess, and if I keep changing it back and forth every week it becomes meaningless. At the moment there are two possibilities for case mould completion: before the Chinese holiday, or after.
Re: Shipping, both gbax.com and gp2x.de are well experienced in shipping orders. Craig says GBAX alone can pack and send about 300 per day. That’s less than 14 days for the entire first batch.
Why not saying they will come after?
It’s more accurate in regard to the Pandora affaire.
I would even say in november if you want : who cares ?
All we want is a finished product.
They don’t even talk about the packaging.
Why not doing this while waiting for the other stuff ??
Probably that CE/FCC testing will take more time than you can image.
Please, no more renders, they’re just adding insult to injury.
I wouldn’t be suprised if we don’t see the finished article till May of April 2010.
piss.
Moaning little bitches. Did anyone fail the notice before the end of the year comment?
End of *chinese* year? Well, at least thoughts of Pandora can keep me warm on another quiet Feb. 14…
Then again, I might find a girlfriend first! Heck, might even find a gf named Pandora and make her my gf first! Muahahaha, taste of insanity.
Haha, j/k but yeah, not surprised if I get jabbed back. Or related to. o_O
C’mon guys, it doesn’t sound that bad……
Don’t worry about the mules , just load the wagon
Jesus christ how many fing holidays do the chinese have?
WTF is ‘Golden Week’ anyway???
Well, this is only the second one that the project has encountered. Two in a year, that’s not too over the top. This affects all companies who produce in China (yes, even Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple…), but OpenPandora is the only one who tells you about it.
PS. Please be so kind as to refrain from borderline racism in your username. One of your old ones will do fine.
Yep, in fact, OpenPandora is the only company that delays a product for one year after been prepaid and then turns to an obscure chinese holiday as an excuse for delaying the delay and then again states how lucky we should feel to be “informed”. Surely neither Microsoft nor Sony, Nintendo, Apple, etc… do that.
I would prefer to be informed why “early september” shipping was estimated and now that early september is gone we face that mass production hasn´t even started. That would be relevant useful information, not the “unexpected chinese holidays are going to add an aditional week delay to the infinite two-months loop”. Yeah, I feel lucky to know.
I think alot of people are putting the blame for the delays on OP Ltd. itself, when they aren’t willingly causing the delays.
Regardless, they lack the slightest bit of foresight and have failed to avoid any of these delays. Even the delays written on a calendar (id est Golden Week), they seem wholly unable to predict.
Lol the “golden week” costs me money in a family tradition way…. sucks
getting a little tired with what is bullshit with dates, have written of the money i paid for the pandora. can not be bothered to follow this blog anymore and have more lies told to me.
if it turns up great, if not well not going to loose any sleep about it.
absolute joke that the people running it can not adhere to dates. PISS POOR MANAGEMENT
What I fear the most is waiting for month if not years to be so disapointed in the end like I already been back in time.
Because people expect more and more of this product as time flies by…
I could have replace my old spypen tablet for a Wacom A5 intuos 4 for that price
I wonder if I should think about a refund right now ? Hummm…
Listen everyone. You can’t do anything about the delays, and I bet the pandora community are even more worried than you guys.
You guys putting more pressure on them for having made mistakes with the dates is only going to stress them and when someone’s stressed they make more mistakes, that’s just how it goes..
So, stop whining and have a little faith, what else can you do that’s constructive? Let them do what they can, and patiently encourage them. The delays suck but we can’t do anything about it.
We’re all in this together. Let’s just strive to prevail with success in the end.
Getting ever closer to the jumping off point… Hopefully they are continuing to make headway on the WLAN.
Makes me appreciate my jailbroken iphone more and more – How long more do I have to wait ………
How many years……
forget the months…
Wasn’t it April 09, then mid, then sept , oct not we are not even talking this year….
Hope my money is invested well…
Wow. I think everyone needs to chill out a little and relax. I know the never ending “two months” is really hard to deal with, It certainly has been for me, but it seems that many have forgotten how truly difficult a feat of this magnitude is. The group that is OpenPandora & GBAX doesn’t have the privilege of a large R&D department and a few million dollars to dedicate to this project. These guys are just like us; they have day jobs, families, and other obligations. They can’t do this as quickly as Nintendo or Sony because they AREN’T Nintendo or Sony. They are a small group of people with a dream; and they are, albeit slower have hoped, making it come true. So if you don’t want to cut them any more slack, go ahead and jump ship, there is no need for you to stay and complain. There is a GP2X Wiz ready for you. But rest assured, there are plenty more of dreamers like them and myself that are sticking with them. The “two month” updates that keep showing ever more progress will suffice us until the day we get our beautiful new box of wonders.
@Volvaga
“and they are, albeit slower have hoped, making it come true”
Are they?
–
don’t feed the trolls…
grrr everyone who disagrees with me is at roll!
No, everyone who disagrees with you is not a tr… plof!
Yay! It works, I’m a troll now!
As far as I can see, the Pandora Team have been fair with us all the way. They have listened to us and what we want as prospective users over the past year or so and given us a very good product at the best possible price they could. Well, at least as far as the ‘No Profit’ first batch is concerned. And as their claim still stands as it being the most powerful handheld in the world, what’s a few more unforseen delays ? As pointed out before to all the people who moan and/or want their money back. Take your money back and give it to another company who really don’t give a shit !!! From nothing to an almost completed potentially world beating product in 11-12 months of real development time for a company like Sony or Nintendo would be fantastic, but for a small team like the Pandora it’s FREAKING AWSOME. FREAKING AWESOME, DO YOU HEAR ME !!!
Flame on !!!
@Anonymouse
“They have (…) given us a…”
Have they?
–
It’s only my personal opinion mate. But let’s compare it to the ds with it’s 100mhz total from it’s dual core processors and piddly little 259X192 Dual screens and still selling for £100 or half the price of the Pandora in the good old UK where I live. Or the PSP. A quality machine, yes, but still not worth the money for a new one @ £130 quid here. And as for the PSP GO. PAH !!! No UMD, no more powerful than the normal PSP and rumours of it selling for £100 more than the standard PSP. DOUBLE PAH !!!
Or should that be ‘Lame on’ ?
And no, I am not including the devboards in those 11-12 months as they weren’t intended for the retail product.
You blasphemous bastard will die by the hand of the devil !
Wait and prey your lord for his near coming
‘prAy’
for those that aren’t aware… grammar comebacks are the best and most advantageous type of comebacks. This is because you aren’t actually making a point when you are correcting someone’s grammar. That in it’s self is a point that the original poster might have actually said something that made sense and all you have to say about it is in the way it was said.
Great, except it was a spelling correction. Do elaborate on the sense content though, I missed that during a failed attempt at Ironic crazy post correction.
‘itself’
So, it’s the world’s most powerful ‘Gaming’ handheld now. Don’t think I want one anymore. Hah Hah Hah, just kidding.
When I think about it, I don’t see why the Pandora wasn’t able to be completed during those other estimated release dates. There was never any really good reasons for the Pandora not being finished, yet it was like no progress had been made at all. There were early prototypes last year around this time but only about 9 monthes later they decided to start making the mould. It was like they started from again after the preorder. I really hope something is actually being done now.
They’re working their arses off to get it done, and they always have been. It’s relatively easy to throw some electronics into a plastic case however they’ll fit, and sell it as-is. But this goes against what they set out to do. If they’d released it six months ago, some of the problems would have included:
- A keymat that sat too low, making typing difficult
- A d-pad that hurt your thumb after an hours use
- A battery cover prone to coming off by itself
- A dodgy hinge
- Incomplete analogue nub firmware, pretty much unfixable by users
- Possible USB failure, an issue that has plagued early Beagleboard revisions
… and who knows what else. By all means yell and shout at them for not knowing how long it would take to get it right – they’ll freely admit to that. Better that than being yelled at for hastily shipping a sub-par $330+ product. Thankfully the whole (extended) design phase is now complete.