Photos: Some (some) mass production case parts
November 13, 2009
Posted by: gruso
Like a jpeg on a dialup connection, so too appear the parts of our Pandoras. Pictured here amongst the jagged FDM prototype pieces are some butter smooth mass production parts, and you won’t need to be told which is which. The eleventh hour fixes on the last part of the case mould mean that we can’t see every component today, but here’s to China for shipping out what they could, rather than make us wait for the lot. More parts are in transit as we speak, but a weekend stands between us and them.
ps. A very happy birthday to Michael Weston!
beautiful.
Dangit, ya beat me to it
The clear things are the light pipes, if anyone’s wondering.
“When Gruso moves, lightning stands still.”
- old jungle saying
Oh, I updated the pictures in this post to use the media library. You’re quick, and I’m sneaky
It seems to be 2 left light pipes. Suppose right ones are somewhere else ;o)
Actually, it looks like there is a right and left, it’s just that one of them is backwards so it looks like it’s on the wrong side. You can tell by the plastic blocks that jut out from them about 3/4ths of the way up the pipe.
I stand corrected
Oh, hey! The buttons are in a different order than what’s rendered on the OpenPandora.org website! This layout your showing in the pictures is the exact same layout of the Nintendo DS. What a pleasant surprise.
But is it legal to keep it like that? I don’t know if Nintendo has any patent to that particular layout or not.
In any case, whatever the final layout is, I want to just be sure that every single Pandora console will be using the exact same layout. When developing games, and a screen says “Press the A button”, I wanna be sure that every Pandora owner will be pressing the same button.
Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!
NOOOOOOOOO PUT THEM BACK MWESTON D:
It’s the same layout as SNES. Even if Nintendo did have a patent, it would have expired long ago.
Yeah it was always meant to be the same as the SNES controller which is the same as the DS. It’s not so much a question of patent as trademark. That’s what has always been said about the d-pad shape that Nintendo has a copy right on that specific squared off cross, but I dont think they’ve ever said they have a patent on XYBA.
It was?
“But is it legal to keep it like that?”
AFAIK, prior art exists (some pc game pads had this layout at one point long before DS (or SNES, for that matter)), so any patent, if one like this exists, would (theoretically) get poked full of holes in court (maybe – IANAL, not sure how this works).
This is beautiful, though.
And happy birthday.
Just a note: pressing the “reply” button below each comment puts a nested comment.
Oooo the shiny black buttons n dpad look nice. Happy birthday Michael Weston!
awesome
terrific
brilliant
Worthy of sticking my dick into
TM F-ing I!
Good times.
Happy days, mofo
So are we expecting to see more parts of the MP sample cases right after this weekend and MWeston’s birthday (Happy Birthday again!) and then presumably if everything’s ok, which receiving the parts would mostly indicate, then it’s just a phone call for mass production to start?
God damn, I know this is nitpicking… but anyone else noticed how the keyboard and game controls are different shades of black? I guess it doesn’t really matter!
It’s probably an artifact of the photography.
And the different FDM material too. I think it’ll all fall into place when there’s a real case there.
Hmmmm.. I’m pretty sure there’s a layer of clear plastic bonded on top of the keys, presumably to protect the printed letters. I don’t think it has anything to do with photography or FDM. Be glad to be proven wrong though
If you look up close the protective layer is pretty obvious btw.
Disappointing amount of pieces.
It makes me wonder how the F…. those simple items could take this long.
I wonder what the people will do who had a early order.
I mean the ones who bought all kinds of new gizmo’s and forgot about the Pandora.
Suddenly (after a ridiculous delay because of incompetence or inefficiencies (maybe both))it arrives
This probably happens.
What is this? O yea i vaguely remember Well i have no use for it now i have all kind of new gizmo’s that do a better job
Well lets sell this on ant(E)quesBay.
Lets just hope the final product (if it arrives)will not be a disappointment for the Pandora hugger.
PS don’t get upset just wondering if there is a competing skeptical troll around.
It’s not the simple items that are taking this long. It’s making the steel high-temperature ultra-high-pressure mold with ejection pins and proper complete seals that takes this long.
Now a no troll remark.
The mould should have taken around 45 days (longest estimate) well we have been waiting for close to 3 months (the wait is still going on.I know they where waiting for the complete thing to show but they could haven shown those simple pieces a bit earlier (well depended if they received them earlier to).Seeing only the easy pieces is disapointing.The moulds of these easy items are not complex the casing is.
Are you an injection molding expert?
Well i do not need to be a expert.
OP claimed them self that the molds would take 35 to 45 day’s (info they got from the factory)So please blame me that i can not understand a delay that is double the time (and still waiting)And the pieces show must be easy for the experts of the factory (if not i am worried about there skills)IF you are trolling well nice one (massive grin)
…
Im still waiting for that black hole that the Large hadron collider should have made last year.
It should be easy for those physics experts to just build and runa machine within deadline.
Didn’t you hear about the bread Loot?
In all reality, if you’re in tune to the world at the moment you would know Higgs Boson is at work here. Something has come back to stop us from opening Pandora’s box! All the little problems here and there, just like the LHC! When the Pandora’s Box is first opened is when the LHC will create its doomsday for mankind!
For fear itself! The future is here! It is among us. It is telling us to not permit this ending of the world! Do not let the future be opened to the evils the box will unleash!
*RRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!*
lol it could actually be possible XD, so the pandora arrives early 2010 at the same time as the LHC finds Higgs. Higgs get made cause he see that all these people have opened their pandoras before he got one and eats up the earth in a black nowhere.
I dont know how running would help though. XD
Ps i am missing in the forum a wine and blow steam topic.
I don’t write to the forum because i lost my password somewhere.
I did not write for over a year an can not be bothered opening a new account (i did not get banned i only sent about 4 comment anyway).
But i enjoy reading especially good trolling give plenty of chances for a laugh.
Thanks, Jack.
Thack.
wine?, theres plentyful info about wine and how maybe wine+ qemu could in some holy fusion create something that could emulate(YES EMULATE) windows apps on the pandora.
You are no coding expert though, it actually suprises me that you knew that wine exists.
I think he’s saying he wants to *whine*
Oops missed a H in w(h)ine did not see that.But it’s cool it gave me a grin from ear to ear wine is most likely not on the Pandora so more to w(h)ine about.Well we could always fall back on drinking wine use it enough like winedows and you get a headache.How it that for a whine:)Whining competition would be great for laughter & blowing of steam.
Emulating some windows apps arent impossible though, its just that we cant really expect the pandora to handle 3D windows games. I hold my thumbs hoping for spotify to work on the pandy in a not far to distant future.
I’m wondering if this is a final production keymat. If you look at the letters you’ll notice that the distance between them and the left side of the keys varies depending on the width of the blue symbol. For example look at H and T and compare them to U and I, or compare B to N. I remember the height problem and that was fixed and I hope this problem has been fixed as well.
*looks down at comp keyboard* *looks at pandoras keymat* *looks down at comp keyboard*
OMG my home and insert button dont have the text at the same height. Those other buttons are even worse, How could I possibly write with this.
(lol actually the pandora keymat is better than my comp keyboard when it comes to that).
wups sorry, thought you were jack :p, anyways My point still stands XD
I can see what you mean, I think it’s because some keys are squeezing more on than others. “brightness up” is wider than “!”. I agree it might be better to have all the letters located in the same place on the key. I don’t think it’s a big issue, something for Pandora mark II.
Also on the wishlist for mark II, the newest ARM chip: “ARM Announces 2GHz Capable Cortex-A9 Dual Core Processor Implementation”. http://www.arm.com/news/25922.html
but don’t let’s get ahead of ourselves, Pandora mark I is going to be the awesomeness
OOOh shiny!
Happy b’day Michael, hope you have a good one
Happy birthday MWeston@pandora.soon !
Spambots called. They want their bandwidth back.
is the yxba layout set in stone? I stopped buying consoles after the ps2. I always used to (and still do) play on my megadrive. I recently played sonic unleashed for the 360 as i am a big sonic fan. I kept getting confused when doing the mid air button combos. I kept getting the x, y buttons and the a, b buttons mixed up. Maybee its just me and also down to the fact ive not got used to the new layout. Having the xyab layout to me feels more natural
I’d like to know the final layout also, for developmental purposes. As I said before in the above comments, it’s important that, whatever the layout, that every single Pandora be equipped with that exact same layout. It would cause major confusion if different Pandora’s had different button layouts.
Would like to hear from Open Pandora on the subject. What’s the final button layout gonna be?
Honestly, I don’t as care much what the layout ends up being. I just want it to be the same on all systems.
yeah, after 2 years of planning, they’ll just ship with the buttons in a random order, cos that’d make sense…
I never said it’d make sense. But they have yet to let anyone know what the final layout is. If you’ve noticed, all the different renders, and all the different prototypes, and now these pictures above, they all have completely different layouts!
It’d be nice if they could just pick one and leave it at that. A lot of different people are going to be assembling the Pandora’s from hand, IIRC, and if they all aren’t on the same page as to what the final layout is, we could end up with a lot of Pandora’s out there with different layouts.
I just want to make sure they’ve got it all figured out. ‘Cause every time I see the Pandora, it’s got a new layout. It’s just making me feel a little uneasy is all.
*waits for next post about how something happened and NOW they will ship within the week*
then im sure the next post after that will be how something else happened and they will ship the weekend (which of course they wont)
then repeat cycle
i mean, damn, id love to purchase a pandora, but im sure by the time it finally comes out (if it ever does) there will be something out which is ten times better
at the time it was first announced (and correct me if im wrong) wasnt it supposed to be more powerful than any netbook on the market (i believe i read that somewhere)? now all netbooks blow it away
“at the time it was first announced (and correct me if im wrong) wasnt it supposed to be more powerful than any netbook on the market (i believe i read that somewhere)? now all netbooks blow it away”
No, you are wrong. It was never supposed to be more powerful than a netbook; it’s just more portable. It is still far more powerful than the DSi or new PSP and it will still do all that it was designed for (i.e. on the move email, musci and basic umpc functions, as well as emulation up to Playstation and possible N64).
If there’s another more powerful open source handheld out there please let me know, but the Pandora is the only one I’m aware of
I’m going to use mine for development, at the beach
<3 <3 <3 Pandora, the best little computer ever…
>> at the time it was first announced (and correct me if im wrong) wasnt it supposed to be more powerful than any netbook on the market…
Did netbooks even exist when this thing was first announced? zing
Netbooks were coming out of prototyping when the first plans were made. I actually got an advertisement 2 years ago for the pandora, it was going to be super powerful with one gig of ram… I gotta upload a scan of it sometime.
I know what you mean, though. The Droid is one of many devices that inch ever closer to the Pandora. The last straw will be if one of them goes 100% Linux… (not likely, which (I think) is why I’m still here)
Oh common!
It’s just a bunch of buttons and back pieces of plastic.
I was waiting for the real stuff!
It’s a bit disappointing.
I really don’t know what to think about it.
I’m preoccupy by the nubs buttons never us it in that way (very low stuff for design purpose I suppose).
I wait the final product in hand to get a clear idea because taking like this pictures are quite ugly and the pieces look really of poor quality.
All is a matter of good communication.
poor quality? pless tell what faulties you see I havent seen anything.
It’s because I am a bit accustomed to corporate photos of higher quality.
We wait years to see the first pics and looking like this it’s not very tempting.
What is exactly the thin transparent plastic pieces ?
Look at the I letter or F8 keys, some of the keypad color is already deteriorated or messed up I don’t know…
I know it’s only material but if the exterior is bad why the inside would be perfect ?
I have 2 Nand powered devices here of very bad quality (loosing data !?).
They tell us the most difficult part is the case. That’s why I am a bit preoccupy.
Look at the N900 or the xpPhone for example.
I almost start to regret. I don’t have that much coin to buy both…
Hope OP team will positively surprise me.
“Look at the I letter or F8 keys, some of the keypad color is already deteriorated or messed up I don’t know…”
Actually I think it is just extra paint. Right now the case is really rough, so you can see much more of the buttons than you should be able to.
Once the final case is done, I believe that the buttons will be much more leveled and well encased, so you will only see the shiny top and so misalignment.
I am really hoping to receive the Pandora for Christmas, but still I found this half don work nothing short of a piece of art!
It’s not even extra paint. It’s the camera flash reflecting off the plastic.
clear plastic pieces are light pipes for telling if blutooth is running, what SD card slots are in use, batterylife etc.
It make sense now
I also hope for Christmas, but not as much as last year.
Have a nice month until then
GAME OVER :
http://www.pandoratoday.de/allgemein/bis-weihnachten-wird-es-sehr-knapp/
No Pandora for Christmas nor before 2010
ENOUGH
My god… With the new PSP, cell phones are catching up, and even netbooks and laptops competetively priced. It’s not like its a piece of shit or anything, but I pre-ordered because at the time it was going to absolutely rape anything anyone else had. It’s still useful, but reconsidering is growing stronger…
“If nothing more had interfered, we would have easily still created it.
Now presumably becomes very narrow, because we exactly do not know yet, when the Chinese finish. If they create it still before the completion of the Boards, everything is good. All other afterwards becomes very narrow.
However, there we cannot act a lot – except wait that they have fulfilled the order.
We will do, in any case, our most possible for person one to pack as fast as possible everything then and to deliver.” Translation of article by http://translation2.paralink.com/
*sighs* …what a disappointment…
Excuse me, but where does it say that ? All I see is a comment that roughly translates as ‘A delivery after Christmas is very likely”.
^^^ That article does NOT say “no Pandora before Christmas.” It says that as long as the mould work is done by the time the boards are ready, the existing timeline still applies. Population of the boards is due to finish at the end of the month (we’ve known this for a while). So the Chinese still have 13 days to get the cases rolling off the line to keep everything on track.
If the moulds aren’t done in the next 13 days, then we might be looking at a delay. Let’s not freak out until then, k?
Also for anyone who isn’t aware, pandoratoday.de is an unofficial blog like this one.
I honestly didn’t know that. Anyways ED doesn’t mention anything about a major delay, the person posting the article says that a 2010 release is more likely.
Posted 11/16/09, 10:25 AM on the forum here -> New Pix From Mweston!
Graigix
Everyone is busy for a couple of days with some urgent, final, firmware testing, however I’m going to do a blog update on everything. Then you will most likely see more final case parts later in the week once this work is out the way.
I know, boring for you, but kind of a priority for the final boards!
I say (Jack)
Hmm later in the week.More delay?.
I am convinced now that later in the week there will be another Chinese holiday/Birthday/mishap ore any kind of excuse.
I use to have nether respect ore no respect for any of the members,they have to earn respect.
Well Graigix earned the No respect.
He is a liar.
For some people that will be to strong and they will say show some respect.
Well OP has a lot of money from people here and they have been flip-flopping around especially Graigix they show no respect to those people by giving idiotic release dates (last Christmas).
The release was promised last Christmas and now they are most likely not making this Christmas that is a big fat lie to me.
Graigix sad that they would start shipped even if the firmware was not ready because people could easy update that.
Now he says this (Everyone is busy for a couple of days with some urgent, final, firmware testing)The most amazing thing for me is that the firmware should have been way past completion with all the extra time they had (ONE YEAR)because of hardware delay.So another lie.And the statement of seeing the other part later this week Hmm they sad clearly after last weekend.O well i guess they did not get the parts because there is someone or something else to blame.
The hole Banking Fiasco well you guys are to blame for that as well if you could have shown the bank a real business plan i recon there would not have been a problem but you did not have that did you!?.If you did the project would have been finished by now.
Well why do you guys not apologize for the delay and say you made massive fuck-ups instead blaming some one something else that will show you got integrity ore say it is a scam because if the Pandora will not arrive at a single customer (that is complaining now (to be sure it is not one of you Buddy’s))before the end of the month then it must be a scam.I rest my amazement by seeing a good idea going down the drain by stupidity and incompetence.Well Pandy hugger you all may blame me i don’t care i just say it the way a lot of you don’t dare to.
All the best Jack the troll.
I have no idea what you just said
That’s OK people do not want to understand what they do not want to hear.
tl:dr
Noone is going to be upset by you saying the wrong things. First off you shouldnt tell your feelings. A troll is supposed to be coldhearted and give the impression of dont give a damn. Secondly, say true things only, truth hurts the most. Thirdly, you need to have more creative namecalling. Fourthly, are you working for sony or apple or (god forbid) microsoft(eww, I wrote it) and wants this boat to go sinking?
Cause to me you are no troll, you are just an upset 8 year old kiddo that havent learned any manners and are sitting crying cause all his “freinds” at school is bullying him cause he never got that pandora he was bragging about.
Its okay. *hugs jack*
Cheers finally someone makes me laugh out loud.
Looking forward to more spicy remarks.
Lootic i think you love this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrI7QUJfkvI
Who is who (big grin)
This one is …..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLrA_0O5I
Still just a little 8 year old that feels sad to me. you havent really met my arguments, and those videos, just lol, are you using them as instruction videos or what.
*continues hugging*
Welcome to the moderation queue, Jack.
Well just having some fun.It weird what people do when they have some spare time (including myself).
I am going into the sticks for a couple off day’s.
I mean a area where there is subzero Internet.
I will be back in about 5 to 7 day’s.
I hope i have been wrong in messing around on this site about the delays of the Pandora.
I would enjoy seeing on return that i am horribly wrong and the Pandora did materialise.
I just don’t count on it.
PS Gruso you put me on the moderation queue.
Well (I think) it’s your site it up to you but it is just another word for censure.
I am not really rude but a bit blunt that is all.If people get banned ore censured for that …. hmmm… well that is weak and a lose for a good forum.
O PS don’t take my remarks to seriously i am just looking for some Laughs ore cool even spice remarks it can be fun that way.
Moderation isn’t censorship. I’m just trying to reduce your post spamming. Please try to restrain yourself, these dicussions are hard enough to follow as it is when they get this big.
Now it takes four rolls of the mouse wheel just to scroll past all this nonsense about you. Do you see what I mean?
I got on the pandora boat a bit late, I haven’t been waiting that long, so not much fraustration yet! this is a little off topic for this thread, but I’m wondering if the pandora devs are considering to make other models in future – I suppose it would depend on the success of this one. I just want to ask opinions of developers, do you think it’s possible there would be a “Pandora mark II” (or whatever it would be called), and if so, do you think the experience from making mark one would result in quicker development for mark II? I think it would be really exciting if the company continues to make new models, and if the process is more streamlined, they could be produced quicker and be really cutting edge, much better than anything else on the market. I believe the first Pandora is still going to be far and away the best mini computer available, especially because the software is fully open source. Any opinions, could a possible mark II be produced quicker?
I’m no dev, but I think the next batch op pandora’s might feature the higher rated OMAP3530 that has a higher default clock (720MHz). As I guess it automatically replaces the ‘old’ version because that one isn’t produced anymore.
The preceeding post was just technically wrong.
3530 is the version of 3430 that TI announced shortly after contacing the pandora developers. it was a version of the 3430 marketed toward smaller producers. same design as 3430. Some reports of higher clock speed exist, not sure what the cause is.
TI recently began “binning” the 3530s, in other words sorting them by their overclocking potential. It appears that the 600mhz rated units are going into one pile, and the 720mhz into another pile, with a slightly different part number and a slightly higher price.
There could be a Pandora 2 some day. They’re definitely not planning anything yet though, gotta get Pandora 1 out the door first! If the project is going well after a couple of years, I think they’ll be keen to take it to the next level. (It’s been discussed on the forums a bit, albeit hypothetically).
They might be able to do things more quickly after everything they’ve learned, but perhaps more importantly they’ll have a better idea of time frames so they can make more accurate estimates. Look at the big names like Sony and Nintendo; they have endless experience and resources, but they still spend a number of years developing each product. Their trick is just not to tell anyone about it. But that’s no fun.
I hope the pandora2 just gets pimped hardware, like a OMAP4440 and maybe some other hardware upgrades. They shouldn’t mess with the rest, let working stuff be and get the thing finished.
Although there are quite a few other small computers and phones running some sort of linux, some of which are comparable to the Pandora in power, there is nothing else with the open development model, and nothing else with a community like this. Really this is what puts Pandora in a class of its own. Perhaps in some ways it is most like the iPaq, which had open hardware and a big open-source community for people who had installed linux on it. But Pandora will ship with Linux, I think there will be nothing else like it, here’s hoping for extreme success and popularity!
I can see so many developers will love this platform, and seeing as it is an open source gaming platform, I imagine there will be new open source games and apps every week that people are writing with the Pandora in mind. I certainly will be writing them as fast as I can!
If anyone is interested, I am working on a programming language “brace” which is based on C but easier to use, and with strong graphics and sound support (sound is WIP). The main platform is Linux, it also runs on windows, etc. I will be running this on Pandora, I expect it will compile right away, and I will hopefully be writing games with it. There is a page about brace with an online demo / presentation about it here http://sam.nipl.net/brace/ It is a work in progress, I am rewriting the translator in brace at the moment, and have plenty ideas for improving the language and libraries once that task is finished.
lol somehow i’m not very surprised with these pictures. Could have been taken earlier.
true
All this is rather unfortunate because I very much agree to wait longer for quality product but I regret being taken for a fool.
Everyone sees what I mean by this…
Now I am quite attracted by a machine that would fill 3 / 4 of the Pandora features right now for the same price.
It is probable that a great brand release this gadget by 2010.
The release promises are not kept so how being confident on the future of Pandora?
What is the machine your thinking of? is the 4th missing feature the gaming controls?
A few people here expressing an interest in another gadget that’ll fulfil their dreams for the Pandora that they can have right now.
I’m after an open source, pocket sized gaming device with proper gaming controls and a keyboard.
Obviously I have to be patient because this thing just ticks all the boxes for me. Just interested to know what other people’s goals are for the Pandora, if not this?
I will enjoy playing games, but mainly I want Pandora because she is a powerful ARM Linux pocket computer, suitable for coding and general computing tasks. I love the ultra-portability, and I will enjoy being able to work all day outside. I previously enjoyed my iPAQ with ARM Linux, I don’t have that now. For example I had the entire gutenberg ebook collection on it, so I can read anything at any time wherever I might be.
I suppose the Pandora will be everything the iPAQ was and a lot more. The built in, well-designed keyboard is a great advantage. We’ll see how the ergonomics works out, but I know the Pandora will be more than powerful enough for any of my normal computing tasks.
I’ll admit, that is one of the main draws and why I haven’t given up hope that I’ll one day be able to get one of these things. I don’t think that the keyboard will be very comfortable to use but I could be wrong. Hopefully, they’ll put a smaller cellphone style keyboard on a revision or on Pandora2 (Squared) that is more condusive to thumb typing. I’d live with it until then, though.
I like the look of the keyboard, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to type well if I’m holding it, but if I put it on a table or something, I’m sure it will be ok, it’s only QWERTYUIOP-and-a-little-bit wide, the keys are bigger than you’d expect for such a small device. The gap between them will be good for typing too I think…
one little question, which I think I’ve seen answered before but I forget and can’t find it, does the “TV out” I ordered with my Pandora include a way to connect it to a normal monitor? Or is there some other add-on I can get for this? I will often want to use Pandora with a monitor or projector.
If I understand correctly the pandora has a hdmi-out. Hdmi is compatible with DVI, and that should connect to your monitor. I guess it won’t support VGA because thats analog… ?
Sorry to say there is no HDMI out. There are composite and s-video plugs on the AV cable, that’s it. Detailed here:
http://pandorapress.net/2009/04/26/tv-out-cable-detailed/
Is this what the final case is going to look like? I hope not…kinda looks bad based on all the hype and delays.
Jason
I believe that’s a prototype case. Final ones will be smooth and shiny.
Please, please, for the love of god, keep the buttons DS-style!
Anything else just looks so weird T_T