Photo: First boards attend graduation ceremony
November 17, 2009
Pictured here are the remainder of the first 105, following the successful completion of stress testing. MWeston:
103 out of 105 passed. The other two may come up after another reflow but sometimes they are just dead and get tossed aside. This whole time has been spent working on the ones that have been functional and building the test jig with pins that probe the PCB. We’ve also been focusing efforts on adding more features to the software so that an automated application can be run on top of the OS to check all of the hardware functionality with as little human interaction as possible.
A result so good, that:
It’s very likely we are just doing them all next. The smaller runs *might* not be needed now. (craigix)
[Update] Light pipes!
From MWeston’s Photobucket description:
Light pipe test
Red is a bit bright, but the rest are a nice glow. I still would like the plastics company to consider adding a haze to the top surface to diffuse the light a bit and that was always the plan. Test parts get no surface treatment at all. They are raw parts ejected from the molds and shipped to me
Finally…
Agreed
What if all those people who voted a few weeks ago “If I don’t get it by Christmas, I will cancel my order!” really cancelled their orders now? Where would OP team take the money from to pay back these hundreds of people, now that many of the big steps have already been payed for? Could they just claim insolvency and go back to their day jobs?
Btw, does anyone know when the real CE-tests are going to be? i know they want to start mass production before getting the official okay, but I’m still interested.
One day there is a rumour about 2010, the next day absolutely amazing things happen. Marketing anyone?
Gee whiz! I can’t wait to play with my Pandora® brand video game systems console! It’s got all the features I want for the best price on the market!
Or Gee WIZ!! Meh, I’ll be happy if I can play starfox. Starfox is the shit afterall. Oh and Frontmission Gun Hazard. How bout all the Starfox games and then Frontmission Gun Hazard.
Not that amazing. We’re just seeing photographs of boards that have existed for a long time.
Nothing here to indicate that the timetable is being accelerated.
so there they are. some of the 105 prototype boards made by a completely different facility then the rest of them for the rest of us. Now add that those are for press/devs and the rest of the (prototype!) plastic parts is still MIA, and CE/FCC testing isnt passed yet. If Santa’s little elves don’t assemble the Pandora it’ll be 2010. if ever.
Err, those are made by exactly the same facility who have the other 4000 boards.
well thats a pleasant suprise to say the least. one of few.
That picture is epic win!
That’s a really nice amount of boards getting through the stress testing phase!
“That’s a really nice amount of the Pandora team getting through the stress testing phase!”
FTFY
Also, new pic of the light pipe- http://i49.tinypic.com/5bv420.jpg
[Nicely spotted. I've quickly rehosted it to save MW's bandwidth. I'll add it to the article shortly. -Gruso]
well, *thats* a pleasant suprise to say the least.
Nice find, ta
Awesome. Don’t take much notice of the negativity Craigix: it’s a significant step you’ve reached and we should all be pleased to be updated with the progress – I know I am.
thats wasnt ironic. the light pipes really look good. also a nice font
I think I just cried white stuff inside my pants.
Joygasm
“We’ve also been focusing efforts on adding more features to the software”
I don’t want to be too sarcastic but I would be more productive if you had send them away and it was 100 developers working on them…
Software isn’t really a holdup. It might be, though, if they had to coordinate an extra 100 devs in the final stages.
No, this is the software for the testing harness. I’m guessing it’s harder to work on that in a coordinated effort when no one else has any boards to test.
So, I’m a bit confused. Are these the initial 105 trial boards, of which we’d previously been told that all had passed testing, with no failures (and now they’re saying 2 died?!)?
Or are these the next 105, of the first “final production run” batches, which have been much more lightly tested, and 98.9% passed?
I can only assume like everyone else but last news I heard the PCBs _shall_ be done by end of Nov. which of course doesnt mean they are in the facility by then or being assembled. so these are most likely the 105 prototypes. not the “first batch of the frist batch”
This is the 105. We’d heard the testing was going well (“the 105 boards were pretty sturdy, we didn’t encounter a single problem yet..”) but stress testing has still been marked “in progress” on the roadmap.
A failure rate of less than 2% is outstanding. Lower failure rate = faster production for the rest of them.
OK. So while that’s very nice, as is the failure rate, I certainly had a different impression of the status. I’d definitely heard that a (small) batch of final-run boards had been started, but I’d thought they weren’t going to begin that until the burn-in tests had begun. If it takes a while to make/assemble the boards, why start that before you know the failure rate from the burn-in tests?
Also, what’s so amazing about this photo, then? It’s a rack of boards that’s been around for quite some time (busy with testing) instead of a set of *new* boards like your post had initially led me to believe (I see some of the text has changed, thanks for the clarifications).
Marketing. It was time for a positive happy-inducing post to cheer up everyone fed up with the delays, and provide bait to keep us from deciding to get out of the queue.
Happy happy joy joy. Now I’m really excited, just a bit closer, nearly there. Those pics look marvelous, brilliant work guys
A success rate of 98% is fantastic news. Hopefully the rest of the assembly process goes smoothly. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.
Well, technically it’s a bit over 98%, but still. When you start having only 1 or 2 boards fail it’s hard to get too much lower without making a much bigger set of boards.
“Hold lid” button in the pic showing light pipes. That must mean there is something recognizing if the lid is shut or open, right?
Yea, there’s a magnetic switch. It senses the magnet from one from one of the speakers folding down over the keyboard. (You can trigger it with a fridge magnet as well, there’s a video of this somewhere.)
Boards full of populated goodness!
Well that picture is probably what I was waiting.
Very encouraging news !
By the way, is that each pandora will be thoroughly tested before being sent?
Common China, Texas, UK !
I want my Pandora for Christmas
This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, period.
I want to see the rest
Wait, is that someone wearing socks & sandals in the background?
It could be an anti-static ankle strap.
I think this is amazing: only 2 boards failing out of 105 is great design and build! And finally the test is over (I mean, seriously, how long did it take?!).
At the time of writing I read, on the status page, that only one case mould is missing. Case mass production is becoming nearer!
So is Christmas… Uhm… It’s a race against time.
Go, go, Pandora!
“TI set up a unique testing environment, especially for the Pandora boards. With a special firmware, every hardware piece of the Pandora can be checked with as little human interaction as possible.”
-Evil dragon
I wouldn’t worry about hardware failure at this point if we’re that confident.
ITS HAPPENING PEOPLE!!! FINALLY!!! *\O/*
Fantastic news !!!
Congratulations to the OP team for so much hard work and not getting disheartened by the small group of clueless commentards who don’t realise what it has taken to get the Pandora from an idea to this stage in production.
Delays were inevitable given the number of processes that go into making such a device and the fact that this has been a learning curve for most of the OP team.
Anyone who reads the developer forums can see there is a massive buzz from some really smart devs and a ton of great software, emulators, and some cool original games waiting in the wings.
Kudos!
Can I have P460904 please?