Case Update
December 10, 2009Update (to the update?):
The boards will be done before Christmas, there is no delay there.
At least the Chinese don’t have christmas in the way of their work.
They are already working on fixing the issues. We expect an update on Saturday.
No, it’s not a green light. MWeston has found a few issues with the cases that need to be solved before mass production can begin.
To quote craigix:
The lower part has a tiny bit of shrinkage on the back edge, but we already knew about that and it has been fixed at the factory already.
The LCD cable slot is TIGHT, it needs to be more open to make assembly faster (although it does work in the current form but is fiddly to get though).
The shoulder buttons need a tweak to be perfect (travel distance feels as if it needs to be a fraction more for better feedback).
Plus some shaving here and there internally which the factory told us to expect to be needed.
Apart from the shoulder buttons these issues are on one piece, the lower base.
We are waiting to hear from the factory about how long this will take to fix. We are hoping we can get a batch from them around the 17th.
It looks like the christmass window is closed 
.
was expected. im glad theyre doing everything right the first time, have no problem with that
So, are all you people ready to cancel your orders? Let’s do it all at once, I say: Let’s do it on Christmas Eve!
I’m tempted
We have come this far, come on. Just a bit further.
I think I can wait not only a bit but a nibble, but I hope that in a short window (2 month (TM)) they send me the final product, since they have my money since a year now
Go ahead and cancel. I’ll happily pick up your pre-order slot.
Go for it, it moves me that much further ahead in the queue.
Exactly what I was thinking.
can you say:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Yes, I can.
I would put money down on these things not shipping in January either. They just skip so many steps when talking about it being ready to ship. There has to be at least two more rounds of sample cases and fixes don’t there? Have to get change requests back to mould company… mould company actually has to respond, make the changes, send the moulds out, wait for the green light (if there are still problems – repeat).. then they need to do silk screening.. i assume need to ship samples of that.. again wait for a green light – with the possibility of there being problems and the process of changing/producing/shipping/greenlighting repeating.. then ship those… then it will take time to actually assemble the pandoras.
Two more months.
Yes. Exactly this. The plan is always this :
1) Finish what we’re working on Right Now. – 2 Weeks
2) Everything else – Easy! No time at all.
3) Manufacture and ship. – 6 Weeks.
Total : Two months!
How much? Honestly.
BOOOO, but YAY still because it’s so close and it will be right.
Bah! Humbug!
Where does the silkscreening fit into all of this?
Same place as power cords and anything else that they’re just chunking up to being ‘trivial’ and yet will still all add up to another month of delays while they get taken care of.
I think if they were really expecting to ship any quantities ‘soon’ they’d have the TV cables, AC adaptors and Carry cases to parade before us first. Then the mythical manual, the keymats… etc.
It’s funny how 1000 units has quietly segued into ‘the 103′. It’s pretty clear that another months suspended animation is in order.
It’s fine. It would have completely lowered the impact of Christmas presents anyway.
Yep that’s right, besides it’s always better to have it perfect and later rather than buggy and sooner…
PISSED
Great that they’re taking their time and making sure the pandora is perfect before mass production.
Can’t wait to get it but definitely don’t want it falling to bits when I do
So production for the PCBs continues as planned though, right? So maybe they can have all 4000 ready and waiting?
They had .. what.. 3 extra months to get the PCBs done while waiting on the cases up til this point and didn’t get them done — I don’t see any reason why they will do them now. That’s another thing that falls in the ‘trivial’ category apparently and so they can just put it off until the ‘major’ things like the cases are done.
Cancel your order or eat shit.
Yummy!
Maybe we should all donate a bit of cash to fly MWeston out to china then we wouldn’t need to wait for shipping each time and the case could be sorted in a couple of days
Make sure we buy him a baseball bat too. That way they’ll know he’s serious
He should also bring the Corleones to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Pandora IKEA Style, heres the manual how to assemble. Put piece a->b glue.. Use ducktape on the C->Z and pound it with a hammer.
>_<
I think a lot of people wouldn’t mind a DIY pandora.
If it was anything like the chair I sit on now, GIMMIE GIMMIE.
Maybe we should all donate a bit of cash to fly MWeston out to china then we don’t have to wait for cases to be shipped back and forth and the changes can be sorted in a couple of days
Sounds great! Where do I donate?
I believe Mali’s set up an account
I am honestly surprised that it has been delayed yet again
Old habits die hard.
So am I, Mr. Sarcasm, so am I. * wink wink *
Lol anymore sarcasians?
Damn. Obviously wouldn’t want this rushed. I do now think that the factory is a bit unprofessional, not merely for these mistakes but for the lengthy delays before as well.
Well done to MWeston for wanting everything to be perfect.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m a buyer for a manufacturing company and I work with several injection molders. Every time I have a new tool made we go through numerous iterations and adjustments to get a quality part. Injection molding is a complicated process with a TON of variables (plastic temperature, mold temperature, shot size, holding pressure, cycle time to name a few). Expecting perfect parts on the first samples is ridiculous. If they’re having an issue with sink they may need to reduce the section thickness which isn’t simple. And they made the mistake of looking at the up front savings from China without realizing how difficult it is to have anything made overseas. I don’t buy injection molded parts from China because quality control is sketchy, communication is difficult, lengthy Chinese holidays, freight takes a month to get here on a boat and air freight is crazy expensive.
This whole thing boils down to a group of inexperienced people that are in way over their heads. They keep putting off these supposedly trivial things with the expectation that everything will go as planned. That never happens when you’re creating a new and complicated product with a large bill of materials. I’ll be shocked if they ship anything before March. The idea that people would have Pandoras by Christmas was absurd.
Jake
Are you able to provide a pointer to the names of some injection moulding companies you use who you believe provide a better value for money proposition than the Chinese company?
I know it’s a bit late in the day, but obviously it helps if the ‘inexperienced people that are are in way over their heads’ are given all the help they can get from people with relevant experience.
Mind you, one thing the team isn’t inexperienced in is the issues that keep getting thrown up, so raising expectations about delivery, knowing that there will still bits of the case to be signed off, was out of order.
I could provide names of companies I use, but the main reason I use them is because they’re local. I have 2 molders within a 30 minute drive. If we have a problem I can have someone in my office the same day to review it.
There are dozens of quality injection molding companies all over the country. If they talked to the 3 closest molders and got competing quotes they would have done okay. I’m sure the Chinese mold was a fair bit less as were the parts. What they didn’t factor in was the cost of lost orders due to the inevitable delays from having parts made in China.
The next question I have is why aren’t the keymats made? Run them now so if they have a problem (and they probably will), they can get it fixed while they’re still working on getting the cases perfect. If they want to ever get this thing done they need to learn how to multi-task better.
The DIY Pandora is not such a bad idea. It would leave room to case-modders.
As much as I also hate the further delay, do you guys want imperfect Pandoras? I don’t.
I personally wouldn’t mind getting my Pandora as it is now. I don’t really need the silk screening and prefer it low profile. I know it’s important to the guys to get it right for everyone but I’ll probably take it all apart and mod it somehow anyway so it doesn’t make so much difference to me.
Think I could pay double postage, one for the board and one for my case later
I believe part of the timing issues are Chinese holidays.
Oh yes, don’t forget that Chinese New Year (TM) is waiting to tag in as soon as the Christmas stuff runs out…
Chinese new year isn’t till the 14th of February
That’s about ‘Two Months’ from now.
Woah….i didn’t see this coming…..
You know, as much as this sucks, I’m glad the dev team is taking the time to get these issues squared away. We’ve placed alot of hopes and expectations on them getting this thing out before xmas, and the easy route would be to just give it a thumbs up and start building them as is. But like their rabid fanbase, Craig and Co. want this thing as near perfect as possible, and ultimately it will be worth a few more weeks to get it there. Hell, most of us have been waiting more than a year anyway. Whats a few more days really?
>> Whats a few more days really?
If I only had a nickel for every time I heard that.
Yeah, but we’ve placed alot of hopes and expectations on them getting this thing out before xmas 2008!!!!
I’ve got a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Glad Craigix & co are taking the time to make the design as solid as possible and not being pressurised by the ‘gimme gimme’ crew
amen to that
Looks like Feb 29th, 2010 is now a real reality as a ship date. Pandora’s two month plan is like the Soviet style 5 year production plan….
You forgot to include Chinese New Year celebrations into your calculations…
Dang.
I do want it to be perfect when I get it though, so I guess two more months will have to do.
Dissapointed? Yes. Angry? Nope.
A little disappointed (not on the devs, just to lady Luck), but this could happen and we all knew it. Christmas Pandora was only in the best of my dreams (although not MY Pandora, since I think I am quite far behind in the orders).
Let’s hope that the second run of cases does not need a further adjustment.
Oh, by the way, I think it is great that a completely open source project, with no real company behind it (although many of the devs are professionals) is trying to get things done as cleanly as possible and not have that kind-of-half-done look typical of DYI projects.
The GP2X had quite a few weaknesses as well, but look at how positively it was received! I’d rather have another poorly finished system with lots of time for software to be developed again. The way it looks now, the developers will all have died before the first Pandoras are even shipped to them.
sigh sigh sigh.
On the bright side, my personal game project should be much farther along when the Pandora IS released…
– It looks like the christmas window is closed –
Come on people, who *seriously* believed this was going to be done by Christmas? Seriously?
Once they got OVER a YEAR past their (first) deadline, sensible people need to start thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, deadlines are meaningless to these guys.
And people wonder why the credit card companies had an issue with them…
Yes, I have paid & have one on order. No, I’m not giving it up. If you have problems with my attitude – name me one company you paid $400+ (what it cost me locally) who still hasn’t delivered after a year that you keep praising.
The technology is going to pass this device by before it even gets out the door! This is getting ridiculous!
Well, we did see 5 imperfectly finished but complete pandoras before Christmas at least
lol at least i have something to look out for in xmas:
Sapphire HD5970 OC edition
*stroke*
Well I’m just hoping I can get a preorder in before Christmas
You know, it seems to me that all (okay, most) of the delays are caused by them not understanding fully how long it takes for each step. They underestimate everything. Personally I chose to believe that they are given a fake date by the production companies (to try and get them as customers). The alternative is, of course, that they actually know the correct dates and simply tell us otherwise (unlikely, but possible). Perhaps to ensure (with all the delays) that only their die-hard fans end up following them.
So all I ask of the OP team is that one of them go on the forums, make a second account as a hidden member of the community and ask an expert in whatever production step is coming up how long they should expect it to really take.
Seriously, I believe that this could truly prevent most delays- by them setting the dates for them correctly!
Personally I chose to believe that they are still giving fake dates to the preorderers to try and keep them from withdrawing all their money.
TBH at this stage they probably don’t care if we do, they can probably shift any unsold units in a short space of time and will still have had the benefit of an interest free loan from us for the best part of a year.
Keeping going, team!! I appreciate all the care and effort taken to make things right the first time. In a matter of weeks my Xbox died, the PSU in the computer bit the dust, our microwave is on it’s last leg, and the plasma television turns on by itself every night at 10:28 (no, it’s not the timer). If someone’s taking the time upfront to build it right the first time, I’m all for it. I’m tired of testing things out for the big guys.
Well, I’ve waited this long, what’s a few more weeks/months gonna matter. I just hope once the cases are ready we wont see a problem with making the keypads or the tv-out cables since they wont be started till the case mould is finished.
My late January is now early March and it’s bad
Anyway I will wait.
But as soon as something more interesting than Pandora get out (and it was so close this year, so obvious in 2010) I will change my mind.
I hope the software part in a few months will be more promising with more than 100 devoted developers.
So hard for the Pandora Team, even harder for us waiting since more than 2 years…
there is not going to be “something better” than the Pandora unless it is developed by a similar open-source-minded team and community. That is not going to happen in a short time. Even if there is some other little box that runs faster, it won’t eclipse the Pandora because it won’t have such a development model, team and expectant community like this little computer does.
It makes you think. If they’re so bad at judging the time it’ll ship, how good was their judgement at making the pandora?
If they’re lying just to try to keep us patient, then that just sucks, I’d rather receive honesty. Just tell us an accurate date, like say end of january or early february.
I think I am a good programmer but I am hopeless at estimating how long something is going to take, unless I’ve done it before. These guys haven’t done it before and they’re doing a fantastic job. Admittedly I’ve only been waiting a few months not year/s!
I wish everyone would stop crying, everyone should be used to this by now.
They are making sure they are getting it right.
Glad they are not listening to the wingers.
^ This.
As much as I want mine Right. This. Instant., I applaud MWeston for taking the time to do it right, and it says a lot that he would knowingly make an unpopular decision to make the end product that much better.
I say this after having gotten several misdesigned devices from The Big Three (Disc Read Error, anyone?), and I like that a really tiny company is taking time to do it right where the mighty giants couldn’t be bother to.
Besides, the delay gives me more time to learn SDL GL
How much of this delay is careful planning or just plain lack of foresight?
Waiting for a Pandora is not a worry for me … what I am concerned about is that when it finally ships, the indie community will have moved on to other things, essentially killing it on arrival.
For the Pandora to survive, it needs community.
I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Pandora isn’t a device hoping for a community, it’s a device built by a very well established one. And there are lots of indie devs waiting to get their hands on it.
>> Pandora isn’t a device hoping for a community
… it’s a community hoping for a device
This.
Im really glad that the issues are just on one part and the other parts are done (YEAH) to bad there needs to be some fixing. But Ill stay happy if they post enough pics and vids
So… the status quo has been restored.
Wow, I cannot believe this. How many rounds of tweaking needs to be done before it is ready? It feels like they didn’t plan for this stuff. Two years in the making and we can’t get it off because every time they get a new case they realize they missed something.
*sigh*
I want to be patient, but this kind of stuff makes me frustrated. Not only that, but it makes me wonder if the device I get really will be without bugs that show themselves and hurt my use of it within a year of ownership.
My confidence is lowered. My patience is lowered. My respect is not quite as damaged, because I understand they’ve done a lot with such little prior experience. Still, as a consumer, I’m seriously taking stock and wondering whether or not a refund + a new Android-based OMAP3 device is in order.
Likely not yet, but I inch closer every delay. :/
Ugh, my grammar is horrendous. Spare me, please, grammar nazis.
March 2010