The sky is not falling.
February 7, 2010
[EDITORIAL]
It’s been a fun weekend, hasn’t it? Ok, perhaps showing us case samples on a Friday, giving us a whole weekend to wait for answers from the factory, didn’t work out all that well. But information has surfaced in the last two days that gives us cause not to freak out. To fully understand what happened here, you need to fully understand injection moulding – which most of us don’t. That means it’s time for a ludicrous cake analogy. The chef has been asked to do some quick tasters. He knows the recipe, and he’s got a totally sweet oven. But in his rush to please us, the cupcakes came out a little sloppy. And although we asked for icing, he didn’t want to mix up a metric ton of the stuff for a handful of cakes.
Injection moulding facilities are designed to pump out units in the thousands. It’s not cost effective, in fact it’s borderline impossible, to provide a showroom quality batch of seven units. The production line needs time to warm up. Settings need to be bumped on the fly. In a run of 10,000, the first handful are likely to be sub-par. Why then, were we shown panic-inducing photos of half-baked samples? Because we demand to see them, for better or worse. It’s the nature of this project, and it’s not always a picnic. What we need to understand (and we’re all learning this together) is that sample cases are not necessarily representative of what a large scale run will produce. This is why most companies don’t share such information.
Onward to some forum quotes, starting with some expert testimony from Madcad77.
From what I have seen of these new mouldings, your moulding company needs to run a small batch to validate thier parameters, things like mould temperature, injection pressures, cycle times etc.
These coupled with venting added in the correct positions (tiny modifications 1- 2 days max) will sort out your sinkages, short fills etc.
The greasy finish you mention is most probably due to excessive release agent used when running the mould for the first time (reduces the risk of the moulding sticking in the tool).
I have been designing plastic components for over 10 years now, and alot of your issues with Chinese moulding companies are well known, regardless which company you chose over there, they just work diferently to us.
I am very optimistic though, when these parts are run to the correct production processes, perhaps with extra venting, your cosmetic issues will be resolved.
(Madcad77)
I tend to agree with you here since there has to be a reason for the way things are. I’m still up assembling units as I’ve made some promises for the week and I am noticing that several of the parts feel like they are almost dripping with grease (release agent). I even started wiping a few off. These came right out of the mold and into the shipping box.
(MWeston)
Further reading: This recent post from EvilDragon, and a rather good post on Screeny’s German blog which contains some direct communication from MWeston (note: you’ll need to use the Translate button).
Let’s just be patient, and let the team get more answers before we make any assumptions about where we are at.
atomicthumbs
BackAssward
Butterman
gruso
tom
What's this?
ALL ABOARD THE $400 ROLLERCOASTER…. Whooo this is mental
Innit! It’s a ride we’ll never forget, that’s for sure.
Excellent explanation on the current situation, Gruso…Remind me to buy you a beer if I ever make my way down under!
Sorry, I got off a year ago. Still fun to watch though.
>you’ll need to use the Translate button
I don’t think so.
I hope it won’t leave a scar on the pandora towards the press
Yay a voice of sanity… was getting worried from the last posts that people were ready to self destruct.
Just two more months folks
If the case is mechanically sound and the finish will be production quality from a production sized run, GO GO GO!!!
Oh, looks like I missed something. Looks like it was a good thing, too. Guess my obliviousness came in handy for once!
We should also remember that the same company is making the keymats, which they’ve done a very nice job with.
I knew it would pay off to hear from knowledgeable folks before filling up the forums with threads and posts! Glad everyone else felt likewise. :b
OK, this is “possibly” good news, but where is the definitive answer. The best is MWeston claiming that Madcad77’s explanation “has to be it” because he cannot think of another reason for them ballsing it up so bad.
That is not a definite “this is what happened and why”, but a “this may be what happened”.
Post when you have some real information because we’ve seen what happens with hypothesis and extrapolation here before…
Yes sir.
I’m not trying to be a pain – I want my Pandora as much as the next guy in the queue. But the above post is “wishful thinking”. It might be “informed wishful thinking”, but this isn’t the answer as obtained from China – it is speculation on what might be the answer from China… one of the better answers.
Have a look at the previous thread for what happens when people get disappointed, this is leading up to such a let down should the answer from China be anything but positive.
shiiiiip
So, does this mean that MP of the cases will be starting? We have a green light, or another revision case?
It means we are waiting for a call to the case company to either confirm the above is true, or if something is actually messed up.
We were already informed on this blog previously that it’s not possible to apply the final finish to a small run like the samples. So why are people now surprised that the samples are not “finished”?
The only cause for concern with the latest samples is this: “On this revision, the recessed spots for the clips to sit in got completely evacuated and there are holes right through the case. They didn’t do this on rev2.”. If OP points out this fault emphatically to the case manufacturing company, and says it must be fixed, I see no reason for another test revision.
The other problems are cosmetic details due to rushing to make the serious changes. These things will be good in the final cases.
This blog community is becoming the biggest body of whingers and panic-merchants on the planet! I hope it gets better after the device is released. I think all the impatient people should concentrate on trying to make something really good themselves while waiting. For example, if you’re not a coder but you’d like to help design a game, maybe I’ll help you write it!
Or maybe the postman sat on the sample cases, there’s just no way the finished cases would look like that, so no need to worry about it excessively.
I say, GO GO GO!
Yes, except the company in China supposedly told us that they’d apply the finish to this batch, so we could see what it would be like. They also said they’d put on the silkscreening, which they didn’t do, either. Even worse, it sounds like there might have been problems with the place for the LCD ribbon, and the large crack (probably unrelated). Doesn’t sound like the “perfect” that the IM company said they were…
A coding competition is being announced here today.
It’s already up on http://www.openxile.co.uk
I love it. The Pandora Angst Contest! Definitely a fun little something to work on while waiting, for those who can code at least.
We got close to double our usual amount of traffic after you linked us here. How depressing… :p
[QUOTE]This blog community is becoming the biggest body of whingers and panic-merchants on the planet! [/QUOTE]
Oh yeah, because everyone should be used to paying for a product and then waiting 2 YEARS for it to be delivered! Happens all the time, doesn’t it!?! Bloody whingers!!!
Pandora: shipping in March 2012.
Folks, I’ve marked the article as “editorial”, which it effectively is. I’m not suggesting that the light is green or red, I’m just pointing out that all of us are looking at this with untrained eyes. When we have veterans of the field giving us insight into the moulding process, we should listen to what they say and wait for the outcome before we panic. It’s too late not to panic I guess
Like I said, let’s just wait for the next piece of news before jumping any guns.
Giving yourself a gold star again, Gruso? Tut tut.
It’s just there to indicate important information, not how wonderful I am.
That netbook gets more and more tempting every day…do not fail me, Pandora, for I am quick to take my business elsewhere.
Dont forget to make extra big pockets in your coats and jackets to carry that game controller around wherever you go.
Completely off topic but… The Saints are the Superbowl Champions!!! Wooo!!!
Are you lost? Try retracing your steps back to where you came from…PLEASE.
Naw, just tying to say something to keep my mind off the Pandora.
This whole Pandora thing is o so very stressing.
wooooo saints ftw
lighten up everyone the world does not revolve around Pandora
Are you sure?
Now I gonna cry…
gruso, good stuff as always. Let’s see what are the responses from the Chinese company in regards to these “defects”.
Wasn’t we waiting for this run over a month ago. It still seems a long time for such little progress.
I think we were spoilt last time with the silk screening and this run just looks poor.
Bit of a gamble then. We can’t see the final results until the mass production run is run. So that leaves MW to be happy with the design. One little assumption I’m not happy with…
“The LCD cable slot took a step backwards with a bit of unevenness but since it was right last time, we can assume that more carefully made production parts will be back to normal.”
… I hope this is just part of the rough finish.
Oh the tension! May be we need a bigger test run…say a 1000 or so.
Let’s just hope these do not take a month to produce.
Excellent and necessary post, Gruso. The forum meltdown was getting out of hand (though it’s completely understandable why it happened). Your voice of reason is very much appreciated in these doubtful times. (Gee, that sounded a lot more pathetic than I intended)
What a lovely picture.
This is great