Production status
June 30, 2010
It’s a quiet week on the assembly front, with Craig now waiting for another lot of boards to arrive from Texas. EvilDragon answers some forum queries below.
Just a short summary so far:
About 650 – 700 should’ve been shipped (alltogether) – or will be shipped these days (as I’m shipping some more today).
There were a couple of things that slowed things down in the beginning:
* Lots of failed LCD Cables in the beginning after we assembled the lid. As we had all 4000 cables here, it didn’t prevent us to build the units… but it took a lot more time. As we now know what the problem was, this will be no slowdown anymore (last 200 lids we built only had one failed LCD cable )
* Quite a few boards from the first few hundred units failed and had to go back for repairment to Texas. The quota for the last 200 was WAY better (only a couple ones broken), so the company is working on it. As testing these boards and having quite a few failures was time consuming… yeah, another one of those issues solved.* The case was fine, but the L/R Buttons were painted, so they didn’t fit. We needed to manually drill and file them to make them work (you can’t drill exactly in the center, so you need to manually file and test them…) This was REALLY time consuming – took up to 1 – 8 minutes (varying) per unit! As the next 3000 buttons will not be painted, this issue is also solved.
* As you could see on the “one-nub”-Thread, a lot of nubs had problems. We shipped them back to the company that produced them and they found the problem (it was a tolerance problem). As it was their fault, they apologized a dozen times and are now testing each one of them and repair the broken ones for free. Since most nubs are fine and only a few need to be fixed, this should work out pretty fast. Another issue solved.
Two persons could build 50 units a day – even with doing all these manual labour and quality check.
But until we figured out what went wrong, this took a lot of testing and time.As all these issues are solved, production should go way faster in the future.
There are a couple hundred boards already produced, just waiting for the nubs to be soldered to them (which doesn’t take long).
There are about 250 cases left to build the units – the next 3000 are either in production or already finished.
So once the first batch of checked nubs arrive at the company in Texas (hopefully, this week), production should start and continue way faster.Welcome to a first run – where lots of problems can occur. Thankfully, none of them were serious and all of them have already been taken care of.
(EvilDragon)
In a related development, the fellow looking after the production progress website has had to pull the plug for personal reasons, and is looking to hand over control to someone who can carry on producing those snappy little graphics. Keen? Send an email to pandoraproduction@yahoo.com
Nice picture. Glad to see production has shifted to such a spacious, sterile, dystopian environment! Those assembly drones will churn units out quicksmart.
I ordered at day 1 on ED’s shop. How can it be mine is still undelivered
Not complaining with the service or anything, I’m just saaaaaad and in a hurryyyy
Yeah, I have the same problem… order was in 2:45pm their time day one.
“Your queue position is approximately 400 – 500 and definitely in the first batch release and should be shipped soon. – Jacquelyn”
I got that email on 6/8. I thought for fucking sure I would have my Pandora for this year trip to Vegas. So fucking bored with this shit.
Thank you rutto!
I decide to cancel my preorder.
More people ordered on the first day than the number of Pandoras built so far. Time of order don’t seem to come into it. I think more effort has gone into making Pandoras than managing the queue. Your place in the queue is still better(earlier) than mine.
How we will all laugh about this in 2months time. :p
I am in the 550-650 range I was told on June 2 that it would be shipped within in the next 7 days…
Likewise.
I’m about 10 units away from receiving mine, and yet I have to wait at least 2 more weeks.
Meh.
I hate all this farging confusion. If we still have people who are 400 – 500 in the queue how can they claim to have shipped 650 plus?
Personally I’m 650 – 750 so by this reckoning I wont get it till christmas.
Frustration city!
Same.
It’s unintentional miscommunication/misunderstanding for most of the part – over 650 have shipped, but around a quarter of that (or maybe even a third) will go to Evil Dragon’s shop in Germany, some to Fathi’s shop, some are review units and some never make it out through being broken.
So basically, half that number and you’ll get an idea of where Craig’s shop is in terms of delivery (around 325 to 350). I assume you ordered from Craig’s shop, so it’s just a case of always taking that number shipped, splitting it in two and add another 4 weeks on top for sanity’s sake. Even Gruso hasn’t got his yet, and he’s way ahead of me in-line, so that 4 week sanity addition really is for your own peace of mind
I’m in a similar situation placement to Nightwish – I’m barely 50 or so units off getting mine, but until production kicks in again I’m a few weeks off. So close, and yet…
Why are there no timescales or deadlines ever set? At my work I’m always asked when will it be done etc.. Seems in the Pandora’s case it’s ‘In your own time lads’
There is a timeline and a deadline, well it is overdue for 18 months (i.e. all units supposed to be delivered by somewhen in December 2008)
Because predictions are hard when you’re making something for the first time.
Yeah, I’m fed up as well…fed up of you kids moaning all the time! How can you cancel soooo close to getting it. Freaks.
And I’m fed up of your moaning about their moaning.
As long as I’m bumped up the queue and someone else buys the Pandora the other end all is well.
Seriously guys! Stick with it now!
Heh it’ll probably take him two or more months to get his refund. No matter how you slice it, you’re not going to get anything out of these guys in a timely manner.
It’s good to get an update, but some people might prefer to hear some of this info individually via twitter / posted to the site as it happened, rather than having silence for a long time and then getting the info batched together.
Yay! A progress post – I like these
Now lets hope these reports of fixed up processes result in more happy customers (and less whining in these comments sections
sorry to keep wining.. but is this not exactly the same information we got last time off ED?
Seems rather familiar.
I just want to hear that the next 3000 cases have shipped. Then I’d be happy.
“Just in case you were wondering your approximate queue position is 300 – 400. Many thanks for your continued support it is really appreciated.”
A work colleague already has his weeks ago (He was in the 150-250 range), but after seeing the slight warping on the front at the base of the LCD, I’m glad to be waiting longer for mine.
Go cases go!
/sitting around 1600-1700
i feel you bro, straight 1500-2000 order style here
Tip for you, nobody else cares where in the queue you are.
Feel the love! I bet kaprikawn is jealous because he’s 3900 in the queue and won’t get his pandora until 2012 — just in time for the end of the world!
I kinda do.
On the contrary, hearing which batch ranges still haven’t received their, especially those who are close to the stated number of shipped units, helps us understand the context better.
Surely it’s better to know where in the queue people were who have received their unit to give you a better idea of how far down the list they are, non?
cmon i cant hold up much longer with my dingoo… i need a qwerty keyboard to play larry without dpad hustle
I am number 3004 so I am told – so I figure another 2 months
Craigix has said October for the last of the 4000… So you are probably 3000 in Craigs list but who the hell knows where you are in the over all list…
So buckle up son, 4 months is the new 2 months.
“Two persons could build 50 units a day”
If they had parts to do the job…
But as the Texas company will be shipping 400 units/month(well it supposed to be 250/week in February; and the average is ~30 p/w counting form when the board was finalized till now)
I wish I am terribly wrong with this data: but without any real info from Pandora team this is as valid as any.
And nice post ED which explains how F****D was our Perfect Pandora when it was first shipped – with a conclusion that at least from now the production team knows how to put those units together. (“As all these issues are solved, production should go way faster in the future.” faster than 50 /day?)
And finally “the next 3000 (cases) are either in production or already finished.”
Well this kind of sentence could be said like “the next 3300 customers either is dead or alive”… or “In the next 100years we either ship your unit or we don’t”…
How long does it take for the completed boards to get from Texas to the UK though? (including getting through customs). I’m being sent off to the Netherland in 2 weeks for a few days through work, have a terrible feeling already that my Pandora would arrive when I’m out of the country!! (yes, that would be my luck entirely)