Hotfix number 4 is live. It’s the usual swag of tweaks large and small, notable inclusions being improved wifi stability and bluetooth connectivity. Full details and download on the official support page (scroll down for the hotfix).

And a bit of news too for those still in the queue:

Just a quick message we got from the Nub company: The new nubs that have been produced and tested last week were already more stable than the ones we had before.
They are doing a bit more tweaking and have new prototypes ready within the next few days that will be tested anew.

We’re getting there. If all goes well, Mass Production for the new nubs can probably start at the beginning of next week

(EvilDragon)

A promising development from the US of A.

Michael had a looong conference call with the board production company today to discuss about how to proceed and speed up production.

Here is a short summary of the results of the discussion with them and the current plans of both us and the company:

Basically, they built enough boards now to know what things they have to take care of during board production to produce high quality boards – which means: They know how long they approximately need for producing and testing them.

Additionally, to speed things up, they agreed to produce and test the rest of the remaining boards even if there are no nubs ready yet!
So as soon as the new nubs are finished (probably sometime in September), there will be a lot of working boards waiting to get the nubs soldered-on.
We will most likely get a massive batch of finished boards in September… and we’ll make sure we have enough cases prepared when they come.

The company wants to have the first batch finished mid-October. Our original plans before we knew about the nubs was to finish everything end of September – so we’re not that far behind.

The parts for Batch 2 should also be available mid-October – so Batch 2 should start directly after Batch 1 is finished. That does mean: Batch 2 should be finished by Christmas.

Please keep in mind that these guesstimations are not our guesstimations – but actual plans of the board company. Will they be able to do it? We don’t know yet, but we’re optimistic. We also hope all parts for Batch 2 will arrive in time. With such crazy leadtimes (12 – 14 weeks), you never know.

So, once again, the plan in short:

Board production will now start in fullspeed, finished probably mid-October (Batch 1) or by Christmas (Batch 2).
Until the new nubs are there, the boards will be produced, fully tested and stored. As soon as the nubs arrive, they will be soldered onto the boards and everything will be shipped to UK.

While that happens, I will solder tons of LCD cables, while Craig and his helpers will prepare the cases and the lids for the big batch of boards.

Then all we need to do is try to keep up with the board production speed… wish us luck

(EvilDragon)

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Hands up if you got an email! Lengthy debate on the correct plural of Pandora if you didn’t!

80 Pandora shipping today.

(craigix)

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The last mention of production status was back on the 14th, when EvilDragon told us there were 200 more boards on the way to the UK. Those boards are now making their way into cases, and out to customers. This will bring the total number of Pandoras in the wild to approximately 900. As for the next lot of boards:

Also we’re told to expect 500(!) boards in the next batch, so, wow, that will be a lot of work. Not sure we can manage 500 in a week but we shall see.

(craigix)

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ps. We’re trying something different on the old unofficial roadmap. No more tables or infographics, no more predictions, just a log of notable events. It’s not even a roadmap any more, but we’ll still call it that. Here.

From the official blog, EvilDragon fills us in on his trip to GamesCom, and the child he left behind.

Well, today I was visiting the GamesCom to meet some press guys to talk with them about the Pandora.

GamesCom itself wasn’t that interesting to be honest (mostly online games I didn’t care of, on the Playstation Move booth you could try Sonys cross between a torchlight and a Wii-mote and pop virtual balloons with that… while XBox360 showed with Kinect that you can play with virtual animals… yay!) – but what was really nice is that actually five guys recognized me (or the Pandora). Even a sales manager of a big game company recognized the Pandora and congratulized me that we really did pull it off. Cool.

Anyways, most interesting for some of you guys is probably, that I left a Pandora for the rest of the exhibition at one of the best booths there is at the GamesCom:

It’s at the “Haus der Computerspiele”, that’s in Hall 08.1, Booth B050.

That’s a major exhibition of video gaming consoles and gaming handhelds. I sponsored them a GP2X F100, F200 and WIZ – as well as a Caanoo and Pandora (though they have to send the latter two ones back after the show).

So, if you want to see a real living Pandora and are the the exhibition, be sure to check out their booth!

(EvilDragon)

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Today we observe one of the rarest specimens in the Pandora ecosystem: the TV out cable. Coaxed from its lair by trained handler EvilDragon, it treats us to a dazzling display of light and magic before withdrawing once again from the piercing gaze of onlookers. Perhaps this season, if the monsoon is on time, it will multiply.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Posted a number of days ago (and shot a number of weeks ago, evidently), Craig gives us a speed run through a day on the floor at assembly HQ. Yep, the entire British console industry in that little room – it’ll either warm your heart or give you a start. Tell us which below, it’ll be fun.

Sometimes EvilDragon says a bit, and other times he says a lot. This is one of those times where he must have spent his night up, making a post.

Let’s see… The current nubs are working great, the latest hotfix is looking pretty good. The team is very happy with the last hundred boards, and there and many more on the way. What more is there to say?

As usual, I’ll let EvilDragon do the talking:

Moving forward!

Hardware Production

We were really pleased with the last 100 boards! Only a few failed for different reasons, but the nubs were working fine! So it seems the mechanical testing is a fine solution until the next batch of nubs will be produced with added accuracy.
170 more boards are already on the way to UK, so expect more units to be delivered soon.

Hopefully, now that the nub problem seems to be sold, the production will speed soon! As usual, we’re working on getting there!
The next 4000 cases should also be ready soon – all of them have been produced and most of them are already painted. They should just arrive in time when we are passing the first 1000 units mark!

Software updates

Softwarewise, some nice things have happened: With Ginge (which should be ready for release soon), you can play GP2X games (even commercial games like Payback and Wind & Water) on the Pandora! While it still is work in progress, it already has pretty good compatibility. Thanks to notaz for that incredible piece of software work.

Also, Hotfix 4 Beta 1 is out. Thanks to the guys that tried it, I already fixed a few errors and will release a Beta 2 within the next days.
The biggest improvement is probably that HF4 is using IPKs for the update: This is the first major step to properly upgrade the system, via a package manager.
Another test I did worked fine: I installed the very first OS version on my Pandora, changed the config files to use our feeds and upgraded the system using opkg update and opkg upgrade – and 10 minutes later, I had a working up-to-date OS on my system!

Soon you will be able to update your unit by either downloading the latest HotFix and running it or by directly update the Pandora while connected to the internet.
The brave ones among you will also be able to use unstable feeds to get the latest changes to the system a few minutes after they have been committed! Of course, bug reports are welcome.

Help us improve the unit!

So, all in all, while things are not going perfect, we’re still moving forward and getting there.
Basically, I could be happy with that – but there is one thing that makes me sad: And that is the current mood on the boards. There are some people who seem to try to bash the unit for whatever reason.
This is really demotivating and won’t help anyone get anywhere – since it’s no constructive criticism.

Yes, we know there have been some problems with the first produced units like shoulder buttons, nubs, LCD cables. And we are working hard to get them all fixed (and most seem already be fixed).
Yes, we know there have been slowdowns in the production – mainly because we had problems with the nubs (we couldn’t magically fix them, this takes some time).

Please don’t forget: We are not a big company, we are just some guys trying to achieve something. Something major – and I think we didn’t do too bad so far.
We are NOT trying to cover or deny any faults, but are trying to fix and prevent them in the future.
According to most people we talked to who already received the unit: They love it and think it’s the best device they ever owned.

So far, we only had about 50 RMAs out of 700 – while the boards currently make it sound as if almost EVERY unit is unusable.
Some people do claim that there are more broken units but the users do not want to ship it back to us since they are waiting for production to speed up.

I can imagine this might be true for some people, but not for all.

Please: Even if you do not want to return your unit right now, let us know if you have any serious issues like a dead nub or a failed LCD cable or anything else.
Why? Well, we’re trying to fix all problems and prevent them from happening. But if we DON’T KNOW about these issues, we can’t fix them. Telling us what fails will help us to improve the quality and increase the production speed.

Also, of course, if you have a Pandora and like it – spread the word! Show it to friends, colleagues, post on boards. Tell them the story behind it, that it’s a device made by a small company, not by Sony, etc.

One thing you can be sure about:
If you encounter any real problems with your unit, we’ll fix it for you! AND use the information to improve further produced units!

Let’s all work together to improve the mood at the boards again. We all do share something: The love for niche products. Be it for gaming, for hacking, for coding – we all gathered to make the Pandora happen. For some, the Pandora is already reality – and for the rest, this reality is coming closer and closer!

Thanks to all guys that do support us – it’s never been easy, but you keep us going!

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When a new device arrives, it’s only natural to plug everything you can into every available port. Well, hopefully it is, because that just what many Pandora owners are doing. This latest roundup comes courtesy of Alerino, who did his best to try them all at once.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not retro enough for you? Fine. Perhaps this video from Andymanone will butter your bun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not every device under the sun will automatically work, of course. Some require a bit of encouragement via the terminal, others are simply not supported in Linux. There has been a fairly good success rate so far though, across a wide variety of gadgets; and there will be more on this topic in the coming months. Check out the USB section of the wiki if you haven’t already, and if you’ve successfully run some USB gear on your own Pandora, make it known below!

Alerino’s thread

A little update on production progress, which has been tiptoeing along since 100 more boards arrived last week. Quality checks on the nubs are still a significant slowdown, although it looks like things could be possibly thinking about looking up soon.

The last 25 of the 100 will ship today and tomorrow. It does look like this nub issue is solved for 99% of the units so we can get back on track. Over 700 Pandoras have now been shipped.

(craigix, yesterday)

I know things are going slow but 170 more boards are arriving soon and things will start to really speed up and those units should be very good quality due to this lengthy test process.

(craigix)

And on the cases:

we decided to order 7000 last month. 1500 are coming by UPS the rest by boat (4-5 weeks).

The 1500 are due here next week sometime (well, due in to customs!).

(craigix)

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