Just a quick news snippet on the next lot of boards to arrive from Texas.

Here are some quick news, as Michael had another telephone conference today.

The next completely finished boards with tested nubs will ship out next week, together with 500 more LCD cables for me to solder (then we have about 1700 LCD cables so far).
According to them, they also have started producing more boards, this doesn’t sound too bad either.

Also, they have increased their facility size and got a shiny new machine which should be able to easily do 500 Pandora boards per week – while this is something I first wish to see before I believe it, it would actually be really great if it’s real.

As usual, I’ll keep you updated on any news here.

(EvilDragon)

Source

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)

Source

Click here to view the embedded video.

EvilDragon is pumping out the new material today, with two new videos and a roundup of the nub situation. The gist of the blog post is that we may be about to see the last of the nub holdups, and a more consistent flow of completed boards out of Texas. Amen to that.

Well, quite a few things have happened, so here is another update for you.

1. All about the nubs

In case you didn’t know yet: Quite a few nubs had problems right from the beginning (a failure rate of 20 – 25% is just inacceptable!) and even some of the working ones have failed a while later (though not too many, thankfully).

Therefore, the manufacturer got a pile of non-working nubs back from us to find out what’s wrong and test them.
It didn’t take too long to find the problem: Mostly a tolerance issue. That’s why most were working, but some failing.

The first workaround: Doing a mechanical test all of the nubs, a quick thing that allowed us to ship more Pandoras out to you, but not the final solution, because it still slows things down – and is not 100% reliable.

So I’m very happy to report that the first samples of the (hopefully) fixed nubs will be finished within this week, ready to be stress tested. If testing goes well and it proves that those nubs have no issues, they will go into mass production. This will hopefully mean the end of any nub problems.

What does this mean?

We will continue production of the boards and Pandoras with the tested nubs until the new ones are there. Basically, there should be no difference between tested ones and newly produced ones as long as they work. But the newly produced ones shouldn’t have such high failure rate.

When the new ones are finished, the testing process (which slows production down, too) is not needed anymore and things should go more smoothly.

2. All about the boards

Right after we met in UK to assemble the very first Pandoras, we had to stall board production because we had so many broken nubs.
Replacing nubs does cost us money (and a lot of time). If it only were a few, we could’ve continued – but with that high failure rate, we first had to find out what was wrong here.
Even though the manufacturer was working very fast on this issue, we first had to desolder some non-working nubs so that the manufacturer could test and find the error, so that did cost us a few weeks.

Since the manufacturer started to test the nubs, production has been started again. First, we only got 100 boards to test if the nubs work fine. Then we got 200 more (currently being assembled) and the next batch that has been announced will be a whopping 500 boards (don’t know exactly yet when we’ll get them).

Also, as the board production company now knows the amount of work that’s needed and seeing that new, working nubs are on the way, we’re currently discussing with them to sign a contract about a minimum amount of boards per week.
At the moment, all they do is produce as many as they can in the time they have (as long as production wasn’t reliable, they wouldn’t have done any other contract).
A minimum-per-week-contract would be the best thing – as then we finally have some realistic figures on when your Pandoras will be finished and how fast it all goes. And bigger projects wouldn’t interfere with board production anymore.

These are the things we’re currently working on – and if they work out fine, things should finally go smoother – and A LOT faster!

3. All about the Pandora

As posted, I had a Pandora at the GamesCom – and that definately was a good idea. Interest was pretty high, a lot of people came to see and / or test out the Pandora – and as far as I’ve been told, they all liked it. That’s pretty cool.

I’ve got another offer if you didn’t manage to go there: If you ever come near Ingolstadt (Germany), you’re free to come visit me to have a chat (or coffee) with me and test out the Pandora live! Just drop me a PM or mail if you want to come visit me.

Okay, that’s for todays news. Hopefully more good news on board and nub production soon. Oh, and I’m currently uploading two more videos for you

For anyone not knowing where to find my Pandora videos – check out my YouTube channel! There are a lot of videos there, might be especially interesting for newcomers.

(EvilDragon)

Source

For his second demonstration, ED plays some Sega games direct from the cartridge courtesy of the super cool Retrode.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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)

Source

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.

It was hoped that 200 more boards would arrive in the UK this week, but there is nought to report. The problem seems to be between the nub factory tightening up their quality control, and the board factory getting in step with them. Throw in some dud UPS promises and pinch of misc, and you’ve got yourself a regular old Friday in Pandoria. EvilDragon elaborates somewhat in the forum posts linked below.

[1] [2]

Click here to view the embedded video.

A classy new vid from EvilDragon, demonstrating the current state of Pandora software (thanks in no small part to the Pandora community, who are pumping out the releases). Sadly it’s just going to make you want your Pandora more, but never the less it’s worth heading straight to the source to watch it in 720p. Also, a word from Craig on the next lot of boards, which are set to turn up on Monday again.

203 boards arriving on Monday with the nubs tested (if UPS don’t mess up).

There are 203 cases ready for those boards to go straight in to so they will ship next week too.

Then we hope it’s all go go go for Aug/Sept.

Every few hundred we make we improve the build process, this is very important to get right since we plan to use this case and system for a couple of years.

(craigix)

Well, there’s not much for me to say. This is an excellent and long update from EvilDragon that many of us have been waiting for. It answers a lot of questions about the hardware status, current build state, and everything in-between.

Enjoy:

EvilDragon on the official blog:

Preparing the big run

It’s been kinda quiet in here lately, hasn’t it?

Well, I hope this will change in the near future and I’ll find more time keeping you up-to-date with what’s happening.
During the last days, it has been so incredibly hot in here… 30°C in my room at night… it was really hard to concentrate on what you’re doing.

Good news: The Cases

4000 new cases have been produced and are being painted at the moment. Over 1000 of them will ship using UPS, the rest will probably go by sea (takes a bit longer, but is way cheaper… and we will be busy with the first 1000 cases until they arrive).
And yes, you read correct: It will be 4000 cases. We will need some for replacements ourselves – and I guess quite a few of you will want to be able to buy replacement cases for modding, etc. yourselves.
Thank god, case production seems to work fine now.

What’s up with the nub?

Our challenges seem to continue – Murphy must really hate us, and I have no idea why. I’m not THAT evil, am I?

Well, as you might have seen on the boards, some nubs fail. While it was no catastrophic number (so far, 20 out of 600 units had to be replaced), combined with the ones that failed while testing, the failed number is too high.
We don’t want to deliver units with broken nubs we have to replace after a while. This would not only lead to more delays (as working boards would go into replacement units instead to new customers), it would also mean A LOT of additional costs for us. Also, testing all the boards and sending them back to get the nubs desoldered and exchanged eats a lot of time and cost.

Thank god the nub manufacturing company is really helpful. They even followed the threads on the GP32x.com boards to see what problems occured and are now testing all the nubs. They admitted that something went wrong in the manufacturing process – and they know it’s really urgent. Therefore, the first 400 fully working tested nubs should be ready to be soldered onto the waiting Panda-Boards in next week! The rest will follow soon after.
As we have 13.000 nubs (8000 for the Pandora and 5000 for the iControlpad – however, the Pandora has priority), there should be enough working nubs for the first batch. The failed ones will either be repaired or reproduced.

So the good thing is: This (last) issue is also being solved right now – the rest of the production works flawlessly now, so this is the last challenge for us it seems.

Still, we really want to apologize for the inconveniences some of you experienced there. That definately was NOT our plan. We will try to resolve this as soon as possible.

But what does that mean for further production? More delays?

Well, it will take a while until the next Pandoras will be shipped. Even the ones that should’ve been build this week (those 400 Craig mentioned) will have to be delayed since the nubs won’t arrive before next week. We don’t want to ship any more units where the nubs will break after a few days!

However, even with this break, it will speed things up. Why?
Well, because we don’t just sit around: We prepare all the lids and base parts, so basically all units will be ready and simply need a board.

Building a single Pandora (with all the testing, etc. we do) takes about 16 – 17 minutes per unit at the moment. Also, we needed addtional 5 – 6 minutes to extensively test the nubs!

These are the steps needed to build a Pandora:

1. Solder the speakers to the LCD cables.
2. Put the LCDs into the lid. Connect the cables.
3. Place a few layers on top of the LCD cable to shield it (needed for CE).
4. Put the Antenna into the lid.
5. Roll the LCD cable and place it in the hinge. Put the antenna through the rolled cable.
6. Close the lid carefully to not kill the LCD cable.
7. Put the hinge in the base part.
8. Carefully pull the LCD cable through the base part, putting together the lid and the base and engage the hinge.
9. Put each button in (ABXY) as well as the left and right light pipes and the microphone holder into the base part.
10. Place the keymat into the base part.
11. Put the stylus holder into the bottom part.
12. Screw the lid together and put the screw covers on top of it.
13. Put the board into the the unit, connect LCD cable and antenna.
14. Put in the power switch, L and R buttons and screw the unit together.
15. Do a quick test (WiFi, controls, keyboard) and flash the firmware.

So, even if the boards arrive later – as long as we have the cases (which should arrive soon) and the LCD cables (where 3000 are on the way to me to be soldered), we can do most of the steps needed for assembly. Once everything is prepared and the boards arrive, the time needed per Pandora shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes (instead of the 16 – 17 or even 22 – 24 when he had to test the nubs).

While those five minutes nub testing we needed didn’t sound like much, it adds up: Testing the remaining 3600 would’ve taken 300 hours! Even if all four people were working on it, it would still take over a week for simply testing the nubs… and if 10% fail and have to go back, be desoldered, resoldered, etc. This would eat more and more time…
The company can test a nub in 30 seconds – so it won’t take long until we have enough to build Pandoras. We are ready to assemble 200 a day – let’s hope is that the board productions speeds up!

I know there will probably be a some ranting going on after I publish that blog post… but what should we do? The prototypes of the nubs were working, now too many fail.
The only option we have is to get this solved before shipping the Pandoras.

We will manage this last issue – we solved so many before You guys have proven to be the best customers out there so far. Thanks a lot! It really helps me ease my mind a bit…

I’ll keep you informed – and one thing you can be sure about: We’ll continue with all our effort to finish the remaining units as soon as possible!
The feedback from the customers who already got a unit was better than I ever imagined – a lot of them are using the unit each day and love it!
And I do hope that ALL of you will have the same meaning about it, too!

Thanks for your ongoing support – now onto the last steps. And Murphy: We should DEFINATELY have a talk about your stupid law once we meet…

Oh, before I forget: As some asked about the TV Out cables and spare batteries: We are already delivering the spare batteries, however, the TV Out Cables will probably have to wait until October. We’re currently concentrating on getting all the Pandoras out – there’s not much time left to do anything else. Don’t worry, they’re not cancelled, just delayed – but the main units definately are our main priority right now.

source

Team Pandora have run out of boards. Don’t panic, it’s a good thing. This means the first lot of 700 boards, all of which required the manual wifi mod by MWeston, have now found their way into 700 Pandoras! [edit- maybe?] Not bad for the first week of work. (We previously thought they had 1500 boards on hand, but well, we were wrong). The next board shipment from Texas is due to land this Thursday or Friday. It should contain 700 to 800 boards.

It’s been a steep learning curve for the team so far, with assembly and testing procedures evolving as each day passes. Several tasks have been identified as needless time eaters, which could be done more efficiently as the cases come off the line in China. Craig explains:

We’re having some extra things done at the mould factory before they ship the parts, such as attaching the bumpers, stickers and adhesive strips. This will save us some serious time here.

We also want them to attach the action buttons and dpad to the keymat at the factory, but that might require some samples to be sent to us.

It’s going to improve build speed substantially, and also mean every keymat won’t need to be checked.

(craigix)

We can’t continue the way it is, it takes too long. We spent *DAYS* just sticking on batch labels, bumpers, adhesive strips etc. Not good.

We need further organisation to speed things up, and these small changes we want will be worth it because they will mean the next 8000+ will be so much more easy to build.

Just stick with us while we get this right early on rather than later.

(craigix)

Before you set your snooze function to two months, remember we’re not talking mould tweaks here; just sticking things to other things. It seemed to go smoothly when it was paint doing the sticking, so let’s hope it’s equally painless this time around. Speaking of smooth, check out this segue: the Pandora paint job has also played a role in this week’s production learnings. You may have heard some of the early reviewers mention that their shoulder buttons were sticky, or tight. This is due to the paint job slightly altering the tolerances; so every shoulder button had to be manually drilled out to fit the pivot point a little better. No prizes for guessing the solution to this one:

Yeah, we tried using unpainted ones in painted cases (Mike got some samples with him) yesterday and they work.

So yeah, telling them to NOT paint (the shoulder buttons) saves the drilling.

(EvilDragon)

Anything that saves time in the assembly hall is golden, as MWeston and EvilDragon will be jetting back to their homes later this week. That will leave Craig, possibly Fatih, and an unknown number of helpers on assembly duty as the parts continue to roll in. Wish them well, if you have well wishes to spare. They need it.

There’s nothing outrageously new to report at this moment, but there are a lot of questions rolling around about the actual status of things, so let’s see if we can’t get everyone onto the same page.

NUMBERS

First, numbers. There are a lot of numbers floating around. 1,000 this, 700 that, 8,000 this. There are 4,000 Pandoras in the first batch, so why not just get 4,000 cases, 4,000 boards, 4,000 LCDs and staple them all together? Testing and quality control is the answer. The board factory in Texas is populating and testing boards in manageable lots of 500-700. The case factory in China is sending 1,000 cases first, and will produce the rest in one run when Craig & co say go. (In this instance “the rest” means 9,000 more cases; the minimum order was 10,000, so this will cover the second batch as well).

To summarise, here are the current targets:

- 10,000 cases
- 4,000 boards
- 4,000 wifi antennas
- 4,000 LCDs
- 8,000 nubs
- 8,000 speakers
- 4,000 batteries
- Many other bits and pieces we don’t know about and probably aren’t worth listing.

STATUS

Here’s that same list again, with the current known status marked against each entry.

- 10,000 cases: 1,000 to be picked up on the 7th (tomorrow) for delivery to UK.
- 4,000 boards: 1,500 are now in the UK, Texas continues work on the rest.
- 4,000 wifi antennas: In the UK.
- 4,000 LCDs: In the UK.
- 8,000 nubs: In Texas (?) We know they have them anyway.
- 8,000 speakers: In the UK.
- 4,000 batteries: Cleared UK customs today, should be at Craig’s on Monday.
- Many other bits and pieces: In the UK.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

We hope what happens next is that those naughty cases start their journey to the UK tomorrow. When MWeston gets confirmation that the cases are on the move, he’ll be on a plane too. As soon as MW and the cases are in the UK, assembly will begin. Units should start shipping a day or so after this.

That’s the plan.

Various source links can be found on the roadmap. [Note] All quantities are shown as nice round numbers for the purposes of indicating status, but spares and extra accessory orders mean these numbers are actually higher eg. “4,000 batteries” is probably more like “4,102 batteries”. We don’t have access to exact numbers.

Yesterday we were under the impression that only the Pandora boards and battery compartment stickers had turned up in the UK. EvilDragon now tells us that the LCDs and other bits & pieces have arrived as well, hopefullly rounding out the total ton from Texas.

Yesterday, we were in for quite a surprise!

On Thursday, air traffic was back to a regular state – but delivery services (like UPS) have quite a backlog and need some time to catch up.
They told us, our shipment won’t arrive before early next week.

Therefore, Craig was quite surprised when he found a note left by UPS yesterday at his door that there had been a shipment for him – and that they left it to a neighbouring business.

And there he found it: The shipment from Texas. Lying around on the grass, visible for everyone – and nobody was really paying attention to it.
Quickly he delivered the packages to where they belong – and now everything is safe and sound. Still a scary thought that about half a million USD were lying around on the grass…

Anyways, that does mean: The boards, LCD, WiFi Antennas and some other minor things have arrived in the UK!

Now we need to wait for the cases. Those cases have been produced and painted, but as it looks like, UPS won’t pick them up until sometime next week (I guess they try to deliver the stalled shipments first and then start picking up new ones once their back in normal state).

As usual, we’ll let you know when UPS picked things up (well, if they tell us… as said, we didn’t know the boards would arrive yesterday )

(EvilDragon)

And a footnote from Craig:

As soon as the cases arrive we will start building and shipping units right away. I’d guess in the first day we might only ship a few dozen units, but I bet that will get the forum and development going pretty quick.

I can’t wait until you have them in your hands, I can’t wait to see what the Pandora can be made to do. This keeps us going.

(craigix)

Sources: [1] [2]