Pandora; open source handheld console

quote:

Let’s try a new way of showing you the situation, we will just copy and paste the emails from the factory:

—-
Dear Mr.Michael,

sorry, after i discussed with our technician and we found all of modifications would be finished on Jan.15,2010.

We compared market products with our products last week and we need more EDM working to make the same quality.

I have to inform you and so sorry for delay.

Best regards,

David
—-

This will be what we do from now on.

quote:

When in panic, fear or doubt...

... run in circles, scream and shout!

Well, while the situation is not so bad, actually, it's pretty good, sometimes I do feel like doing so

As with most news posts, we have good and not so good news.

First, the good news:
The second revision sample cases have arrived quite a few days ago - and they're much better than the first ones.
Physically, they have fixed everything we wanted, it's much more easier to assemble, that's a huge success. From the usable viewpoint, it's good to go
The first silkscreen test also was decent. There are some misalignments, but it shows that it can be done. Also, for the final silk, we can use the official Bluetooth logo.

The Finishing also is much better, as can be clearly seen on the image below (I'll let you guess what's the old and what's the new one).

Posted ImagePosted Image


Craig did also test the hinge during the last days - meaning: Opening and closing it for about 1000 times - and not a single problem here. It still works nicely. Also, the PSUs we'll ship with the device are there and are quite sturdy. Now, let's come to the reason I want to run in circles, scream and shout sometimes...

The finished case (with the final finishing, the last cosmetic changes, etc.) should already have been shipped last week.
This is the eMail Michael just got yesterday:

"Dear Mr.Michael,

sorry, after i discussed with our technician and we found all of
modifications would be finished on Jan.15,2010.

We compared market products with our products last week and we need more EDM
working to make the same quality.

I have to inform you and so sorry for delay."


We got this eMail when the cases should've been shipped since a few days already... and this is not the first time, actually.
Now you know where such confusing deadlines come from - we actually get dates when something will be ready and tell you.. and after it should've happened, we get such mails.

Well, the good thing is: They're working hard on making it a high-quality product (no cheap stuff) and besides some cosmetic changes (mostly in the finishing and a bit in shrinking), the case is working nicely.

So, let's scream and shout together until the best cases in the whole world will arrive.

Thanks for reading - oh, and of course a happy new year to all of you guys

quote:

All 4000 boards have not been populated yet. It actually becomes an issue with storage to have so many boards sitting built all at once. They have to be kept somewhere which tends to be awkward because boards must sit in ESD safe trays on grounded carts (remember that picture of the 80/105?). Issues with humidity control are important because parts are no longer sitting in sealed bags, although they are already soldered so it is more of a general storage thing. Craig meant that absolutely everything is ready to go, absolutely every part is sitting at the facility, things are being tested carefully and slowly still, the build process is understood...umm I don't know what else to add so I don't read the next 10 pages about how the sky is falling. There is merit in being vague, but I'll take the chance anyway.

Some continuing issues with alignment or fit in the test jig back in December held things up slightly. The Christmas holiday/New Year didn't help past the 24th either. The New Year has things running again and it's obvious now the PCBs are not the bottleneck. Damn plastics company. <grumble grumble>

Before any arm chair engineers pop in, please be aware that building the boards is a well understood process at this point and done very quickly. The pick and place machine can jam them out as quickly as you can keep the reels loaded. The boards are being built in batches according to how fast they can be tested. Currently that is going to stay at about 450-500 at a time. The process is to build 500, get them into testing and build the next 500 while the first ones are being tested. Once cases are available, the third parallel step will be to have a batch of 500 being assembled while a previous set is in testing and another new set is being populated.

All 4000+ antenna boards and LCD cables have been assembled and inspected. Building and testing will continue throughout January and be ready for the cases. As usual, I have to fear the backlash from misunderstanding my words and I have to read over what I type 10 times before posting it but keep in mind that most of you don't and aren't expected to truly understand this process. Things are progressing in the natural fashion a small run (by any big company's standards) like this should be done. When the cases show up, this parallel process will fall right into place and pump out shipments at a steady and predictable rate that has been expected from day one. We can't build and ship all 4000 in a day or even a week but it will be done as quickly as possible.

Some people talk about how we should spare no expense to get these done sooner and we agree. I might bring my wife to Texas to help with the labour in order to get more done sooner and I'll probably spend 12-15 hours a day on the floor building these bad boys (if they will let me) to get them to you all as fast as humanly possible. It's going to be an exhaustive and miserable process, but that's not for any paying customer to care about.

I have created a well documented assembly manual for the Pandora which contains several parallel processes that can be set up as stations. There are six sub stations and two main stations. The main stations (assembly of lid and assembly of base) require the most staff in order to crank them out faster. The sub stations require one person each (could be more if there are people) and are monotonous (ie. trim and solder speaker wires, apply copper tape, etc.). They could also be combined into more tasks and fewer stations. Hopefully this helps people understand that no news on the forum does not mean nothing is happening. It has never stopped being a lot of work behind the scenes.

quote:

Op woensdag 6 januari 2010 21:31 schreef Notorious_Roy het volgende:
Je kan wel zien dat dat ding er aan zit te komen! Topic blijft hoog in MyAT

quote:

Op maandag 5 januari 2010 19:15 schreef __Saviour__ het volgende:
wat kun je met die usb otg en expansion port voor dingen doen?

quote:

craigix schreef Today, 09:44 AM
Spoke to the factory today, everything is looking good for tomorrow.

quote:

For the second time, a fellow pre-orderer has been allowed to examine and use the (almost) final Pandora. This time “x68000″ is the reviewer.

Check out his entire review as well as some comparison shots after the break.


First Impressions

I was unsure what to expect when i first clapped eyes on the Pandora, half of me anticipating it being a heavy, bloated and unpocketable device. There was no need to worry though as it is smaller in the flesh (plastic) than it looks in the pics. Very compact and very pocketable.

The Controls

The biggest worry for me would have been dodgy controls, ala GP2X – Spongy Action buttons and naff D-Pad. The good news is that the D-Pad feels excellent, very Sega Saturn/Megadrive like, this is better than could have ever been expected from a homebrew device. The action buttons are also in a different league to the GP2X, have a good level of travel and no spongy response either, they also feel well spaced from one another. Analogue nubs have been a big talking point round here and after forking out 100k to develop and manufacture them from the ground up, I can see why Craig is so pleased with them. They feel well weighted and balanced with excellent feedback and a good level of travel from their centres. A huge improvement over what Sony managed on the PSP.

The Keyboard

I didn’t expect much usability here, but was astonished at how usable it actually is despite the small form factor. The keys sit well above the handheld, allowing plenty of travel, excellent for such a small device. I managed to type a few sentences whilst holding the Pandora and typing with my thumbs – Totally painless.

Screen

I tried some early builds of N64 , MAME and Megadrive emulators, basically the same as you have seen in the videos so won’t comment on that, but i will mention that the screen coped brilliantly with the fast moving scrolling of Sonic & Knuckles with no noticable motion blur – A wholesale improvment over the PSP.

Summary

Whilst taking the elevator back down to the Ground Floor in Pandora Towers HQ, i felt a mighty sense of relief, ecstatic that nothing has been botched up or just plainly swept under the carpet. I understand how frustrating the wait has been for all concerned but can assure everyone that it will be worth the wait when you get the finished product in your hands.

In my eyes, the Pandora is everything the GP2X should have been and a whole lot more.

quote:

Op maandag 15 januari 2010 13:34 schreef pc-fr34k het volgende:
Dan denken en bedoelen we hetzelfde en begrijp je me dus wel. Alleen andere manier van het uiten.

quote:

This week should be an interesting week. The next (and hopefully final) sample cases should arrive at Michaels place. We're all excited, as they will look so much better than the already good-looking cases we already got.

In the meantime, while it has been quiet around here, a lot of other things have happened.

Preparing the Assembly

Michael has spend all his time preparing for the mass assembly.
He created a well documented assembly manual for the Pandora which contains several parallel processes that can be set up as stations. There are six sub stations and two main stations. The main stations (assembly of lid and assembly of base) require the most staff in order to crank them out faster. The sub stations require one person each (could be more if there are people) and are monotonous (ie. trim and solder speaker wires, apply copper tape, etc.). They could also be combined into more tasks and fewer stations.

Building the boards is a well understood process at this point and done very quickly. The pick and place machine can jam them out as quickly as you can keep the reels loaded. The boards are being built in batches according to how fast they can be tested. Currently that is going to stay at about 450-500 at a time. The process is to build 500, get them into testing and build the next 500 while the first ones are being tested. Once cases are available, the third parallel step will be to have a batch of 500 being assembled while a previous set is in testing and another new set is being populated.

All 4000+ antenna boards and LCD cables have been assembled and inspected. Things are progressing in the natural fashion a small run (by any big company's standards) like this should be done. When the cases show up, this parallel process will fall right into place and pump out shipments at a steady and predictable rate that has been expected from day one. We can't build and ship all 4000 in a day or even a week but it will be done as quickly as possible.

Michael himself will probably spend 12-15 hours a day on the floor helping to build building these bad boys to get them to you all as fast as humanly possible. It's going to be an exhaustive and miserable process, but that will help speed things up a bit. Yep. You read right - some of you guys will actually get a Pandora assembled by the creator himself!

Preparing the OS

The devs have continued to work on the OS. DJWillis fixed (and is fixing) quite a few bugs while also doing various tests to make it NAND-ready.
The OS itself is in a pretty good state. XFCE4 is working nicely, all those installed apps (AbiWord, Midori, ClawsMail, XChat, etc.) run flawlessly. PND Discovery and starting is also working fine. The standard stuff (closing the LID switches off the backlight, battery charging, etc.) is also included.

Here are the current issues still to fix:

* Include pmenu as second startup-option
* WiFi works, but can't be stopped once running. If we can't fix the driver in time, we'd probably put in a small tool where you can enable and disable WiFi on start.
* Bluetooth works fine but is missing a GUI.
* Some permissions need to be fixed (so a normal user can change maximum clock speed, etc.). Nothing spectacular
* Other minor stuff (keyboard mappings, etc.)
* Include scripts to enable TV Out.

So while it will surely not be perfect on first release, you can be sure playing, surfing, working, etc. works fine. It just is in need of more tweaking.

Preparing the shipping

I don't know how Craigs shop looks like at the moment, but I got over 700 empty boxes lying around, waiting to be filled with Pandoras. We're ready to ship them out as fast as possible when they come in!


So - everything is prepared from our side. And as soon as the cases are good... let the fun begin!

quote:

mweston schreef
The cases won't be here until Thurs/Fri at best. We've got some really bad weather here right now which is shutting down a lot of services and China didn't ship exactly when they said they would (shocking I know!).

quote:

mweston schreef
I have no idea what has been going on in China since the 15th. They only email me when something is wrong and only answer me on Skype when something is done or if something is wrong. It's a real treat.

The good news is that I was told these have a final finish and silk screening all according to my last review. They also promise to pump out as many cases as possible before their holiday so we can satisfy at least those who ordered first, maybe more.

...maybe, maybe, maybe... yeah I'm sick of that too

quote:

The Chinese usually only talk to Fatih – he was in Dubai the last week.
So our latest info was, that the cases should be sent on the 15th – thus we thought they would arrive last week.
Fatih is back since last Friday and he immediately took care of the issue.

The Chinese weren’t 100% happy with the cases yet – and they didn’t want to send another intermediate review case, instead they wanted to send one that they think is perfectly ok. This case has been made now and should have been sent on Monday. I’ve prepared a blog post with these infos – I won’t post it before I’m sure, have pictures and a tracking number. This number will be posted publicly so everyone can track those cases.

It really looks like it could be green lighted soon. The Chinese are preparing everything right now – and want to send the MP cases before the Chinese New Year.

If we’d known in advance that the Chinese would mess around like that, we might have get a refund(?) and get the cases produced elsewhere (The price difference, for those interested: We pay 20.000 USD for the moulds in China, but every other company we asked wanted 130.000 minumum. A cost we couldn’t afford). Thank god that we only had the cases produced in China.

Well, we’re hoping for the best. We should be able to make this last step!

quote:

What the bloody 'ell happened?
Monday, 25 January 2010 14:16 EvilDragon
E-mail Print PDF

Nope, we're not playing Lemmings, but I guess a lot of you wanted to know what happened to those cases.

Well, we too wanted to know - the last status update we had was that they were shipping on January 15th and therefore we assumed the cases should have arrived last week.
Unfortunately, Fatih had business to do in Dubai... and he is the only one the Chinese actually do talk to (except for if they encounter any problems, then they also send a mail to Michael. But they didn't do that).

So we didn't know until he returned a few days ago that the cases hadn't been shipped yet, they were still working and tweaking as they really wanted to make sure this will be the last case they need to send to us before we start the mass production.
We're still trying to find out the complete story of what happened and why there was another delay. A friend of Fatih (who can speak chinese) will help us here, as communication with them isn't easy, and there might even have been some misunderstandings, etc.

Whoever does think that that company is a small, cheap company that only tries to rip us off:
Nope, that's definately not true. Fatih has been working with them since years. Also, they created some other parts for the Pandora which have been finished long ago and didn't make any problems. It just seems the case was much more complex than they had thought.
Some of their other customers are Sanyo and Toyota and they have been established 1998, so one thing we know: They are reliable... but (as it is the case with many chinese companies): They do need some time to finish it off.

So, rest assured, the cases aren't screwed, we just don't know yet when exactly they will arrive. We have been promised they will ship enough mass produced cases before the chinese new year. I leave it to you whether you want to believe it or not - I just will pray it will be true.

So much for the cae situation. I hope you can now understand why we chose that company. Believe us, it's a pretty annoying feeling having everything setup for mass assembly and then wait in anticipation for the cases.

Oh, I have one more information that will probably make second batchers happy: We already ordered the parts for the second batch to decrease the waiting time.


Finally, some small OS informations:

* We got a new WiFi driver, thanks to Palm We'll need to test it out more, but it should work better than the one we have.
* pmenu is finally working fine in the image, so we have an almost completely working image (for a first release) ready.
* We also did a quick try with the Ubuntu netbook-launcher-efl. It compiled and worked nicely. Only the icons were missing, but that's because it uses the Human icons from Ubuntu which we haven't installed yet. The nice thing about it is that it does support finger scrolling. It might not make it into the first release, but I doubt it will take long until it will be included into an update. I personally prefer XFCE4 and pmenu though