Any News From The Assembly Line ?


Couple things. Magic Sam, I like how direct your questions are. There are things you want to know, and instead of carefully circling the subject and not getting to the point, you strip it of everything but the points until your posts resemble lethal spikeballs of valid questions.
This is coupled by the fact that, as far as I'm aware, questions you've asked haven't been answered yet. You're accurate.

The other thing is that "I've ordered a Pandora. Sooner or later, it will arrive."
 
Chairman_Now said:
Considering all of this, GBAX may have shipped no more than 300 units thus far. This is consistent with the fact that there are people that are as low at 250-350 in the GBAX queue that haven't gotten a notification yet. DrCJBoduma, I'm talking about you. If you have been less than accurate, fess up so I can recalibrate my expectations :) But if he's being truthful, that means that the "slop factor" is worse than is being let on.

Just to confirm, 250 - 350 was the esitimate I received from Jacqueline a few weeks ago. (original confirmation was received at 15:44)

Thanks

CJ

On a side note - This is the reason, I have been getting increasingly impatient. I am being told that near to 700 have been made and even factoring in Ed's It seemed that if this was the case then I should have recieved mine. I'm not usually so impatient and have quietly(ish) waited since the first day of ordering.
 
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That "been built" is not an easy thing.

Pandoras been built?
Boards been built?
Boards been built and tested?

Different people ask different questions - so if anyone asks how many BOARDS had been built, it doesn't mean that many Pandoras had been built.
If someone picks that up wrong (because he didn't read the original question properly) and start posting this wrong on the boards, the chaos is perfect.
 
DrCJBoduma said:
On a side note - This is the reason, I have been getting increasingly impatient. I am being told that near to 700 have been made and even factoring in Ed's It seemed that if this was the case then I should have recieved mine. I'm not usually so impatient and have quietly(ish) waited since the first day of ordering.

You’d be close, but not quite. The way I see it is this:

Around 400 have been made. They have boards up to 700, but not all have been populated.

From that 400, half are GBAX (Craig’s store). The other half will be divided into ED’s store, Fatih, broken/nub crippled units and maybe a sprinkling of other factors (people buying more than one unit, anyone turning up to help out, unforeseen defects that don’t get shipped and so on).

That leaves around 200 for GBAX. There may be a handful over that. But if you’re anywhere over 250, chances are you’ll still be waiting.

Now, if Craig’s in the process of making another 200+ (for argument’s sake, let’s say he has 200 ready to go), then half that number again, for the same reasons above.

So, around 100 from GBAX. Again, let’s err on the side of pessimism and say that’s all he gets to do this week. Meaning the total number of units shipped by the end of this week, if you’ve ordered from Craig’s shop, will reach around 300 total minimum.

These are conservative estimates. I’m supposedly around the 300 – 400 range, but if we’re playing by current numbers and rule of thumb with Pandora (meaning whatever you estimate your shipment time will be – until you get that magic shipping email – you double it) I would expect my unit not to hit until the next few weeks. Late June, early July. Whenever. It comes when it comes. I’d love to have it keeping me company while I’m doing the E3 shift this week at work or take it with me when I travel to see my family at the weekend, but thems the breaks.

The way I see it is that the longer it takes to arrive, the better the software and hardware will be. Or at least has the chance to be. There have been leaps and bounds the past couple weeks and things will only get better. And anything which reduces the chance of you having to send back your unit (and thus wait even longer, even if you had your hands on the glorious machine for a short while) is surely a good thing…...
 
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spikeyxx said:
For example - if it's going to take a month - I can deal with that,
If it's going to take 2, I'll have to give it some though.
If it's going to take 3+ I'm done, and I'll be sending my email through to cancel.

I think with that last line you have probably explained why reasonable/plausible/"accurate" (???do such things exist??) estiamtes have not been forthcoming from OpenPandora. They've had enough of cancellations. Now is not the time to be realistic enough to spark off another round of them.

LuvClub said:
mr.miyagi said:
I think it is unbelievable that they have come so far with this pandora, especially when many guys in here act like children for Christmas that can't open their presents before evening.
Except it is nearly 6 months after Christmas now!

Actually, it's nearly 6 months since the second Christmas that we should have had our Pandoras for.

hedwards said:
Seriously for $20,000, I'll move to the UK and chill on the front stoop of the hall. Sending updates whenever a box comes or goes. For $30,000, I'll even dress as a spy.

How do spies dress - and if they dress in a specific way, doesn't that make them somewhat ineffective? You're offering to be an ineffective source of information? How would that be any different to what we have now? ;)

Alpha2 said:
Frankly it seems to me that giving out queue information created an expectation that may be leading to some of the disappointment. If the GBAX queue doesnt take into account ED's queue and ED gets a quarter of the first 1000 than someone told they're around 800-900 may not get their system until china ships the rest of the 3000 cases which is going to be well into July if they can mange to ship at all in the next two months.

Yes - confusingly, we are given data by OPT in different terms which makes it impractical, if not impossible, to align the data accurately. For example, the queue order information we are given is per store, but what little information we are given on number of Pandoras made and/or sent out is given globally. We are told that ED gets every 4th Pandora, but not how many go to Fatih (of any do? Maybe he's waiting to get the ones at the end, after all the kinks in the system have been worked out?). This is typical of OpenPandora - using a whole bunch of words to provide little to no MEANINGFUL data is characteristic of the project.

Magic Sam said:
My initial post is 8 hours old, and still unanswered...

8 hours? On a Sunday? Oh my!

Seriosuly, while I agree wholeheartedly that OpenPandora Information Management sucks, one should be able to live with a 24 hours delay before a response - on a weekday. IMHO. On a weekend - especially Sunday - one should be able to cope with no answer until the following Monday quite easily. True - the weekend is when we all probably have more time to post, but it doesn't necessarily follow that OPT have more time to respond. They deserve to be asked, and they OUGHT to manage response in a timely manner - but, to me at least, within 8 hours on a Sunday isn't reasonable. Heck - anyone could post from a different timezone and not see any reply for 8 hours simply because Craig is sleeping off the vodka from the night before!

EvilDragon said:
Well... it's known that I get a quarter of the units, therefore 250 and Craig 750 out of those 1000.
We need to keep a few for RMAs and some of the boards may be dead on arrival, so we need to send them back to be fixed.

As we have no idea, how many will be bad (might be 10%, might be 5%) and how long it will take to fix them, it's hard to give a good guesstimation then.

For the next 3000... well, you know how reliable the Chinese company has been with dates, so we keep bugging them and until we get the cases, we can't tell you anything.

So... what else do you need to know?


An excellent post, and while it doesn't answer every question under the sun it IS IMHO the kind of phrasing people are asking for. Just honest, straightforward answers.

The 750/250 split seems mildly confusing, as we keep assuming that Fatih will get some of the Pandoras. Is he not getting any for his store, please?

Good to see you upsizing the "failure rate". I've been seeing loads of "issues" and Craig's <1% failure rate and my brain has been melting in puzzlement. It does that a lot.

Fishbong said:
The problem here is not a lack of information, it is the lack of Pandoras.

People are opening these pointless threads because they are impatient. Most of us are. For a long time we were under the impression that when mass production would start, we all would have our Pandoras a month later. That doesn't seem to be the case and it's frustrating to see them trickle out while most of us have no clue when we'll get ours. Reason tells us that OPT will gladly update us if there is something newsworthy. But obviously the impatience has reached new levels now that some have their units and software is being released.

I just wonder what happened to that webcam that was supposed to be installed in the town hall. It would probably help a bit to appease the mob ;)


Hear hear!

The "assemblycam" died a death. We are told that although Craig previously reported that his notebook didn't get a Wifi conenction in The Hall, and that he had additional mysterious connectivity problems with GP32X, that lack of Wifi signal is the cause for no Webcam. Although conenctivity issues were raised in light of Craig's problems connecting to GP32X, ED didn't consider that connectivity problems might cause any kind of issue until he got to England. Indeed, although he assurred us that he WOULD be able to get a WebCam going, he didn't. I don't know why wires were out of the question, but seemingly they were. Excessive optimism (let's play nice) has been a key feature of the Pandora project. Without it, they probably would not have reached the schematic stage. So while it's annoying, it was probably also vital.

Moxie said:
For FUCKS SAKE!!! IT IS F*CKING SUNDAY!!!

I do not know how to put this politely

This much is clear :(

Although your later, not insult-free but calmer, post made a lot of valid points IMHO. :)

@Chairman_Now - I beleive you forgot to include units kept back to act as warranty/RMA/replacement devices in your calculations?
 
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Hi ED :)

It's Monday, so I hope Moxie won't be mad at me if I dare ask some more questions <_<

Am I right when I say that assembly had stalled last week (lack of materials + training session) ? Was it completely stalled, or was there some completed, final Pandoras shipped to customers ?

Were you aware of that situation when you have posted on openpandora.org last week ?

And has the assembly been actually resumed ? How is it going ? Always the same simple questions... If you can't answer them, maybe Craig could...

Bye, Magic Sam
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandoraproduction/4698879651

I welcome ACCURATE information.

I will update regularly, or hand over control to anyone official willing to keep this current.
 
pandoraproduction said:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandoraproduction/4698879651

I welcome ACCURATE information.

I will update regularly, or hand over control to anyone official willing to keep this current.


I'm not 100% positive of the accuracy (have the UK actually received 1500 PCBs?) and there is ALWAYS someone who wants more (how many batteries do they have, how many failures have they had, how many TV Cables and so on) but I think that's a spiffing display of information right there. Clear, concise, stuff like that. Updated regularly that would be awesome IMHO :)

Magic Sam said:
Hi ED :)

It's Monday, so I hope Moxie won't be mad at me if I dare ask some more questions <_<


NOOOOoooo! ;)

Magic Sam said:
Am I right when I say that assembly had stalled last week (lack of materials + training session) ? Was it completely stalled, or was there some completed, final Pandoras shipped to customers ?

Were you aware of that situation when you have posted on openpandora.org last week ?

These come across to me as not useful questions. More like baiting. Can we put ED in a pit before we bait him? And set up a WebCam?

Magic Sam said:
And has the assembly been actually resumed ?
Yes, it has. Today.

Magic Sam said:
How is it going ? Always the same simple questions... If you can't answer them, maybe Craig could...

It's too early to tell really - it's not quite lunchtime yet, so unless Craig is doing an intensive time-and-motion study he won't know the answer yet - and if he IS doing an intensive time-and-motion study then he can't answer you because he's busy doing an intensive time-and-motion study.

Ta!
 
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Hi Monk,

I **HATE** being fooled around for months !

Truth is, it will take ages before the 1st batch is entirely shipped: 3 "being trained" assembly people + lack of everything (boards, then cases) + Chinese Factory...

I just want the OPT to recognize this, and stop this kind of crap:
New boards are already on the way, so by the end of this week, we should probably have 700 - 800 units delivered!

Until it happens, I'll keep on asking the good questions, the ones who hurt ;)

Bye, Magic Sam
 
Magic Sam said:
Hi Monk,

I **HATE** being fooled around for months !

Truth is, it will take ages before the 1st batch is entirely shipped: 3 "being trained" assembly people + lack of everything (boards, then cases) + Chinese Factory...

I just want the OPT to recognize this, and stop this kind of crap:
New boards are already on the way, so by the end of this week, we should probably have 700 - 800 units delivered!

Until it happens, I'll keep on asking the good questions, the ones who hurt ;)

Bye, Magic Sam

Magic Sam

I read that 700-800 as delivered in total since the beginning of pandora time not produced and delivered this week.

otherwise we would call him magic craig and you just sam

tds48k
 
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@ tds48k: I agree with you, 700-800 total, so ~200-300 should have been shipped last week, and people like me in the [250-350] range should have received their Pandoras by now, which is unfortunately not the case, because assembly had stalled last week, and is believed to resume today :(

This is the information I sought yesterday, and which OPT has been so reluctant to give away ! :angry:

I feel really sorry for the late preorderers and 2nd batchers, it'll be a long wait for them :(

Bye, Magic Sam
 
Magic Sam said:
Hi Monk,

I **HATE** being fooled around for months !

I know EXACLY what you mean. I wish I didn't :(

Magic Sam said:
Truth is, it will take ages before the 1st batch is entirely shipped: 3 "being trained" assembly people + lack of everything (boards, then cases) + Chinese Factory...

I just want the OPT to recognize this, and stop this kind of crap:
New boards are already on the way, so by the end of this week, we should probably have 700 - 800 units delivered!

Until it happens, I'll keep on asking the good questions, the ones who hurt ;)

Bye, Magic Sam

LOL. Well, having just been told off for apparently being constantly anti-OP and trying to make them look like liars, I guess I'm in no position to critique your posts - any and all objections removed! I don't think you'll ever stop that style of posting though. If they were as bluntly honest as we'd like, their order books would be a LOT emptier than they are, I suspect.
 
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Monk said:
I guess I'm in no position to critique your posts - any and all objections removed! I don't think you'll ever stop that style of posting though.
There is something I don't understand :huh:
What's with my style of posting ?
Bye, Magic Sam
 
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Magic Sam said:
Hi Monk,

I **HATE** being fooled around for months !

Truth is, it will take ages before the 1st batch is entirely shipped: 3 "being trained" assembly people + lack of everything (boards, then cases) + Chinese Factory...

I just want the OPT to recognize this, and stop this kind of crap:
New boards are already on the way, so by the end of this week, we should probably have 700 - 800 units delivered!

Until it happens, I'll keep on asking the good questions, the ones who hurt ;)

Bye, Magic Sam

Well - guess what... I did post that AS AN ANSWER to a question how things currently are. And no, I could not know that UPS did need two days longer than they planned to deliver the LCD cables from UK to me, so I did not know I couldn't ship them back soldered before Thursady to Craig's place.

If those two days delay hadn't been shipping would've been started on Thursday / Friday.

And THAT is the problem. If we say what's currently happening and what we try to do ("probably have!!"), there will be complaints when it didn't work out for any reason.

We make assumptions - people are annoyed they turn out to be true.
We don't make assumptions - people are annoyed there is no information.

We had this over and over during the last years - regardless what we do, people will be annoyed.

We started building them, improved quality control, try to finish those units as fast as possible.
How come this is not enough information? Asking over and over again will only slow down things... I spent a few hours replying to the same questions over and over again last week... I'd rather have worked on the next Hotfix, but that will have to be delayed now.

And if there is a question unanswered, it means we ourselves do not know the answer at the moment. There's no need for another another another and another thread....
 
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Magic Sam said:
@ tds48k: I agree with you, 700-800 total, so ~200-300 should have been shipped last week, and people like me in the [250-350] range should have received their Pandoras by now, which is unfortunately not the case, because assembly had stalled last week, and is believed to resume today :(

This is the information I sought yesterday, and which OPT has been so reluctant to give away ! :angry:

I feel really sorry for the late preorderers and 2nd batchers, it'll be a long wait for them :(

Bye, Magic Sam

Assembly had not been stalled, just other things had been done like putting the LCDs into the top frame so that later on the LCD Cables can be applied.
Or testing broken boards to see if they can be fixed here or need to be sent back to Texas.
Or drilling more L/R Buttons.
Or applying DPads to the keymat.

This is all part of the building process - even if no Pandora is fully assembled after them. But they speed up assembly in the future.

And last week, 500 had been shipped alltogether, as the 200 units were currently in building process. That's why I clearly wrote "probably" in my post and not "for sure".
 
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Magic Sam said:
I feel really sorry for the late preorderers and 2nd batchers, it'll be a long wait for them :(
I has been a really long wait. The wait during an actually running production feels like mere formality to me.

I feel really sorry for the people who still nag around :(

The magic break point - user videos on youtube - has been reached.
 
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@ ED

When I started this thread yesterday, all I wanted was a small update on what was going on at the assembly site...I've been expecting a shipping confirmation mail all week long, and was a little disappointed, that's all...

It was 7 pages ago, never had so much replies in 3 years, most of the time people just ignore me, like here :(

I'll no longer post about the Pandora until I finally get mine.

EDIT: bad luck, I changed my mind !

Bye, and thanks OPT for all your hard work, I know you're doing your best.

Magic Sam
 
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Magic Sam said:
@Moxie: please be polite, I just asked for some news, no big deal... The Pandora is worth the wait, I'll not withdraw my support, I just wanted a small update...

Polite gets as polite does. When you are polite, I'll be polite. When you behave like an ass, I'll do likewise.

BUT GOOD NEWS: I now have all the information I wanted, though no OPT members actually answered me...

Thanks Alerino for quoting twitter, it's quite useful... "Full time Pandora building resumes today". [...]

...which you would have gotten, just like anybody else, without the tantrum display.
 
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Monk said:
Moxie said:
For FUCKS SAKE!!! IT IS F*CKING SUNDAY!!!

I do not know how to put this politely

This much is clear :(

I work as a university teacher. This means I get periods of very, very heavy workload (i.e. grading exams at the end of the term). I know the stress of working around the clock for deadlines. I sometimes have students IMing me in the middle of the night, or calling me on saturday evening (having somehow found my mobile number). I know how stressful and demoralizing it is to be considered fair game around the clock. And still, I usually only have to live with it a few weeks, at worst.

At the very least, grown-up people ought to realise the basic division between professional and private time. If you have anything to ask of me in my professional capacity, you do it (and expect answers in) office hours.
 
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Magic Sam said:
Monk said:
I guess I'm in no position to critique your posts - any and all objections removed! I don't think you'll ever stop that style of posting though.
There is something I don't understand :huh:
What's with my style of posting ?

LOL no - OpenPandora's style of posting misleading/inaccurate information, is what I meant. you know the way they'll say "Oh, the case company can knock out all 10,000 cases in one day" and leave off "bot of course most of those will be for different products, not the Pandora" or "except the cases will need to be sent for painting and that will take 3 weeks" or... well, you catch my drift. Or of repeating their latest bit of news isntead of an answer to what you asked. I don't think you're going to manage to change THEIR style of information delivery - as the last 18 months hasn't noticeably changed it. But I wish you luck!

For example:

EvilDragon said:
How come this is not enough information? Asking over and over again will only slow down things... I spent a few hours replying to the same questions over and over again last week... I'd rather have worked on the next Hotfix, but that will have to be delayed now.

Perhaps if you had a central location for such information - be it a news thread, a "Answers here" thread, a moderated forum, a (and so on) then you might not waste so much time typing out the same answers over and over? The blog certainly doesn't seem to get updated often, or answer many of these peoples questions :(

And don't you feel guilty for PERSONALLY delaying the next Hotfix? For shame! :(

Moxie said:
I work as a university teacher. This means I get periods of very, very heavy workload (i.e. grading exams at the end of the term). I know the stress of working around the clock for deadlines. I sometimes have students IMing me in the middle of the night, or calling me on saturday evening (having somehow found my mobile number). I know how stressful and demoralizing it is to be considered fair game around the clock. And still, I usually only have to live with it a few weeks, at worst.

I sympathise. I have similar issues, except that - sadly - they are not limited to term times. Oh, how I sometimes wish my phones stopped working at the weekend! Especially Sundays!
 
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