[second exodous]

mali, on 06 February 2010 - 11:45 AM, said:

second exodous, on 06 February 2010 - 07:40 PM, said:

Oh for crying out loud, you have 9 posts.

I think you should retire and post again after you got some sleep.

You're probably right, sorry again for biting your head off earlier.

[mali]

second exodous, on 06 February 2010 - 07:48 PM, said:

You're probably right, sorry again for biting your head off earlier.

I haven't taken offense :)

[second exodous]

MWeston, on 06 February 2010 - 11:47 AM, said:

Well I made it through 17 pages of this topic now so I should post a few comments.

First, I am not looking for perfection. That is an infinite process but there is such thing as a standard quality that any commercial device should meet. I spent so much time perfecting the guts of this thing and it is a true insult to my efforts to see this mold company send me such incomplete samples and call them 'final'. We will find out what level of purity the plastic was that made these cases. Maybe they know production plastic won't be swirled and greasy and so when they said we would be happy with these, they expected that we understood that. Communication is a tough one when they refuse to hold conversations for more than three minutes at a time. Don't ask me why they didn't put the silk screening on these parts because I was explicitly told they would have them. More lies.

There were a few more internal modifications for rev3 but most of the important ones came from the rev2 samples. A couple of changes for rev3 that I am happy about are a tighter fit on the screws which makes them feel more secure and closing up the nub surround so that the PCB isn't visible around the nub under certain lighting conditions. It also looks like they closed up a small gap in the lid that let a bit of backlight light shine through the front. The LCD cable slot took a step backwards with a bit of unevenness but since it was right last time, we can assume that more carefully made production parts will be back to normal.

The cases are still very solid. You can try to twist and bend them but they don't flex much. It will feel like a very solid device in your hands and functionally, everything works exactly as we want. The gaming controls are perfect. The keyboard is perfect and there has never been an issue with buttons getting stuck in the case or anything like that. The problems now are cosmetic. There are rough edges around the connectors, around the edges of that recessed channel in the front the SD cards, volume wheel, etc. and some on the edge of the base parts where the two halves go together. There are some sink marks too which might hide a bit better with a full, proper matte finish but they're there.

As some people have pointed out, a picture can say more than any amazing piece of software ever will and a reviewer crapping all over the case quality could spoil it for anyone considering the Pandora. I'm one of those people really. These cases aren't a disaster but I would want something to show off to my friends and having to explain the colored patches and rough edges is a little defeating.

Some pictures are posted on my photobucket and I'm not too sure making a video will show better quality. I will probably still make one anyway but unless I can really master the lighting, my 640x480 videos won't help you know if I'm holding a rev1, 2 or 3 case.

EDIT: Two more pages were written since typing this. Ah yes, the hinge area. There are clips in that area that hold the two halves tightly together and they screwed up somehow. On this revision, the recessed spots for the clips to sit in got completely evacuated and there are holes right through the case. They didn't do this on rev2. Rev2 just had roughness on the bottom edges of these parts and not the destruction of the clip channels like this time.

Grrr, I see your point. I'm fine with cosmetic imperfections so what ever you guys decide. If you put it to a vote then I'm voting green light though, I've lost all faith in this factory and I don't think it will get better. I do see your point though, I really do, but for me I'm willing to have my Pandora as is and promise to buy a new case at whatever you guys charge so you won't need to be embarrassed of my Pandora.

[gibberish]

yep, the cases look like crap. but unfortunately i dont think you'll ever get what you want from this company. the finish on these is worse than the previous ones! and the ports look like they were cut out with a hacksaw. what a bunch of jokers they are.

ah well, there goes the february/march release date.
2011, year of pandora :rolleyes:

[Pleng]

MWeston, on 06 February 2010 - 06:47 PM, said:

I spent so much time perfecting the guts of this thing and it is a true insult to my efforts to see this mold company send me such incomplete samples and call them 'final'.

Well that, I'm afraid, is the price you pay for going cross-country for your parts.

You as a company have decided to use a Chinese factory to produce a very small (in comparison to other potential orders) number of parts. You simply wont get the results you are looking for. It isn't going to happen. These parts look worse than the second set of parts and to me that says that the company are p*ssed off with you for di**ing them around too much (their view, not mine) for such a small order.

You now, having already paid the money in full, face the possibility (if you continue to irritate them) of them just never bothering to send you the cases. These things happen in less legislated companies. You're already finding our conversations restricted to three minutes (bizzare to say the least). The next stage is having your calls ignored completely and emails not responded to. Then you're left with 3000 shell-less Pandoras. And as your producing in China you have absolutely no chance of any kind of successful legal action.

I've seen it happen before.

Take the cases or risk having to go through the whole process again, if you can even afford it.

[Wonderdog]

I'll take one - my first case is getting stripped, sanded, primed and and airbrushed on arrival anyway, so I couldnt give a flying feck how crappy the finish on the initial units is anyway!

Dealing with domestic contractors can be hard enough, I empathise with anyone forced to deal with contractors on another continent.

#Wonderdog

[purplesky]

second exodous, on 06 February 2010 - 06:40 PM, said:

Oh for crying out loud, you have 9 posts.

So???
I have worked in plastics and mouldings for at least 9 years if that makes any difference to you?

[Dead1nside]

I'm of the same opinion as you MWeston, I think it's actually insulting to send this kind of thing to you. There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with communication that needs to be resolved, as we're just wasting away weeks and months on these.

Surely it's in there best interest to satisfy us as customers because otherwise we're just going to string them along until they've done what's been asked of them?

The keymat looks awesome, someone mentioned something about the < > alignment but the quality looks so good and professional, I'm very pleased with those which in a way makes the cases worse. I would not accept a case like that.

How are you meant to make a proper judgement and just trust that things will be remedied when things like the ribbon cable slot you've said have regressed. We need to see the silk screening and the matte finish at least.

[purplesky]

Magic Sam, on 06 February 2010 - 06:44 PM, said:

Hi,

I know these cases lack finish and silkscreen, but this hinge picture is really scary.

IMHO, MWeston should give a RED LIGHT again, and ask the Chinese factory to do a better work next time...

Bye, Magic Sam

Very scary isn't it.
To be honest, it's an insult to everyone I know who works with moulds and plastics, me included.

[Polossatik]

Maybe an idea to get someone a ticket to those chaps (preferably someone who speaks chinese) and stay's there until they made 4000 cases, take the molds and bugger off with the molds and cases to the UK?

no?

[GunPei2X]

These ones will be marked First Batch anyway, so imperfections will probably be expected. As long as the hinges won't have that issue and the case fits together well, I reckon just go with 500-1,000 of these to start with.

I know you guys would like a product every bit as good as a PSP or DS, but in reality this is a homebrew project and expectations shouldn't be as high.

MWeston, could you please make up a complete Pandora with this case so we can see how everything fits?

This post has been edited by GunPei2X: 06 February 2010 - 07:13 PM

[second exodous]

purplesky, on 06 February 2010 - 12:02 PM, said:

second exodous, on 06 February 2010 - 06:40 PM, said:

Oh for crying out loud, you have 9 posts.

So???
I have worked in plastics and mouldings for at least 9 years if that makes any difference to you?

10. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm sorry, bad day for me, and it didn't have anything to do with the Pandora, I'm not usually like this.

[hosant]

Hmmm, it does look rough around the edges. But I reserve my judgment until I see a full assembled pandora.

[fusion_power]

Magic Sam, on 06 February 2010 - 07:44 PM, said:

Hi,

I know these cases lack finish and silkscreen, but this hinge picture is really scary.

IMHO, MWeston should give a RED LIGHT again, and ask the Chinese factory to do a better work next time...

Bye, Magic Sam

I think this is one of the Problems: maybne the Chinese think this IS the finish and silkscreening. ;)
Thanx for The Pix MWeston. But I really can't understand how the Factory needed over 5 Months to deliver such a "final" Case.
And when they really lied, then don't trust them ever. No western Company could last a day with such a behavior they do. Very strange that such a Factory can even exist.

[MiniSinisterMinister]

Having seen the photos, I think OP shouldn't continue to piss the Chinese company off by more complaints about the sub-standard quality of the cases. To be honest I didn't except more than that from the project in the first place. What is really important to me is functionality. So please, be sane, safe the project and get us our Pandoras.