This is a little long, but I figure folks will read it since there is never in real news posted here…
I am an engineer and was recently involved in the production and installation/distribution of a product for a multinational Aircraft. My company did not design or qualify the product, we assembled the item from a kit of parts, with most of the electrical components supplied by the OEM and the mechanical parts fabricated in the US in a “build to print” using the OEM’s drawings and fabrication processes.
The versions of the aircraft from country to country are virtually the same, but in the area of our product fit, there was a slight difference between the mechanical interface of the US aircraft and the aircraft built for the OEM’s home country.
The difference in the mechanical interface was not discovered until we had several hundred devices distributed across the country to our customer’s aircraft maintenance facilities. Out of the box, the things did not fit the aircraft and as such they had a box that did not work. (Sound familiar).
Of course the OEM said it fit in their aircraft so the problem must be on our end. It took months of design reviews, trips to the aircraft, to our vendors and to the OEM to not just get to the root of the problem, but to fix it all the while trying the keep the customer informed on when their aircraft would be flying with the new system they paid a lot of money for. (It was their problem and they had modified their aircraft for the box to fit because it was easier for them rather redesign their box)
Does all this sound like what is happening to the STB.
We did find and fix the issues and had to do recalls and field service trips, but now the customer is happy and all this is a distance nightmare.
The difference between what we did and what I see in this forum on the STB is information. Once our problem was identified, we had daily conferences with the customer. We had to offer up a timeline and specifics actions we would take as well as the risk to whether or not we could find a fix, and how to get it into the field once it was fixed. This timeline changed as the problems were identified and the exact change that was need was implemented.
Information is the key and that is what I don’t see here. I know that that DVDFab guys are working their butts off to save face and fix this issue, but I think their customers (current and future) need to be kept abreast of the plan, a possible timeline and what has been found and what has been fixed. What is the true bug list, what works and what does not? A proposed schedule of firmware fixes. (Don’t wait to fix everything, start with the stuff that kills or resets the box and go from there).
When the customer called and said his box didn’t fit in the plane, we did not know what we did not know. I am sure DVDFab is in the same situation.
Any information is better than none. I know these guys are working the problem. It would be nice to hear directly that: We hired x number of programmers with specifies in this that or the other. We have set up a testing lab, to exercise the unit. This is the working theory and how we propose to fix it. This is the status of this week and we are 100% confident that this issue can be fixed with a firmware release (or not)
I turn my STB on every weekend. It will play .FLV files off a thumb drive plugged into the side USB port. That works. And so far that’s cool and what I bought the thing for.
I am an engineer and was recently involved in the production and installation/distribution of a product for a multinational Aircraft. My company did not design or qualify the product, we assembled the item from a kit of parts, with most of the electrical components supplied by the OEM and the mechanical parts fabricated in the US in a “build to print” using the OEM’s drawings and fabrication processes.
The versions of the aircraft from country to country are virtually the same, but in the area of our product fit, there was a slight difference between the mechanical interface of the US aircraft and the aircraft built for the OEM’s home country.
The difference in the mechanical interface was not discovered until we had several hundred devices distributed across the country to our customer’s aircraft maintenance facilities. Out of the box, the things did not fit the aircraft and as such they had a box that did not work. (Sound familiar).
Of course the OEM said it fit in their aircraft so the problem must be on our end. It took months of design reviews, trips to the aircraft, to our vendors and to the OEM to not just get to the root of the problem, but to fix it all the while trying the keep the customer informed on when their aircraft would be flying with the new system they paid a lot of money for. (It was their problem and they had modified their aircraft for the box to fit because it was easier for them rather redesign their box)
Does all this sound like what is happening to the STB.
We did find and fix the issues and had to do recalls and field service trips, but now the customer is happy and all this is a distance nightmare.
The difference between what we did and what I see in this forum on the STB is information. Once our problem was identified, we had daily conferences with the customer. We had to offer up a timeline and specifics actions we would take as well as the risk to whether or not we could find a fix, and how to get it into the field once it was fixed. This timeline changed as the problems were identified and the exact change that was need was implemented.
Information is the key and that is what I don’t see here. I know that that DVDFab guys are working their butts off to save face and fix this issue, but I think their customers (current and future) need to be kept abreast of the plan, a possible timeline and what has been found and what has been fixed. What is the true bug list, what works and what does not? A proposed schedule of firmware fixes. (Don’t wait to fix everything, start with the stuff that kills or resets the box and go from there).
When the customer called and said his box didn’t fit in the plane, we did not know what we did not know. I am sure DVDFab is in the same situation.
Any information is better than none. I know these guys are working the problem. It would be nice to hear directly that: We hired x number of programmers with specifies in this that or the other. We have set up a testing lab, to exercise the unit. This is the working theory and how we propose to fix it. This is the status of this week and we are 100% confident that this issue can be fixed with a firmware release (or not)
I turn my STB on every weekend. It will play .FLV files off a thumb drive plugged into the side USB port. That works. And so far that’s cool and what I bought the thing for.