Sorry I have been so quiet lately. We had our meet-up(which was awesome), then I got sick(not so awesome), then Thanksgiving(yum), then catching up with everything else going on(ugh). I received the sample lot of 10 and distributed them to a couple other guys already and have another to go out soon.
So far they look pretty good. One was a little streaky, but I want to test it more extensively. I am thinking there needs to be some sort of rating system on these. What I came up with so far was:
A+ = Looks perfect and functions perfect.
A = Looks really good, functions perfect. Differences might be slight heat effects on the LEDs when you are viewing them with light off, close up.
B = Functions perfect, but definitely looks a little rough. This is basically the line I would draw and not accept any worse than this. Basically, good enough to not be worth the return shipping expense.
People I have spoken to vary in what they want to buy but the majority say they want to pay more for the A+.
The idea would be if you pay for A+, you get that. If you pay for A, you get an A or better. I (and others) felt this was a fair way to set expectations right for the product. I have seen a few different panels that area gnarly. I expect most companies selling these are buying up the rejects and refurbishing them. Remember, these things go on giant screens and nobody puts them under the scrutiny that we pinball folk do.
So I am going to be doing some more testing this weekend and grind the numbers and come up with what makes it worth doing. If all goes good with testing we will be doing a 100 piece order, enough for 50 panels.
Aaron
FAST Pinball