The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

RE: The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

mcb1 — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 07:21:10 GMT

Interesting issue and ethics.

Because someone else has a WiFi connected temperature sensor, it doesn't mean another company or individual can't do the same.

If you were to use the same case and look, it would be copyright.

If you used the same chipset and transmission/protocols it could be considered copying either by obtaining the information or reverse engineering.

The fact you have proposed something that provides a similar function but uses different methods (WiFi is just a means of passing the data) IMO is not reverse Engineering.

Regardless the proposal is yours, and you've communicated with the organisers, and made it very clear about the change and why.

Well done.

Personally I'd stick with your original method and if you have time to produce a modified control mechanism, then add it as a second phase or option.

As [mention:4966e6ad97f64dac9ea8919abb220e1d:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] said project creep can kill projects, and these Design Challenges do catch out participants that SHOULD know better.

Mark

RE: The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

e14phil — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 10:14:54 GMT

Great blog!

I am glad you can adapt and move on, I find its the key to being most successful in life.

RE: The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

DAB — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 20:45:07 GMT

It is early enough in the cycle to do the change you suggest, but be aware, changes in a project always lead to more time and cost.

There is no such thing as a free change.

I have seen many a project fail due to requirements creep as neat changes were made during the build cycle. It seldom ended well.

I agree that your change will help you control the smoker, but you might have waited until you had some operational data to verify it was needed.

It will be interesting to see if your change proves worthwhile.

DAB

RE: The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

dixonselvan — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:09:14 GMT

Hi [mention:1fda336ef1bc4aa886efdaf1cf684040:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] ,

Excellent and genuine decision regarding the change from your original proposed version. You still have time and Element14 community behind you to guide in case you get out of track. All the best to complete your new version.

RE: The Cooker Connector - Blog #2.5: A Slight Change of Plans (Pi Chef Challenge)

genebren — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:47:03 GMT

Jonathan,

Interesting changes. There are quite a few PID controllers controllers out there that do something similar to what you are proposing. I did not do an exhaustive search, but what I saw were units that used a fan/blower under program control, fed into the lower vents of the grill to regulate the cooking temperature. I did not see one that was damper only control like you are mentioning.

I was not aware that the intent of these projects was to produce something that was completely novel. Sometimes things can have similar function, but use a different implementation. It seemed to me that the spirit of these project competitions is to present an implementation of a concept using a set of specified components.

I await your future posts to see where this goes.

Enjoy!

Gene