Project14 Prizes

You can win. When I have seen participation from Gough Lui for a first time I also thought the same, but as you can see, over years, I won a lot. I did not win all competitions I joined, but if you join with something at lest slightly smart, chances for winning are pretty high.

It was manual process and it was error prone. And actually, errors hapened a lot. Often I did not receive some part, once I received part with slightly different part number for similar price, once I received 100pcs while I requested 1, and so on. Usually I Ignored it, but one time, Invoice in first package which I received contained part with slightly different part number (HS300 3R F) other than I requested (HS3003) and it was much more expensive and useless for me. But because the more expensive part was out of stock and was not present in first package, I requested store support to cancel it from order (I known order number because it was print on invoice which farnell prints and bundle to the package), so element14 was no billed for it, I guess. And I did not receive it.

I guess that entering my shopping carts was always awful experience for staff.

I am not sure what exactly happens on element14 side but consider requesting part list as a CSV file which you can import to your system rather than sending basket by email and manually adding all items. BOM import tool work well on farnell site. It is reliable and can import even hundreds of items without any manual interaction. Btw. I am not sure if farnell after latest redesigns even offer "Send basket by email" feature.

misaz said:

It was manual process and it was error prone. And actually, errors hapened a lot. Often I did not receive some part, once I received part with slightly different part number for similar price, once I received 100pcs while I requested 1, and so on.

Confirming this. I didn't receive the last cart that I won.

Btw, if you want to see how many items Tariq had to add to basket, you can look my blogs. I always sum up and blogged about Project14 rewards which I received:

2024-03-15: Received Project14 Holiday Special Grand Prize

2023-07-19: Received Off-the-Grid Project14 Reward

2023-03-06: Received RFID and NFC Project14 Reward

2022-11-22: Received Project14 World in Motion Reward

2022-07-14: Received Project14 7-segment Display Competition Reward

Create Feedback and Support ticket. Maybe it get lost when there were staff changes in team. I create ticket about missing Design Challenge reward here:  Contest rewards and after few months, I yesterday received notification that my reward is shipped and on the way. It tooks long but I guess that if you remind yourself, they will manage it.

Sometimes I shrug and move on. I've since purchased components myself and in design mode.

misaz said:

chances for winning are pretty high

I've been fortunate enough arriving 2nd or 3rd, and I'm pretty good at getting the participation ribbons

but I think I've only had a 1st place once for these project type competitions. Thankfully element14 always had a handful of prizes. It might be more difficult when it's down to just one prize now.

I agree, the shopping carts were a great way to fund future projects and were a useful addition to traditional prizes. Design challenges and road tests already provide motivation for members who like the prize format. Maybe the shopping cart program could use the regular Newark/Farnell ordering infrastructure - it just needs a method of payment like a gift card, voucher or an account credit. The shipping, duty, brokerage and taxes might still be problematic though. It is another incentive for distributors to implement a pre-paid shipping and brokerage service, especially since they could negotiate a much better deal than an individual on an individual purchase. This may already be available on larger orders, but shopping carts need to be large enough to ensure these fees are included.

I participate in contests for lots of reasons, but there is a usually a go/no go decision based on the sum of the positive reasons such as kudos, the prize, bragging rights, free kit, project challenge, learning opportunity, creative outlet, achievement satisfaction,  available parts, and technical interaction versus the drawbacks such as cost, effort, time commitment, risk, public critique and ridicule, financial feasibility, etc.

Shopping cart prizes played an important role that exceeded a single contest and a single positive reason since they significantly impacted the available parts factor which is critical in making projects financially feasible and also critical in meeting project deadlines.

JoRatcliffe said:

Out of general curiosity, if you could not have a shopping cart, is there another prize that would definitely make you sign up for a competition?

 jobatcliffe Herein lies the problem:  Right now, it's a spectrum analyzer BUT... once I have one, it's no longer a motivator.  It used to be a decent soldering station, then a hot air station, then a bench power supply, then a multifunction device like the Analog Discovery 3 or the ADALM 2000...  

SO here's my crazy idea... prize groups.  Grand prize gets to choose the soldering station OR the power supply OR the huge inflatable spider for the front lawn.  I don't think any of us expects that should we win, the prize will be on our doorstep in a week - so requisition/buy it after it's selected.  On the off chance it's no longer available, contact the winner and find a different suitable prize.

OR...
e14 active wear or less-than-active wear ensemble.  Vest, golf umbrella and a thermal mug.  Resurrect the dancing blue guy.

element14 "neon" desk lamp.

SMD starter kit (resistors, capacitors, inductors & LEDs)

Since the Newark/Farnell gift card doesn't exist yet, crazy ideas are better than no ideas. 

dougw said:

I agree, the shopping carts were a great way to fund future projects

You could call it "pay it forward". I bet that a lot* of components made it into a blog.

*sample of one: in my case virtually all of them