Project14 | Poll to Decide the June '19 Competition!

Here is another idea for a future poll: an electronic toy - in case it hasn't cropped up before.

Toys may seem a little too juvenile for this forum, but toy design can be very sophisticated and it is definitely big business.

Games and toys often drive the electronics industry to develop new technology.

Sounds a great idea with plenty of avenues to choose from - executive toy, puzzle toy, educational toy, cuddly toy...

Another twist might be some form of collaborative challenge similar to the Rube Goldberg Machine where there is a standard input/output interface requirement which allows the output of one member's machine to be able to connect to the input of another member's machine. RGMs have been suggested before but without the collaboration element. This could be an on-going theme, perhaps even using the monthly theme as a basis for each new module. The interface could perhaps be a 3D printed component to help ensure a degree of compatibility.

I like that idea. Would we all post them off to E14 HQ to physically connect them together (nice but not very practical) or were you thinking of a virtual connection so that as one device finishes it triggers another one on the other side of the planet?

I like that idea. Would we all post them off to E14 HQ to physically connect them together (nice but not very practical) or were you thinking of a virtual connection so that as one device finishes it triggers another one on the other side of the planet?

It could take a number of forms and is of course open for discussion.

Initially I was thinking of Doug's electronic toy idea and how it would be good if one could somehow make a collective Rube Goldberg Machine out of it. For this to work E14 would need to host a standard interface spec, and ideally designs submitted would be sufficiently documented in order to be reproducible by others joining in. That way people could build the modules they like and connect them together in the order they like similar to the collaborative RGM events.

Another idea as you suggest was along the lines of submitting the finished modules to the E14 HQ for use at maker type shows etc. Virtual connections had also crossed my mind taking RGM into the IoT world.

As far as I am aware, the RGM contests currently rely on mechanical coupling via the ball bearings, but here at E14 we perhaps could also have an electronic element to it in that each interface has an electronic bus which passes from module to module. If the module is purely mechanical, then this might just be a pass through connection, whereas other modules may use it for a synchronisation clock or perhaps modify the data being sent in some way.