What is the Main Deterrent to Participation?

Great points. I like the passion point, hopefully it encourages more members.

To your ideas point, I definitely find it difficult to come up with unique ideas for road tests when it is an instrument - these things are designed to perform a specific function, but if this is what you propose to blog about, it will be exactly the same as everyone else.

I suspect you are voicing the sentiments of many hard-working technical people. There is a definite opportunity cost to spending time on challenges and road tests that often affects decisions. Your other contributions are much appreciated, whether or not road tests are a viable option.

Hi Douglas,

I think that might be an excellent design challenge idea for Element 14.

Have noobies teamed with a mentor for a project and include all the questions and answers back and forth included in the posting.

Spanner, are you reading this?

DAB

Do any of the rats you fought looked like this one?

I'd like to add something. I've seen a few people talk about lack of confidence, maybe I'm not the right person, maybe there are better people, etc. I'm an author, I've written (in my name) two technical books; one on ARM processors, and one on Arduino. During a job interview, one person was so impressed that I wrote two book (that sell relatively well), that he called me "world class". I'm not. If I've learned anything by writing books, it is that there is always someone better than me, and often not the way I would expect. I'm not the best. So, if I can write two books, then you can roadtest. No, really. The only magic here is passion, the only factor is curiosity. This is an excellent way to get your hands on some cool stuff, and to have fun while you are at it (and maybe get your name out there too).

As for some comments on hardware, be careful of what you need. For my Arduino book, I put all my hardware away, and used a 20€ multimeter, bought in a supermarket, some low-end power supplies, and that's it. That's all I needed.

Remember, the selling point is the idea for the test, not the hardware or the knowledge. That's my weakness, people always come up with better ideas Now go, enroll, and have fun.

Road tests and Challenges are different things.

The Challenges don't interest me - mainly I'm busy with paying work and any spare time I might spend doing electronics and software is easily eaten up (10x over) by all the projects of my own.

Road Tests can be interesting (I've done a couple) but the rewards are (mainly) marginal  - only worth doing one if it is a subject of real interest. The occasional high value bits of test gear are popular but you still have to balance the time it takes to review one properly against what it's actually worth to you to get it. And if it is really worth having a professional engineer will have bought an equivalent already. So my main participation is the occasional blog and frequent responses to questions and other stuff (because these take smaller chunks of time).

MK

That is actually a very inspiring approach. Hopefully it pays off with lots of great equipment from road tests. A good point about the Dollar Store - it is pretty much my favorite place to get project materials.

The flood sounds like a biblical ordeal. Hope your house is more flood-proof now and hope you get back to more fun stuff soon.

When I was living downtown, we had some flooding that didn't reach our house, but it caused a rat infestation. We had to do hand-to-hand rat combat in the dirt floor cellar and spent a lot of effort rat-proofing the coal chute in the old house. However when the rats started fighting dirty and chewed up the wiring for my stereo, we moved to the burbs.

I chose the "I am not Confident".  Many of these challenges have some pretty darn awesome submissions from members to include using a variety of high end equipment/materials.  As such I find myself trying to implement more commonly found items when ever possible.  You may see a LOT of Dollar Store items being repurposed.  The idea being that any Member could use a common cheap item and especially new members may be intrigued enough to participate.

Personally I find that actually participating in a Challenge/Project from Element 14 gives me massive personal incentive to follow it through and try to expand it as much as possible.  I can let a solo project slip away due to other interests but when I am part of an Element 14 project I feel that is only appropriate to act as if I was being paid and keep working with the project and sharing as much as possible out to the other members.  I only hope that I can continue to grow and eventually provide a positive source of information to our Members the way some of top members do!

I chose other as well.  I would love to participate in a design challenge.  However, early last year my house flooded and I spent the better part of a year getting it re-built and ready to move back in.  At this point, we are back in our house, but I still have boxes of equipment, etc either in the garage or in storage somewhere.  So, I'm still spending what free time I have just trying to get back to normal.  Hopefully, by the time the next design challenge rolls around I will be in a position to participate.  In the mean time, I hope to get some of the projects I was working on prior to the flood up and running again.