RE: How To Deal with RoadTest Goals That Were Unachievable

Robert Peter Oakes — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 17:13:43 GMT

From my perspective, I like to suggest what I will do with the product to review it and also want my plans would be post review.

As many of the comments have correctly stated, dont over promise on the road test itself and then fail. and Don't over promise just to get the goods either, this is unfair to the other potential reviewers and the sponsors. Lastly dont try to get it all done in one post with everything you promised. Break it down and post as you go. for example

1. Unboxing and what's provided, what is the quality of probes, construction etc. perhaps power it up to see the initial interfaces. Now post this.

2. Tear it apart (If you're brave enough and you dont have to break something to get it apart), this is not for everyone, experienced folks like the TM;s are quite fearless for this kind of thing but dont feel you have to do it is you're not comfortable with it.

3. Do something practical with it, you must have thought of a one or more applications / review topics when you applied for the road test, if you can't actually do them you should not have applied, so do one of them, on a bread board, strip board, or using your other test equipment, whatever it takes to complete your review scenario, comment on how easy it was (Or Not), how usable was the product in the scenario, did you have to add a bunch of other things in order to even get the product up and running, what could the manufacturer do to fix that etc. This is the main part of the review, the manufacturer wants your opinion, not a variation of their own marketing material, they want the good and the bad, dont be afraid to say what you think, just dont make it personal or use profanity, its supposed to be constructive feedback based on your proposed and now executed review scenario...

Now you have effectively satisfied the Road Test requirements, by breaking it up, you have three easy posts and won't be thinking you have way too much to do and leave it to the last minute to post or do nothing. You can post each bit separately and go back and edit to add the subsequent parts.

4 Do something else practical with it.....

5. repeat 4 until you run out of ideas or steam....

Now you have some more street cred (Community Cred really), your building points, people are seeing you keen and are interested in this nice shiny new toy (Yes for us there toys from our favorite toy store, E14 [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-76bec1be-0699-456b-a343-db167c7aa218/5086.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16] ) and are demonstrating you want to share your experience beyond just trying to get free gear and your improving your chance to get more in the future, and even better, keep it up long enough with this and other products or projects you may get invited to the Top Members invite only group or be selected for Member of the Month.. now there's a reward [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-76bec1be-0699-456b-a343-db167c7aa218/5086.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

For bigger (AKA More Expensive) products I will often perform an initial review to satisfy the road test requirements (NOT A RE-WRITE of the market material though), more of a how easy is it to use, it the UI (If appropriate) intuitive and easy to use, how much can you do before reading the manual as it were [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-76bec1be-0699-456b-a343-db167c7aa218/5086.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16], I will also perform a couple of real life scenarios with the product, either by writing code for a typical application, as would be the case for an ADC, DAC, or other EVM type product, or some practical Measurement scenarios if it is a lab or hand held instrument.

Now I have satisfied the Official review.

so it is time to have more fun, for instance getting the 33622A ARB to make a BAT Signal or use it to measure how long a wire is using reflectometry (Still with a BAT theme in this case). the point is that if the product warrants it, people love to see more interesting things being one with it. and if it is a scope, DMM, ARB etc then your typically getting something worth a lot of money so its worth the effort to say thank you in the form of going the extra mile to show people how to use it in more fun or practical ways.

Atleast, thats how I see it.

RE: How To Deal with RoadTest Goals That Were Unachievable

awneil — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 08:54:12 GMT

I think you misunderstood the purpose of a "road test".

Thinking generically; not specific to E14: a road test of a car is a quick try-out - it is not an expedition.

The outcome of a "road test" is an opinion of the car - not a travelogue on your expedition.

So, even if your expedition was not a "success", you can still give a review of how the car itself performed...

Or, in this case, how the RPi itself performed.

RE: How To Deal with RoadTest Goals That Were Unachievable

adsicks — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:16:39 GMT

I agree with this. It is only a total failure if it is not shared, thus becoming experience. I'm curious what you wound up doing. It seems like you could have used something like Jasper and used IEEE Spectrum on a higher level from that data set or something.....

RE: How To Deal with RoadTest Goals That Were Unachievable

mcb1 — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 00:42:57 GMT

Well done.

A failure is not a failure unless you don't learn anything from it.

The exception may be making exactly the same mistake again ... especially if you already knew it would fail ....

Sadly us organic creatures seem to learn more from trying and failing that any other method, but that should not be an excuse to not try.

Just as you've shown, while your original project goal may not have been fully achieved, you have contributed by porting the project to a RPi, and who knows what the future holds.

Cheers

Mark