What Is Your Most Memorable RoadTest Review of 2020?

2020 is wrapped up and here comes 2021!

For myself, 2020 flew by at supersonic speed. Given the Covid-19 lockdown in Chicago, as well as elsewhere, last year will surely be memorable to all of us. I hope you and your family are healthy and safe. As the vaccines are distributed around the world, I'm sure we will all be safer as the months go by.

One of the things the element14 team is doing right now, is putting together their "Best of" end-of-year reviews of the element14 community. I am putting together my highlights of the RoadTest program. But I thought it would be good to learn what was your most memorable roadtest review of 2020?

If you have the time, perhaps you can leave a comment, including a link, with a few sentences (or more, as you wish) why you thought it was memorable for you.

There are no right or wrong answers here. A memorable review can be a complex piece of test equipment or even a cool "hand" tool.

Thank You for being part of the element14 community.

Sincerely,

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program Manager

Andrew J over 5 years ago

There's been a lot this year, but the two I got the most out of where:

STM32H7B3I-DK - DISCOVERY KIT - Review by Jan Cumps
Keithley 2450 SMU with I-V Tracer Software - Review by Gough Lui

In particular, I'm not that clued up on SMUs and Gough's reviews are always extremely thorough so you can learn a lot by reading through them and then researching trains of thought
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Fred27 over 5 years ago in reply to colporteur

He got very angry very quickly, didn't he? Please excuse my amusement.

For what it's worth. I'd say that most current NXP devices are reasonably well supported with sample code, etc. I don't think a beginner would have any problems getting started with any of their microcontrollers. Even the more complex ones would be fine if you stick to the basics, (although obviously there's no point having features you're not using).
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colporteur over 5 years ago in reply to Gough Lui

Yeah, I read the review and foolishly went back for seconds but woke the troll under the bridge instead. I'm still curious about the vendor claims that the product is for beginners. I was interested in the RoadTest because of that claim. I would be starting at bare metal for knowledge if I attempted the RoadTest.
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kmikemoo over 5 years ago

Full disclosure, my favorite Roadtests were products that interested me. There were many great reviews, but the ones I remember are the ones that has stuff that intrigued me.
3GHz Spectrum Analyzer - R&S FPC1000 - Review
Portable Multi-Channel Recorder - Review
Digilent OpenLogger Kit - Review
IDT ZMOD4410 Indoor Air Quality Raspberry Pi HAT - Review
Some of the others... over my head - but brilliant none the less.
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Gough Lui over 5 years ago in reply to colporteur

Oh wow ... those NXP LPCXpresso54S018M RoadTest responses were definitely not what I expected ... and yet somehow I missed them. Glad you mentioned them here for my morning entertainment .

- Gough
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colporteur over 5 years ago

To answer the question, I had to do some research. Since some of my applications were successful, thoughts of those RoadTest Review over shadowed some of the other great work. It took a few mouse clicks to page back to the beginning of 2020. I suspect a few may be tail-end-charlies from 2019.

Any how, I pursued the list while drinking a cup of tea and here are memorable ones.
PicoScope 6424E Oscilloscope + Accessories :how much more you can learn when good equipment is in the hands of masters
Raspberry Pi HQ Camera :great insight from a practical approach
Microduino Quadcopter Kit : I want one but, not this one.
NXP LPCXpresso54S018M + Display :got my arsed chewed off for asking a question. shabaz has to stroke a bruised ego
ACCESS:bit for micro:bit :insight from a young computer user
NXP S32K-ISELED LED Lighting Solution :who knew you could do that with car lighting
Cool Tools 2020: USB Soldering Iron : was sceptical but was proven otherwise
Raspberry Pi4B (4GB) plus POE Hat : learned a lot about POE. You need more than the just the Hat to get performance
PicoLog Data Logger + Raspberry Pi 4 (included) : I want one to figure out why my water heater is not working
Infineon Blockchain Starter Kit :so that is blockchain and how it is used
Weller Soldering Station WT Series :tip holder confusion with insight from beginners, intermediate and professional
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Gough Lui over 5 years ago in reply to 14rhb

14rhb wrote:

causing quite a bit of confusion amongst the cohort of RoadTesters
On reflection we did carry that discussion on a very long time for such a minor point
It did make it quite memorable though !

- Gough
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14rhb over 5 years ago in reply to Gough Lui

causing quite a bit of confusion amongst the cohort of RoadTesters
On reflection we did carry that discussion on a very long time for such a minor point
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Gough Lui over 5 years ago
It's hard to pick favourites - but there's been quite a few interesting RoadTests and interesting reviews:
14rhb's Weller Soldering Station WT Series Review for a comprehensive review, but also because that product seemed to ship with a stand that lets the tip touch the sponge, causing quite a bit of confusion amongst the cohort of RoadTesters.
three-phase's review of the Tektronix AFG31052 Signal ARB/Function Generator - another comprehensive and interesting review that looks at a wide range of functions.
dougw's review of the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera for the gorgeous photos of the ESD-trained cat.
gpolder's RoadTest of the Rohde & Schwarz NGP814 Power Supply which introduced me to the Graphical View capability (which I received on my NGM202 after a firmware update).
All three reviewers (cmelement14, colporteur and michaelkellett) of the PicoScope 6424E Oscilloscope and Accessories for delivering very comprehensive reviews which I enjoyed reading (and am still finding time to go through). Unfortunate about the shipping mix-up on that one.
The Tektronix 3-Series MDO RoadTest when both reviewers encountered some quality issues with the oscilloscope.

Lots of great RoadTests this year ... it's been a great year and I definitely found myself thinking about all the RoadTests that I did as they were all very interesting to me (which is why I do them).

- Gough
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Jan Cumps over 5 years ago in reply to michaelkellett

I particularly liked a few of the smaller ones, and their reviews:
Vishay Synchronous Buck Regulator EV Board
ACCESS:bit for micro:bit
Sensirion Gas/Temp/Humidity Sensor Kit
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