Hey Road Testers!  What product(s) would you love to get your hands on?

Hi All -  Thanks for your awesome input and discussion about your most wanted products - I'll take this back to our product and supplier teams and see what we can rustle up for you all!

Also, R_Phoenix &  cookieglitch - Sorry the thread is acting up for you - from your description it definitely sounds like there's a technical issue going on.  Sometimes the issues are related to the internet browser version (ie. Safari, Internet Explorer 8, FireFox ect...).  For example, I use FireFox and don't seem to have an issue with this browser.  If you'd like to send a screen shot of what you're seeing I'll pass along to our technical support team for investigation.

thanks!

Nicole

Yet another way of doing road tests would be that wannabe roadtesters post their planned project and what would they like to use for it and element14 + vendors decide what and to whom they would like to give for a spin giving tech support along the way as most likely vendors will want to give latest technology to test. Progress and final outcome of project should be posted as a review or appnote or whatever comes out of it.

Hi,

I would like to see some software based roadtests with alone or together with hardware kits from supliers such as Cadsoft Eagle, Keil, CrossWorks etc. For example, Element14 may propose some hardware kits and softwares and then users create their projects with real code based on the hardware kit they selected ( in this stage, i don't think that a real product is necessary to write code for it ). There may be a poll to select for best ,say 5, votes and then Element14 and supliers choose the best one or how many will be awarded. Later the winners are awarded with the real hardware kit and related software licence to make their projects in real word and then they can post their final results.

This kind of roadtest is better, i think.

Best regards,

Firat Kocak

In terms of the original question - FPGA devices seem to be on the up and up so any development system along those lines e.g. Cypress would be a good product for Road Test purposes. And it goes without saying that tools and equipment would be high on everyone's yes list.

With regard to the many other comments, some of the replies appear to want to change the Road Test into some sort of competition which, in my eyes, is not what the spirit of Road Test is all about. As it stands now the application process specifically asks why do you want to Road Test a particular product - it's up to you to enter here why you want to just as it would be if you were at an interview and was asked why do you want the job. It's then down to those who read these responses to select who they feel is/are the right person\s to do the review of that item.

My best,

Kioseus Znook.

My relationship with electronics is that I would love to learn more and develop that inner Techie.

Any and all of the responses listed as to what to test would be fine by me.

I'm happy to give anything a go, rather than just a specific item - equipment, parts, FPGA, Arduino with Velleman LCD's, whatever. I'm down with it and will give it a good going over.

Not much help I know, but like GlaDOS (and Wheatley in Portal 2), I like to test.

hey i love to work with different electronics and mostly controllers like atmel ,texas etc .

and evaluation board is the best way to learn it.

i will use it in my final year project for better evaluation of project and something new will be added in it

i will share  each and every moment in e14.

thank u

I have to agree Kioseus, however the reason why you want to test is (according to Element14) meaningless as the selection process is "totally random". So that really has no bearing.

Most of the other options discussed won't be cost effective to give everyone tools or supplies that want to blink LEDs, so obviously the projects must be meaningful, productive and original. Then comes a whole lot of questions like - who owns the rights to the project? I'm sure there will be stipulations imposed. How long will these projects take before another is selected. How quickly will support be dropped if money gets tight? What happens if the person doing the project bails or can no longer continue? There are just far to many "What if's?"

I don't mean to sound like doom and gloom but I would hate to see this turn into yet another coupon clipping/spam site. If Farnell/Element14 wants to back certian projects they can do that in addition to the normal road test.

Sensors and IMUs, especially ones that claim to give accurate dead reckoning

EDIT: Upon further reading, it appears you want more of a 'sponser my project' system. This is an interesting idea: it fosters innovative projects and provides initial reviews and beta testing that roadtests current setup already provides. By letting the engineers drive by coming up with their own projects, several marketable inventions might come out of it, which is an added bonus to the developers who are then the most likely supplier.

Hi, i really like put my hands on arduino products, i want make some projects but it's spencive buy this items in my country, so if you make a road test with arduino i want to know.

I like some projects with arduino for medical devices, patients monitoring. thanks.

I'm in the same situation as Joseph Dorn above. It has been 20 years since I could last call myself a maker so getting my hands on Arduino or other embedded devices would be great. Also my test equipment is getting on a bit so maybe some PC based test equipment would be nice too. I like designing user interfaces as well so something along those lines - capacitive touch switches, touch panels etc. would be good.