POLL - Which Of These Products Would You Be Interested in Roadtesting?

Jan -- yes, you're right on all accounts. Roadtests can be learning experiences for people. I know you've roadtested many of the power-oriented roadtests that I've run. Many thanks for participating.

I believe that 4 out of 6 can be reviewed in a simple lab:

• Real Time Clock Shield Eval Kit
• Accelerometer Eval Board
• Energy Harvesting (EH) multisource demonstration board
• Energy measurement shield (Arduino-compatible)

A basic meter and a basic supply is the absolute minimum to validate electronics. There's no way around that, part of the trade.

> I have noticed over the last several years not as much interest in power-oriented eval/dev boards 

Send them all to me, Randall :). On an engineering forum, there is an audience for non-popular tests.

I had voted yes for those. My reasoning:

• Power designs are interesting. If learning electronics is a goal, then these will boost your skills for transistors, inductors, capacitors, PCB design, heat management and reality.
• evaluation kits allow you to learn / evaluate a product before you jump into designing with them. If we'd be asked to test a FET, gate driver IC, microcontroller, ... by only giving the component, we'd be in a complete different ballpark.

Seems like a number of people are interested in this board.

I can understand your feelings about eval kits being restrictive. I have noticed over the last several years not as much interest in power-oriented eval/dev boards than, say, an SBC, sensor board, even an FPGA board. Like I said to colporteur, one needs some test equipment. When I am in meetings with sponsors and we discuss power products, they talk about programmability, safety features, other features etc. Sometimes testing these  things don't seem like an exciting roadtest, especially if one is not designing power supplies. Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. 

Thanks for your comments. Great, honest, frank feedback. The best kind!

I think you got it right. I think most of these products are eval boards for specific components that would be used in a circuit design. A smart meter design. a power supply for X, Y, Z circuit. Unless one would need these components, the eval board may not have a purpose after the roadtest. So, these boards would be for the hardware engineer,. However, it's early in the year and I am gathering ideas for roadtests of single board computers or products for the maker/hobbyist. Thanks for your comment.

Yes, these roadtests would need test equipment. Multimeter, o'scope, variable dc power supply, electronic load that you can vary or some other kind of load. What test equipment are you lacking?

I'm extremely interested in the energy harvesting board as I have apps for it