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Roadtesting stats

neuromodulator

Today out of boredom and curiosity, motivated by other posts on site stats I decided to compute some stats of the published roadtests. There are a couple of interesting things that can be computed and would be interesting to know, specially in terms of correlations. For instance, do member points increase the chances of winning expensive items? What about number of posts? There are many questions I was wondering about to better understand the dynamics of the system. One of the first questions (and easiest to answer with my data) was how many users have won and published different amount of roadtests. And the results I obtained were these:

 

1: 359

2: 68

3: 32

4: 11

5: 9

6: 10

7: 7

8: 2

9: 0

10: 2

11: 3

12: 1

13: 1

14: 2

15: 0

16: 0

17: 1

18: 1

 

That is, 356 users have won and published 1 roadtest, and 1 user has won and published 18 roadtests. Ideally I would like to count won roadtests (not just published ones), having such data would also be useful to calculate the number of users that win roadtests and never publish anything. Other interesting stats could be to analyse trends, for instance, have the number of words in roadtests reviews increased? As the competition has gotten harder, I would expect to see some visible trends since the beginning of the roadtesting program.

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    An R&S oscilloscope Tek  PA1000PA1000 Analyser and bunch of other bits You lucky person

  • in reply to COMPACT

    Very much so element14 have taken good care of me and I've taken very good care of the equipment The upcoming BA6010 RoadTest(in progress makes use of five pieces of previously awarded RoadTest equipment(Tek  PA1000PA1000 B&K Model 8600 Keysight  E36103AE36103A PSU Keithley Model 2110 DMM and Picoscope 2205A mainly for convenience for the full"gauntlet of tests Can't say I'm not putting the equipment to good use the test equipment tests the test equipment image.

     

    - Gough

     

    EDIT Forgot to mention the Keysight  U1461AU1461A which got a quick cameo just to verify the calibration on my Keithley 2110 hadn't changed significantly in all these years Also grabbed my own Agilent  U1733CU1733C LCR Meter for a comparison check on top What can I say Lucky but also thorough with applications and reviews I would think otherwise I wouldn't keep getting selected

     

    Now all I need is a VNA/TDR, IR camera, 3D Printer, non-contact voltmeter, CNC mill, drill press, laser engraver .... (dreams off into the distance) ... just kidding image.

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    Well put.

    That was exactly what I was thinking for answering

    I've have avoided RT's where I don't have the skills (or equipment) to do a proper test.

     

     

    I'd really think twice about submitting a proposal if it were to be publicised

    I'm struggling to understand just what secrets would be in your accepted proposal (as in you have been selected to do the Road Test) that you can't share ..... (personal details redacted of course)

    This is a proposal for Road Tests (although the Design Challenge also fits) and you're happy to provide those details to the element14 staff and a sponsor (or sponsors).

     

    Mark

  • in reply to Gough Lui
    But in truth, sometimes it's nothing you did wrong per-se

    Exactly.

    Hopefully this would allow the non selected to see this, and to be fair, Randall has been commenting about the high numbers of worthy proposals and how they've had to limit the choices.

     

  • in reply to gsgill112

    Road tests where the tester is learning can be excellent road tests. Every device needs every user to go through a learning curve and often the ease with which the user learns a device is an important factor in the product's success. I'm sure many successful applications demonstrate a sincere desire to learn about the product and faithfully blog about the experience. You may need to demonstrate an ability to make a good blog about learning a new product in order to help gain credibility.Just pick any product you have access to and blog about your learning experience. Every road test I ever did involved a learning curve. It always starts before I've even written the application and it is pretty powerful if you demonstrate what you have already learned about the product in your application. If you are looking for a secret to success - that is one of them.

  • I've applied for three RoadTests and I've been selected for one; one of the RoadTests is still accepting applications, so it's too early to know whether I'll be selected for that one. On the test that I wasn't selected for, my application was viewed three times, so it seems likely that I made it past at least the first cut-down.

    The approach I take when writing an application is to try to acquaint the reader with my background in the area, and then present the most detailed test plan I can without being excessively verbose. I never promise to do anything I can't do, and if there is some test I'd like to perform but I'm uncertain about my ability to pull it off, I am completely forthright about that fact. I don't apply for anything that I feel unqualified to test; I will happily apply to test things that I feel only marginally qualified to test, because if you're not willing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, you're unlikely to improve your skills.


  • My stats.

     

    • RoadTests Won - 5
    • RoadTests Published - 5
    • RoadTests Applied - 6
    • Years to first roadtest - 2

     

    I do focus on some quite niche products, two of them were quite similar CapSense MBR3 and Elegant and Robust Capacitive Touch Interfaces - Review  and one came via the TopMembers group in the form of a short project (Building a Render Farm with a Bitscope Blade Quatro ). The biggest roadtest and hence the biggest report was the CEL Robox 3D Printer - Review

     

    My approach is the reverse of Russell so I typically start with the plan of action and then why I'm qualified to to do the test.

     

    I don't think I've applied for anything I'm not qualified to test but most of the reviews I've had to learn quite a bit to complete them.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    I don't think I've published the whole of the application but definately my plan of what I want to test. I do sometimes get ideas or feedback that I try to incorporate into the test.

  • in reply to mcb1

    I don’t necessarily think it would be too much Mark, probably things similar to those “obvious” personal details you mention being redacted - you know, the things that go without saying sometimes!

     

    Some of my Roadtest applications have taken advantage of customer work and on-site testing that wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate to publish quite so openly, and I imagine some other people may have similar.

     

    Whilst it’s only a small thing, it would still be a barrier to automatically publishing accepted applications.

     

    A