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In Honor of element14's 10th Birthday: What is Your Favorite RoadTest Bundle?

rscasny

The 10th birthday of element14 is just around the corner. It's quite an accomplishment. I'm sure most online communities come and go, and only a few survive that long. My colleagues have been talking about doing something for this special event. I thought I would throw my hat into the ring, so to speak, and offer up a question for everyone in the RoadTest group to answer. Here it is:image

 

If you had a chance to pick the products to bundle together for a single roadtest, what would they be? We have roadtested a lot of amazing products over the years. From Raspberry Pis to oscilloscopes to connector kits to cool hand tools, and more. What more is there???!!!

 

Be creative and have some fun with this. I don't want to limit you. Think of this in a small way as your "Dream RoadTest." To help you think about your Favorite RoadTest Bundle, I went back and looked at the types of products we have roadtested over the years. They seem to be in the following categories:

 

  • Test Equipment
  • Soldering and Product Equipment (remember the Fume Extractor)
  • Hand Tools
  • Single Board Computers
  • Development Boards (Wireless, IoT, Sensing, Analog, etc.)
  • Antennas
  • Enclosures
  • Connectors
  • Debuggers
  • 3D Printer (back in Christian DeFeo's days)
  • Robot kits

 

To participate, leave a comment below and list the parts of the bundle and a brief explanation of why you chose the parts you included.

 

Sincerely,

 

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program Manager

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  • Hi Randall,

     

    Firstly, I really love the diversity of products offered through your roadtest scheme, there is always something there to stretch the learning or build on personal electronics capability. From your identified categories I prefer a mix of:

    • Single Board Computers & Development Boards (Wireless, IoT, Sensing, Analog, etc.).....something new and cool to learn.
    • Test Equipment & Soldering and Product Equipment (remember the Fume Extractor) & Hand Tools...always nice to increase my capability to make/explore electronics further

     

    Your Molex antenna roadtest was particularly interesting as, like most other roadtesters, I lacked the tools-of-the-trade and had to find others ways of testing.

     

    A roadtest bundle can be as simple as providing a few additional parts, cables, adpaters to allow a novice to explore that device. Therefore future roadtests I would like to see are:

    • Spectrum Analyser - something that could measure up to 3GHz, bundled with a few SMA-RP, SMA, N, BNC adapters and cables
    • Software Defined Radio - bundled with a few wideband antennas
    • Any new dev boards - perhaps bundle with expansion boards like Grove or PMod and a PSU if necessary
    • Any new concepts/items - like FPGA boards, SDR again, Artificial Intelligence
    • PCB prototyping - a UV 'etching' eg XY plotter, UV light box, engraver mill or etch tank ?
    • Mechanical engineering - a mill bundled with a few bits, a cordless drill (would need a real project like builder to test it out properly)
    • A micro-lathe for metalworking - bundled with cutters
    • Oscilloscopes are always a great roadtest to see/apply for - the lower priced ones being interesting for many hobbyists and the roadtest reports on the expensive ones are great when looking for a new scope at work. Bundling with scope probes or a function generator? This is the first thing that can accelerate any electronics engineer's progress. Most other things we can make.
    • I agree with about SMT: any of the bundles he suggests would be popular...bundled with fine SMT tweezers

     

    What is great about the Element 14 roadtests is that I actually believe the comments are impartial as we cab read the other comments and activity of that poster. When I read reviews on other online sites I'm skeptical if they are written by actual purchasers.

     

    I always enjoy having a look to see what is being offered for testing vs. my planned timescales in the next 2-3 months....lots of great items on there at the moment as well image

     

    Rod

Reply

  • Hi Randall,

     

    Firstly, I really love the diversity of products offered through your roadtest scheme, there is always something there to stretch the learning or build on personal electronics capability. From your identified categories I prefer a mix of:

    • Single Board Computers & Development Boards (Wireless, IoT, Sensing, Analog, etc.).....something new and cool to learn.
    • Test Equipment & Soldering and Product Equipment (remember the Fume Extractor) & Hand Tools...always nice to increase my capability to make/explore electronics further

     

    Your Molex antenna roadtest was particularly interesting as, like most other roadtesters, I lacked the tools-of-the-trade and had to find others ways of testing.

     

    A roadtest bundle can be as simple as providing a few additional parts, cables, adpaters to allow a novice to explore that device. Therefore future roadtests I would like to see are:

    • Spectrum Analyser - something that could measure up to 3GHz, bundled with a few SMA-RP, SMA, N, BNC adapters and cables
    • Software Defined Radio - bundled with a few wideband antennas
    • Any new dev boards - perhaps bundle with expansion boards like Grove or PMod and a PSU if necessary
    • Any new concepts/items - like FPGA boards, SDR again, Artificial Intelligence
    • PCB prototyping - a UV 'etching' eg XY plotter, UV light box, engraver mill or etch tank ?
    • Mechanical engineering - a mill bundled with a few bits, a cordless drill (would need a real project like builder to test it out properly)
    • A micro-lathe for metalworking - bundled with cutters
    • Oscilloscopes are always a great roadtest to see/apply for - the lower priced ones being interesting for many hobbyists and the roadtest reports on the expensive ones are great when looking for a new scope at work. Bundling with scope probes or a function generator? This is the first thing that can accelerate any electronics engineer's progress. Most other things we can make.
    • I agree with about SMT: any of the bundles he suggests would be popular...bundled with fine SMT tweezers

     

    What is great about the Element 14 roadtests is that I actually believe the comments are impartial as we cab read the other comments and activity of that poster. When I read reviews on other online sites I'm skeptical if they are written by actual purchasers.

     

    I always enjoy having a look to see what is being offered for testing vs. my planned timescales in the next 2-3 months....lots of great items on there at the moment as well image

     

    Rod

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