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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Poll: How Can I Get You More Active In The RoadTest Program?

Greetings. If you don't know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Randall Scasny and I manage the element14 RoadTest Program. While I know some of you, I don't know all of the 5,352 members who follow the RoadTest group. I am always interested in getting more members involved in this program. I'm always looking for good roadtesters who are committed to producing a review everything can enjoy to read and experience. That's why I am writing today: What Can I do to get you more active in the roadtest program? My poll covers the range of things I consider when working with suppliers on offering a particular product to roadtest. If you have other things on your mind, feel free to add them in your comments.

  • Here is the original video for Road Testing:

     

    I can say the spirit of these has been kept, with many good things added by . Due to his hard work and behind the scenes work, we have better choices and even better reviews. I wish to tip my hat off to him and all the other fine crew at Element 14. If you agree, please sound off. Without the dedication, this would not be possible!image

  • @ you are doing a fantastic job with the road test program. Keep it up.

     

    Even though I am retired, I can't seem to find enough time to keep up with all the stuff that pops up on e14, let alone progress my own project work, or even write a road test application. This situation is particularly acute in summer and autumn!! My last blog was posted back in March and since then I made a few comments and fallen drastically behind reading all the things I am following!

     

    Life is full, especially when retired.

     

    I hope to get back soon to writing up my experiences with the Adafruit Feather Huzzah, which I won for my comment in the 10 year challenge:

    https://www.element14.com/community/community/project14/blog/2019/06/13/10-year-challenge-let-us-know-what-you-cant-live-without-for-a-swag-bag-with-an-esp8266-arduino-uno-or-nano-board#comment-158227

     

    Neil

  • For me its a combination of factors, which I could sum up as "potential return of investment". Applying to a RT is an investment, and actually doing it is also an investment. The potential return is an item (being a dev board and test equipment or some tool) that you can use later on, that you learned something new, and that you have written something (and which other people hopefully care about). And then there is the 'potential' thing - how likely is it that you get selected, and that the RT happens as you thought it will.

    When the item does not interest me, its a simple decision (or when its something I know I cannot test it, like the antenna kits).

    Then there are the interesting items, like e.g. the Beaglebone AI, or the RX65 Envision kit. They are useful, and touch an area I like to tinker with. And there aren't that many applicants, so one has a good chance to be selected (judging by Randall's comments, just completely filling out the form increases the chances by like 5 times or so...). But I know that doing a good road test for these is really taking some time. And when its not about a current project, this will come out of my already quite limited spare time. These items are also not that expensive to me (at least not now, this has changed quite a bit of the last years, fortunately), so when I might need them for a future project I can just buy them.

    And then there the things which are interesting, I know something about and which I would not buy otherwise - like the current Tektronix Series 3 MDO. I would really like to test it, and to write about it, just because I have so many uses for it. Yet I know that just writing the application will take several hours of reading documentation, coming up with a proposal and then refining it. So this is a significant investment, for a still slim chance of being selected.

    To sum it up: for some items the ration between the effort that needs to go into the road test, vs. the value you think you get of it are too bad (and I think this is the reason that sometimes RTs get abandoned - when you find out after you got the item how much effort it really is, not everybody feels motivated to continue). And sometimes its the ration between the effort you need to put into a good application versus the chances of being selected which makes you think twice.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Well, I never knew that was there. Thank you Dave image

  • in reply to 14rhb

    I think that is a custom stream.

     

    Click the 'Activity' text top right then click the '+' button top left next to 'Following' to create a 'new stream'

     

    You can then assign places to that stream and enable it for e-mail alerts in your preferences.

  • Time is also the limiting factor for me... my free time, not "time before roadtest is due".

     

    So to answer your question: "What Can I do to get you more active in the roadtest program?"

    Convince my employer to give me more time off image

     

    I'm also still working on a backlog of projects that need some e14 blogging in the near future image

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

  • in reply to colporteur

      mine is the same as your screenshot...no email watches shown.