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  • Author Author: srutledge
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How Well Do Recent RoadTest Products Match Your Current Skill Sets?

Roadtest products are selected as the result of meetings element14 has with roadtest sponsors. The products offered by sponsors are usually ones that they want to get feedback on or are new products that they want to introduce to potential customers. Roadtest products vary in range from STEM to hobbyist to general engineering to niche engineering products. Roadtests require some knowledge, but that varies based on the product being roadtested.

  • in reply to misaz

    Thanks for the reminder. Yes, I had been doing that. We had been launching fewer roadtests in the past year due to stocking issues. I generally would do that type of poll very early in my conversations with the sponsor. But lately there has been a wait on parts so, I did not start the poll. But I agree, I will start doing that again. 

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • in reply to rscasny

    self-study requirement is not the issue, I think. I think anyone always have to learn at least some knowledge when working with something new and I guess that very rarely somebody applies for thing which he/she already own.

    I see only difference that about one year back you was creating polls (for example this poll) that checked interest before publishing RoadTests officially. This polls very frequently opened discussion which gave some hints to people thinking about applying. I think it make sense to open these polls about one week before publishing new RoadTest, so people will get one week more for thinking about it and can provide some hints if something is missing in the kit and so on.

  • My concern had been that perhaps we aren't matching well due to the dearth of roadtest applicants in the past months. But this poll and comments attached is making me think otherwise. Must be some be other reasons. I really try to get a range of roadtest products for all levels of skill. Often times element14 pays out of our budget for STEM or hobbyist products to make sure everyone has something to apply for. But there have been logistical logjams lately, preventlng me from getting parts. I also think that you have to go into a roadtest assuming you will need to do some self-study. But isn't that typically part of most engineering work? I think it is. It will be interesting so see how this plays out as more people vote. Thank you for participating.

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • Another thing worth mentining maybe, is that the process of RoadTesting makes one (if they want to be) almost the world expert on that particular product, finding out stuff that goes beyond the user manuals and so on. I don't know if manufacturers recognize that or not, but fellow RoadTesters do I'm sure, and are in a good position to support others who might need advice on whether a product will solve their problems or not.

  • I think in the past 6 months (for example), there has been a good mix, something for everyone.

    There were ones suitable for all, friendly for both professionals and newcomers to engineering (e.g. soldering irons, crimp tools and so on are almost universal for all sorts of engineers to explore and review), as well as test and measurement products like 'scopes and multimeters which again a lot of people would have the skill-set to review and would benefit from as well, plus more specialist stuff which was useful for expanding engineering knowledge, i.e. expanding one's skill-set slightly, which all engineers are (or should be) good at. For instance, there were GAN products which are a relatively new phenomenon (well, a decade or more, but it takes time for products to come down in price and be adopted in all sorts of designs - so a RoadTest of these types of products are good too).

    There were also RoadTests of products which were a pleasant mental challenge to explore how to use and write applications for - an example was a data acquisition card for Raspberry Pi, which I enjoyed reviewing, and in the process, have ended up with a very handy solution for data logging with the code me and a colleague (Jan) wrote.

    The sensor RoadTests are also interesting, because it's certainly within the skillset of most engineers to connect to them to make use of them, and these sensors are often quite novel or new on the market, so I believe readers benefit a huge amount from that, I certainly do. I've bought sensors and boards based from people's reviews in the past.

    Self-study is required for most RoadTest products, whether it's readying a datasheet or larger user manual, or reading around a topic. (I'm sure most reviewers do some self-study to do a good job on the reviews.