Design Contest Win - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2012, 09:56:49 pm
content: Hey Dave,On an AmpHour episode right after either the 555 contest, or the Renesas contest, you went on for a while with suggestions for entering design contests. The part that stuck in my mind was that you REALLY emphasized the documentation.I took that to heart when I entered the recent ChipKIT design contest. While the hardware for my entry was really pretty simple, and the software was trivially easy, I took your advice and went the extra mile with the documentation. Lots of good pictures, professional standard schematics and diagrams, FULLY commented code, and a detailed (and spell and grammar checked) text discussion of the complete project. All in all, a 20-page PDF document.Bottom line, I took one of the "Honorable Mention" slots (and a nice modest cash award). No sour grapes, the projects that won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd completely deserved their awards. But, if I hadn't taken your advice, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have won at all.Thanks!! 8-)"John Schuch - Wireless Mesh Network Time Server"http://circuitcellar.com/contests/chipkit2012/

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2012, 10:40:30 pm
content: Congratulations!First class documentation.

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2012, 10:44:23 pm
content: Here's a link to the actual submitted document:https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6RQijPDiSPeb1Z6WDFybklUMmVQVmtzQnM1eklaQQ/edit?pli=1#(and thanks Hal!)

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2012, 11:23:03 pm
content: Nice work, first class!Yes, documentation really does pay off.And of course that's awesome material to take along to job interviews and put in the Resume too. So the time and effort can pay off big time down the track too.Graduates out there take note!Winning those contests is pretty pot luck though, you don't know what the judges think is "novel" and those other subjective things.Dave.

author: Mint.
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2012, 11:45:20 pm
content: Fantastic work there mate! Even though what you are talking about is beyond my understanding since I am just a beginner. It looks good and very professional.

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 12:16:24 am
content: Isn't D2 in schematic 1 oriented the wrong way?ps. Congrats and nice doco.

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 04:19:33 am
content: LOLYup, D2 is backwards in both schematics, and in the silkscreen.That's the problem with working solo. Fresh eyes always find the mistakes you can't see anymore.Thanks! I'll have to fix that.

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 08:12:34 am
content: Congrats, did you get the $500 prize as well? It was a nice surprise as I thought it was $200 for an honorable mention.Very nice documentation, amazing how long it takes to get everything together. We left our schematics and board layout far too late and only just got it in.For interest, our documentation is here,http://www.designspark.com/files/ds/CK78713_complete_documentation%20MPPT%20Report.pdfand our entry,http://www.designspark.com/node/78713Now you'll have to try the other bit of advice from Dave's video-use the same entry for some other contests!

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 02:10:06 pm
content: Congrats to you and your team too Dave! Your documentation is pretty impressive (and I'm going to stop mentioning mine is 20 pages now!) 8-)Yeah, the prize was a bit of a surprise. For the other readers, the contest rules said Honorable Mentions would win $200, but the email that we apparently both received said we won $500. Either they changed the prize, or the guy sending the email really screwed up. Either way, figured I'd wait to see the check.Good point about other contests. Guess I could recreate the PCB art in Eagle for the Eagle contest. :-)John

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 02:12:40 pm
content: By the way ... here's the Eagle contest I mentioned ...http://www.element14.com/community/groups/cadsoft-eagle-design-competition

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 08, 2012, 03:27:50 pm
content: A question of curiosity,Once you bring the GPS clock to the ground so to say, would it be possible to install alocal positioning systemto work over a small patch of land but with much higher resolution, say 1mm?Let's say we take a patch of land 100m by 100m (yards for US) and install 4 transponders at the corners of the patch. What transponders do is sync to the GPS clock, multiply the frequency by 100 and broadcast locally at suitable higher frequency forming a LPSnetwork. Such a network can be very useful for mapping archaeological sites, buildings, guiding robots, or even quadcopters.