>> So, how about a major distributor like Arrow, Digikey,
>> Radio Spares, Mouser ? They are the ones who are
>> competing for our dollar, not Microchip

>Great idea -- hope someone can talk 'em into that!
>Was that you I heard volunteering?  8-)  I doubt
>they'd listen much to me, and I spend about as
>much time handling list server bounces as I'm
>willing to devote to this.

To get one of these distributors to sponsor something like this, you will
probably need to be able to source any and all parts through that
distributor, or have the distributor able to source the parts if it is an
item they currently do not carry, so that they are able to market the thing
as a complete kit, complete with PCB, to anyone else. This would probably be
a condition that they would impose anyway in agreeing to sponsor a contest.



I have an idea that I have been pondering for some time which would be an
ideal candidate for the Olimex contest, but it would take me at least 12
months to get to a working prototype. However the device would be small, and
about 8 to 12 would fit on a Eurocard (100mm x 160mm) board.

What implications would there be in having holes or slots so that the board
could be broken into "project sized" PCB's, as I envisage my project would
be purchased as the Eurocard sized PCB, because the end users will want
and/or need multiples of the project PCB.

And then there is the PCB design, what happens if you get your PCB made and
you then find there is a mistake, but the design is already posted on the
contest site, and Olimex have the board available?

Is the contest assuming that you have already obtained an etched PCB from
somewhere (possibly another board house) and verified the layout by building
one, and then Olimex are going to provide another free one of the same
design? In my case because of the type of project it is, this would not be a
problem as I will probably need more than one Eurocard's worth of the
project PCB's.

I think the contest is a great idea, and is a way of getting a small project
"to market" for a hobbyist who has a design that could be useful to others
in their hobby, but it will take a while to get some entries for the
contest.

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