Get Paid to Publish Your Project

[armandas]

Check this out, somebody is willing to pay 80 bucks for publishing your project: http://www.electronics-lab.com/action/submit_project/index.html

Just sent them the project I did last year at uni, hopefully they will accept it Somehow I feel this (business?) isn't going to last long

[Simon]

i personally would be more inclined to put a project on my own website or ebay in kit form or just the instructions, at least it's a more ongoing thing than a one off payment for as project that could be bigger than you thought it would be

[armandas]

i personally would be more inclined to put a project on my own website or ebay in kit form or just the instructions, at least it's a more ongoing thing than a one off payment for as project that could be bigger than you thought it would be

You obviously don't get the idea of getting a project published.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Electronics magazines (what's left of them) are always on the lookout for good stuff to publish, as it's cheaper to pay someone a small amount for a ready-made project than do it themselves. They will probably require that you don't publish it yourself for an agreed amount of time.

[Simon]

i personally would be more inclined to put a project on my own website or ebay in kit form or just the instructions, at least it's a more ongoing thing than a one off payment for as project that could be bigger than you thought it would be

You obviously don't get the idea of getting a project published.

well yes and no, i suppose if your a student looking to get into a reputable company it gives you some umf on your CV, for me as a hobbiest in a different industry it's a waste of time as if I do anything in electronics I'll be on my own (something to do with the wonderful electronics industry we have left here the crap education system)

[Simon]

yup me too. i dont get the idea. all it says, once the project is approve, an instant payment of $80, is that all? sounds like a patent offer to me (reveal your idea).

well exactly, they want to pay a measly $80 AND put limitations on what you can do with the project

For me and this is my opinion on my circumstance I'd rather make it and sell it or sell the kit, so many people do, the magazine is getting desperate as they are dying off (I've not bought a magazine since returning to the UK)

The only publishing in a magazine I'd want is an advert for my product

[Zero999]

I agree, $80 doesn't sound like much for a one-off payment.

Fortunately I know that the webmaster won't patent it as it's a hobbyist site.

I hope the quality control will be good this time, just take a look at some of the other projects on Electronics Lab which contain many errors or just won't work.

[JohnS_AZ]

Hmmm, that site is a little odd ...
- no terms or conditions given for their $80 deal
- no contact info other than the webmaster email address
- no indication of where they are based
- broken English / grammar mistakes everywhere

Maybe they are fishing for projects to turn into kits. They do have quite a long list of kits for sale. If that's their goal, $80 for the originator is a pretty lousy deal.

[Simon]

well I said it from the start ! the easier it sounds for you to get your money the easier it is for them to make off with your potential earnings

[JohnS_AZ]

If you're looking to make a few bucks, here's an alternative...

http://gadgetgangster.com/

In short, you send them a write up of your project, they publish it and produce a kit for it, and they send you a 20% royalty on all kit sales of your project. You retain rights, and you can still publish you project on your own website.

I haven't sent them anything so I can't give a first hand review, although I have a couple of small 'throw away' projects I might submit just to see how it works. At least they give a street address and a telephone number!

[slburris]

If you're looking to make a few bucks, here's an alternative...

http://gadgetgangster.com/

I was curious, so I went and looked at the site.  It seems they are only interested
in projects which use parts which they have in stock in their webstore.  I've got
a number of things I'm working on, but they contain ARM processors, FPGAs, and/or
DDS chips, so they won't work for me.

Looks like they are targeting Arduino/PICAXE level projects.

I wonder if there's anyone who kits more advanced projects as a service.
Maybe Sparkfun would?

Scott

[JohnS_AZ]

I've talked with GadgetGangsters in email and they are willing to add parts to their list as needed for projects they want to offer.

I wonder if there's anyone who kits more advanced projects as a service. Maybe Sparkfun would?

Shame, shame. You didn't listen to the link Dave posted on the EEVblog. 

The one about running an Open Source Hardware company... In it LadyAda says that their business model is expanding to selling projects/kits designed by others, who just don't want to deal with becoming a kit business.

[armandas]

If you're looking to make a few bucks, here's an alternative...

http://gadgetgangster.com/

I was curious, so I went and looked at the site.  It seems they are only interested
in projects which use parts which they have in stock in their webstore.  I've got
a number of things I'm working on, but they contain ARM processors, FPGAs, and/or
DDS chips, so they won't work for me.

Looks like they are targeting Arduino/PICAXE level projects.

I wonder if there's anyone who kits more advanced projects as a service.
Maybe Sparkfun would?

Scott

The project I sent was an FPGA based one. The guy said it's too complex for hobbyists ant won't be published. Oh well..

[Simon]

I'd always say that if you don't mind knocking up a few PCB's that for small stuff can be batch made then why not just sell it yourself with all these limitations various people put on. even if you sold a fraction you'd get the same income as the 20%, or you can have the boards made by a board maker and then you just have to pack and ship, job done.

[Zero999]

Hmmm, that site is a little odd ...
- no terms or conditions given for their $80 deal
- no contact info other than the webmaster email address
- no indication of where they are based
- broken English / grammar mistakes everywhere

Maybe they are fishing for projects to turn into kits. They do have quite a long list of kits for sale. If that's their goal, $80 for the originator is a pretty lousy deal.

Electronics Lab is based in Greece.

As far as I'm aware, they don't make kits.

He's just looking for some more projects to put on his site. He isn't a lawyer so probably knows nothing about terms and conditions: all he's said is that it can't be published elsewhere on the Internet.

[Simon]

sounds very el-cheapo and unreliable, if you have something that good people would even buy the instructions off you

[slburris]

I've talked with GadgetGangsters in email and they are willing to add parts to their list as needed for projects they want to offer.

I wonder if there's anyone who kits more advanced projects as a service. Maybe Sparkfun would?

Shame, shame. You didn't listen to the link Dave posted on the EEVblog. 

The one about running an Open Source Hardware company... In it LadyAda says that their business model is expanding to selling projects/kits designed by others, who just don't want to deal with becoming a kit business.

I suppose I could talk to them and see what kinds of things they are interested in carrying.  Just looking at the
Adafruit store, things seem to be mostly about AVR/Arduinos, which is a different market
than what I'm working on.  Not an FPGA in sight (at least the search didn't return anything).
Now the Ice Tube clock kit caught my eye -- I've seen those Russian made VFD tubes before.

Scott

[Zad]

Ask the people at Elektor, they have a huge European / American / Global circulation and are always looking for advanced projects to publish. They have PCB / kit support too.

[slburris]

The project I sent was an FPGA based one. The guy said it's too complex for hobbyists ant won't be published. Oh well..

IMHO I think that's ridiculous these days.  A few years ago it was too expensive for
hobbyists to work with FPGAs.  But now both Xilinx and Altera have free versions of
their software, and you can get 50,000 gate FPGAs for $5.52 qty 1 at Digikey
(the smallest Spartan 3A chip).

In any case, I'll bet most kit builders never change the microcontroller code, just
use the preprogrammed chips, so they probably wouldn't be changing the FPGA
bitstream anyway.  So how is this too complex for hobbyists?

The only impediment I see is the surface mount soldering, and it's possible to offer
kits with the SMD components already attached, so....

Scott

[slburris]

Ask the people at Elektor, they have a huge European / American / Global circulation and are always looking for advanced projects to publish. They have PCB / kit support too.

Yeah, I'm a subscriber.  I've also thought about seeing if Circuit Cellar would
be interested in a project (of course they are now owned by Elektor).

For me it comes down to I'm working on some projects that someone else might
be interested in.  I don't want to run a business selling kits, and I'm not quitting
my day job.  But if I could earn a little chip money (what others would call
"beer money"), that would be cool.

Maybe there's no market for advanced kits.  I haven't found much out there.
I'm currently building Scotty's Spectrum Analyzer (different Scott):
http://www.scottyspectrumanalyzer.com/

It's not offered as a kit, so it's been slow going for me to source the parts
and build it.  Luckily, a nice fellow in Australia built a cavity filter for me,
because I was pretty sure that was going to be my epic fail moment :-)

At the top of what I'm working on (meaning at least in schematic form if
not debugging a prototype), some projects I need for myself:

-- Stratum 1 NTP time server with simple hardware (basically FPGA and
    embedded processor).  Optional support for IRIG-B time code output
    and (maybe) WWVB as backup

-- DDS signal generator with touchscreen interface and ethernet (not GPIB)
    connectivity supporting LXI

(yes, I like putting ethernet on everything)

And just for fun, a retrocomputing project

-- CP/M system in an FPGA with a VGA interface virtualizing a VT100 terminal
    in a window with register displays and virtual toggle switches, kinda like
    the old Altair 8080

Scott

[Zero999]

The project I sent was an FPGA based one. The guy said it's too complex for hobbyists ant won't be published. Oh well..

My guess is he doesn't understand FPGAs so assumed it's too complex.

If I remember correctly, he's no electronics expert, he just runs the site for fun as well as making a little extra spare cash.

[EEVblog]

$80 is nothing, might as well add it to your own site and put up Google ads!
At least a mag like Silicon Chip pays $100 per page.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

i personally would be more inclined to put a project on my own website or ebay in kit form or just the instructions, at least it's a more ongoing thing than a one off payment for as project that could be bigger than you thought it would be

You obviously don't get the idea of getting a project published.

Getting your project on Electronics Lab is hardly "getting published"!

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Hmmm, that site is a little odd ...
- no terms or conditions given for their $80 deal
- no contact info other than the webmaster email address
- no indication of where they are based
- broken English / grammar mistakes everywhere

Maybe they are fishing for projects to turn into kits. They do have quite a long list of kits for sale. If that's their goal, $80 for the originator is a pretty lousy deal.

Electronics Lab is based in Greece.

As far as I'm aware, they don't make kits.

He's just looking for some more projects to put on his site. He isn't a lawyer so probably knows nothing about terms and conditions: all he's said is that it can't be published elsewhere on the Internet.

In that case it's a terrible deal, my advice is to avoid at all costs.

Dave.

[Simon]

well what you said Dave amounts to what I said in the first place for a measly $80 you can put it on your own website with the option of selling kits or pre built units with very little effort, not everyone can make a PCB and if your offering at least that with some basic instructions it's probably not too much work for some return