Dave,
I am not sure of your schedule, but was wondering what comes of these kits after the episode? Such that, do you assemble them all, or maybe something you wouldn't want to disclose.
Mostly they are of no immediate relevance for me, so I just show them off, have a small play and they go into the kit basket maybe for future use.
The idea of the mailbag (apart from people actually liking watching me open my mail for some reason) is so that the midnight engineer can gets some exposure for their product/kit or whatever on the blog, a much bigger audience than they could otherwise reach. As well as showing potentially interesting stuff to viewers as well. And personally I think that's a rather good use of my blogs popularity, to help highlight what other people are doing. I think it's a format that is a win for everyone.
Because I'm always getting request from people to review their kit or product or whatever, and often that's difficult as full reviews take quite some time to produce, so I've had to turn down most peoples requests in the past. Which is a shame, because I like giving small producers some exposure.
The rotary encoder kit for example though, I plan to build that up (and film it too) as I think it might be fun and handy. And to kepp quiet those who complain I don't do enough soldering videos!
I know it depends on your availability and how busy your schedule is. Just seeing a lot of kits coming in. I know we have seen a small handful of devices in action... though suppose it really depends if it is presentable on your blog. Would it be a better potential to see devices in action if they were pre-assembled and operated in a stand-alone environment?
Note I do understand that it is just going over what people send you, and it isn't an attempt at advertising space. I suppose in the long run it wouldn't be feasible to assemble,debug, and present the devices which would require quite a bit more time than it does now.
Sure, and that's what full reviews are for.
A good review is going to take a full days work though, so I can't do this for everyone.
The mailbag though is pretty easy, it only takes not much more time than you see in the final video.
Those that personally interest me might get a second standalone video, like the Gecko micro board for example.
Anyway, great episode. I do love them, and it is always interesting to see what people send you. The only thought I have is that some of these kits are part of a larger setup, and the usability in some situations is minimal. Kind of like "I got a spare module/kit so lets send it to Dave", though only relevant to small devices (unlike the external camera for phone, which i'd consider exempt).
Yes, I'd rather people not send me something that just a spare board or whatever, and useless on it's own or whatever, it needs to be interesting for people.
I haven't opened a package yet though that's not worthy of at least a quick overview.
In any case the mailbag format seems to be working, and seems to be very popular, which I find rather surprising. So I'll continue to run with it. I can only go by the number of views and the comments and feedback (which are 99% positive)
BTW, that camera did make for an interesting teardown which I have already shot.
Dave.