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

[Bored@Work]

I remember when the gadgetgangster guy toured several electronics forums and got laughed at. At that time it was a free PCB and parts to lure people into doing kits for him.

And this Electronics Labs thing? Electronics Labs is one of these annoying "aggregation" sites. The project section and "blog" don't have original content, just stuff scraped from the web and publications like datasheets, freeloading on the work of others. There are a few of those electronic sites around. Circuit Projects is another. They "conveniently" forget to attribute their sources. And don't get me started on Hack a Day. If you follow these sites you quickly figure they all copy from each other.

[EEVblog]

I remember when the gadgetgangster guy toured several electronics forums and got laughed at. At that time it was a free PCB and parts to lure people into doing kits for him.

And this Electronics Labs thing? Electronics Labs is one of these annoying "aggregation" sites. The project section and "blog" don't have original content, just stuff scraped from the web and publications like datasheets, freeloading on the work of others. There are a few of those electronic sites around. Circuit Projects is another. They "conveniently" forget to attribute their sources. And don't get me started on Hack a Day. If you follow these sites you quickly figure they all copy from each other.

Isn't Hack-A-Day just a blog which show-cases others people's work (with attribution)? If so I don't see the problem, that's the nature of many blogs. Or is there something else more sinister going on I'm not aware of?
They have posted a few of my videos and I certainly appreciate the extra hits!

Dave.

[Simon]

I remember when the gadgetgangster guy toured several electronics forums and got laughed at. At that time it was a free PCB and parts to lure people into doing kits for him.

And this Electronics Labs thing? Electronics Labs is one of these annoying "aggregation" sites. The project section and "blog" don't have original content, just stuff scraped from the web and publications like datasheets, freeloading on the work of others. There are a few of those electronic sites around. Circuit Projects is another. They "conveniently" forget to attribute their sources. And don't get me started on Hack a Day. If you follow these sites you quickly figure they all copy from each other.

reminds me of a book "about" PIC's I bough and resold very very quickly, after half a small book of some basic explanations about general electronics in a book that was soley about PIC MCU's and some not very laughable humour he then duplicated a number of fairly advanced projects from the microchip website, ok he gave credit but the whole book was a rip off. It's just a thing of today's society and personally I'd like to see all books reviewed by a competent body before been published.

[Zero999]

I've posted my concerns in the thread on Electronics Lab and might post a link to this thread.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/forum/index.php?topic=20610.msg93599#msg93599

The first project has been published.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/test/012/index.html
There's a 10µF capacitor which appears to be connected backwards and there's no explanation of how 5V is derived from three AA cells with a reverse polarity protection diode in series (3.9V). This doesn't look very good, maybe if you have a project you're unsure about or can't get to work you should submit it, you'll get $80, a thread will be created by someone who's trying to build it and a load of people will correct the project for you.

Also note that the terms and conditions only state that it can't be published elsewhere on the Internet, which means it can be in a book magazine and you can still sell kits, as long as you don't publish a manual with he schematic and code on the Internet.

[EEVblog]

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.

FYI, Elektor (and Silicon Chip) turned down my uWatch project.
But then Elektor went and published a thing on it in an old gear "retro" column, go figure.

The reasons?
Silicon Chip claimed there was no call for calculators any more!, and no one would ever want to build one.
They were wrong on both counts. It sold more kits than a few of my previous published Silicon Chip projects, and most of the projects they publish for that matter.

I got no reason from Elektor. I presume it's because it wasn't easily "kit-able" for them. I'm sure they make a shit-load on kits.

Dave.

[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.

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

Dave.

I was talking in more general sense. If you want your project to be successful, you need as much publicity as possible. Of course, if you are going to sell kits, you will not want to give away "some rights" for a one-off payment.

In my case, I had a ready report on design of a VHDL based project. If I could get $80 for allowing the report to be published on someone's website, I'd consider it a win

[Simon]

to be honest I'd not touch that site, if they publish that rubbish they're not worth it

[Mechatrommer]

The first project has been published.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/test/012/index.html

this is cool. they publish all the detail. i think its going to be a fantastic eeinfo site. but for a serious profitable idea, i dont think so. so i guess we can publish our simple elcheapo ideas there.

[Simon]

yea it's worth a shot to they might buy a schematic of a light bulb and a battery and we can sell our good projects ourselves

[Bored@Work]

Isn't Hack-A-Day just a blog which show-cases others people's work (with attribution)? If so I don't see the problem, that's the nature of many blogs. Or is there something else more sinister going on I'm not aware of?

Nothing sinister in the case of HAck-A-Day. It is just that I don't like that kind of blog. They grab everything they can find, produce no own original content and don't provide any added value for me.

In case of Hack A Day they write  half-assed summaries, have little or no taste when selecting "hacks" and lack understanding of what they write about. But a lot of chest thumping how great they are. And I hate their site design with dark, ugly background colors.

[JohnS_AZ]

I'd have to disagree about Hack-a-day. As a reader, while I agree that they produce no original content and their signal to noise ratio isn't perfect, they manage to pull together many items in one place that I would have to search dozens if not hundreds of blogs to find. I actually follow three tech blogs: Hack-a-day, Hacked Gadgets, and the Make blog. Together they save me a boat load of time.

As an occasional blogger myself those sites are invaluable. Post a tech story or project and send it to all three. If one or more of them repost your item it'll appear in another few dozen blogs and the final hit rate can be amazing.

I posted a positively -stupid- simple article about building a one-zone sprinkler timer. The first couple days it got a hundred or so hits. I sent it to Hacked-Gadgets who posted it. Hack-a-day and Make snagged it from there. In short at the end of one week the article had more than 20,000 hits, and by the end of the cycle (3 weeks) it had received more than 50,000. Looking at the site stats I found that it had been picked up by 30+ blogs plus stumble and a couple other referral sites. Now, several years later and thanks to Google, that article STILL gets a couple hundred hits a month.

As for the black background ... *shrug*... It's a matter of taste.

[nmcclana]

Hey There!  I'm the Gadget Gangster guy,

I came up with the idea about 2 years ago.  Initially, I thought people could make decent projects just on perfboard, but it doesn't work well.  Now, we mostly do custom PCB's for submitted projects - it's great for builders (easier to put together) and designers can create more sophisticated projects, but it means we have to be much more selective on the projects we publish.  We also do a lot of 1st party stuff, including development tools for the Propeller. 

$80 for doing a writeup on your project isn't bad, as long as you maintain the rights.  If it is something you're going to do anyway, then it's just a bonus.

[JohnS_AZ]

Hi there!

So I should ditch the perf boards you sent me ... oh ... 18 months ago? 

What kinds of projects are you guys looking for these days?

[nmcclana]

Ha!  You can still submit a project using the old boards, although most projects are better off on a custom PCB.  You can either submit gerbers or send us boards.  We do the kitting, order processing, shipping, etc.  A few designers will also just send us pre-kitted projects (e.g., VGA AV).

Best sellers are R/C (e.g., Simple Servo Tester), Audio (e.g., SidStick), and Development (e.g., Propeller Platform).  Our component inventory is limited, but if there's something your project needs, we can usually add it in.   

Designing kits for resale is challenging.  The most common mistake I see is designing something that's too expensive.  You also have to design something that people actually would find useful or fun.  A lot of designers do projects that were fun for them to create, but may not fill a market need.  If you have an idea you want to pass by me, just shoot me an email: nick (at) gadgetgangster.com

[JohnS_AZ]

(Nick, sent you an email about old business)

Not so much this forum, but judging by some of the others I follow (like Make) I think there could be a strong market for a series of low part count educational kits. Along the lines of Radio Shack's old P-Box kits (seriously showing my age there) There are plenty of simple kits out there, but none that actually TEACH the builder anything. It's all about writing the manual.

Just my two cents.