Products > Test Equipment
POLL: EEVlabs
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EEVblog:
So I've had this idea for a few years now and you might have heard me mention it before.
Well, now I'm thinking about taking this seriously, but it needs community input and funding to happen.

The plan is to have a lab that takes test equipment and other product testing seriously and methodically, having standardised testing and product shoot outs etc in a controlled way.
Equipment could be given comparitive scores etc. The community would of course have input into all shaping all this.

This requires:
1) Set up a new company EEVlabs (for legal, accounting, and even just mental division reasons from the EEVblog)
2) Rent a big space, a combined office/warehouse/rollerdoor type space. My current lab is clearly not suited.
3) Hire at least one, possibly two full time employees to work on this. This would include an on-air talent (in addition to me, in fact they could be the lead presenter)
4) Set up a Patreon or some other monthly donate thing to bring in funds. Say $5/month minimum.
5) I doubt Patreon would be enough to pay for all this, so all videos would be sponsored where possible. Obviously this may creates conflicts of interest. It could be that no company that is being tested in that video gets to sponsor that video. This could mean taking unrelated to engineering sponsors.

I would of course oversee it all and participate, but the idea is to keep the EEVblog the same, just doing my random unsponsored stuff. EEVlabs either pays for itself or it dies trying.
It would of course need at least a few hundred thousand per year in funding to keep this afloat.
Another funding option might be for me to take sponsored videos on the main EEVblog channel to help pay for it, at least initially, as it's unlikely to suddenly get 100k subs and like 50k views per video right ff the bat? But I don't know, maybe if I just launched the EEVlabs channels with just me in my lab for starters and see what subscriber traction it gets?
If it works then I go bigger.

Yes, if you watch Linus Tech Tips you'll know that he's basically doing this with absolutely enourmous manpower and money, and it's working. But yes, that market segment is an order of magnitude bigger than the test gear and related markets.

Test equipment would be an obvious place to start, but doesn't have to be limited to that. Could be other markets as well.

Thoughts and comments please. Does this have a chance of succeeding or am I nuts?
ehughes:
I think it would be helpful for pros making purchasing decisions for real equipment.     The EE market is small/niche.     Opening up the scope a bit to include test gear from other disciplines may make it more financially viable.    Acoustics, optics, materials science, etc.         
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: ehughes on September 11, 2022, 12:48:37 am ---I think it would be helpful for pros making purchasing decisions for real equipment.     The EE market is small/niche.     Opening up the scope a bit to include test gear from other disciplines may make it more financially viable.    Acoustics, optics, materials science, etc.
--- End quote ---

Yes, I don't see it being limited to electronic test gear, but that's at least a place to start.
Solar/EV gear might be a market as well.
For those in Australia, think like a Choice magazine type thing.
nctnico:
I don't think a 2 person team is enough. You'll need specialists in several fields in order to really dig down into the nitty-gritty of test equipment or whatever you are testing. Even equipment that is well researched as a collective effort on this forum, may turn out to fall short on basic stuff but which nobody cared to test. Just look at the huge amount of work that is done on the comparison of 3 oscilloscopes (can't find the thread right now). I have been doing some oscilloscope tests just to see what the basic functionality is and each one of them takes me a couple of days of work.
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: nctnico on September 11, 2022, 01:03:22 am ---I don't think a 2 person team is enough.
--- End quote ---

I agree, but you have to start somewhere. Two would probably be a minimum, as I wouldn't be there 100% of the time, and it gets a bit unmotivating if it's just one on their lonesome.
Heck, an EEVlabs channel could be started with just me with the premise of all videos on that channel being sponsored. If decent money rolls in that it gets expanded.
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