So today the ODOTS proof of concept units headed off to the sunny Forest of Dean* to be demonstrated to live orienteers, mainly so that I could get some feedback from potential users on what I had missed as a designer. The answer was mostly box size - people did not fancy the idea of carrying around a whole load of the rather large enclosures.
Live tests are a traditional stumbling block of any project - nothing brings out the bugs more than people watching. This test was unfortunately no different - one of the Arduino chips emitted some blue smoke yesterday so the download unit also became a reset unit, and my laptops battery died in the cold so results were not displayed for most of the demonstration.
However most people (as far as I could tell), were receptive and understood the goal of providing an option for timing system users that cannot justify the expense of current timing systems.
So, what are the next goals? The next stage of work will be made a bit slower by the fact that I have a job now, but there are a couple of concrete goals to go after:
- Move to SMD components so that the cost and power consumption can be further lowered.
- Make a couple of operation changes to increase battery life - so that users can be less concerned about having to charge/change batteries.
- Design a custom enclosure to eliminate all the unused space and make the controls more suitable for mass transportation (this is a perfect excuse to go and build a 3d printer)
*Don't let that fool you, it was still covered in the traditional half meter of mud.
