blog@SchmartBoard

Monday Schtuff

Just a few things:

Schmartie Award Update Robert Gatt from Australia has recently posted the schematic for the Schmarties.  The "Picaxe 18 prototype board" can be found at:  http://www.schmartdeveloper.org/tiki-index.php?page=robertgatt&bl Robert was one of the winners in the 2006 Schmarties with his "Nokia Lcd Interface."  and he is Schmart enough to try and win again.  Two more months to go...enter and post today!

New Product  We have added 12" jumpers to our product offering. Despite the length, we are able to sell them for the same price as the 3" versions. $5 for ten and matching headers. $38 for a 100 pack.  http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_accessories&id=123

Cool Experience  I was at a great conert Saturday night. Imagine seeing Jerry Lee Lewis and Metallica on the same stage...yep it happened.  It was a charity concert for the "Bridge School" which helps prepare handicapped students to attend regular schools.  The charity was founded by rock legend Neil Young who put's this yearly event together at Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View CA.  Anyway, as I was sitting in my car, waiting for the traffic to die down from the parking lot after the show, some people noticed my "Schmart" licence plate and told me that they had won a science fair using our boards in their product.  I get this type of feedback pretty often now.  If you see the "SCHMART" plate, say hello!

Teach a man to fish!

It is so important for individuals and for organizations to give back.  SchmartBoard has in the past given a percentage of sales for disaster relief for hurrican Katrina and the tsunami vicitims in the south Pacific.  One of the more rewarding endeavors has been involvement in a program called BUILD www.build.org .

While giving cash proceeds to charity has it's rewards, teaching a skill is so much more rewarding. This program teaches entreprenuer skills to high school students who may be in high risk areas, or are from lower social-economic areas.  The team we mentor is "Young Hype" made up of Andrea, Jessica, Tanya, and Manuel. 

Last year, as freshmen, the team learned how to plan a business, write a business, financial and marketing plan and create a Power Point presentation.  The year ended in a competition to present the plan to venture capitalists.  Young Hype took first place.

This year the team will be seeded start up money to actually run their business, which are hand painted t-shirts with a positive message.  We will be involved with them for all 4 years, helping them all get accepted into a university.  Many students will receive scholarships as part of this program.

Today the program is in the Bay Area, but is expanding to Washington DC and then other parts of the country.  I hope that some of you check out this program and get involved...or find the one that works for you.

It's a Schmart World After All!

We have a new fun widget on SchmartBoard.  http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=schmartland

We now have a map of the world with photos and descriptions of circuits built with SchmartBoard.   We only have 13 up there now....so we need your's.  Send us your circuit photo, name location and description to get involved.  Be the first in your city, state, province country,continent, or planet to show the world your SchmartCircuit.   Let's go Chicago, Florida, Italy, South America..represent your region!

New Schmartie Post

I will post new circuits in this blog when they come in as we approach the home stretch of the contest whcih ends at the end of the year.

N.Harinath Raja of Ramnagar, Hyderabad, India has posted Wireless Data Link http://www.schmartdeveloper.org//tiki-index.php?page=wireless+data+link

According to Mr. Raja: "The goal of the project design is simple and easy to implement. Asynchronous communication and RS232,--- ; since RS232 Interface is widely used and easily compatible /programmable with data terminal equipment, it’s been chosen the RS232 interface for the serial communication of data between DTE and DCE."

Our Awesome Support Team

I was on a hike this weekend and someone who knew of SchmartBoard asked if we had in-house talent to do the Professor Schmart characatures and our great website.  I told the person we did not and forwarded the information to them about our fantastic contractors. This was certainly not the first time people have asked me this...in fact it happens pretty regularly.I believe that these types of business associations are almost like a dentist or a mechanic in our private lives.  Once you find one that you can work with, and trust..you stick with them and give them referrals.

So with that in mind,  for my graphics of Professor Schmart, I work with and recoemmend  http://www.groupera.com/

For our website, logo, and brochures, we work with www.projectcreative.com 

I highly recommend both of these small but VERY competent companies to any of our users.

From the home of the Olympics

Giannis Kedros is one of the participants in the 2007 Schmartie Awards.  This student from the Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki Greece may be the man to beat.  He is looking for the gold medal by posting the most circuits.  His Schmartie page is at:  http://www.schmartdeveloper.org/tiki-index.php?page=G.Kedros&bl

Circuits posted include:  an Ethernet Module, Accelerometer, serial to USB, digital thermometer and more.  10 posted, at least 5 more to be posted soon!

We have three more months to go.  More than enough time to enter and post your masterpiece!  http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=schmartdeveloper_award