Sticker Design Contest - win a PropBOE: Smart Sticker for Dumb Cable (veho360)
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,401
Hey all,
Got a little project, internally orphaned but so very important that it needs the help of our forumistas! Where's MattG when I need him to handle these important company announcements?
Here's the situation - this little veho360 speaker is shipping with the PropBOE. The package includes a dumb USB cable with power and ground, but naturally our customers plug it into their new $129 Propeller BOEs and then think that there's something wrong with the board when the Propeller tool can't ID the hardware. To make matters worse, the PropBOE ships without a USB cable. You've probably even seen a few threads on the forum and I've received a message about the problem from Phil Pilgrim and two others. Tomorrow I will see that the product pages where the veho360 speaker appears clearly notes that the cable can't be used to program.
But we're going to go through thousands of these speakers. Removing the cable isn't a good choice because of labor and self-destructive packaging.
Therefore we'd like to put a sticker on the veho360 box that clearly indicates that the cable should be thrown out, that it's a dumb cable, and that it can't program a PropBOE. Use your imagination to come up with a good sticker - there are only a few requirements:
- humor is a necessary ingredient and the primary judging criteria
- the point could be made graphically, with text, or both ways - that this cable won't program the Propeller BOE!
- sticker size must be 1" x 2-5/8" (Avery 5160) and full-color bleeds are fine if you want to use them
Post your sticker solution here. Multiple entries are welcome, too.
MattG will pick a winner on Wednesday at noon (Pacific) and we'll send you a Propeller BOE + veho360 speaker for free!
Thank you!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Got a little project, internally orphaned but so very important that it needs the help of our forumistas! Where's MattG when I need him to handle these important company announcements?
Here's the situation - this little veho360 speaker is shipping with the PropBOE. The package includes a dumb USB cable with power and ground, but naturally our customers plug it into their new $129 Propeller BOEs and then think that there's something wrong with the board when the Propeller tool can't ID the hardware. To make matters worse, the PropBOE ships without a USB cable. You've probably even seen a few threads on the forum and I've received a message about the problem from Phil Pilgrim and two others. Tomorrow I will see that the product pages where the veho360 speaker appears clearly notes that the cable can't be used to program.
But we're going to go through thousands of these speakers. Removing the cable isn't a good choice because of labor and self-destructive packaging.
Therefore we'd like to put a sticker on the veho360 box that clearly indicates that the cable should be thrown out, that it's a dumb cable, and that it can't program a PropBOE. Use your imagination to come up with a good sticker - there are only a few requirements:
- humor is a necessary ingredient and the primary judging criteria
- the point could be made graphically, with text, or both ways - that this cable won't program the Propeller BOE!
- sticker size must be 1" x 2-5/8" (Avery 5160) and full-color bleeds are fine if you want to use them
Post your sticker solution here. Multiple entries are welcome, too.
MattG will pick a winner on Wednesday at noon (Pacific) and we'll send you a Propeller BOE + veho360 speaker for free!
Thank you!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
1000 x 1333 - 203K
Comments
Opened mine today and thought, "How cool! A USB cable I can re-purpose to program my PropBOE."
"Included USB cable is for Veho360 charging purposes only and should not be used with the PropBOE."
OBC
Line 1: icon of wallwart -- cable -- velo360 CHECK
Line 2: icon of PC -- cable -- PropBOE ANGRY X
Line 3: icon of cable -- arrow -- garbage can CHECK
Line 4: English text: The cable doesn't workfor programming, please discard it. Thanks.
PS. To be politically correct, do not advise your customers to throw the cable in the garbage, but rather to dispose of it through appropriate recycling methods. The WEEE garbage can symbol is the proper method to advise that the cable shouldn't end up in a landfill.
edit: @localroger... we think alike! I saw your post after I uploaded mine.
Useless Serial Bus inside.
Please discard.
Used for charging purposes only.
Or put the text inside a caution sticker. Similar to the one I attached.
CAUTION
Useless Serial Bus inside.
Please discard.
Used for charging purposes only.
Since you mentioned Avery stickers you could just print:
CAUTION (in larger text,bold, and red)
Useless Serial Bus inside.
Please discard.
Used for charging purposes only.
CAUTION (in larger text,bold, and red)
Useless Serial Bus inside.
Used for charging purposes only.
I don't have any graphics programs for editing.
Paul
Hey Bruce - you can use the space any way you desire and the sticker could be placed horizontally or vertically. I need to ask the IT Guy if he can turn the printer on its side, though.
And Andy - sure, recycling is entirely practical as a direction. I guess I'm just a bit upset with the cable and don't see why it deserves recycling. . . never thought of garbage as being so unworthy.
Ken Gracey
to make this cable work, But not Parallax. No sir. :thumb::thumb:
This is all I got right now...
-Tommy
The included USB cable can not be used for programming because the cable is built without the necessary data wires. It is for charging the Veho360 only.
-CameronM
Anybody is welcome to help develop Paul's ideas in a collaborative effort. We'll double-up the offer with two PropBOEs (one to each contributor) if he ends up being the winner.
Ken Gracey
It only looks like one. It is only good for providing power to the speakers.
Do not attempt to use this in place of an actual USB cable for data transfer."
@ken: no worries on the recycling comment. I just thought it wouldn't be right for you to say to throw it into the trash, even though most people will once they realize it isn't a real USB cable. Veho should have at least marked it somehow.
-Phil
Andrew thanks for the help. Great idea in combining the two. You hit it right on with the design.
I stress the word cable, although the sticker might not... but I think it should be clarified, otherwise the customer might think that the whole usb socket on the Veho, or even worse the PropBoe, is useless if the sticker ends up in the wrong place after unpacking....
perhaps with a red X over the cable so that the text need not be understood for the concern about the cable to be (hopefully) obvious!
Did this in publisher, should be right size
erco use MS paint
erco hate bad cable
C.W.
erco make label nice :thumb:
...maybe not humorous, however attention grabbing and concise wording... and ultimately perhaps less confusing for a wider audience (especially non-english and non-technical audiences) who might not be “in on the joke”, but certainly need to understand and respect the warning, if not least to save customer frustration.
EDIT: Whoops! This doesn't fit the size limitations, I'll make it the proper size and re-upload.
(in raspy, 1930's Chicago accent...)
Don't whorry 'bout 'it...gotcha covered...
(bribes, under-the-table-deals, mysteriously appearing wads of cash, all gladly accepted - no checks please)
-Uncle Guido
I thought about this as well. If you keep it, it makes sense to marking the cable as non-standard. I have tied a simple overhand knot in the middle of special cables to mark them as non-standard. It doesn't slow the electrons down very much.
Here is my "entry".
Yesterday, jdoleki posts about Quadrotor failures: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?138932-Quadrotor-Failures-at-the-GRASP-Lab-University-of-Penn
And today, Tracy Allen admits to this (very minor) error. He is human!