My Demo-Shield kickstarter project hit my funding goal in less than 7 days. This is my 3rd successful kickstarter project and I've been asked by many people what is the secret to success on kickstarter. Before I get into that I first want to offer thanks to all the Demo-Shield supporters who visit my blog and have helped the project cross that important minimum funding goal. If a project doesn't meet that goal, I don't get funded and the supporters don't get their rewards.

The early success shows there is interest for the updated design Demo-Shield. This also shows that a unique design like this may not be a high volume product Sparkfun or Adafruit company would want to carry but it is something that a niche number of people find useful. 

It also shows that if you price your project correctly, you can be successful. I see too many people ask for way too much money.

I've backed several projects on kickstarter to support other

Just launched my latest Kickstarter project. Its for the next generation Demo-Shield. When we took over Howtronics.com we ended up with the design files for many of the CHIPINO shields. The Demo-Shield needed an update so I went to work. But would there be interest in it was the unknown.

So that is where Kickstarter is great. People vote with their wallet and get a early bird deal in the process. I designed the new version to eliminate the jumpers for disconnecting components. I've used the original Demo-Shield for years and never once had to remove one so I designed those out. I also brought it up to date with UNO style headers with the extra pins.

Check it out and determine if you'd like to see this product become more than a prototype. I use the original one often for teaching beginners programming so I hope it's a successful campaign.

The book poll in my last blog post has less votes than I hoped for especially when I see the traffic is up on the site. But I still appreciate those votes I did get and it showed what I expected despite the small sample size. C programming is still a more popular topic than BASIC. And PICBASIC vs Great Cow BASIC were even as I write this.

My Programming PICs in BASIC book uses the sample version of PICBASIC Pro that is limited to 31 commands. I'm planning an update to the book for the new PICBASIC PRO 3 using the Student Version without any command number limit (other than the memory size of the PIC).

I'm also considering a similar book for Great Cow Basic and one for Embedded C. Both using the 8-pin PIC12F683 and a PICkit 2 clone programmer.

So I'm asking you, my readers, which would you prefer to see first. Please vote below to give me your choice.

The Microchip Free Sample site I wrote about in a previous blog post has been updated a little. Its still at microchip.com/samples. The step by step views are shown in the gallery below. You will need to create a login and then you will see your order limits in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Just follow through the checkout steps and you will receive an email with the confirmation of your order. 

The Samples available will have a little grey icon in the Sample column. I suggest you select parts that have a /P or /SP part number since that indicates DIP package. 

You can get new sample orders every month and sometimes get more than one per month. If you aren't using this system to stock your own lab and develop with Microchip PICs then you are missing out on a great opportunity. I don't know of very many companies that make it this easy and Free!

I often have so many little projects I'm working on that I get confused on what I should write about, what I already wrote about and what anybody may care about. I hope I'm getting the last one right more than once in a while.