Some nice little features on presta shop... had a quick squizz over it, might come in handy  8-)

frosted (or super dark)always says "your hiding something" to me

Sometimes hiding stuff is a good thing, it adds to the flexibility of design.

Sure, for some things it's appropriate to have the guts on display... but for a clock?  If you're not after a retro look, then you'd not really want the LED holders on display, no matter how cool we think they are.

I'm watching this thread intently, purely from a design aspect... and LED's on display just won't do for me  

My list:

Sparkfun
Electronic goldmine
Robotshop, at first until I found out how overpriced it is

Electronic Goldmine don't ship to Europe... unless I'm missing a trick?

Turning it on for the first time and actually getting it doing something.  It was like kissing my first girlfriend

Hip Flask warmer?

To add to Crosh's idea... use it on the back wheel/chain rather than the front... add a deraillur gear to drive the genny off the chain drive (even a small electric motor would do it) and run is off pedal power with capacitors for those moments that you're not pedalling..

Or add in a battery and charging circuit.  You could hide it all under the seat too, which is LOADS easier than faffing about on the front end of the bike.

Job sorted

I just view all sizes, pick the image I want to use then Right Click and grab the image source from there.

Least you have a bit more control over the exact size of image you want to use.

I'd imagine a monorail of some sort would be ideal, but you may well be better just using the idea and making one.  The biggest challenge you're going to have is supporting it, so I suppose it's going to depend on how big it is too.

Eeeekkk... maybe they've already been to space and back and that was the result of re-entry?  

They are truly shocking

My electric pogo unicycle.  I hope I never finish it .. because I won't last long after it is done.   Plus I can't figure out how to make it jump without sending the family jewels for a free ride into my stomach.

So on that note, I have a couple of air shock pogo sticks I'll never convert to electromagnetic nut smashers if anyone is looking for parts for there very own death machine....

That made me laugh...  

aaah, makes sense.  Thankyou for letting me know.  I had visions of a micro-gnat arduino spy bug thing.  

Various places (Electronic Goldmine, for instance) sell broken solar cells for making larger experimental panels

Damn... they don't ship to the UK!! PAH [smiley=angry.gif]

Is it that one?  As it's 0.8x1.6"  What on earth are you powering that needs a smaller solar panel (I'm intrigued!)

Google is pretty good for research, you'd be surprised at what your competition is prepared to divulge.

Personally I'd look to your project management strategy and have you and your group come to a concensus about your final designs.  That way at least you're presenting folks with "this is what we ARE doing... just a bit stuck on XXXX part of the programming".

What you are asking is that folks give you the answer.  That's not research, it's cheating, no matter how you dress it up.

If memory serves from my own mechanical engineering studies, torque / mass and energy were all part of mechanics too.  Time to use the grey matter dude  

Sounds like fun.

Just some observations/thoughts though, not poopooing the idea at all.

Maybe pick a real world problem/idea and take it from there.  What I mean by that is pick something that is commercially available, say, and throw it open to interpretation.

I'm not explaining this very well, I appreciate, so I'll use an example.

Boiling an Egg.  Timing is critical for the "perfect" egg.  Perfect being that it's down to a persons own choice.

The outcome project could be anything as simple as a light/buzzer that comes on after a user specified time period, down to using temperature sensors and some form of mass sensor (boiled eggs are less dense than raw or is it the other way around, I forget)

Rather than specifying components to be used, make the specification part of hte challenge.  So use 2 inputs and have at least 2 methods of verification of boiled'ness.

The finalised circuit could be as complex or as simple as the user needs, and thus inject a lot more creativity.

Back to your knife forum example... I'm sure some knives were quite simple, functional affairs and others elaborate.  The end project was the same though.  Make a knife useful by adding the means by which to hold it, the forummers took that idea and made it their own.

Great idea though, and I'd be up for taking part