GCSE CDT
Back in the mists of time (1989), I had to come up with a project for my CDT (Craft, Design and Technology, in case it doesn't exist any more) GCSE. My choice of project needs a bit of background:

1. I would score for the cricket 1st XI whenever I didn't have a game myself, and bloody good I was too - I'd meticulously record every ball and make sure that everything added up - batsmen's runs plus extras = bowlers' runs plus byes/wides = runs in the tally box = runs on the scoreboard. Works of art, my scorebooks.

2. I was a bit of a whiz at BBC BASIC (although I found assembly language a bit too daunting), and wrote a nifty automated scoring program - all you had to do was enter each ball as it happened and it would fill in a graphical scorecard. Well, I thought it was nifty.

3. One of my friends would read the Maplin catalogue for fun, and point out how cool he thought various things were, including little numeric LED displays driven by CMOS chips.

4. We'd just learnt how to make printed circuit boards using acid and a special pen.

Putting all the above together, I decided that what I wanted to do was make a little cricket scoreboard with ten such LEDs in a heat-moulded plastic box, connected to a BBC B's parallel port. As my choice was only driven by my desire to mess around with chips, LEDs and PCBs, I had to retcon a story about it being a prototype, or a repeater for a scorer who couldn't see the main thing or something.

With the end product firmly in my mind's eye, I adapted my program to send the right output to the parallel port, made my little plastic scoreboard, mounted the displays, and then turned my attention to the circuitry.

Bugger me. I can't remember the exact details, but with all the paths from the parallel port connector to however many demultiplexers I needed to the ten controller chips to the display units, I needed over a hundred paths on my PCB, twice as many solder joints and at least forty connecting wires. I soon realised the chances of etching the PCB without a single bad joint AND successfully soldering everything together without a bad connection or shorting something AND actually fitting it into the scoreboard I'd made were effectively zero.

Having come to this stark realisation somewhat late in the day, and having been told that projects didn't have to actually work to merit a grade, I put it all together anyway, and put it on display with everybody else's on assessment day, with my scoreboard plugged into a BBC Micro running my program accompanied by a printout of the source code, user guide, schematic of the PCB etc. and left my fate in the hands of the examiner.

I got a D.

:-(
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:15, 10 replies)

Postscript
How shit does a project have to be these days to get a D?
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:17, closed)

Why did you only get a D?
huh?
(Miggyman, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:27, closed)

That's what I want to know!!!
I blame grade inflation, for not having been thought of yet.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:30, closed)

That's disgraceful..
Sounds like you deserved a much better grade, your assessor must have been a right bastard imho.
(AndyC4m Eject Eject [><], Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:39, closed)

Football fans ...
... just don't understand the complexity of cricket scoring!
(Biff..., Mon 17 Aug 2009, 15:50, closed)

I'd rather not know!
Puffs in white cardigans running around what what?
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 16:56, closed)

Examiner thought you were a cocky git....
who knew more than him and couldn't see any real life use for the score board because lets face it only peado's like cricket anyway.
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 16:56, closed)

and to think
I rushed up some crap gamesworkshop type game thing with some little bits of wood and and some mdf with holes in which got me an E, total time taken less than 5 hours the day before final hand in. And most of that time was waiting for paint to dry and drawing some shitty rule book.
(bluehamster, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 20:07, closed)

you was robbed
that is definitly worth more than a D. Do you remember what the guy getting an A made?
(jonpup, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 21:20, closed)

Don't know
It was too far back in the mists of time. One guy made a fully-functional air hockey table which was pretty cool, and another made an automatic cat feeder. The year before, one guy designed a set of hanging speakers - he did have the not inconsiderable advantage that his father owns a company that makes high-end hi-fi equipment, so used their sound chamber to do all the testing.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Tue 18 Aug 2009, 8:49, closed)