Ithacka BOJ Challenge

The NY based hacker group named Ithacka has posted an interesting challenge. Buy a box of junk and build something with it following their guidelines. Document it and submit it for voting.  There are some rules that allow you to use a few pieces that don’t come from the box, but the list is short. They don’t specify what the prize is, but entries must be submitted by August 1st.

18 thoughts on “Ithacka BOJ Challenge

  1. @NNM True,
    but MAN isn’t this tempting!

    I mean… isn’t it why we are all here for?
    create awesomness with low cost scrap?

    taking 10 bucks o’random junk to make something cool within a time limit,
    I don’t know about you but I see it as a challenge!

  2. Why is everyone looking for a “group” cant you do this on your own? pick the electro-mecho box and make a robot with an arduino (allowed) and a wood base (allowed) make the robot do something neat like track the sun to keep solar panels aligned, throw screws in the direction of movement, chase cats, feed the hamster, make the fridge run at 9000% efficiency, violate the laws of thermodynamics…

    Problem is the box of junk never has enough crap in it to do a project, you will need to add more junk to it. I’ve bough the box of junk several times before… you are hosed if you get a box of screws and wires. so you will need to buy 2 or 3 of them and pick the one that is doable.

    This is a robotics 101 kind of thing guys, do it yourself, stop needing a “group” to do stuff.

  3. Good ol’ Sciplus – I use to stop there every other weekend when I still lived in Milw. Last time I bought the BOJ, there was nothing in there that could be used to build anything, I mostly got little plastic toys, ans some plastic household items.

  4. I live in Ithaca, which is a fairly small town, and I had no idea this group existed until today. I felt bad because I just bought a ton of equipment, and I thought maybe I could have used theirs instead, but I’m not sure they actually have a space set up yet.

  5. sounds like a scam. i once knew a guy who found something called a “louisville slugger” in box of junk some dude tried to sell him. he didn’t fall for it and able to keep everything “free of charge”.

  6. I second Sparr in endorsing the Surprise boxes from Electronic Goldmine. The bigger box has more whole-product items (eg IR motion detector, mini RC car, wall warts) while the small ones are all components (how I ended up with a pound each of alligator clips, 9v relays, 3uF capacitors, and 0.1-ohm resistors)

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