$50k In Play: Thirty Projects Will Win Custom PCBs This Week

This week we’re giving away $1500 in OSH Park codes to thirty different projects. Submit your project to the 2015 Hackaday Prize now!

$50,000 over the next 17 weeks!

official-submission-flagFor each of the last four weeks we’ve awarded prize packages to three projects just for submitting ideas. Now it’s time to crank up the rewards. Over the next 17 weeks we will give away $50,000 in prizes. We’re kicking off the week by giving $50 OSH Park codes to 30 different projects.

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. This year’s prizes total half a million dollars, with a trip into space for the Grand Prize winner and $100,000 for the Best Product prize. Sitting this one out would be a huge mistake!

You need to post your project on Hackaday.io and officially submit it to the 2015 Hackaday Prize, which means clicking the “Submit-To” button on the left sidebar of your entry (shown below). You can confirm that you’re in the running by looking for the 2015 Hackaday Prize logo on your project gallery picture. Here you can see [castvee8] has submitted the Binary fuel tank, do you think it’s ready for a custom PCB?

Make it OfficialTo give yourself the best chance at winning, publish a new project log this week that outlines the PCB work your want to do for the entry. We’ll be looking for those as we judge the prizes that are most ready to begin (or advance) their hardware build.

OSH Park offers double-layer boards for $5 per square-inch and you get 3 copies of the board with shipping included. This $50 prize will land you quite a bit of board space. Get started now, you need to have your projects submitted by the morning of Wednesday, April 29th.


The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

30 thoughts on “$50k In Play: Thirty Projects Will Win Custom PCBs This Week

  1. Selling my, maybe commercially potential project for $50 – and only if I get lucky? Give me a break :)

    Or in other words: tell us your idea and we will profit from it (by publishing it) and MAYBE give you .. (switch to low voice) FIIIFFFTYYYYY DOLLLAAAAARRRSSS!!

    Sorry, I had to write this :D

          1. thanks! finally someone with some sense. I’ve browsed their open source boards, some have good silk screens and documentation comments but most are simply a wonderful drink coaster to anyone but the creator.

          2. valid point. but… there is no way to search for old and forgotten projects. I find myself bottom-feeding from github, random well written blog posts, and various sources. not excluding pack-ratting (ctrl-s, ctrl-s, ctrl-s) pdfs from bit-coin threads and attempting to decode overpriced dev board documents. :(

            Is it so much to ask to find a 4-6 layer BGA implementation for 484pin / 1mm / 22×22 row FULL STRAIGHT implementation for a 23x23mm pitch implementation.

            KEEP THE $1500 and give us a SEARCH FUNCTION ON OSHPARK!

          3. Fact:
            – You won’t be able to break out a full BGA grid of that size in 4 layers. You would still want to have a power/ground plane too, right?
            – OSH Park only do up to 4 layer
            So even if they have a kick @ss search engine, you won’t find the PCB in their user base. You are better off looking at the FPGA vendor app notes to see how they recommend a breakout pattern.

            OSH prices are not that great once you are over a couple of square inches of PCB. I sent off a PCB batch in China earlier this week. $12 PCB + $20 courier. I had sub panel the PCB down to 8 smaller ones and I’ll be getting 8 PCB x 10 copies! I have to cut off the smaller PCB myself as they would have charge me a few times that for 8 sub PCB. you can pay $10 for postal service. That’s what I used last time and it was here quick.

            I have also sent of one of tiny sub PCB for OSH Park as I needed better solder mask and ENIG for 0.4mm BGA, it is $6.5 for 3 copies. Even with OSH Park, I doubt the solder mask won’t be perfect for 0.4mm pitch.

          4. “a kick @ss search engine”

            to search for anything not considered beyond capabilities. Listen, I hear the factual type of chatter you provided… However you still FAILED to see the point of the statement I made. I told you a specific need and as much as it sound helpful (and you may have personally considered it helpful) was instead something that DID NOT address the need.

            If you want to talk “numbers” ( *** Assuming no one is smart enough to design a 7 layer board… pancake 2 4-layer designs ***)..

            Fine, a board with a EQFP 144 pin. Can we search for that? No?
            What about a LFCSP (10x10mm, 6.75mm) (84 leadless)? WLCSP (3.29X2.94) (56 pin bga)?
            Hell how about viewing the highest rated designs?
            Verified healthy, well implemented boards?

            Sorry if it sounds like I’m tearing apart your argument. (I am partially). But the bottom line is this.

            FACT: “Le HaD prizo” is SPONSERED by: company logos above

            So if the company’s are encouraging and sponsoring the prize, why aren’t they providing better support and tools. (I’ll stay away from the obvious multi-million dollar companies granting $50 tax write-off to “lucky” individuals as there might be a few really sincere employees there TRYING hard to open up access to the community)

            FACT: unless you are a engineering company yourself no one EVER gets samples anymore and datasheets, reference designs and finding PCB drawings is close to impossible.

            Assuming we are NOT fully employed engineers or EE grad students that have the available resources from the employers company contract partnership database or access to the university EE student resources and community.

            FACT: Noise to signal to accomplish ANYTHING is deafening.

            We all have to wade though all the bull$h1t… of alibaba/aliexpress poisoning our search results, the pseudo-intellectual mongolism of IRC and EDA Forums, and techno babble from “sponsoring” companies. only to waste time looking at abandoned hackaday.io repositories and pages upon pages of incomplete PCB design notes and vaporware kickstarter projects. Sure. a dark emission diode datasheet now and again is funny. so is a write only memory datasheet.

            FACT: Old Ham operators and analog signal designers have some of the best documentation and design layouts with some of the ugliest html you have ever seen. (and fancy cascading style sheets be damned, we can use a ctrl-f on those sites!)

            Really? The response is “dat chip dunna fit on dee 4-layers” ***

            Clear the red haze in front of your eyes and think why would a search function be valuable to the entire community not just a $50 dollar prize.

            Now can someone drop a mic?

    1. Sweet! Can’t wait to see what you’re working on, do you have a link to the project yet?

      I’m working on the plan for the weeks to come. We’re going to modulate the # give out so many more chances at it. I think next week we’ll have 50 of something, 125 the week after, and then 40 higher value the following week. Also, these first few weeks will be $1500 total but that will keep going up. By the last week we’re planning $5k just for that week!

        1. Haydnj,

          For your readout, consider looking at how braille readouts do it – something like that with a membrane over it could be very small.

          Also nitinol memory wire comes to mind, though it gets hot, maybe limiting its usefullness – but might be ok in a silicone sleeve or similar.

          I looked into something similar and considered rubber membranes that get expanded when some material is heated or other..

          1. Thanks for the feedback :) I have a small nitinol sample and heat put me off, I like the silicone idea tho but response may be an issue. Braille readouts are expensive, but also binary, either on or off, and I need them to be analog. I will look in to the rubber, also toying with pneumatics. I will use some levers and wire for my prototype and at least prove (or disprove) the concept.

          2. Small 2-3 position linear-motor like solenoids might work for you.. Would be unplesant to build at first – but could make little tools to automate coil winding, tube cutting, etc… These are all things I looked into. Or simply AC controlled voice coils?

    1. You do realize the advertisement and promotion supported special interest publication model goes back to the time of the first printing presses?

      Also, for 30 hackaday users, this will be free PCBs!! A >good< thing, no matter your stance on various business models.

      No?

  2. A shot for a free custom PCB…I am cash starved enough to hope I am “lucky” enough to get one.. I am gonna have to get “lucky” a few times by the end of this thing……To stand any chance of making it to the end……I am Sooooooooo cash starved right now….

      1. I have never considered my to be lucky….But the glass is indeed half full, and thinking happy thoughts!…..And my current wiring on a copper clad prototype board is very…..iffish…….But continues to function as long as it is just shaken and not stirred.

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