The twenty projects that won this year’s Hackaday Prize bootstrap competition have just been certified. The purpose of this is to help great examples of early entries offset the cost that goes into prototyping as they work on their projects throughout the summer.
We know this has had a big impact on entries in the past. When working on hard projects it’s easy to doubt yourself, but you can usually get over that with just a bit of outside validation. Alex Williams encountered this when he first entered his Open Source Under Water Glider into the 2017 Hackaday Prize. He wanted to show off his work but didn’t think there’d be much interest and wasn’t sure if he’d continue development. He was shocked by the number of people who were excited about it, continued working feverishly on it, and went on to win the grand prize.
You’ll find all 20 bootstrap winners listed below, but we wanted to feature a couple of examples to show the kind of work that is happening during the Hackady Prize. The results of the bootstrap competition have no bearing on the top prizes: they are all still up for grabs, so enter your project today!
The SierrOS team is hard at work building an automatic CPR machine. The four students from Lyon France are working on an all-in-one device that can provide both chest compressions and ventilation. Just two weeks ago they were at the Olympics of Engineering in Paris and placed 20th out of 1,500 teams. It’s exciting to see a sneak peek at the newest revision of the machine, and they promise to share more details soon. SierrOS secured $500 in the bootstrap round.
Pilates feels like a new development in personal fitness, but the practice harkens back to its founder who was born in 1883. Joseph Pilates invented a piece of equipment called the Pilates Reformer which is still in use today. But another Joseph, the hacker from Connecticut who submitted this project, seeks to design a more affordable version of the Pilates Reformer. We especially enjoyed seeing the video of him testing the shipping and assembly plan for this equipment. He had the idea to ship all the parts in a concrete forming tube is a clever one, and testing the assembly process is a big part of proving that your product fits your market. The Pilates Reformer project secured $408 in the bootstrap round.
Certified Bootstrap Competition Winners:
The Bootstrap Competition was determined by the number of “likes” on each Hackaday Prize entry prior to June 1st. The top twenty finishers received $5 per like with a cap of $500. Congratulations to each of these projects:
- Axiom: 100+kW Motor Controller
- ULX3S powerful ECP5 board for open source FPGA
- eAgrar – digital agriculture
- SmallKat: An adorable dynamics oriented robot cat
- BikeOn
- SierrOS – Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Device
- Leavening Cell
- The DIYson, an open source Cyclone vacuum cleaner
- Odinub
- null modular F(n)
- pcbtc (GaN edition)
- Park Asset and Condition Monitor
- BikePin
- Persistence of Vision Fidget Spinner
- Portable Retro Game Console with 7.9-inch display
- Lightning detector
- PiSugar Battery for Raspberry Pi zero
- Pilates Reformer
- DLT one – A Damn Linux Tablet!
- LedCade – µ arcade game cabinet – 8×8 LED matrix
How is it that the BikeOn, was rated less than Axiom: 100+kW Motor Controller? Axiom didn’t reall do anything new but get mostly off the shelf stuff. Ti has loads of kits doing the same thing Axiom has done. Nothing new here.
Whereas BikeOn make something from scratch.
You’ve learned an important lesson today, now contemplate it.
Didn’t do any new? We coded field weakening, IPM support, sin/cos, flash hardening and many protection features that vesc didn’t have and BikeOn will benefit from because they also use a vesc controller.
We integrated an fpga into the system to make it faster and safer, designed a custom capacitor and we greatly simplified the assembly of a 100kW-class drive that can be a game changer for those seeking for larger vehicles. And we are not done! Axiom is a work in progress towards a complete enclosed unit.
Thanks so much! Also thank you for writing so clearly about the project! Certainly not as impactful as an automated CPR machine, but guess we’re just trying to pitch in so someone might be able to avert having to be a subject of the CPR Machine 😊
I do have to say that I have a Client who had flat lined on the street in New York City! A retired Firefighter kept him going till the Ambulance came, he was 70. Once the doctor cleared him, his wife said you are coming to do Pilates with me! He’s been faithful every week and it’s three years pass now!
The minimal common sense approach to exercise equipment design and fabrication does not compromise the Pilates Method of movement. Building from available parts and shipping in a Home Depot stocked Sonotube is smart. This project significantly lowers the price making Pilates accessible to regular folk and pro users alike.
A low tech solution to high tech induced Text Neck and sitting induced pain. Bravo!