Beginning right now, the 2021 Hackaday Prize challenges you to Reimagine Supportive Tech. Quite frankly, this is all about shortcuts to success. Can we make it easier for people to learn about science and technology? Can we break down some barriers that keep people from taking up DIY as a hobby (or way of life)? What can we do to build on the experience and skill of one another?
For instance, to get into building your own electronics, you need a huge dedicated electronics lab, right? Of course that’s nonsense, but we only know that because we’ve already been elbow-deep into soldering stations and vacuum tweezers. To the outsider, this looks like an unclimbable mountain. What if I told you that you could build electrics at any desk, and make it easy to store everything away in between hacking sessions? That sounds like a job for [M.Hehr’s] portable workbench & mini lab project. Here’s a blueprint that can take a beginner from zero to solder smoke while having fun along the way.
What about breaking down complex topics into something us newbies can swallow? Radio signals are all around us, but again the barriers to getting into SDR are many and varied. A great bit of supportive tech would be a project that shows simple hardware and shares a virtual machine with the open source software toolchain already set to go. A beginner could pick something like this up and be listening for transponders from airplanes passing by in a matter of hours.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve spent countless joyful hours learning how to do some difficult and fascinating stuff. Share the wealth! Take an existing hardware concept and make it modular and easy to use. Refine an existing design to make it more approachable for users with any range of mobility challenges. Or pull together a beginner-friendly project to move STEM education forward.
Ten finalists from this round will win $500 and be shuttled onto the final round judging in October for a chance at the $25,000 Hackaday Prize and four other top prizes. Start your project page on Hackaday.io and use the dropdown in the left sidebar to enter it into the 2021 Hackaday Prize.
> Here’s a blueprint that can take a beginner from zero to solder smoke while having fun along the way.
So close. I was all set to grab the design, cut up some wood, and build it, but…
There’s no design files for the case on the project page, it’s two old Ikea cases he had laying around. He doesn’t say which Ikea cases he used, but after some searching… apparently Ikea doesn’t sell those style cases any more.
Also, there’s significant modifications for holders for all the stuff, but with no design files, what? We look at the photos and try to reverse engineer the pieces?
The project definitely *looks* nice, and he did a good job and all that, but…
It’s not really a blueprint, is it?
Those would be MOPPE boxes from Ikea. Sad to hear that they are discontinued, but I don’t have Ikea in my country anyway. :(
The MOPPE boxes that he uses are no longer sold as far as I can tell, but there’s an apparently bigger version that Ikea does currently sell.
I’ve never bought from Ikea, so maybe it’s listed under another model/name.
One can often locate clones of popular IKEA products under the guise of Amazon Basics ;)
We don’t have Amazon in-country either, you insensitive clod.
linear soldering station is too heavy
Ooh, I’ve been working on a project that’s perfect for this category. I’ll try to wrap up my initial release and post it in the next few days. Mine is a little more edutainment-y than workspace organize-y, but the goal is all about bringing people into the STEM fold.