contests

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Questions For The Podcast / Contest Update

November 20, 2006 by 9 Comments

The next podcast is coming… In the meantime, if you want to ask a question in the podcast, record it as a mp3 and email it to podcast [at hackaday dot com]. If you’re wondering, I will do the next edition in mp3 – no more m4a stuff.

Now, to answer a few questions about the Design Challenge.
What kind of circuit should it be?
Anything from a personal massage speed controller to a miniature omelet maker. Whatever you can fit on the board, ok.

Will you extend the deadline?
No. If you want to send us something later, we’ll still take it. [but you’ll be a bit late to win any prizes]

How many entries can we submit?
No limit, but don’t go nuts, ok?

How big can it be?
The board will be credit card dimensions, but a standard thickness (think FR-4 or something) No, we don’t care how big the components are.

Do the components need to be available from somewhere like mouser/digikey?
I’d hope so. We don’t want to have to reclaim parts from sunken Russian submarines to build the circuit.

How can I submit it?
Put it online and send in a tip, or ask where to send it via the tips line. Either way, use the tips line.

Hackaday Design Challenge – Yes, A Contest!

November 15, 2006 by 76 Comments


So, you guys want to show off your skills? We’re giving you the chance. [If you don’t like it, blame Limor – she came up with the original idea]

The Challenge:
Design our next give-away: a business card sized PC Board. We’re not telling you what to make the circuit do, just make it something handy for hacking. Me, I think a PIC programmer/proto board would be handy.

The board must have:

  • The Hackaday logo
  • business card dimensions (90mm x 55mm)
  • reasonably easy to construct
  • A useful circuit (programmer, interface, whatever.)
  • Assembly instructions
  • Parts list

Through hole components are a good idea (Of course, if you can do it with SMD cheaper, and keep it easy to build… Surprise us) Maybe we could surface mount the CPU before we give them away, or we might put together parts kits, but it depends on the winning design(s).

You can put whatever circuit you like on it. PIC
programmer, JTAG interface, flux capacitor… but it has to work!

We want to have a board house make these up for us, so we’ll need the design in a format we can work with. We suggest EAGLE. It’s free and runs on just about everything. (But it limits you to two layers – which should be plenty)


Some hints to help you get the winning design:
Bonus for extra functionality
Clever incorporation of our logo
Completeness – include solder mask, drill info, everything we need to make the board.

The Prizes:
Fabienne is putting up her black 2gb iPod nano engraved with “hackaday.com” “one fresh hack each day” – It’s been used a bit, and opened up a few times so it’s got some scratches, but hasn’t been modded… yet.

We’ll send you some of the boards of course. I’ve got more good stuff in the works, and I’ll announce more prizes as we get them confirmed.

Submissions: When you’ve got your design ready, Put it online and let us know about it on the tip line. (Or send in a tip and we’ll tell you where to email it if you don’t have anywhere to host it.)

The Deadline: December 25th. Plenty of time to get your design cranked out. Everyone needs a winter break, but We’ll try to have a winner chosen within a week or two of the deadline.