$50k in Play

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Weekly Winners: Stickvise

June 4, 2015 by 23 Comments

We’re in the middle of an epic run to award $50,000 in loot to Hackaday Prize entries this summer. This week we doled out a Stickvise low-profile PCB vise to 65 different projects! This actually started out as a really great project on Hackaday.io.

Winners are listed below, please check out their projects; skull the ones you find awesome and leave your words of encouragement as comments on those projects. Then get to work and submit something of your own. Your odds of winning during these weekly giveaways are quite good. Our recommendation for your best chances at winning are to polish up the information you’re sharing — tell the whole story of what you’ve done so far and what you plan to do. Post some images whether pictures of the prototype, renders of what you are working on, or hand-drawn diagrams from the back of a napkin.

Normally we launch the following week’s contest in this winner-announcement post. But we’re changing it up a bit this time around. Look for a post on Monday that shares all the details of what is coming next!

Last Week’s Winners of 65 Stickvise

Each project creator will find info on redeeming their prize as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

$50k In Play: Awarding 65 Stickvise This Week

May 28, 2015 by 11 Comments

Pushing your circuit boards around the bench while trying to solder the components is a fools game. Clamp that board in place with a Stickvise you won from Hackaday! This week we’ll choose 65 projects to receive one of these PCB clamps. You must submit your project as a Hackaday Prize entry to be eligible. Do it now and you’ll be considered for our weekly prizes all summer long — they total $50,000 that we’re putting into your hands.

We’re particularly proud of the Stickvise story. It was posted as a project on Hackaday.io and immediately caught our eye as an interesting idea. We worked with [Alex Rich] as he made his way through the process of getting it ready for manufacturing and it just became available in the Hackaday Store.

Regarding your entry to win one: find a problem facing your community and start a project that helps to solve it. We’ve seen many great entries so far, but with so many prizes your chances of winning are still really good! We recommend adding a project log each week that discusses your progress and perhaps mentions what you would use the Stickvise for while progressing toward a working prototype. Even if you don’t think your idea can win one of the big prizes, a great idea and solid write up is definitely a contender for our $50k in Play weekly prizes. Just look at the projects that won last week:

Last Week’s 20 Winners of a Bulbdial Clock Kit

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Congratulations to these 20 projects who were selected as winners from last week. You will receive a Bulbdial Clock Kit. It takes the concept of a sundial and recreates it using different colors of LEDs for each hand of the clock. This is our favorite soldering kit. It ventures a bit away from our mission of awarding tools and supplies to help with your entry, but sometimes you just need to have some fun!

Each project creator will find info on redeeming their prize as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

$50k In Play: 20 Bulbdial Clock Kits

May 21, 2015 by 3 Comments

For this week we’re veering away from our habit of giving away things to help with your build and giving away something fun. 20 Hackaday Prize entries will receive a Bulbdial Clock kit. Getting into the running is easy, start your project on Hackaday.io and make sure you officially submit it to the Hackaday Prize. Get it in by next Wednesday to be considered for this week’s prizes, and you’ll also be in the running each week after that as we work our way through $50,000 in prizes this summer before giving away the big stuff like a Trip into Space and $100,000 in cash.

The Bulbdial Clock has been a favorite of ours for years. Developed by Hackaday Prize Judges [Windell] and [Lenore] at Evil Mad Scientist Labs, it uses three rings of colored LEDs to cast shadows as clock hands. It’s a fun solder kit that will take time to assemble. In keeping with that ideal, your best bet at scoring one this week is to post a new project log showing off the solder work you’ve done on your prototype. If you don’t have one soldered yet, that’s okay too. Just post a new project log that talks about the component assembly you’ll be working on. This would be a great time to finally draw up a basic schematic, right?

Last Week’s 40 Winners of $50 Shapeways Gift Cards

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Congratulations to these 40 projects who were selected as winners from last week. You will receive a $50 gift card from Shapeways so that you can get your custom parts 3D printed. We were on the lookout for projects that we thought would benefit most from custom parts. Some of these are far along in their development, some have just started, but all of them are awesome so browse the list and make sure to skull and follow the ones you like!

Each project creator will find info on redeeming their prize as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

Need Custom Parts? This Week We’re Giving Out $2k In 3D Printing

May 14, 2015 by 27 Comments

We’re having an excellent time watching your project builds take shape. All summer long we’re giving away prizes to make this easier and to help move great prototypes along. Last week we offered up 125 Teensy-LC boards; the winners are listed below. This week we want to see interesting parts come to life so we’re giving away two-thousand dollars in 3D Printing.

These 3D printed parts will be delivered to 40 different project builds in the form of $50 gift cards from Shapeways. Basically, you just design your parts, choose a printing medium like plastic or metal, and before you know it your digital creation appears as a real part shipped in the mail.

Time to write down your Hackaday Prize idea and get it entered! You’re best chance of winning will come when you publish a new project log describing how having custom-printed parts would move your build forward. Whether or not you score something this week, you’ll be eligible for all the stuff we’re giving away this summer. And of course, there’s always that Grand Prize of a Trip into Space!

Last Week’s 125 Winners of a Teensy-LC Board

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Congratulations to these 125 projects who were selected as winners from last week. You will receive a Teensy-LC board. The name makes them sound small, but the ARM Cortex-M0+ packs a punch. 62k of flash, 8k of RAM, and these run at up to 48 MHz. Program them bare-metal or use the ease of the Arduino IDE. Don’t forget to post pictures and information about what you build using your newly acquired powerhouse!

Each project creator will find info on redeeming their prize as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

We’re Giving Out 125 Teensy-LC Boards This Week

May 7, 2015 by 49 Comments

This week we’re giving away 125 Teensy-LC Boards. You’ve sat on the sidelines long enough. Time to write down your Hackaday Prize idea and get it entered!

It isn’t just the big prize (a trip into space) on the line. Each week we’re giving away things to help your build. Below you can see the 50 projects which won a LightBlue Bean from last week’s giveaway. This week it’s a huge number of Teensy-LC boards going out to those who need them. These little wonders pack a real punch, with a 48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ that has 62K of flash, 8k of RAM, plenty of IO and a 12-bit analog module for both input and output! You’ll also be eligible for each of the future weekly giveaways… we’re distributing $50,000 in prizes to hundreds of projects over 17-weeks!

Entering is easy. Write down your idea to help solve a problem faced by a wide range of people. Start fleshing out your build plan. Pictures are a huge help, even if they’re just a hand-drawn sketch on some paper! Your best bet at getting recognized for a giveaway is to post a new project log which mentions how you would add this Teensy board to your creation.

Last Week’s 50 Winners of a LightBlue Bean

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Congratulations to these 50 projects who were selected as winners from last week. You will receive a LightBlue Bean which combines Bluetooth LE with an ATmega328 in a nice little package ready for prototyping. Don’t forget to post pictures and information about what you build with these little wonders!

Each project creator will find info on redeeming their prize as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

$50k In Play: Giving Away 50 LightBlue Bean This Week

April 30, 2015 by 9 Comments

This week we’re awarding a LightBlue Bean board to 50 projects entered in The Hackaday Prize.

We love this little board so much we put it in our store. It brings a microcontroller that has plenty of room and peripherals (and is quite well-known… the ATmega328) with the connectivity of Bluetooth Low Energy. If you’re planning on building something that needs processing power and connectivity with smartphones this is a good place to start. And this week you might just score one as part of the 2015 Hackaday Prize.

We’ll be looking for entries that are getting ready for the physical build and need connectivity. The best way to let us know your project should be one of the fifty winners is to post a new project log with your construction plans and how the Bean (or BTLE) would fit into that plan. Submit your build by next Wednesday (5/6) and you’re in the running!

We’re giving away $50,000 in prizes, 1/10 of the total Hackaday Prize pool during the build phase going on right now.

Last Week’s 30 Winners

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Last week we were looking for great entries in need of circuit boards and boy, did we find a lot of them. Judging is super hard. We looked at all the entries and ended up with these 30 winners. Each will receive $50 to use for custom PCB manufacturing from OSH Park. We expect to see a lot more purple boards popping up on entry pages in the coming weeks! Congratulations to all winners. Each project creator will find prize info as a message on Hackaday.io.

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is sponsored by:

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Hackaday Links: April 26, 2015

April 26, 2015 by 11 Comments

In case you haven’t heard, we’re giving away a trip to space. We have $50,000 to promote giving away a trip to space too, and this week we’re giving away some OSH Park gift cards. If you have a project that’s held together with hot glue on a 40-year-old piece of perf board, add a project log describing how you need some free PCBs.

A few months ago, some guy in Texas found the original molds for the Commodore 64C, the Plus/4 and the 128. That discovery turned into one of the best examples of what Kickstarter can do. Now, new keycaps are being manufactured with an Indiegogo campaign. If you’re waiting on your C64c case to be pressed out of a mold, this is not the time to think about the sunk cost fallacy. They’re not Cherry MX compatible, but they will work with just about every version of the C64. Not bad for under €20.

The UK has a fabulously rich history of ancient melee weapons, ranging from the flail to the mace and a bunch of odd bladed weapons used by the Scots. This tradition was passed down to the UK mains plug, the single most painful plug to step on. Apple just released a USB charger with a folding UK mains plug and [oliver] did a teardown on it.

For St. George’s Day in Catalonia, there’s a tradition of giving roses to women, and books to men. [Nixieguy] has all the books he could want, and would prefer to receive a rose. Bucking tradition, he made himself a rose from a punch card. It’s the closest he’s going to get to ‘@}-\—’. A few years ago, he carved a rose out of a 10mm LED.

Finally, a decent tutorial on how to grow your own SMD components.

Need to take apart a cellphone? Use acetone! Need the phone to work after you take it apart? Ummmm….

The Dayton Hamvention is just three weeks away! Yes, the same weekend as the Bay Area Maker’s Faire, which means most of the Hackaday crew will be elsewhere, but I hear [Chris Gammell] will be there putting Parts.io stickers on everything. By the way, I’m looking for a Tek PM203 Personality Module for a 68000 64-pin PDIP.