redbull

22 Articles

Heading To New York To Judge The RedBull Creation Contest!

June 13, 2013 by 7 Comments

We had a ridiculous amount of fun last year in the RedBull Creation Contest. This year, however, we’re not participating as competitors, we’re judging! I will be there representing Hackaday as a judge as well as getting behind the scenes coverage. Sometimes the best stuff gets missed when all you get is the highlight reel.

The format this year is returning to what it was in 2011. The 6 teams will meet in New York this weekend to compete in a 72 hour build off. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to come up with.  You can see what each team did to get into this stage in the video above.

I’ll be recording video during the event so you can follow along. I’ll try really hard to give a real view of what an amazing event like this is like. I imagine it will be a whirlwind of activity, so I’ll do my best to capture it.

The RedBull Creation Contest Begins!

April 9, 2013 by 24 Comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9WPZjcEOdI

The RedBull Creation contest begins today.

Last year, we had a ton of fun competing in the RedBull creation contest. The idea is that RedBull hosts this big contest where teams compete by making awesome stuff. Finalists get to take a trip to Brooklyn for a build off extravaganza. Frankly, we think this is how ALL advertising budgets should be spent.

This year, however, we will not be participating as a team in the contest. We’ll be helping judge it!

The hardware:

In previous years, RedBull has sent out some custom hardware for people to use. Last year it was basically an Arduino on a custom PCB with some cool touch sensors. This year, they’ve sent out this multi purpose LED controller shield that looks pretty impressive.

You can see all the details along with a breakdown of the board from the creator himself, after the break.

Continue reading “The RedBull Creation Contest Begins!” →

Rube Goldeberg Mixes In Freerunning; Reminds Us Of Human-sized Game Of Mouse Trap

October 5, 2012 by 13 Comments

Yep, those are just some shipping containers being used as dominoes in this very impressive Rube Goldberg machine. The apparatus includes a human element, with freerunners making their way through a whole bunch of obstacles. In fact, if you look closely you’ll see the outline of a man who just jumped from the top of each container to get to the ground. The project is a marketing device for Red Bull, who must have shelled out quite a bit for the setup. We’ve embedded the video after the break where you’ll see they went all out with the filming of the device.

To tell you the truth we kind of wish that a Rube-Goldberg build had been the goal of this year’s Redbull Creation Contest. It would have been all but impossible to go this big, but some of the stages (like a suspended bath tub slowly draining its reservoir of water) would have been easy to make happen. Well, there’s always next year!

Continue reading “Rube Goldeberg Mixes In Freerunning; Reminds Us Of Human-sized Game Of Mouse Trap” →

Hackaday Has Won 1st Place In The RedBull Creation Contest!

August 1, 2012 by 55 Comments

The people have spoken. Hackaday has won the Redbull creation challenge by popular vote.  Despite a few bumpy spots in the voting process, our project, the Minotaur’s Revenge (gameplay footage around the 2min mark in the video), got the most votes from the public winning us $5000 for our hackerspace and a trip to the World MakerFaire in New York.

Thanks to everyone who was able to actually vote, and we totally understand about those who didn’t.

The Live Streaming 72 Hour Build-off Begins Tonight!

July 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

Tonight at 6pm pst, the people at RedBull will be announcing the theme for the 72 hour build-off. We’ve cleaned our space, set up the cameras, and tried to get a good night’s sleep.  We’re all ready to kick some ass and would love it if you would join in to watch and even chat with us during the build. You should be able to watch all of the teams at the red bull contest web site. Though you can also just tune in to us at the link below, or on the sidebar.

During some of our team meetings we decided that watching a live stream of us hunched over some device for 72 hours would be extremely boring. To help remedy this, we have been contacting people all week to arrange proper amusement. We have graffiti artists, dancers, and some other miscellaneous things(possibly fire breathers?) in the works to help break the monotony. You’ll see a board labelled “EVENTS” in the bottom left of our stream. This should help keep you notified when the next bit of amusement shall arrive.

If you want to just watch the teams individually, there’s a list of each of our channels after the break.

Continue reading “The Live Streaming 72 Hour Build-off Begins Tonight!” →

Minot Makers Launch Red Bull Too!

July 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

When we posted our redbull firing pneumatic cannon, we got a pretty quick email from [Ryan] at Minot Makers. Apparently, they were working on a redbull cannon as well. Theirs, however, has a completely different use. They intend for this to fire a redbull with a gentle arc allowing you to simply catch and drink it. They appear to be firing over a fairly short distance, so this isn’t any more dangerous than, say, tossing a drink to a friend a few feet away.

Their approach to handling the barrel size/can size difference was to build a piston cannon instead of a sabot. This conveniently also allows for easy firing of pretty much anything that will fit! [Ryan] described some future plans to give this an r/c platform allowing it to drive around at events and deliver beverages. That would be pretty cool.