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Archive: Contest

June 21, 2010

Kits & Kitmakers: Andrew Argyle's Sputnik I Nixie Clock

Andrew Argyle's original Sputnik I clock was featured way back in MAKE Volume 03. Since then Andrew, aka GlowingTech, has done very well selling fully assembled Nixie clocks, kits to make Nixie clocks, and individual and bundled components. The kit pictured here is based on an article published in the October 2006 issue of Nuts and Volts, and includes everything needed to make a 6-tube Nixie clock, less the case, for $100.

If you're sitting on a clever idea for an electronics kit, why not enter it in our Gadget Freak Design Contest? Besides the publicity, you could win $1000 to help get your idea off the ground, as well as a free pass to sell your kit in Makers Market.

More:

• Kits & Kitmakers: Doug Jackson's DIY Word Clock
• Sonodrome: Inspiring entrepreneurship in hobby electronics

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Jun 21, 2010 09:30 AM
Contest, Electronics, Kits, Makers Market | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

June 18, 2010

Peggy 2 clock concept contest from EMSL

Evil Mad Science Laboratories is having a clock contest! Windell writes:

There are probably thousands of cool ways to build clocks based around an LED matrix, and we've seen some neat analog and digital clocks based on our Peggy 2 kit. But we've also come up with a few dozen other cool ways to show the time, and realized that we've only scratched the surface.

So today, we're announcing a Clock Concept Contest: Show us your coolest idea about how to build a Peggy clock, and you could win one!

How to enter

First, come up with a cool idea.

Is it analog? Is it digital? Just abstract blinkenlights? Is is receiving a live video feed from the internet? Is it a word clock? A game clock? A binary clock? Or hexidecimal? Is it a world map with LEDs wired up from a Peggy board that tells the time by latitude and longitude illuminated? Or something far more outlandish and never heard of?

The deadline is June 22, and prizes include a Peggy Awesomeness Bundle and EMSL gear. Get all the details at their site!

In the Maker Shed:

Peggy 2 Kit

Posted by Becky Stern | Jun 18, 2010 08:17 AM
Contest, Electronics | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

June 15, 2010

Kits & Kitmakers: Doug Jackson's DIY Word Clock

Doug Jackson's DIY Word Clock Kits, which we first blogged about back in April, have been a giant hit. Doug has done a lot of things right. In classic maker fashion, he's taken a very expensive piece of designer electronics and shown us how to do it ourselves for a fraction of the price. He hasn't kept any secrets, open-sourcing the design at every step of the way. And he's offered a range of pricing options to suit his customers' available funds, time, and skill level, providing his kits in various stages of completion from just the PCB all the way up to the completely assembled clock.

If you're incubating a kit design you think could be the next word clock, check out our Gadget Freak Design Contest. Besides the exposure, you could win a nice chunk of change to get it off the ground.

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Jun 15, 2010 10:30 AM
Contest, Kits, Makers Market | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

June 14, 2010

Tweet your favorite item in Makers Market to win it

Been lusting after something in Makers Market, but can't quite justify the expense? Enter our tweet-it-to-win-it contest and you just might get it for free! Here's how to enter:

1. Look around Makers Market and pick out your favorite product of value $500 US or less. You can pick a more expensive product, in which case, if you win, the first $500 is on us.
2. If you're not already following the Makers Market Twitter feed, do so by visiting this link or by tweeting "follow @themakersmarket". Contest winners will be notified using Twitter's "direct message" feature, and if you're not following us, we can't message you, and you can't win.
3. Tweet the URL of your favorite product, and the URL of the contest landing page (https://bit.ly/9p97ad), and make sure you include "@themakersmarket" so we receive your tweet. We recommend cutting and pasting the following text into your twitter window...

   Follow @themakersmarket and tweet your favorite item to win it! https://bit.ly/9p97ad
   Mine is:

   ...followed by the URL of your favorite product. You will probably need to use a URL shortener to make it all fit into a tweet's 140 characters. We find bit.ly works well.

Eleven winners will be selected randomly from among tweets received before 11:59 p.m. PDT on July 15, 2010. One first-place winner will receive their tweeted choice of products from among those for sale on Makers Market having value of $500 US or less. If your favorite product costs more than $500, the first $500 is on us. Ten runners-up will receive $25 toward their choice of products from among those for sale on Makers Market.

Good luck and happy tweeting! Please see the contest landing page for more details, and official rules.

Posted by Makers Market | Jun 14, 2010 06:00 AM
Announcements, Contest, Makers Market | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

June 7, 2010

Sonodrome: Inspiring entrepreneurship in hobby electronics

Lots of people who read, contribute to, and/or generate the content we feature on Make: Online find themselves in this situation at one point or another: They make something for entertainment, or to educate themselves or their children, post it on the web, and suddenly find they're getting a lot of attention for the work. Many--and I hope, in fact, most--of these people like their day jobs just fine and are content to let their hobby stay a hobby. But some significant fraction look at all the are-you-selling-these e-mails piling up in their in-boxes, or all the where-can-I-buy-one comments piling up on their threads, and start to wonder: Am I missing an opportunity here?

The decision to turn one's hobby into a business shouldn't be taken lightly. No matter how much you love what you're doing, there are times when any job is just work, and almost any kind of home start-up--whether it's kit-packing or gadget-building or whatever--is probably going to require more hard work, for lower pay (at least at first), than a 9-to-5 job at an established company. Our hobbies are very often things we do to escape from work, and as much as we may sometimes wish we could spend more time at them, to suddenly find they've become obligations may sour, slightly, the pleasure they brought as simple leisure.

That said, there's almost nothing we like to see better than a maker hanging out a shingle and selling their own handiwork. Finding these people and helping to promote their work was the single biggest reason we launched Makers Market. If you're on the fence about hanging out your own shingle, give it a look and/or drop me an e-mail, and let's talk. Likewise, if you're ready to take the plunge but could use a bit of start-up cash, consider entering our Gadget Freak Design Contest. It's been running for a couple of weeks, now, but the pool of entrants is still small, and the pool of truly impressive entries is smaller still, so there's a very real opportunity there for the right clever person with the right clever idea. First prize is $1,000 in cash and guaranteed admission to Makers Market.

By way of inspiration, consider UK-based indie start-up Sonodrome. Since opening their Makers Market store in early March, their kits have been selling like snowcones in the Sahara, with three of their four products being featured in the Boing Boing Bazaar. I caught up with Jim and Kat, this weekend, and had a chance to ask them a few questions about their experience running Sonodrome so far:

Sean Michael Ragan: What first got you interested in hobby electronics?

Jim: It's been a natural progression from tearing things apart as a child. I remember smashing a cathode ray tube with a hammer when I was about 12 years old... It seemed destructive at the time, but the vacuum caused some of the glass to get sucked in and ever since then I was really interested in how it all worked.

SMR: What was your first product? What was your inspiration?

Kat: Jim designed our Posc when we were at university. He was bored with the usual buttons, knobs and sliders on commercial devices and wanted to create an instrument with an alternative method of control. People liked how it was gestural and enjoyed the sounds it could create - we had a lot of requests from people who wanted them, so we figured it'd be a great product to start with.

SMR: How and why did you decide to start selling kits?

Jim: We wanted to share what we were passionate about, and encourage hands on learning at the same time. We'd just finished university and England was in the middle of an economic crisis - there wasn't any jobs for anyone, let alone Music Technology graduates. The only way we'd get to do what we wanted was by doing it ourselves.

SMR: Where did your start-up funding come from?

Kat: We've started up with next to nothing. The Institute of Digital Innovation awarded us Innovation Fellowships, which helped to support us personally as we got the business going, but Sonodrome was originally set up with just the equipment and skills we'd accumulated throughout our degrees.

SMR: What's been the biggest challenge so far?

Kat: With a lack of start-up capital we've had to do some pretty long hours at Sonodrome HQ! We're completely self-reliant, which can get stressful at times, but we like to get our hands dirty so that always helps!

SMR: Are there other kits, either in your field or not, from other indie electronics firms that you really admire? Or any indie kit makers in general?

Jim: We really like what Brian and Kelli over at Monome do. Hardware/Software hybrids interest us, and we relate to and appreciate their open source attitude.

SMR: Anything else you'd care to add?

Kat: Within the maker community people are sharing their ideas and helping others to get creative with technology. There's a lot of cool people doing a lot of cool stuff, and we feel really lucky to be part of it.

Thanks, Kat! Thanks, Jim! Be sure to check out Sonodrome's other hardware in their Makers Market store, and the custom software they've written for it at their UK site.

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Jun 7, 2010 09:00 AM
Contest, Electronics, Makers Market, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

June 3, 2010

Last Chance to Enter The Save My Oceans Upcycle Contest

Our Save My Oceans Upcycle contest is winding down this week, and if you still want a chance to win an iPad, it's time to submit your entries. Read all about the contest and join the contest Flickr group over on the main contest page. Our last little bit of upcycled plastic inspiration comes from the International Plastic Quilt that was on display at Maker Faire. The project, created by Cheryl Lohrmann, is part of the Create Plenty organization, and aims to make people more aware of the amount of plastic that comes in to their daily lives. Participants are challenged to live 90 days plastic-free and then make a 12"X12" quilt square with the plastic that invariably makes it in to their lives anyway. The group had several quilt blocks on display, including the one pictured above that was made from pieces of plastic drinking straws worked into a mosaic. You can see more pictures of the quilt over on my Flickr stream.

Posted by Rachel Hobson | Jun 3, 2010 10:30 AM
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May 28, 2010

Save My Oceans Contest Inspiration: Plastic Bottle Organizer

Our Save my Oceans contest is slowly winding down, and for a little last-minute inspiration, I'll share this wall organizer made from discarded plastic bottles. There were some fantastic ideas for workshop organization in the Make Time and Space series, and I was especially wowed with this set up that re-used all kinds of plastic containers. Perhaps this water bottle wall organizer could work in with that same organizational system. The project shows magazines and newspapers rolled and stored inside, but I'm thinking you could also use it to store tools. What else?

Be sure to check out our main contest page and join our Flickr group, and also sign up for the Save My Oceans contest newsletter (there is just one issue remaining, but it will have some really great stuff from Maker Faire) for your chance to win an iPad.

Posted by Rachel Hobson | May 28, 2010 03:30 PM
Contest, Workshop | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

Orange traffic cone lamp

Laura Haaker's Cone Light is another gem from Inhabitat's second annual Spring Greening creative reuse contest, although I have to say, for the record, that those are way smaller than any actual traffic cone I've ever seen, and are far, far too clean to have ever seen any real use on a street. I'm pretty sure reusing real traffic cones would result in a lamp that was both way too big and way, way too beat-up / nasty-looking to make acceptable furniture. Still, clever idea, and a straightforward re-make.

More:
Spherical stay tab lampshade

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | May 28, 2010 09:15 AM
Contest, Furniture, Green, Transportation | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 27, 2010

Spherical stay tab lampshade

This spherical POP pendant lamp made from soda can pull tabs by Mauricio Affonso is just one of 23 impressive finalists in Inhabitat's second annual Spring Greening creative reuse contest. You can see the others, and vote on your faves, here.

More:

• Stay tab chain maille tutorial
• Chainmail armor entirely from beer can tabs!
• Soda tab lampshade
• "Tabistry," beer and soda can pull-tab creations
• Aluminum pull tab chair

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | May 27, 2010 01:58 PM
Contest, Furniture, Green | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 14, 2010

Variable-terrain putting green

Phil first blogged this school project by Mark Giannasi, Aaron Gaylord, Brody Collins, Thomas Boileau and Maiki Vlahinos of Colorado State University's Mechanical Engineering Department back in March. Now, Giannasi, et. al., have raised the bar by entering the project in our ongoing Gadget Freak Design Contest:

Why putt golf balls into a paper cup when you can have your own variable-terrain putting green? This course...offers players three cups and three skill levels. The most advanced level raises two platforms that change the terrain of the course - and the challenge that golfers face.

Complete build details are available at our partner blog Design News.

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | May 14, 2010 03:36 PM
Contest, Electronics, Gadgets, Toys and Games | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 13, 2010

Save My Oceans Contest Inspiration: Use Less Plastic Video

This video from TakePart isn't just cute with a catchy tune, it has loads of important information on how using less plastic can help save our oceans. Watch it and be inspired to do your part, and then check out our Save My Oceans contest where your plastic project could win an iPad. Be sure to sign up for the contest newsletter and join our contest Flickr group while you're there!

Posted by Rachel Hobson | May 13, 2010 06:30 AM
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May 12, 2010

WINNERS in the MAKE/MakerBot 3D printer giveaway!

Big news! We're SO EXCITED to announce the winners in the MAKE/MakerBot CupCake CNC 3D printer kit giveaway! Participants were asked to design 3D objects and upload them to Thingiverse, where they were judged by Bre Pettis, Gareth Branwyn, and Becky Stern based on complexity, ingenuity, and "MakerBottability," or how likely they are to print successfully on a MakerBot CupCake CNC. Entrants could also quality for a runner up prize pack by submitting an idea for something to print. Here are the results!

Grand Prize winner of a Deluxe CupCake CNC kit: jmillerid for his CupCake Transformer

What's cooler than transformers? A Cupcake CNC transformer with a Bre head? This is a fully articulated assembly that transforms from a Cupcake CNC to a Bre-bot. I started with a snap-together design (see the attached concept sketches) but migrated to a bolt-together kit for various reasons. The final design allows for fine adjustment of the joint tension so the transformer can stand in any position but still be movable, positionable, transformable! See the animated transformation here: jmillerid.com/wordpress/2010/05/cupcake-cnc-transformer/ Modeled in NX6, rendered and animated in Modo, .stl files cleaned up in Blender, exploded view created with Rhino and Illustrator, sketches with Sharpie.

It should be noted that the use of Bre's head in this model had no bearing on its winning status; it's simply the most complex, ingenious, and MakerBottable entry! Contributing Make: Online writer John Baichtal liked it so much, he made a post about it a while back, calling it "1000X awesome." We agree. Congrats, Joel, you've earned yourself a free MakerBot 3D printer kit!

Each of five runners up receive a "Poor Person's 3D Fabbing" prize pack including:

• 1 Arduino Duemilanove board (courtesy of MakerBot)
• 1 copy of MAKE Volume 21, the Desktop Manufacturing issue
• 1 Maker's Notebook (courtesy of Maker Shed)
• 1 package of Shapelock Design Plastic (courtesy of Maker Shed)

Stereoscopic Viewer

Can you imagine using a a 3D printer to make a 3D viewer to turn 2D images into 3D? Thats 11D!

This is a stereoscope used for viewing stereo pairs (two images that together make a 3D image) arranged parallel style (not cross-eye). Thanks to its central pivot, it can be used with a wide variety of image sizes. It's ideal for viewing pairs made of two 5x7" photo prints, or images approximately that size on a monitor. It's also fun to just plain look through the viewer, because it increases your depth perception by effectively moving your eyes farther apart.

Kongorilla's stereoscopic viewer comes with ridiculously great instructions and sample images to use with it. Here's our favorite:

Ultra Compact Pinhole

There were at least 4 pinhole camera entries for the contest and this one by LeoM looks really good!

Sarrus Z axis

The Sarrus linkage by fdavies is really an impressive piece of machinery that uses lots of small MakerBottable parts to make a large and wonderful contraption!

2 Channel Rhythm Contraption

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Solidworksmagi submitted 50 designs to the giveaway making him the most prolific contributor to the contest. He is truly a Solidworks Magi! We like his 2 channel, 2 gear programmable percussion & rhythm machine.

LED Candles

"Eyepokerouter" wrote in with his winning idea:

I am working on making LED candles for a friend's upcoming 30th birthday. These candles need to go on a cake, so it would be great to be able to print out the candle shape, leaving two channels for the LED leads and wires to run through. This would look much better than the straws filled with glue that I am currently planning on using.

Hopefully you can make those candles with your new Shapelock and Arduino!

Congrats to the winners and thanks to everybody who participated! There were so many great entries to the giveaway that we also want to share with you the honorable mentions. Check them out after the jump!

Posted by Becky Stern | May 12, 2010 11:00 AM
3D printing, Announcements, Contest, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 8, 2010

3D LED Tic-tac-toe

The first entry in our Gadget Freak Design contest is in, and it's a doozy: Matthew Katzenstein created this sweet 3x3x3 RGB LED matrix, controlled by an Arduino Diecimila, that plays a game of blue-vs-red 3-dimensional tic-tac-toe. The video, above, is lengthy and quite detailed. You can watch it work starting at 5:30 (it should automatically start there if you click the embedded player above); the whole video can be seen here.

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | May 8, 2010 04:30 PM
Arduino, Contest, Electronics, Toys and Games | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 5, 2010

Last chance to win a MakerBot 3D printer!

Don't forget, tonight at 11:59 PDT is the deadline for entering the MAKE/MakerBot CupCake CNC kit giveaway! Design an object and upload it to Thingiverse, then post a link to it at the giveaway landing page. One lucky entrant will receive a Deluxe CupCake kit, and several others will receive some nifty gear as well!

Posted by Becky Stern | May 5, 2010 08:00 AM
3D printing, Announcements, Contest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

May 3, 2010

Giveaway Reminder: Design object, win MakerBot

Wow! Juniortan designed this folding guitar stand for Thingiverse users everwhere to download and print, and it's an entry in our MakerBot CupCake CNC Kit giveaway! Design and upload an object to Thingiverse, put a link to it in the comments on the giveaway landing page, and you could be the proud new owner of your own desktop 3D printer courtesy of MakerBot Industries. The deadline is soon: May 5th.

Need help getting started? Try out Sean's OpenSCAD tutorial!

Posted by Becky Stern | May 3, 2010 11:00 AM
3D printing, Contest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

April 30, 2010

Creative reuse design contest

Inhabitat has just launched their annual "Spring Greening" creative reuse contest. There's a $250 prize for the best example of "clever, creative reuse of old objects or materials that might otherwise be collecting dust." Deadline is midnight East Coast time on May 3. [Thanks, Mike!]

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Apr 30, 2010 06:19 AM
Announcements, Contest, Green | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

April 29, 2010

How-To: Outlet-mount device charging pocket

Our Save My Oceans contest is well underway, and we're excited to see all the upcycled projects you're making for your chance to win an iPad. Are you needing a little inspiration? Let's revisit Sean's outlet-mount device charging pocket. He turned a shampoo bottle into hanging charging dock and detailed how to do it in this Make: Online project.

Be sure to read the contest page for all the details, and sign up for the Save My Oceans newsletter. Don't forget to keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter, too, as we have additional giveaways there!

Posted by Rachel Hobson | Apr 29, 2010 10:30 AM
Contest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

April 26, 2010

MAKE/MakerBot giveaway update

We're racking up the entries for the MAKE/MakerBot CupCake CNC kit giveaway! Design a 3D object and put it on Thingiverse for a chance to win your own 3D printer! Bre's been tagging Thingiverse things with "makeentry" (169 so far) to organize them on their end, but you can also see all the entries so far (and submit your own by May 5th) at the giveaway landing page.

Need help getting started? Try out Sean's OpenSCAD tutorial!

I like this futuristic cupcake design by SolidWorksMagi,

this t-rex cookie cutter by whowhatwhere,

and this dragonfly by guru.

Posted by Becky Stern | Apr 26, 2010 11:06 AM
3D printing, Announcements, Contest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

April 21, 2010

Built a clever gizmo? Wanna sell it online? Got a contest for ya

Miracle Cube Timer from Datexx. For more inspiration, head on over to our partner blog Design News.

Have you built, or have you got a wicked scheme to build, an electronic gizmo you might want to sell? Today we're launching our first "Gadget Freak" contest, seeking the cleverest, best-documented, and most marketable homemade gadget build. Details are available on the contest landing page, but here's the gist of it: The first place winner gets a thousand bucks plus a chance to sell their winning gadget as a kit through Makers Market. Second- and third-place winners get $500 and $100, respectively. "Gadget," for contest purposes, means a device, involving electronic components, with sensing, motion, timing and/or networking elements. Entry form is here. Runs through July 13, California time. Co-sponsored by the good folks at Alibre, Allied Electronics, and Texas Instruments.

Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Apr 21, 2010 09:00 AM
Announcements, Contest, Electronics, Makers Market | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

April 15, 2010

Save My Oceans Upcycle Contest, Win an iPad

As makers, we are used to reusing objects for our projects and being mindful of the impact unused or wasted resources can have on our environment. As we kick off our Save My Oceans upcycle contest, we'll be featuring fun and meaningful ways to create projects that reflect not only the innovation with which CRAFT and MAKE readers approach all creative endeavors, but also how those projects can be made with conservation as a key ingredient and message. We've paired with TakePart for the Save My Oceans campaign, which is inspired by the Disneynature film Oceans, in theaters on Earth Day, April 22. You will have opportunities for you to share your best and most innovative upcycle projects for a chance to win an iPad and loads of other great prizes.

Here's how to get involved:

- Take the Save My Oceans pledge to reduce your dependance on plastics, eat non-endangered seafood and/or work on reducing your carbon footprint.
- Sign up for our CRAFT/MAKE Save My Oceans newsletter. We'll provide 4 thoughtful, useful newsletters full of information, project ideas and inspiration during our contest.
- Start making. During the contest, you'll have the opportunity to make and share your projects that utilize upcyclying of materials, especially plastics. Add your projects to the Save My Oceans Flickr group so you can share your upcycling ideas with the world.
- Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where we'll have additional prize opportunities.
- Carefully read all the contest details on the Save My Oceans contest page.

Our oceans today are faced with an increasing amount of plastic pollution. Each year, a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die by ingesting or getting tangled in floating trash. A key to cutting pollution is reducing plastic consumption. TakePart and Participant Media are teaming up with MAKE and CRAFT to present the Save My Oceans Upcycle Contest inspired by the Disneynature and Participant Media film Oceans. While we encourage recycling plastic so it doesn't end up in our beautiful oceans, you can defend the environment even more by upcycling or reusing plastics to make something new. Use your creativity to protect our oceans and share your ideas using upcycled plastics by entering the Save My Oceans Upcycle Contest.

Pictured above: Lake buoys from plastic bottles

Posted by Rachel Hobson | Apr 15, 2010 11:00 AM
Contest | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site |

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