Posted Mar 17th 2008 9:50PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
Want to get your laptop custom etched... for free? During the next couple of months, I'll be giving away some free etching sessions. How do you get one? Just submit a fresh new hack via the
tips line. If it makes the cut and gets published, you've got a chance to get your laptop or gadget etched in this 45 watt epilog laser cutter. Here are a few guidelines to help you win:
- Make sure it's fresh. Use google for 10 seconds to make sure it hasn't been published on a major blog already.
- Make sure it's got a picture - everybody likes a good visual aid.
- You'll be more likely to win if you're submitting your own work.
Good luck!
Posted Mar 10th 2008 11:44AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, HackIt
I'm going to have a special guest in my workshop for a while: an
Epilog Mini 24 45 watt laser cutter. This is entirely thanks to
Epilog Laser down in Golden Colorado. Here's today's hackit: If you had access to your own 45 watt laser cutter - with a 12" x 24" work surface, what would you make with it?
Oh, and there's a prize on this one. Whoever comes up with the best idea will get a free laptop engraving session. (You can always just ship me the display cover.) You can have your own art put on, or we can always tattoo your machine with the Hack-A-Day logo.
(Pictured is Ladyada's laser cutter. Mine's coming tomorrow!)
Posted Jan 20th 2008 4:42PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, misc hacks, HackIt
This isn't quite a traditional Hackit, but I think you guys will dig it. Here's the challenge: Given a budget of $600, put together the best hacking workbench you can. Don't include computers or the actual bench in your budget. Oh, and you have to spend it all.
By the way, the best five submissions will get a chance to win a secret prize that I'll be announcing around the end of next month.
Posted Nov 11th 2007 11:43PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, misc hacks, HackIt
Last time, I challenged everyone to shout out with new ideas for those old TiVo boxes. The response was fantastic. I'm not feeling too exotic tonight, so I'll make it easy: The laptop. Years ago I found an article on using old laptop screens to make an electronically dimmed window. At tie time, LCD panels were $1000 items. Today, screens and old laptops can be picked up for a song.
Since 'Hackit' is a new idea, I'm still working out just how I'm going to handle it. Each week I'm going to bring up some hardware. You guys get to pick your brains and suggest new, interesting projects. Every so often, I'll tally up some of the best ideas and put up a bounty for pulling one of them off. Maybe it'll be cash, maybe some spiffy hardware - I'll let you know when we get to it.
So, got a better idea? Let's hear it.
Posted Sep 7th 2007 4:52PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, robots hacks
(I'm in a robot mood this week, ok?) [Wyatt] sent in his
posterbot. Lacking the gift of girly handwriting, he grafted an inkjet printer onto his Roomba to make posters for him. There have been other bots to do this, my favorite being the
graffitiwriter. Of course, [Wyatt]'s bot is less likely to get you arrested.
Want a shirt?By the way, I've got a spare Hack-A-Day shirt sitting here. Send in a link picture of your Hackspace to the
tips line. The best/worst will get some attention and the best one gets an official Hack-A-Day shirt.
Posted Mar 3rd 2007 10:51AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
I thought I'd mentioned every entry of the contest, but I managed to let
one slip through the cracks. One of our favorite hardware hackers [sprite_tm] submitted this
AVR ARM dev board/game console. The LCD is from a Nokia 5110. The brain is a LPC2103 ARM controller, and is designed to run a
chip8 emulator.
Posted Mar 2nd 2007 10:41PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
I'll keep this short and sweet. Fabienne, Eliot and I unanimously chose [Nuxie1]'s
entry as the winner. His board is a nicely done USB PIC prototyping board. [Nuxie1] gets some
sweet prizes and some bragging rights. Congratulations [Nuxie1]!
It seems that our
tips line has been screwed up for the last week or so. If you've got something good, don't be afraid to re-submit it.
Posted Feb 28th 2007 11:50AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
Here's the final batch of entries we received and considered for the Design Challenge.
[Chris] sent in a
stereo amplifier (watch out for pop-ups) designed for iPods (or similar) using LM386 amps and a minimal parts count.
[Fabian] submitted this excellent
tube amp. It's based on the ECC83/12AX7 tube, and runs off a mere 12-14VAC.
[Edgar] sent in this combination
PIC/AVR programmer.
Finally, we've got a simple
PIC/EEPROM programmer by [Ian]. (view the unzipped version
here)
Posted Feb 26th 2007 7:42PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
We finally came to a decision about the winner of the Design Challenge! (But I'm not telling you until Friday.) Before the winner is announced, there are some more entries that deserve attention.
First, there's [Henk]'s
g-force meter. It's based on an ATiny26 micro-controller, 30 LEDs to display the force and the ADXL103 accelerometer.
There's an
adaptation of the no parts pic programmer, by [Patrick].
[Evan] sent in his
PIC prototyping board using the monster PIC18F4550.
I'll have one more batch of entries later this week, and the winner will be announced on Friday. Yes really. I'm going to give it a few days just to make sure that all of our DNS issues have cleared up.
Posted Feb 12th 2007 12:12AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
We're not really hung, but it is taking a while for us to decide just who get the title. While we decide, here's a couple more entries remind you what it's all about.
[Razvan] sent in
this excellent entry. (I'm hosting it on my personal server since he didn't have one)
The writeup could be a bit clearer, but the design is pretty sweet. It features a mega avr brain and a microchip ethernet controller with a software based USB interface. It's a pretty intriguing design - lots of possibilities for ethernet controllable projects.
[Tom D] sent in
this rolling codes garage door opener. This will step through all the garage door opener codes for garage doors made before 2003.
Posted Jan 9th 2007 11:54AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
[Waggy] submitted
this handy device for his entry. It uses several 556 timers to clock a driver chip that drives the mosfet output. If you're not familiar with PWM - think of it as a six channel motor speed controller, but far more flexible. [Waggy] did a nice job writing up the details on the board - definitely a strong entry.
Posted Jan 5th 2007 11:55AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, misc hacks
I'm inclined to put up [nuxie1]'s
function generator how-to because he also submitted a very nice Design Challenge entry. The generator is based on the cheap XR2206 IC which will generate functions at up to 1Mhz. Definitely handy to have around.
His Design Challenge entry was really over the top. It's
another USB PIC programmer, but he laid out three different desings. A full-on SMD, a home build SMD and a through hole board. Nice work.
We'll be announcing the winner of the Design Challenge in another week and a half or so - we got quite a few entries and it takes a while to really review them.
Posted Jan 4th 2007 11:31AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests, misc hacks
I've got a couple more design challenge entries for ya. (The first one made the entry deadline, but he had to repost it to another web host - no whining about how it was posted on the 26th)
[Joe]submitted his
Parallel port relay board. He's still working on the software to drive it, but the board looks good. He suggests cutting a parallel cable to make the input. (I've done it, it's a pain) I'll suggest soldering the inputs directly to a solder style DB25 - or add some edge traces so that a cheap solder style connector can be attached directly to the board.
[Andrew] built and submitted
UPONG - Pong on a LED dot matrix display. It reminds me of the
pong hat. He's even put up a video of the game in action.
Posted Jan 2nd 2007 4:24AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
I'm sick today, but finally getting some entries up. [Albert] designed
this board which can be either a low voltage PIC programmer or, if you lack a programmer to get the initial flash data on the PIC, the through hole components make a logic probe. He rounded out the board with a silk screened logo and a prototyping area. He was also kind enough to provide an eagle library with the Hack-A-Day logo.
Our second featured entry of the day: [Pablo] put together a simple
Hack-A-Day 2.4ghz antenna. He built and tested it - It functions nicely as a directional 2db antenna. His proposed use: limit your neighbors access to your AP by aiming the unetched backside at them.
Posted Dec 26th 2006 10:18AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: contests
Just an official heads up - the deadline for the Design Challenge is up. We recieved some great entries and we'll be reviewing them on Hack-A-Day as we wind up to our announcement of the winner. (Yes, if you submitted an entry, you'll get some coverage) Thanks for all your efforts!
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