Electronics-Lab.com Blog

Elektor and Circuit Cellar, in participation with DesignSpark, are pleased to present the winners of the DesignSpark chipKIT Challenge! Engineers from around the globe submitted their eco-friendly and energy efficient designs which were built around a Digilent chipKIT Max32 microcontroller board.

Congratulations to Dean Boman, whose Energy Monitoring System earned him First Prize honors and $5,000! Providing real-time home electrical usage data, this chipKIT-based system helps occupants make informed consumption-related decisions. [via]

Winers:

• First Prize — Dean Boman
  Energy Monitoring System
• Second Prize — Raul Alvarez Torrico
  Home Energy Gateway
• Third Prize — Graig Pearen
  SunSeeker (PV Array Tracker)

Honorable Mentions:

• Jaromir Sukuba – Handheld PIC18 IDE
• John Schuch – Wireless Mesh Network Time Server
• Ian Johnson, Sajjad Lalji, David Weight – MPPT Boost Converter
• Manuel Iglesias Abbatemarco - Eco-Friendly Home Automation Controller
• Curtis Brooks – Internet-Enabled Multizone Thermostat

DesignSpark chipKIT Challenge Winners Announced - [Link]

Engineers from around the world are competing for the title of the RL78 Green Energy Challenge Grand Prize winner! Renesas is challenging everyone to change the way the world experiences green energy by developing an eco-friendly, low-power application using the RL78 MCU. Succeed and you’ll win share of a $17,500 Grand Prize. [via]

Plus, follow Renesas on Twitter and Facebook now for a chance to win additional prizes from official contest partners. Pmods, development tools, and even more cash prizes are up for grabs. Join the RL78 Green Energy Challenge today!

• @RenesasAmerica
  www.facebook.com/renesasamerica
  www.circuitcellar.com/renesasrl78challenge

• @Renesas_Europe
  www.facebook.com/renesaseurope

The RL78 Green Energy Challenge Is On! - [Link]

dangerousprototypes.com writes:

The 2012 Atmel Robotics Contest (ARC) is currently underway. The contest is open to university students 18 years or older in North America, South America and Europe, and the goal is to develop a battery-powered 3D version of the Atmel robot ‘Mel’ (pictured above) using Arduino’s 4WD platform (for example, see Seeedstudio’s version) and Atmel components. Contestants can either work on their own or team up with other university students.

Deadline for submissions is May 18th, 2012. ARC contest rules are available in PDF from the contest webpage.

Atmel University Program Kicks Off 2012 Robotics Contest - [Link]

Ian writes:

Thank you participating in the Open 7400 Competition. All the entries were amazing, check out the full list here.

Four judges, Dave Jones from EEV Blog, Jayson Tautic CEO of TAUTIC ELECTRONICS LLC, Marc Alexander from Freetronics, and Dino Segovis from Hack A Week, and Ian from Dangerous Prototypes each made a top ten list. The projects with the most votes were awarded prizes.

…

With unanimous consent of all judges, and also the reader’s choice winner, 7400 Capacitive Touch Array (Capacitive touch sensing the hard way) wins the grand prize of $100 and first pick of the prizes.

Nine entries took second place with votes from 2 judges. These winners get next pick from the prizes.

• Telephone Intercom From TTL
• 7400 Based Full Wave Rectifier
• Lazarus 64 (Retro game system, graphics gen)
• Masochist’s Video Card
• Lights Out, Turing Style
• Illogical Dickson Doubler
• 74Clock
• 7400 Series Drum Machine (Four-channel, sixteen-step percussion synthesizer/sequencer)
• Electronic Realization of Etch-A-Sketch Toy with 32-Page Flip-Pad

22 entries placed third with the vote of at least 1 judge. They get to pick a prize too.

• Nixie Tube Clock
• Pure TTL Clock (5 digit 7 seg display)
• Discrete Servo Driver
• Discrete logic POV Clock
• Animated LED Christmas sign
• SPI LCD Backpack
• TTL Tilt Sensor
• 7400 Logic E-reader
• Discrete logic amplifier
• Police Lights and Siren (shown for Toy Car)
• AM Radio
• TTL based range finder (with 3 digit 7 seg display)
• Accelerometer Controlled Racing Game
• TEC Temperature controller (Peltier)
• CD4007-Based Voice Changer
• Game of Life with CMOS logic
• 7400 Drum Machine
• Homemade 7400, better than Logical 7400
• Horologium Romanum (Roman Numeral Clock)
• Bin Night Reminder
• 80M Direct Conversion Receiver
• 7400 Series Logic PLL Based Switch-Mode PSU

Thanks again for entering, we hope to see you again next year! Thanks to the sponsors

Electronics-Lab.com is a sponsor and offered :

1 x  uOLED-32028-P1T graphics display module + P1-EB expansion module + uDrive-USB-G1 SD module + uUSB-CE5 module + 64MB microSD card + adapter and a mass of electronics related books

for winner entry: Telephone Intercom From TTL

Thanks everyone who participated.

Open 7400 competition winners - [Link]

all-spec.com writes:

As a worldwide leader in soldering equipment, Weller tools are built to last. And that’s why we want to find the oldest Weller soldering tool that still works.

All you need to do to enter is email us a picture of your oldest working Weller soldering tool. Feel free to send us the background story of your tool too.

Email your entry, along with name and shipping address to marvlop@all-spec.com

The owner of the oldest working Weller soldering tool will win a Weller WD1002T and all entries will receive an All-Spec Mug Boss.

Entries will be accepted October 1, 2011 – December 31, 2011. The winner will be announced on our blog as well as our Facebook page and Twitter page on Monday, January 16, 2012. The winner will also be contacted via email.

Oldest Working Weller Soldering Tool Contest - [Link]

dangerousprototypes.com writes:

43Oh has announced that entry to their May 2011 contest is open. This is an opportunity for you to show off what you can do with the MSP430. The winner will be determined based upon poll results of members of the 43Oh.com forum. Check out the 43Oh contest page for full details, rules and prizes.

43Oh project of the month contest - [Link]

555 Contest Winners Announced – [Link]

The OpenWorld application design contest for STM32 was launched March 15th 2010 to promote technologies and applications that assist persons with handicaps or limiting medical conditions. The contest is open and accepting entries.

The contest is open to students, hobbyists and professional engineers.

The essentials…

What is it:

An application design contest on STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 to promote solutions/technologies that facilitate life for people with handicaps or limiting medical conditions

Links:

• STMicroelectronics’ Press release: http://www.st.com/internet/com/press_release/t3141.jsp
• Contest registration site: http://www.stm32circle.com
• Autonomie project: http://autonomie.minalogic.net/index.en.html

Prizes:

• $20000 in cash prizes

Key dates:

• 15 May 2011 – concept entries to  (best entries awarded EvoPrimer tools)
• 14 December 2011 – finished applications due

For Who:

Anyone – professional engineers, electronics hobbyists, students, … anyone who is interested in electronics and applications that help the handicapped or disabled.

Where: Worldwide

Technologies of interest:

• STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller
• MEMS (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer)
• RF technologies (GPS, GSM, Bluetooth, RFID, Zigbee…)
• Portable, autonomous electronic platforms
• Precision navigation systems
• Augmented reality
• Multimedia
• Contest Sponsors: STMicroelectronics, ST-Ericsson, among others

Context:

• The contest is a promotion of the Autonomie project – an industry/research consortium researching technologies that assist people with sight impairments.

OpenWorld Design Contest with EvoPrimer for STM32 – [Link]

Really impressed by the turnout for the 555 Contest… something like 238 entries! The above videos show three of the submissions. [via]

Jeri and I are hard at work thinning the pack to pass on to our hack-master judges by next week. And don’t worry, even if you didn’t make the first cut, you’ll still be eligible for some of the door prizes from our wonderful sponsors. We’ll be announcing those judges soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to highlight only a few of the amazing projects we’ve already seen. Why should the aggregator sites get all the fun? We’ll be posting links to all of the entries in the coming days, once the entries have advanced to the next round. Check out 3 videos Jeri and I thought were particularly fun and inventive.

555 Contest Entries Already Wowing the Organizers – [Link]

[via]

Last day to enter the 555 timer contest! – [Link]