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Making Tech At Home

A contest featuring Tech At Home projects

Thursday, April 30, 2020 09:00 am PDT - Thursday, July 30, 2020 12:00 pm PDT Local time zone:
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This contest has ended and the winners have been announced! Thank you all for participating! 

Together with Digi-Key, Hackaday is proud to present the Tech At Home challenge. 

We’re in interesting times, all of us together as one big maker community, but we’re also alone and staying at home. Now more than ever, creatives and engineers need a sense of community.

What better way to fire up your creativity (and use up some parts)  then by building something fun from stuff you own already!

The goal is to come up with any project from parts that you have lying around the house. We won’t ding you if you order supplemental components, but if you’re like most of us, you have Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, a mountain of capacitors, and other parts just waiting to be used.

This is your chance to learn some new skills involving those things you have lying around. We bet you have motors, shields, hats, passives, actives, and more in boxes and drawers. 

We bet you once bought a bunch of parts for a project, promising yourself that you’d get to it on the weekend. We bet that those parts are languishing in a drawer just waiting for you. 

There are so many different ways to jumpstart your skillset, learn something new, and share it with the community. Some of the things you can do right now, today, are:

  • Learn about robotics: how do PID controllers work?
  • Learn about communications systems: how does an IR LED communicate with a receiver?
  • Learn about LED art: how do you make LED blinkies with gorgeous patterns?
  • Learn about wearables and data from the self: what is your heartbeat?

An indoor flower-waterer? A hot air balloon that waters plants? Sure! A submarine that explores undersea caverns? Perfect! Your project can move via remote-control or be autonomous. It can be serious or frivolous! Your imagination is the limit.

What’s more, Digi-Key will be providing a grab bag of parts to replace what you use to 30 very lucky winners. It’s like going to their warehouse and choosing all the best parts for yourself, but instead it ships to you.

We asked you for input on what you’d like to see in a grab bag, we listened, and now it’s your chance to help choose.


Choose what you'd like to see in Digi-Key's grab bag here

The top thirty projects will receive a portion of Digi-Key’s warehouse.

The top three projects will receive a grab bag worth $500.

We’ll be judging using the following criteria:

  • Is it clear what the project does? Catchy titles matter!
  • Have you mentioned where you found the parts you used in your project?
  • Is the project well documented?
  • Is there a system design, CAD model, or basic sketch, and how well does it illustrate the project?
  • Is the project creative and original?
  • Bonus: post about your project on social media using the #TechAtHome hashtag, then link to it in the comments so we can find it.

To get started, start a project on hackaday.io and submit to the Tech At Home Challenge. 

Contest runs from 9AM April 30th to noon July 30th. All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

******Surprise winners will be chosen ******

**edit: we have randomly chosen 5 surprise winners and notified them all June 18th**

How to enter:  Show your project by documenting it as a new project on Hackaday.io. Once you have published your project, look in the left sidebar for the "Submit project to..." menu in order to enter it in the Making Tech At Home Contest.

Who is eligible: Everyone is eligible to enter this contest. Employees, contractors, and relatives of Supplyframe are not eligible to win.

Winners must have a Digi-Key customer number so we can ship from the warehouse: register at digikey.com

View contest log

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Discussions

Just4Fun wrote 05/07/2020 at 18:25 point

Me too :)

Fortunately I've enough "stuff" to "survive" these days...

https://twitter.com/Just4Fun_J4Fun/status/1258440867477704704?s=20

  Are you sure? yes | no

leonkamekameha wrote 05/07/2020 at 10:58 point

cool

  Are you sure? yes | no

MorriganR wrote 05/06/2020 at 18:49 point

If I found my project link is already posted on social media by another account, but without #TechAtHome hashtag, will it be valid as a bonus? 😊

https://www.facebook.com/official.arduino/posts/4539490236077260

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 05/14/2020 at 16:52 point

you can repost it!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Djani wrote 05/05/2020 at 08:13 point

Covid Lockup time, what to do?! I have some interest in ICAO Annex12 related matters in regard of aviation and marine SAR services. Galileo GNSS constellation offers some updated performance through MEOSAR service, in case that you have receiving ground station available. Here, my response to "Making-tech-at-home" ;) https://hackaday.io/project/171415-limetogo

EDIT: My project is deleted.... Strange.

Than listed again... hm!? What is going on?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 05/06/2020 at 18:24 point

Hi, it may have mistakenly gotten caught in a spam filter.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Djani wrote 05/06/2020 at 18:59 point

@Sophi That must be one catch with delay, any way now all in order. I am loading project logs :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 05/03/2020 at 07:10 point

Submitted my project. You get three clues regarding the theme in which I am revealing the project (but not the nature of the project itself)... each clue is (I think) of greater difficulty than the last.

1 - It has to do with a piece of 'hacker' culture from the early 1990s.

2 - There is a [Hackaday] article about it, and the comments are deservedly savage.

3 - KOOKS MORN A LUPINES BED

I will neither confirm nor deny the success of any attempts at guessing the theme... the understanding you'll gain from figuring it out is your entire reward. Consider it a challenge... and a suggestion, should you be unaware of this item if and when you *do* recognize it, that perhaps you should become better acquainted with it ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 05/24/2020 at 06:01 point

Here is a link to the project. I do not 'do' social media, and I've no interest in trying.

https://hackaday.io/project/171368-setec-astronomy

Before anyone asks, the reason I am doing things the unusual way I am doing them with that project, will be explained in the final log, in a way that is not similarly concealed.

  Are you sure? yes | no

danjovic wrote 05/01/2020 at 17:24 point

As most of the hackers that I acquaint, we are not fond of social media, but I have an old twitter account. Here you are the link for the tweet with my first submission for the contest.

https://twitter.com/Danjovic/status/1256266728587366401?s=20

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 05/06/2020 at 18:24 point

nice, thank you!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Capt. Flatus O'Flaherty ☠ wrote 05/01/2020 at 07:04 point

It's very nice that there are no obvious rules other than the hacka-frame staff exclusions. Leave it up to the common sense of the competition minders .... Or are there a load of hidden rules that are only visible to the initiated few?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 05/06/2020 at 18:25 point

We’ll be judging using the following criteria:

Is it clear what the project does? Catchy titles matter!
Have you mentioned where you found the parts you used in your project?
Is the project well documented?
Is there a system design, CAD model, or basic sketch, and how well does it illustrate the project?
Is the project creative and original?
Bonus: post about your project on social media using the #TechAtHome hashtag, then link to it in the comments so we can find it.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/30/2020 at 22:59 point

I *think* I'm in...

Gonna have to call you on the "[W]e won’t ding you if you order supplemental components[...]" bit, though, because I'm gonna need one thing either from my local tech shop friend (depending on *HIS* junk pile, lol) or eBay -- I'm waiting to hear back from my pal about that RN, actually -- but if I can pull that and get away with it, I'm in ;)

This project's been on my "get to it, sonny!" list for a goodly while now... looking forward to crossing it off :D No spoilers, but I *will* give a hint -- it's a rather different take on something I've done on here a few times before.

  Are you sure? yes | no

John Schuch wrote 05/01/2020 at 01:07 point

I think we're cool. I'll need to order one little thing from Amazon. Everything else if off of my personal scrap heap.  :-)  

What's surprising me is all of the people not getting the "new" part of "Show your project by documenting it as a new project on Hackaday.io" . *shrug*  Mine's going to be new. :-) 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 05/01/2020 at 01:18 point

So is mine ;) As I said... similar-ish to something I've done before, but this is gonna be different in some key ways. Also it's not something I eg built last month but forgot to write up... this is an all-new build folks.

After all... zero effort deserves zero prizes. Logically...

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 05/03/2020 at 07:11 point

OK it's not gonna be that different after all. Some of the objectives changed. But it's live now ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dr. Cockroach wrote 04/30/2020 at 22:29 point

I might just might have a idea or two :-)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/30/2020 at 23:21 point

You look familiar... do I know you from somewhere? :P

Also, don't look now, but you might get some competition. Just sayin'...

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dr. Cockroach wrote 05/01/2020 at 08:18 point

Muahahahaha ;-)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 05/01/2020 at 08:22 point

@Dr. Cockroach - from beside the nightstand... normally at this hour I wouldn't bother, but...

Best. Reply. EVAR. :D

  Are you sure? yes | no

Elliot.albright wrote 04/30/2020 at 21:53 point

Can you have multiple submissions?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 04/30/2020 at 23:12 point

yes!

  Are you sure? yes | no

[deleted]

[this comment has been deleted]

Sophi Kravitz wrote 04/30/2020 at 20:02 point

Hi Castvee! This IS a Hackaday contest :D

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/30/2020 at 23:18 point

@castvee8 was referring specifically to The Hackaday Prize... TBH, despite The Great Benchoff *snerk* branding me "That one salty dude in the comments" for it, my position continues to be that the judges are absolutely *stellar* at selecting, for top prize, a project that seems extraordinarily 'flashy' and Earth-shaking -- but, IRL, stands *absolutely* no chance of doing anything meaningful to change peoples' lives in any way whatsoever.

Benchoff can keep his salt, BTW -- and if you see him, you can tell him I said that ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/30/2020 at 23:10 point

Howdy stranger! ;) Also, I agree.

  Are you sure? yes | no

John Schuch wrote 04/30/2020 at 17:51 point

I seem to have some time on my hands. <chuckle> I'm in.  :-)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 04/30/2020 at 19:49 point

Nice. Hi John!

  Are you sure? yes | no

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