So this project made it into the finals round of the Hackaday Prize! Given how awesome the other assistive tech projects I saw were, I'm still pretty surprised.

I've delayed quite a while with this log entry; right now is a pretty tumultuous time for me (just started a new job) and I wanted to make sure all the bases were covered before posting anything. Let's quickly take a look at where the Clunke Button stands today, and then I'll get back to the Hackaday Prize.

The Clunke Button has an initial design already available for printing:

This button does work, but it has several shortcomings -- the most grievous of which is that the connection between the cap and base is not robust at all. So another button design was made:

This new button addressed some feedback from professional review, and is more durable, but it binds up when pressed from the edge of the cap, which makes it no more suitable than the original for regular use.

My first thought on being in the finals round of the Hackaday Prize was that this was a chance to challenge myself to iterate on Clunke and reach a product I'm happy with. But there's a nagging thought that keeps surfacing: the other buttons. When I started working on Clunke in 2015, the actual goal was to make buttons, but I didn't see any existing designs. Fast forward to 2017 and there are several really good ones. I find myself worrying now that by having Clunke listed online, I'm distracting potential users from other button solutions that work better. Since learning that Clunke made it through the seminfinals round, I've been evaluating whether or not to shutter the project, and now I've reached a decision.

I'm going to compete in the finals round. My little project doesn't stand a chance against the competition, but I'm going to put my best effort into it because it's the right thing to do. At the conclusion of the finals round, I'm going to conduct my own go / no-go review of Clunke. If it hasn't reached a point where I feel comfortable with others downloading and printing it, I'll cease working on it, and make the available project pages reflect the defunct status.

Why? Because if Clunke doesn't "ship" by the end of October, I'm going to start printing the other buttons. I've decided that as much of the prize money as possible is going to go toward the raw materials for printing and assembling AT buttons to distribute. A local organization has graciously offered to help me with testing and revising Clunke, and afterwards with bringing printed buttons (whatever design they may be) to users. I've had a lot of fun playing with CAD tools and printing thing that will never be used, but it's about time to finally shoot the engineer and start sending out affordable assistive switches.