Race to the Bottom
This is the place for all your contest info. This contest is run, funded, and judged by Bryanandaimee.
The aim of the contest is to encourage design of DIY through hole electronics solutions. This goal will be met if three or more designs are created and tested. The contest is intended to accelerate the filling of possibly the last important niche in low price reprap electronics design space. The cheap through hole DIY design. It is in the spirit of Sanguinololu and Gen7, but replacing the expensive Pololu daughter boards with through hole chip solutions such as the TB6560, THB7128, THB6064AH, etc. It's not just about cheapness, but I think that the DIY nature of the reprap community may suffer if a Free/Gratis DIY solution is not available that can save the builder a significant amount over manufactured electronics board. Current DIY designs are not much cheaper than the manufactured solutions like Printrboard. Mostly that is due to the expense of the Pololu drivers.
Prize Pool
Stay tuned as prize pools may be upgraded soon!
1st Prize : A complete set of Sanguinololu electronics, fully soldered and tested, including Pololu drivers. Four KTM-S1201 serial 7 Segment LCD displays And a Prusa HBP board The Prusa HBP board is in! Just arrived a few days ago.
2nd Prize : A Gen7 electronics board populated with all electronics except the Pololu drivers. Fully soldered and tested. Two KTM-S1201 serial 7 Segment LCD displays. And a set of strip boards suitable for a ghetto HBP.
3rd Prize : A bare Gen7 electronics board. One KTM-S1201 serial 7 Segment LCD display. And a set of strip boards suitable for a gheto HBP.
If you would like to donate to the prize pool feel free to contact me.
Rules and conditions
The contest begins August 13 2012, and ends November 13 2012. The contest deadline may be extended once by a >50% majority of the entrants, in which case the contest will end December 13, 2011.
By Sep 13 all entrants must have declared their wish to compete by posting a link to their project web page below. The contest will carry if 3 or more entrants declare by the Sep 13 deadline.
The prizes will be awarded strictly on a points basis with points accumulated as detailed below.
Points System
The points system is designed to make the awarding of prizes transparent and objective. Points will be awarded as detailed below.
- 1. Declare your entry and link to your project web page
1st entrant 5 points
2nd entrant 4 points
3rd entrant 3 points
4th entrant 2 points
5th through 1 millionth entrant 1 point
all others :) one half point
- 2. Declare licensing on your project page
100 points for Completely Open licensing
Anyone can have your board made in china and sell as many as they want. More to the point, anyone in a country with say a High HDI-index or maybe even lower, can make as many as they want and sell them without your permission. GPL etc. types of licenses apply here. Like it or not, this is the original spirit of the RepRap movement. Free flow of ideas without restrictions. (Plus I'm the one paying for all the prizes and running the contest)
50 points for Mostly Open licensing
If you want to retain some control of the commercial uses of your design for personal or monetary reasons then this is the category for you. "NC type-licenses" go here. Must still be open source and "free" as in Gratis, to use for anyone making boards for personal use.
- 3. Post original design files. (Eagle, KiCad, GEDA etc.)
100 points
- 4. Post the BOM and a total price including shipping for quantities less than or equal to 10. This includes the circuit board manufacture.
150 points for BOM under $30 for quantities less than or equal to 10 (ie. $300 or less including shipping from all suppliers.)
125 points for BOM under $40 for quantities less than or equal to 10 (ie. $400 or less including shipping from all suppliers.)
100 points for BOM under $50 for quantities less than or equal to 10 (ie. $500 or less including shipping from all suppliers.)
75 points for BOM under $60 for quantities less than or equal to 10 (ie. $600 or less including shipping from all suppliers.)
50 points for BOM under $70 for quantities less than or equal to 10 (ie. $700 or less including shipping from all suppliers.)
- 5. Build the board and post pics
100 points
- 6. Post video of your electronics powering a 3D Printer and printing something
250 points for full printer control with temp controlled heat bed and good looking long (2 hr plus) prints on two different bots. Each bot must have a significant difference. (ie. .5 amp steppers vs. 1.5 amp steppers. small heat bed vs large heat bed. etc. )
200 points for full printer control with temp controlled heat bed and good looking long (2 hr plus) print
150 points for full printer control with a temp controlled heat bed and good looking prints
100 points for full printer control and good looking prints
50 points for stepper control only
- 7. Post detailed build instructions and operating specs such as pin outs and jumper settings
100 points for full step by step instructions with pictures.
50 points for simple board layout with BOM and parts placement.
- 8. Publicity points (Total limited to 200 publicity points)
10 points per blog/website/newsgroup post mentioning the contest (prior to the entrance deadline of Sep 13) that mentions you as originator of the news. Only 10 points per website, repeat posts on the same site will be ignored in the points tally. (But appreciated) Note: The last contest I did came down to a few tens of points between 1st and second place and only 6 points between 2nd and 3rd.
1 point per "like" on thingiverse
The points system may be subject to change up to Sep 13, after which they will remain set for the duration of the contest. The basic structure and intent of the points system will not change. Only contestants may suggest changes to the points system. Final rule set will be the decision of the contest author.
- 9. Greyhound hare points
In an effort to push myself to increase the glacial pace at which I am currently developing the newly named Sanquish electronics, I'll be keeping score on my own version of these electronics. Anyone beating my score will gain an extra 50 points. If more than 3 entrants beat my score I'll throw in a laptop power supply for each of the three prize sets.
Entrants
By posting a link to your project page below you are declaring your intent to participate in the contest as described above. Posting below does not obligate you to complete any of the requirements for points as described in the points section.
Example. Contestant 0: Sanguish is the baum! I'll whip all ya'll togetharrrr!!!!! (Please keep it clean :) Note: Sanguish will be the hare in the greyhound points category. "
