Design Challenge With Adafruit GEMMA And Hats

Element14 and Adafruit just launched a global design challenge to turn a hat into a wearable item that is interesting and useful using the Adafruit GEMMA and an accessory pack from Adafruit."

PCBdesign007 gives this overview of the "Hats Off" Challenge:

"Participants will re-imagine the hat into new wearable technology solutions that provide real-world functionality using the Adafruit GEMMA...The Adafruit GEMMA is a tiny Arduino-compatible sewable microcontroller...Competitors will be encouraged to develop hat-like garments that provide functionality beyond shielding the wearer from sun or rain...The recruitment period, which starts today, will conclude August 4. A total of 10 competitors will be selected to build their designs and blog at the element14 design community, addressing their ideas and key challenges throughout the process. The competition will conclude October 31, 2014. Competitors will be judged on their creativity, quality of documentation and the execution of their project. The grand prize winner will receive an Oculus Rift from element14 and one complete FLORA Collection parts pack from Adafruit."

Element14 says:

Adafruit GEMMA

"Ten RoadTest challenge competitors will build electronics projects designed to be worn on the head using the Adafruit GEMMA sensor pack. Dress up like the ship in Close Encounters with flashing LEDs and simple tones, make a sparkling digital princess tiara for prom, stitch a VU meter baseball cap...We are looking for projects that stretch the tech as well as the craft of wearables....each competitor will be provided with a GEMMA Sensor Pack:

• Adafruit Micro Lipo - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1

• Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 500mAh

• Four Flora RGB NeoPixels V2

• Stainless Thin Conductive Thread - 2 ply - 25 meter/85 ft

• Photo cell (CdS photoresistor)

• Small Alligator Clip Test Lead (set of 12)

• GEMMA miniature wearable electronic platform

• USB cable - A/MiniB - 3ft

• Tactile On/Off Switch with Leads

• Fast Vibration Sensor Switch (Easy to trigger)

• Small Enclosed Piezo w/Wires"

GEMMA sensor pack

There are an increasing number of design challenges or competitions these days for microcontrollers (MCUs). One of my goals is to compile a list of competitions or challenges for MCU projects and get a few other people from the Humboldt microcontrollers community to collaborate with on submissions to one of these competitions. As we get into more advanced topics at the biweekly meetings, we can discuss those topics with respect to how they could be used in one or more of the current competitions. If the "Hats Off" competition sounds fun, sign up today!

Ive got info about a couple more competitions and hope to put together a post this weekend with a list of competitions of which Im aware. If you know of any MCU-related contests that are coming up or are still open to new participants, please send me an email at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com.

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Democratize Electronics From Idea To Circuit In Minutes

Squink is a recently launched Kickstarter project which is described as "the personal electronic circuit factory."

It seems like Squink could be of high interest to Humboldt people who frequently prototype new electronics designs, especially ones involving microcontrollers (MCUs). I personally wouldnt need a Squink of my own, but Id love to have access to one. If this Kickstarter campaign hits its funding target of $100,000, every makerspace and hackerspace is going to want a Squink. However, the project appears to be off to a slow start, so I hope the funding pace picks up over the next week or two.

According to the BotFactory website,

"Using inkjet technology, Squink prints conductive ink on a surface to create the traces of the circuit. You can print GERBER RS-274X files or upload PNG, JPG or BMP files...Squink uses the soldermask file generated by your CAD tool to place dots of conductive glue in every connection point where a part is to be connected...Aimed at assembling SMD based circuits, Squink uses vacuum to pick components from a tray. Then it aligns them using computer vision, rotates them according to the "Centroid and Rotation" file created in your CAD tool and places them accurately."

Squink is a simplified printed circuit board (PCB) fab and assembly prototyping tool. However, the TechCrunch post says that the Squink founders arent trying to replace the PCB batch fab companies like OSH Park, or the straightforward PCB fab companies.

"They don’t want Squink to replace the current process of sending projects to manufacturers to build but want it to be a tool for people to test out their ideas immediately, without having to create a delay in the creative process. “We really want to be a stepping stone — try it out really quickly and once you’re ready, then you crank out about 100 boards from a manufacturer..."

The BotFactory blog gives a little more background on the genesis of the Squink concept.

"We were both attending a challenging class on Bio-electronics...you had one semester to design, assemble, and test a basic EEG system (also called a brainwave reader; our version was capable of measuring attention and winking). While the design of the EEG probes on paper and then on a CAD program took a big part of the semester, what was later revealed as the most critical part was the circuit fabrication itself. Out of the 8 teams, only 1 managed to finish on time for the end of the semester. The reason was simply frustrating: it took PCB manufacturers around 7 to 10 days to fabricate and ship all the boards. If you had made even a single mistake in your design, you had to send your design for fabrication again, and you were sure to miss the deadline."

Although the implementation of the concept may seem a bit simplistic to PCB designers who are used to complicated circuits on multi-layer boards with very narrow traces, I expect people using the Squink and similar personal electronic circuit factories to come up with novel and interesting applications over the next few years. I have no doubt that enterprising middle school students who get their hands on a Squink will make money printing off custom circuits for their friends and neighbors. And those same middle school students will later develop a new printing technique, or a new electronic circuit substrate, or some other personal electronic circuit factory concept that no college student or electrical engineer has yet thought of...

What MCU circuit would you print tonight if you had a Squink to play with?

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