$1000 Open Hardware Innovation Grants

Please help us spread the word. WyoLum.com is awarding $2000 December 10th to the two coolest open hardware projects! Entry deadline is December 3rd. See http://wyolum.com/blog/?p=439 for details.

Justin

What happens if a projects submitted but didn't win? Then the project stays open source? For $1,000 USD right, some serious work is involved so opening the source is a hard decision.

Only open source projects would qualify to win the grants.

liudr:
What happens if a projects submitted but didn't win? Then the project stays open source? For $1,000 USD right, some serious work is involved so opening the source is a hard decision.

If the only incentive to make a project open source is a cash prize, it shouldn't be entered (or considered.)

Especially as USD 1000 is not very much for a development project. If cash is the only incentive then USD 1000 is only good for some very small project.

If you had not planned to go OS in the first place then $1000 would not make you change your mind I think.

These guys seem to have some cred, and $1000 is all I need to get a small project off the ground, maybe I'll apply with (presumably) 10,000 others :slight_smile:


Rob

Not much for a company but enough for an individual or two to get a bunch of expensive toys and pizzas to make something fun.

My original point was, lots of people do projects but not many are willing to share everything for $1,000 considering if they already have a working prototype to get some venture capital or something. This won't convince them to compete I think. But anyway hope someone gets the money to make cool projects. I'd be willing to compete if I had to me to complete my flip box with flip locks or just a flop-knock music box. Here is a video:

It needs flashy case and a nice MP3 quality sound system.

Lots of people do projects but not many are willing to share everything for $1,000

Hmm. Looks to me like lots of people do projects that they're willing to share for nothing at all. $1000 would buy "someone" enough blank boards and parts to make the difference between "well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards and have as many as they'd ever want for themselves. I don't see any that requires actual full productization.

(Of course, I don't see anything in the rules that would cause already-published open source hardware, like Crossroad's 1284 board (or even Arduino itself.) An interesting conudrum!

considering if they already have a working prototype to get some venture capital or something.

Um. Not venture funding. VC is for projects that require millions of dollars of development and/or production costs before you sell tens of millions of dollars worth of stuff each year.

"well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain expense" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards

Exactly where I am at with a couple of projects, and as it happens $1k is about what is needed to get to a stage where I can call for beta testers or even have a finished product. And before anyone mentions Kickstarter it's for Americans only :frowning:


Rob

I had an idea that I made into a working demo and demonstrated in my class around 2009, unaware that Sony was using the same hardware and even I bet same type of code and also made their stuff public in a tech show around the same time. I bet their orb controllers and games sell millions but my magic sword is still just a cutout from cereal cardboard box. Next time, Sony, I'll show you who's got the next great gaming ideas :open_mouth:. This one really needs a venture capital or at least some serious dollars to prototype properly.

There are a couple of levels that an open source hardware project might reach:

For a lot of these possibilities, $1000 is a pretty significant contribution.
(I remember when I was working on "Freeduino" with Tony Kim at NKC and a couple other people, and we had pretty much refined the 4 different designs as much as we could on "paper", and Tony said "Ok, I've ordered 100 of each PCB from my supplier." OMG! Real money being spent! Probably ... pretty close to $1000. I'm sure glad they all worked...)

Can I skip straight to the last two options :slight_smile:

It's a shame that OSHW actually requires hardware and therefore money. I always go straight to a PCB but 100 boards is real confidence. Although the price difference between 10 and 100 isn't that much so I suppose you may was well assume they will be right.

BTW westfw your avatar has been a broken link for some time.


Rob

I have two types of hardware projects going, one type is just cool and fun to make, like that music box and car reverse obstacle sensor, beep, beep. Others are more of tools such as shields and serial LCDs. I'm pretty open to type one projects to share the fun. On the tool type or type two, I'm spending major time refining it over and over so not really ready to hand them out for free yet so I can sell them to get an incentive to spend more time, like from that sale I made that earned me a cheeseburger last week :). I think more open source hardware can come from university projects since they are for student training not for profit most of the time. Arduino itself has that root.

@liudr,

Maybe you can create a simplified - Liudr Creative Display (LCD) - board from your work, e.g. an LCD with a processor that just holds strings and those strings all have an index.

In command-mode you can add delete modify the string table, in runtime mode, you only need to send the index to get the string on the screen. Some strings need one or two parameters that can be send separately. So I can program something like

void loop()
{
float t = readTemperature(A0) * FACTOR;
Serial.print("$T$"); // string $T which might contain something like "Temperature : " $ is start/stop marker
Serial.println(t,2);
delay(1000);
}

There can be 62 single letter strings and 62^2 = 3844 two letter identifiers for strings, that won't occupy much Arduino RAM. There are many stories that have less sentences :slight_smile:

just an idea ...

Graynomad:

"well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain expense" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards

Exactly where I am at with a couple of projects, and as it happens $1k is about what is needed to get to a stage where I can call for beta testers or even have a finished product. And before anyone mentions Kickstarter it's for Americans only :frowning:


Rob

Sounds like you need a partner "not me". There are a few people on this forum that come to mind.

Sounds like you need a partner "not me".

I suppose so, anyone got a lazy grand they don't need :slight_smile:

FWIW here's the project

http://busnet.robgray.com/index.php

I'm happy to tinker with the design for the time being but at some point I have to actually build something or move on.


Rob

Rob, that is a feature of my phi-panel that I have not implemented. It is in the documentation since version one :wink: Only the full size panel is equipped with an eeprom slot so the on board atmega needs not be reflashed.

@graynomad: Your pages need deeper explanations of which existing networking protocols you rejected and why, or it will just get continuous questions on those lines. Mine was "doesn't CAN do that same sort of thing? What abbout can? and "what about ethernet? The tech is a little more expensive, but think of all the cheap extra parts!"

How is kickstarter set up, anyway, internally. What would it talk to do a KS=like site just for OH projects?
We could carefully define the meaning of the early phases, place limits on the various numbers... Is it just the weight of Amazon's cash collection machine that allows it to work, or would any other scheme work (paypal, for instance) How about 1 guy with a credit card machine?

It's been a year or so since I really looked into other protocols, from memory I disliked CAN because

  • Small 8-byte payload
  • No auto address enumeration
  • 500m total range at ~100kpbs

and maybe other stuff, like the fact that it's not open, Bosch own the rights, now I gather when you buy a transceiver chip the rights are included but that rubbed me up the wrong way I guess.

Ethernet just seems so complicated although I admit that's probably just because I know naff all about it. But doesn't every node have to have a unique MAC address etc? It just seemed like an overkill for a node that interfaces with a single light switch.

With things like MODBUS you have to include a "protocol stack" in your code and then get it working, I think this excludes maybe 99% of Arduino users straight up.

Lonworks is very nice but needs a proprietary Neuron chip.

LIN is limited to 16 addresses and short lines.

The smallest Pyxos node is about 3x3".

Yamar nodes need about 27 components and a proprietary chip.

All the above totally or partially die if the cable is cut or data lines shorted and (I think) they all need a lot of code to be running on the host micro.

You're right though I should be prepared to justify yet another protocol, I'll go back to my notes and maybe write up a matrix of features for all the networks I know about.

As for Kickstarter, I don't know how it's set up. The mob that are running this $1000 scheme (wyolum) only use Paypal but their model is a lot simpler in that they just decide who gets the money and pay them.

KS and others are basically an escrow service that holds the money and either distributes it at the end of the day or refunds it to the donors (or maybe doesn't take it until required but has the CC details so they can). PP wouldn't work because AFIAK there is no facility to hold until a certain date then either forward or refund. I may be wrong, I bought a lens from ebay years ago and the money went into escrow until I said I was happy with the purchase, so there may be an appropriate facility.

How about 1 guy with a credit card machine?

Quite possibly, as long as he can get the donor's approval in black and white somehow so they can't say they never agreed, a bit like the hotel swiping your card so they can bill you even if you skip town.

I for one think there's a real need for this sort of micro-grant, maybe KS et al are fulfilling the need but I'm not convinced of that. I know a lot of them only look at "creative" projects, is there a niche for non-sexy techno project micro-funding?


Rob

micro-grant

Good term. Various parts of the financial community should already be familiar with "microLoans."