Take Flight with Feather

Design a board to fit in the Feather ecosystem and we’ll manufacture it.

Contest Details

Digi-Key has partnered with Hackaday to ask you to design a board to fit in the Feather ecosystem.

The Adafruit Feather is the latest platform for microcontroller development, and companies like Particle, Sparkfun, and Seeed Studios are producing Feather-compatible devices for development and prototyping.

The best project in the Take Flight With Feather contest will be sent off to pick and place machines and head straight to the Digi-Key warehouse!

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who entered. The winners have been announced.

To get started, take a look at the current Feather ecosystem (link: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather/community-feathers-wings) and get acquainted with the GitHub repo filled with examples and tutorials (link: https://github.com/adafruit/awesome-feather).

For the Take Flight With Feather contest, we’re looking for the cool, the useful, the insane, and the practical. Most of all, we’re looking for manufacturability. Electron savant Lady Ada will be judging each board on the basis of manufacturability, with the best board moving on to the assembly line where it will be stocked at Digi-Key.

What’s a good design? We’re looking for submissions in the following categories:

The Weirdest Feather -- What’s the most ridiculous expansion board you can come up with?
You’ll Cut Yourself On That Edge -- We’re surrounded with bleeding-edge tech, what’s the coolest use of new technology?
Retro Feather -- Old tech lives on, but can you design a Feather to interact with it? Is it even possible to build a vampire Ethernet tap or an old acoustically-coupled modem?
Assistive Tech -- Build a Feather to help others. Use technology to improve lives.
Wireless Feather -- Add a new wireless technology to the Feather ecosystem

The winning entry overall will be chosen for manufacturability, and will win a small manufacturing run of 100 boards or less and be stocked at Digi-Key. The number of boards in the manufacturing run will be determined by the winning design.

Note: Because of the small run initially, there will be no profit or margin for the first few boards. If the board is well accepted and a larger run is planned, then a longer term business model will be addressed.

The 5 winners in the 5 categories above will receive $100 Tindie gift certificates.

To get started, start a project on hackaday.io and upload your project.

Contest runs noon November 1 to noon December 31st. All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

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 Take Flight With Feather Contest.

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

Sponsored by:

Discussions

Thomas John wrote 08/17/2022 at 16:43

including one that I think would have a decent shot in one of the categories, and then realized that I lack the tools (and some of the skills) to actually put them together and test them to make sure they work. The UK49s game is very simple and interesting to play.

Are you sure? yes | no

haryansyahl0 wrote 10/15/2020 at 13:15

Awesome I like You Instink

Are you sure? yes | no

dbaughman1230 wrote 02/05/2020 at 21:28

Hi. Any update on when the results might be annouced? (...or did I miss something?)

Are you sure? yes | no

Mike Szczys wrote 02/05/2020 at 23:15

Yes, the winners were announced here: https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/winners-of-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/

Are you sure? yes | no

nikhilrachamallas wrote 01/08/2020 at 08:51

Vasthi Instruments V.air – 9009, Real – Time Portable Beta Attenuation Mass Monitor, continuously measures the mass concentration of ambient particulate matter collected onto glass filter tape with time resolution of one-minute.

The V.air – 9009 employs an in-line sampling geometry in which the attenuation of beta rays across filter media is measured and particulate matter is sampled simultaneously. This allows ambient sampling to occur for virtually 60 minutes each hour. It also allows for beta ray measurements to be made for virtually the entire hour thereby improving sensitivity and time resolution. url: https://www.vasthi.com/continuous-pm10-pm-2-5-monitoring-analyzer/

Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 01/05/2020 at 14:43

Hello everyone, this contest has closed and we'll be letting everyone know the results around the end of January 2020. Thanks for all the awesome entries!

Are you sure? yes | no

bobgreenwade wrote 01/01/2020 at 15:30

OK, so I changed my mind ended up putting in 3 submissions anyway.

Still, there's one thing missing from the description: when the winners will be notified and announced.

Are you sure? yes | no

aidancuckoo wrote 01/06/2020 at 02:40

@bobgreenwade This was just said: (quote from @Sophi Kravitz) Hello everyone, this contest has closed and we'll be letting everyone know the results around the end of January 2020. Thanks for all the awesome entries!

Are you sure? yes | no

bobgreenwade wrote 01/06/2020 at 03:24

Yes, I saw that. It was written 3 days after I asked the question. Thanks for the note, though.

Are you sure? yes | no

cleon1148 wrote 11/20/2019 at 16:45

For this competition, are we making the printed computer boards themselves or the projects that involve them?

Are you sure? yes | no

bobgreenwade wrote 11/15/2019 at 02:22

I actually sat down and designed a couple of FeatherWings in Fritzing, including one that I think would have a decent shot in one of the categories, and then realized that I lack the tools (and some of the skills) to actually put them together and test them to make sure they work. I'd assume that's a significant barrier, so it looks like I'll be taking a reluctant pass. :(

Are you sure? yes | no

Michael wrote 11/06/2019 at 18:24

If I submit a project, and it gets manufactured and sold on Digi-Key, who gets the money from the sales? It sounds like Adafruit is temporarily donating the manufacturing costs, and probably Digi-Key will make a profit on the sales. Do I get any of the profits? And then what happens after the initial manufacturing run; who gets the profits from continued manufacturing and sales? Please explain about rights and profit distribution. Thanks.

Are you sure? yes | no

bobgreenwade wrote 11/15/2019 at 02:24

If I'm reading the rules right, it looks like the initial run will be sold at-cost, so there really won't be any profit for either you, Adafruit, or Digi-Key. If they sell briskly enough, then the companies will sort things out with you before proceeding.

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 11/05/2019 at 08:50

There's that "as a new project" part again - are old projects fine? :D

Are you sure? yes | no

PixelDud wrote 11/05/2019 at 19:10

I think that as long as it wasn’t in another contest it’s fine.

Are you sure? yes | no

bernhard wrote 11/03/2019 at 08:46

Hi. Is it possible to submit multiple projects? Thanks

Are you sure? yes | no

Sophi Kravitz wrote 11/04/2019 at 05:29

Hi Bernhard. Yes you can submit as many projects as you'd like.

Are you sure? yes | no

arturo182 wrote 11/01/2019 at 15:59

Awesome, I was planning on designing 2-3 new Feathers next week anyway! :)

Are you sure? yes | no

PixelDud wrote 11/01/2019 at 15:36

This is an opportunity that I can’t miss. Now I need to figure out what to make...

Are you sure? yes | no

Take Flight with Feather

Contest Details

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who entered. The winners have been announced.

Sponsored by:

Submissions View all 76 submissions »

OctoSonar FeatherWing

Autoranging Voltmeter

Weather Station Featherwing

Adalogger 5V to 3V3 Screw Terminal Wing

Discussions

Take Flight with Feather

Become a Hackaday.io member

Just one more thing

Contest Details

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who entered. The winners have been announced.

Sponsored by:

Submissions View all 76 submissions »

OctoSonar FeatherWing

Autoranging Voltmeter

Weather Station Featherwing

Adalogger 5V to 3V3 Screw Terminal Wing

Enjoy this contest?

Discussions

Become a Hackaday.io Member

Eager to get building?

Report project as inappropriate

Send message

Remove Member