Coin Cell Challenge

Low power is where it's at. It's the future of technology. Do something cool with a single coin cell.

Contest Details

Welcome to Hackaday's Coin Cell Challenge. This challenge is all about building something that is powered by single coin cell battery.

Ignite your creativity. Try out low power, whether it is new to you or anyone else. We want to see some amazing power sipping attempts and for you to document it all. Share what worked and what didn't. Extra wrencher points if you share photos of destroyed batteries pushed too far during experimentation.

In short, do something awesome with a coin cell. But we also have special prizes for the examples in three different achievements: Lifetime Award, Supernova Award, and Heavy Lifting Award.

The Winners Have Been Announced!

Congratulations to all of the winners, and honorable mentions!

Awards and Prizes

The top 20 projects will be rewarded with $100 Tindie Credit plus three additional cash prizes of $500 each for the following special achievements:

Lifetime Award: Running the longest on a coin cell.
Supernova Award: An exciting display of power -- battery lifetime be damned.
Heavy Lifting Award: Disbelief. Think: "you can't do that with a coin cell battery."

How to Enter

Build something powered by a single coin cell and document it as a new project on Hackaday.io. Once you have published your project, look in the right sidebar for the "Submit project to..." menu in order to enter it in the Coin Cell Challenge:

Judging Criteria

How novel or interesting is the entry?
How well is the project documented? Is the description, details, instructions, components, and build instructions filled out?
Is the project open source? Could the work be replicated based on the documentation?
How complete is the entry? Projects don’t have to be complete or working to enter, however those which are finished and working by the deadline may be judged higher.

Coin Cell Challenge Contest Rules:

Contest runs 8AM PDT Wednesday, November 29th, 2017 through 2PM PDT Monday, January 8th, 2018 (here is a handy count down timer).
Project must be powered by nothing more than a single coin cell battery and must include some type of electronics.
Projects must be open source. Source code, schematics, and board layouts for the project software must be either posted in the files section, or include a link to a public repository such as GitHub.
Existing projects, or projects that were entered in previous Hackaday contests but did not win a prize are eligible for submission as entries in this challenge with the following restrictions:
1. A new project page must be created
2. The project must be significantly different from when previously entered. Show what makes it unique for this contest.
All entries will be judged by Hackaday staff.
Hackaday Staff, Employees of Supplyframe, Judges or the family of any of the preceding are not eligible to take part in this contest. Everyone is still encouraged to build awesome stuff and show it off.

Discussions

Ember Leona wrote 10/04/2018 at 21:26

Use the button cell for an electronic board game; IF you put a magnet on top and its complete the circuit to light up current action. Like imagine taking the game of LIFE and rewriting the cards and calling it the LIFE of CRIME or something. Mod it so all the board game slots fit the button cell battery. The electronic circuits are not really limited to 3volts but the circuit is only completed at that specific location when the battery is put in. IE convert electronics kit into a dice board game.

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lagunacomputer wrote 02/14/2018 at 20:22

so who won guys?

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davedarko wrote 02/14/2018 at 23:18

Humanity. https://hackaday.com/2018/01/15/coin-cell-hacks-that-won-the-coin-cell-challenge/

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Patel Darshil wrote 02/02/2018 at 14:37

When will the results announce?

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Bastiaan wrote 12/26/2017 at 21:33

It's unclear to me whether already existing projects are allowed to enter. The rules require a new project page for existing projects, but multiple featured entries in the contest are existing projects with pages older than the contest. Any info on this?

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Ted Yapo wrote 12/15/2017 at 21:32

Can I get a ruling from the judges on Li-SOCl2 batteries? Is this considered a coin cell?

http://www.tadiranbat.com/assets/tl-5935.pdf

I should also add that they're nasty, terrible, toxic, dangerous explosive things, and you should read this NASA report about them before playing around with any:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19870007963.pdf

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Mike Szczys wrote 12/15/2017 at 21:35

1.7 Ah? Hahahahaah

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Obesefalcon wrote 12/09/2017 at 07:25

An expert on carbon batteries and novel "bio" batteries is Dr Robert Murray-Smith on Youtube.

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Robert Mateja wrote 12/11/2017 at 13:18

Dr Murray-Smith make tests with cr2032 cells at x100 designed rated current and claim they not perform well in comparison to his own snake oil.See for yourself:

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Obesefalcon wrote 12/30/2017 at 18:35

Mateja, And what exactly are your qualifications, were you an industrial chemist with 20+ years professional experience and have you got a PhD? How many patents do you hold again Mateja? Can you discuss your peer-reviewed academic journal contributions on novel carbon based products such as graphene and cheap graphene production? No didn't think so. Not much really qualifying your comment as anything other than opinionated spite.

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Mars wrote 12/02/2017 at 17:13

Is the small amount of power captured by a radio reciever exempt from the 'entirely powered by a coin cell' requirement? Same for photodiodes, dynamic microphones, piezo sensors, etc.

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Robert Mateja wrote 12/04/2017 at 14:02

I suspect that micro with coin cell and TEG sitting on nuclear waste heat is not allowed.Same with solar,piezo etc. ;)

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Obesefalcon wrote 12/30/2017 at 18:36

Do tell us more Professor Matejo. Can you direct us to your latest peer-reviewed paper?

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Mike Szczys wrote 12/15/2017 at 21:38

Are you power harvesting with the radio receiver? That's actually a great idea, no we need a passively-powered challenge too ;-)

I think the important part is to explain what you're doing. If you're up-front about the power capture of the radio receiver and the role it plays in the overall project I see no reason to disqualify the entry.

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Patel Darshil wrote 12/01/2017 at 16:45

Hey, Hackaday Community. I am new hear. Can You rate my Project. Please!

Link: https://hackaday.io/project/28410-testera-new-era-of-testing

Thanks!

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Pedro Reis wrote 12/01/2017 at 09:08

Hi, I think a great challenge was to create a rechargeable cell battery.

Do those exist already?

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Mike Harrison wrote 11/29/2017 at 18:39

Define coin cell. A lir2477 lithium-ion is a very different beast to a 2016 LiMnO

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Nyles wrote 11/29/2017 at 22:32

Agreed. Rechargeable makes a difference too.

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ActualDragon wrote 12/01/2017 at 13:51

Coin cell. Ask yourself, is it a coin cell? If it is, then you can use it

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Bastiaan wrote 11/29/2017 at 16:36

Is the contest open for international projects or just US?

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davedarko wrote 11/29/2017 at 16:38

Since every other contest was open to almost the whole world I'd say it's not only for the US this time.

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Bastiaan wrote 11/29/2017 at 16:40

Thanks! I didn't know whether previous contests were, but many times it's noted somewhere US only or something. I agree, makes sense that it will be open for all in this contest as well

Are you sure? yes | no

Shulie Tornel wrote 11/29/2017 at 17:00

@Bastiaan @davedarko Yes, it is open to international projects.

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Coin Cell Challenge

Contest Details

The Winners Have Been Announced!

Awards and Prizes

How to Enter

Judging Criteria

Coin Cell Challenge Contest Rules:

Submissions View all 97 submissions »

Happy Holidays gift tag

Retro taking calculator with Bubble display

Cronos

Decoder of the ternary system

Discussions

Coin Cell Challenge

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Contest Details

The Winners Have Been Announced!

Awards and Prizes

How to Enter

Judging Criteria

Coin Cell Challenge Contest Rules:

Submissions View all 97 submissions »

Happy Holidays gift tag

Retro taking calculator with Bubble display

Cronos

Decoder of the ternary system

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