Maker Competition!
Want to change the world? Enter this competition and show us how you see the future built with physical computing elements like Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and MaKey MaKey kits. At the same time, you'll have a chance to work together to learn about new, exciting ways to bridge the physical and digital worlds using both hardware and software.
Prizes: 1st: £450; 2nd: £250; 3rd: £100 (Amazon vouchers or equivalent).
Task: Form a team of at least two College of Science students and make something inspiring from the kits we will lend you. This year's theme will be announced at the kick-off meeting on 14th October. A group of judges from both inside and outside of the College of Science will decide on winners.
Resources: Each team will be loaned a kit of containing a Raspberry Pi, MaKey MaKey, Arduino starter kit and more (see The Kit).
Here are a few example projects to help spark your imagination!
Also, make sure to check out previous years' Maker Competitions in the following compilation.
Dates
Wednesday 14th October (1:15–1:45pm) - Science Central, Wallace Building landing (lunch included)
Team formation and equipment sign out. Come along with a group of friends (a good team size might be 4-5 people) and we'll also help put people together who haven't yet had time to make a group.
Wednesday 28th October (5:30–6:30pm) - Science Central, Wallace Building landing (dinner included)
Ideas and support meeting.
Wednesday 11th November (5:30–6:30pm) - Science Central, Wallace Building landing (dinner included)
Tips and demos meeting - come and chat to College staff and research students to get tips and advice or just to show off!
Friday 4th December
Deadline to upload a 2 min video of your efforts.
- Upload your video to YouTube.
- Send an email to cs-makercomp@swansea.ac.uk containing the link. The subject should adhere to the following format, containing your group number - "Video Submission [Group: ##]".
Wednesday 9th December (5:00–8:00pm) - Science Central, Wallace Building landing (mulled wine & mince pies)
Exhibition - bring your creation along to the judging and prize giving event. Mince pies, mulled wine and juice will be served!
- 4:00pm - Give yourself time to set up.
- 5:00pm - The judging commences!
There will also be a regular questions, answers and ideas meeting every Wednesday at 1:00pm in Science Central.
For more info contact: cs-makercomp@swansea.ac.uk or visit the Maker Competition Facebook Group.
Rules
- You need to form a team of at least two people consisting of Swansea University College of Science students.
- You agree to having your creations displayed (on the web, in print, at the exhibition etc).
- You agree to use all the kit responsibly and entirely under the conditions it is designed and return it to us at the end of the competition.
The Kit
Each box contains the following items:
- 1x Raspberry Pi
- 1x Makey Makey Kit:
- 1 Makey Makey Board
- 1 Mini USB cable
- 7 Crocodile clips
- 6 Jump cables
- 1x Arduino Kit:
- 1 Arduino Projects Book (170 pages)
- 1 Arduino UNO board rev.3
- 1 USB cable
- 1 Breadboard
- 1 Easy-to-assemble wooden base
- 1 9v battery snap
- 70 Solid core jumper wires
- 2 Stranded jumper wires
- 6 Photoresistors [VT90N2 LDR]
- 3 Potentiometers 10kilohm
- 10 Pushbuttons
- 1 Temperature sensor [TMP36]
- 1 Tilt sensor
- 1 LCD alphanumeric (16x2 characters)
- 1 LED (bright white)
- 1 LED (RGB - common cathode)
- 8 LEDs (red)
- 8 LEDs (green)
- 8 LEDs (yellow)
- 3 LEDs (blue)
- 1 Small DC motor 6/9V
- 1 Small servo motor
- 1 Piezo capsule [PKM17EPP-4001-B0]
- 1 H-bridge motor driver [L293D]
- 2 Optocouplers [4N35]
- 5 Transistor [BC547]
- 2 Mosfet transistors [IRF520]
- 5 Capacitors 100nF
- 3 Capacitors 100uF
- 5 Capacitors 100pF
- 5 Diodes [1N4007]
- 3 Transparent gels (red, green, blue)
- 1 Male pins strip (40x1)
- 20 Resistors 220 ohm
- 5 Resistors 560 ohm
- 5 Resistors 1 kilohm
- 5 Resistors 4.7 kilohm
- 10 Resistors 10 kilohm
- 5 Resistors 1 megohm
- 5 Resistors 10 megohm
- 1x HDMI Cable
- 1x USB Hub
- 1x AC/DC Mains Adapter
- 1x Wireless USB nano adapter
- 1x Micro USB cable
- 1x microSD card (8GB)
- 1x microSD to SD converter
Troubleshooting
Raspberry Pis
Here are some known issues we have heard about with respect to the Raspberry Pis.
- Faulty Memory Cards.
You might get intermittent boot problems if you have a faulty memory card. Sometimes the RPi might not even recognise it. This is likely the case if you get errors such as: "xxx controller never released inhibit bit(s)" followed by many and various xxx timeout errors. If this is the case, bring in the faulty card, and we will give you a new one that works. - Power supply problems.
- The RPi requires at least 700mA and 5v to run properly. You might run into booting-related problems if you have both the keyboard and mouse (or indeed any other USB device) plugged into the RPi while it boots. If you are affected by this, try booting the RPi with nothing plugged into the USB ports and plug in your USB devices once boot is complete.
- The RPi is powered via Micro-USB. The mains power cable provided in the box of equipment should only be used for the USB hub, into which you can plug the supplied Micro-USB cable to power the RPi. Any other powered USB port should work, too (though see point a, above). Although the mains power cable fits into, and appears to power the RPi, the blue socket is actually an audio jack - using the components in this way will produce unexpected results and most likely damage the RPi.
Other Problems
If you are aware of any other issues with the kit you have been given, the chances are that others are experiencing similar problems.
You can share your problems by posting them to the Facebook Maker Group, or by emailing us directly at cs-makercomp@swansea.ac.uk and we will try to help sort them out.