This week, we introduced the winners for the earlier Pet Hacks contest and rang in our new contest: The One Hertz Problem. In order that’s acquired me in a contesty temper, and I believed I’d share a bit little bit of soap-box philosophizing and inside baseball .
The trick to creating a very good contest theme, no less than for the artistic Hackaday crowd, is placing on the fitting limitation. Perhaps it’s a must to match the circuit inside a square-inch, energy it solely with a coin cell, or use the antiquated and almost ineffective 555 timer IC. (Sure, that was a joke!)
There are two fundamental reactions if you attempt to constrain a hacker. Some immediately attempt to escape of the constraint, and their minds begins to fly in the entire instructions that lead out of the field, and oftentimes, one thing cool comes out of it. The opposite kind accepts the constraint and dives in deep to work inside it, meditating deeply on all the chances that lie throughout the 555.
After all, we attempt to accommodate each modes, and the jury continues to be out as to which finally ends up higher in the long run. For the Coin Cell problem, as an illustration, we had a coin-cell-powered spot welder and automobile jumpstarter, however we additionally had some cool circuits that will run almost ceaselessly on a single battery; working towards and with the constraints.
Which sort of hacker are you? (And whereas we’re nonetheless within the temper, what contest themes would you wish to see for 2026?)
