Our Top Members have all participated in atleast 1 Design Challenge and here's why...

I participated in the Enchanted Objects Design Challenge.

I vamped a 1950s turntable into an embedded IoT-compliant thing.

1958 Turntable from the Black Forest - Summary of the Enchanted Player Story

I submitted a proposal because I thought I had a good story to tell. That's my first criterion.

You spend a lot of time on the challenge. It's all good time, and good fun. But still, you need to be motivated to commit to the challenge.

The design needs to be interesting for myself, but also to the community. I try to put everything I do on the blogs here on element14.

Also the mistakes and dead-ends.

I submitted a proposal because I thought I would learn new things

I saw that the components for this challenge were really interesting, and several of them I didn't have experience with. Another box ticked.

I checked if there was enough to learn. In my case: real time ADC and sampling, FFT and DSP libraries, servos and developing c++ programs for linux embeded platforms.

Certainly enough matter to grind my teeth on.

I submitted a proposal because it's great fun

I participated in a Road Test Plus before ([Christmas Wreath of Things] Internet of Holiday Lights - summary). That's identical to a Design Challenge, but with a different name . What I learned there is that, while it officially is a race - and I think that each participant has the duty to run it for winning the cup - it's actually good fun.

Everyone is struggling with similar things. During the months that you work on the challenge, you help each other out. And one person's experience influences the next participant's design.

You learn to know the community members.

So those are my three incentives: You can tell a story, you learn new technology and you make friends.

And you get some cool hardware to boot.

I participated in the Enchanted Objects Design Challenge.

I vamped a 1950s turntable into an embedded IoT-compliant thing.

1958 Turntable from the Black Forest - Summary of the Enchanted Player Story

I submitted a proposal because I thought I had a good story to tell. That's my first criterion.

You spend a lot of time on the challenge. It's all good time, and good fun. But still, you need to be motivated to commit to the challenge.

The design needs to be interesting for myself, but also to the community. I try to put everything I do on the blogs here on element14.

Also the mistakes and dead-ends.

I submitted a proposal because I thought I would learn new things

I saw that the components for this challenge were really interesting, and several of them I didn't have experience with. Another box ticked.

I checked if there was enough to learn. In my case: real time ADC and sampling, FFT and DSP libraries, servos and developing c++ programs for linux embeded platforms.

Certainly enough matter to grind my teeth on.

I submitted a proposal because it's great fun

I participated in a Road Test Plus before ([Christmas Wreath of Things] Internet of Holiday Lights - summary). That's identical to a Design Challenge, but with a different name . What I learned there is that, while it officially is a race - and I think that each participant has the duty to run it for winning the cup - it's actually good fun.

Everyone is struggling with similar things. During the months that you work on the challenge, you help each other out. And one person's experience influences the next participant's design.

You learn to know the community members.

So those are my three incentives: You can tell a story, you learn new technology and you make friends.

And you get some cool hardware to boot.