PCBWay launches 7th electronics project design contest
Some people believe that the printed circuit board, or PCB, is one of the most important inventions – if not the most important invention – ever.
The man credited with the invention of the first PCB is Paul Eisler, who is said to have sold the rights for £1 – that’s one English pound – at the end of the 1930s.
Eisler did negotiate a minority stake in a company called Technograph through the sale, but if he had negotiated a single penny for every PCB sold, it probably would have generated more money for a single product in history.
Printed circuit boards are absolutely everywhere, in almost everything that has any degree electronic circuitry or mechanical movement.
And it is in this spirit, printed circuit board manufacturer PCBWay has launched a range of competitions for electronics and mechanical designers.
The company says the PCBWay Design Contest is “dedicated to encouraging participants to engage in open-source innovation projects, and inspiring more people to join the electronics and mechanical design community”.
This is the seventh year PCBWay has organized a design competition, but starting from last year, in addition to the electronics design category, the company introduced a mechanical design category.
Moreover, this year, PCBWay is not only retaining these two categories but also adding a special theme: STM32, which refers to the STM32 range of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits by STMicroelectronics.
If your design includes STM32 chips, PCBWay will give you the opportunity to earn extra rewards. The specific rules for these additional rewards can be found on PCBWay’s website.
The prizes offered in the competition include more than $3,000 in cash and over $350 in coupons, as well as various other goodies, including Raspberry Pi development boards, a robot dog and a multi-claw, multifunctional soldering table.
Of course, your design will need to be your own, original concept and work, and uploaded within the time limit specified by PCBWay.
As PCBWay are a big supporter of RoboticsAndAutomationNews.com, we encourage you to take part in the company’s competition and enjoy getting to know the company and its services, particularly, its new and probably unique multi-color PCB service.
Additionally, when you create an open source CNC / 3D printing design, you can share it to the public so that others can buy it, and PCBWay will donate 10 percent of your CNC / 3D printing costs.
The company says this is because wants to support the open source community as well as provide assistance to assistants for their contributions.
