10. January 2012 by admin.

From: http://www.mouser.com/microchipdesigncontest/

Enter your toy or game into the Paper Design and/or Hardware Design category for a chance to win some great prizes like an iPad2 or $150 Gift Card!* Recommended for design engineers of all ages.

Paper Design category

No purchase necessary.

Develop conceptual design, including a title, abstract,
block diagram and/or high-level schematic.

Submit via registration site.

1st Prize = $150 Gift Card
2nd Prize = $100 Gift Card
3rd Prize = $50 Gift Card

Hardware Design category

Purchase the PIC10F322 Development Board
(AC103011-P) from Mouser.

Working hardware in prototype form with an
accompanying bill-of-materials (BOM) and schematics.

Submit via registration site.

1st Prize = 16GB iPad2 with case
2nd Prize = Bose Noise Cancellation Headphones
3rd Prize = Amazon Fire

Paper/Hardware Design Requirements

Use the Microchip PIC10F322 development board

Use at least one of these new peripherals:
• Configurable Logic Cell (CLC)
• Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG)
• Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO)

Must be technically feasible, must draw electric current, and must not exceed $400 in value for the BOM (not including the PIC10F322 development board).

Posted in Mouser Electronics, Contest | Print | 1 Comment »

4. January 2012 by admin.

Challenge your talent against other engineers worldwide to produce an energy efficient design solution using the Free DesignSpark PCB software and the chipKIT development board.

FREE chipKITTM Max32 dev kit for first 1,000 entries.

Achieve the most energy efficient design and you could win a share of $10,000 cash!

Plus, keep the DesignSpark community regularly informed through posts on the DesignSpark Project Pages and your updates will make you eligible for Community Choice Awards and random prize drawings!

Learn more at www.chipkitchallenge.com 

Posted in Digilent, Elektor Magazine, Circuit Cellar, Contest, Development Tool | Print | 1 Comment »

22. December 2010 by admin.

From: http://makezine.com/makeitlast/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Make+Newsletter+December+2010&utm_content=Make+Newsletter+December+2010+CID_4bf43fa9357c29ce8d277a0f4863d8d9&utm_source=Email+Campaign&utm_term=Make+It+Last+landing+page

Welcome to Make It Last, a project build series and contest, sponsored by Microchip and Energizer. Over the course of this contest, we’re going to cover a series of three project builds, demonstrating some of the finer points of low-power microcontroller design. We’re hoping these will be fun, informative projects and a good introduction to using “bare” microcontrollers and learning more about the relationship between microcontrollers and power management. Starting with basic components, we will build up each design and you can follow along in a series of Make It Last build newsletters. We will be awarding some really cool prizes at the end of each build, based on the quality of your submission, what you learned in the process, your documentation, etc.

Second Build: The Robotic Plant

[November 18 - December 22, 2010]

For the second project, we’ll build a robotic plant seedling that will use its microcontroller brain to monitor its environment, and bloom when the time is right. The whole project will be housed in an ordinary plant pot, and thanks to an energy-efficient design, should be able to lie dormant for months, even years, on a single set of AA batteries. That means you could set it by your window and be delighted when it finally wakes up, or give it as a gift to a patient robot enthusiast for safekeeping.

As with the first build, this one is also a contest that you can enter for a chance to win some awesome prizes. We’ll provide instructions on how to build our example plant, that you can follow along at home, however, you are free to design something completely on your own. The official rules are below. Your build must be powered by a battery, have some plant-like quality, and be capable of responding to input from its environment. The rest is up to you!

Enter Here!

Posted in Battery Power, Energizer, Make Magazine, Low Power, Contest, Microchip | Print | 1 Comment »

13. October 2010 by admin.

From: http://makezine.com/makeitlast/

Welcome to Make It Last, a project build series and contest, sponsored by Microchip and Energizer. Over the course of this contest, we’re going to cover a series of three project builds, demonstrating some of the finer points of low-power microcontroller design. We’re hoping these will be fun, informative projects and a good introduction to using “bare” microcontrollers and learning more about the relationship between microcontrollers and power management. Starting with basic components, we will build up each design and you can follow along in a series of Make It Last build newsletters. We will be awarding some really cool prizes at the end of each build, based on the quality of your submission, what you learned in the process, your documentation, etc.

First Build: The Data logger

The first project in the build is a data logger. This is a battery powered device that can periodically sample the temperature and record it for later analysis. It’s basically like a thermometer combined with a recording device- you could track the temperature of your home, refrigerator, personal volcano, or anything else over a long period of time, using a single set of batteries. To save battery power, the device will spend most of its time in a reduced-power ’sleep’ mode, only waking itself up every so often measure a temperature probe before going back to sleep.

The contest part comes in when you try it at home and make your own version. You can follow along with our instructions, or build your own version using any parts that you want. The official rules are listed at the bottom of this page. To qualify, your build must be powered by a battery, and be capable of sensing and recording something in the environment (i.e. a “data logger”). The rest is up to you!

What would a contest be without prizes? The prizes for the first build are as follows. The entry that gets the most points will win a prize package consisting of the following items:

• MPLAB® ICD 3 In-Circuit Debugger
• Explorer 16 Demo Board
• F1 Evaluation Platform
• MPLAB® Starter Kit for PIC24F
• MCP1640 Single Cell Boost Converter for Energizer® MAX AlkalineAAAA
• Energizer® Night Strike Swivel Light
• $50 Maker ShedGift Certificate

And the second place entry will take home:

• F1 Evaluation Kit
• MPLAB® Starter Kit for PIC18F MCU
• MCP1640 Single Cell Boost Converter for Energizer® MAX AlkalineAAAA
• Energizer® Night Strike Swivel Light

Posted in Make Magazine, Contest, Microchip | Print | 1 Comment »

14. July 2010 by admin.

From: http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=mcu_2010 

By designing an MCU circuit based on the 8 Bit Microchip PIC MCU, Parallax Propeller or Texas Instruments MSP430, C2000, and Stellaris Cortex M3 utilizing a SchmartBoard|ez development board.

Posted in SchmartBoard, Contest | Print | 1 Comment »

1. April 2010 by admin.

From: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2010/win_a_picdem_kit.htm

Entries are invited in the 2010 construction competition which this year is a competition with a difference.

The SA Amateur Radio Development Trust is looking for an innovative approach to a construction project that has application in Amateur Radio but based on microchip technology.

Stage one is the paper design stage. Develop a project of your choice using a microchip and submit a short write up of the project including a circuit diagram and description of operation. The closing date for stage one is 9 April 2010.

Three entries, which in the opinion of the judges are the most original coupled with their usefulness in Amateur Radio, will receive R500 to build a proto-type for entry into the second stage of the competition.

The second stage entry is a complete proto-type entry and must be suitably packaged and operating. This entry must be accompanied by all the necessary paperwork as well as an article with circuit diagram and other necessary illustrations for publishing in Radio ZS.

The winning entry in stage two will be awarded the Microchip PICDEM Touch Sense 1 Development Kit plus an ARRL handbook. The two runner-ups will each receive an ARRL Handbook. The closing date for stage 2 is 10 May 2010.

The winner will be presented with the prize at a gala lunch on 17 May 2010 at the Midrand Protea Hotel.

Get all the details on www.amateurradio.org.za.

Posted in Touch Sense, 8-bit, Contest, Development Tool | Print | 1 Comment »

31. March 2010 by admin.

Electronics World is offering its readers the chance to win the new next generation, low-power PIC microcontroller (MCU) with  nanoWatt XLP eXtreme Low Power Technology, for sleep currents as low as 20nA from Microchip.  These three new 8- and 16-bit MCU families join three other recent 8-bit families that are all part of Microchip’s nanoWatt XLP portfolio, providing designers with a rich and compatible low-power migration path that includes on-chip peripherals for USB and mTouch sensing solutions.

The three new nanoWatt XLP MCU families being announced include the 16-bit PIC24F16KA family, which features typical sleep currents as low as 20nA; and the 8-bit PIC18F46J11 and PIC18F46J50 families, both of which feature typical sleep currents of less than 20nA. The six general-purpose members in the PIC18F46J11 family provide up to 64kbyte of Flash program memory and the peripheral set of a typical
64- or 80-pin device in only 28- or 44-pins. The PIC18F46J50 family also features six members, which in addition integrate full speed USB 2.0 to enable connectivity for embedded applications requiring remote field upgrades or the downloading of data.

The extremely low sleep currents and numerous wake-up features of Microchip’s new nanoWatt XLP MCUs should be ideal for battery operated devices, which actually spend most of their time asleep. The interest in the market for such low power processors, for use in consumer to industrial applications, is now on the rise. Numerous consumer, industrial, automotive and medical applications can benefit from the extremely low power and peripheral integration of the nanoWatt XLP MCUs.

For your chance to win a Microchip nanoWatt XLP Microcontroller, simply answer the following question to be in with a chance to win:
What is the lowest sleep current of the low-power PIC microcontroller (MCU) with nanoWatt XLP eXtreme Low Power Technology from Microchip:
(a) 20nA
(b) 70nA
(c) 50nA

Email your answer, along with your name, position, company and email address, to Svetlana.josifovska@stjohpatrick.com

The winner will be announced online and in print.

Posted in Electronics World, Low Power, 8-bit, Contest | Print | 1 Comment »

24. March 2010 by admin.

The Embedded Muse is a newsletter sent via email by Jack Ganssle., is giivng away three PIC32 Ethernet Starter Kits – the easiest and lowest-cost method to experience 10/100 Ethernet development with the 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers. Combined with Microchip’s free TCP/IP software, your project will be running in no time. (The PIC32 also has an available CAN2.0b peripheral and USB host/device/OTG.) This Ethernet Starter Kit has the same form factor and expansion connector as other PIC32 Starter Kits. To watch a video demonstration of the PIC32 family featured in this kit, visit: www.microchip.com/get/401347994444444

To make this fun, submit a Haiku about embedded systems or firmware to mailto:marybeth@ganssle.com by the end of March. Our team of esteemed judges will pick three they deem the best, using a completely subjective analysis of “user experience”. Those lucky winners will get the PIC32 kits.

 http://www.ganssle.com/tem/tem192.htm 

Posted in The Ganssle Group, Contest, 32-bit | Print | 1 Comment »

20. January 2010 by admin.

From: http://embedded.com/222200285

The Embedded.com European Newsletter is offering its readers the chance to win the new MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers, which contains all of the components, documentation, schematics, debugging and programming capabilities needed to evaluate the high-performance PIC18 8-bit microcontroller (MCU) family in low-power USB and touch-sensing applications.
The MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers includes the Bosch Sensortec BMA150 digital triaxial accelerometer, which enables the PIC18 Starter Kit board to detect acceleration in 3 perpendicular axes for sensing the board’s tilt and motion. The board ships with demo code that enables it to function as a USB mouse or joystick using the accelerometer.

Acceleration on all three axes is used to compute the board tilt, which is then converted to movement of the mouse cursor on the X and Y axes. The accelerometer allows the cursor to move slowly when the board is tilted a small amount, and quickly when there is a steeper tilt.

For your chance to win a Microchip MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18, visit the competition website and enter your details in the online entry form.

Posted in 8-bit, Embedded Systems Design, PIC, Sweepstakes, Development Tool, Contest, MPLAB | Print | 1 Comment »

12. January 2010 by admin.

 NewarkDesigner 

Today’s “perfect 10 in 2010″ is sponsored by @MicrochipTech. Win a F1 Evaluation Module http://bit.ly/8q0safat http://bit.ly/8yXGGe

Posted in Newark, Twitter, 8-bit, Contest, Development Tool | Print | 1 Comment »