Deadline to Enter the PSoC Pioneer Challenge Extended

March is officially here and that means it’s crunch time for the PSoC Pioneer Challenge! One lucky maker will win $2,500 for travel to Maker Faire Bay Area in mid-May. Over the past few months, we’ve conducted several giveaways of the new PSoC 4 BLE Pioneer Kit from Cypress, which includes native support for features like CapSense and Bluetooth Low Energy, along with a robust software IDE (Windows only) for creating project designs.

Makers receiving the kit are spread across the globe, from Indonesia to Ireland, from one maker in Uruguay to many makers throughout the USA. We look forward to their project entries in the Challenge and I personally look forward to seeing how makers in other countries resolve their Internet of Things ideas. For instance, how does the notion of home automation in Turkey compare with the same subject in Philadelphia?

With some kits arriving slightly behind schedule to distant (and near) recipients, we’re going to slightly adjust the dates for the PSoC Pioneer Challenge. Makers will now have the entirety of March to focus on their designs, along with the first few days of April to wrap things up and apply. This will ultimately mean a more-intense voting round and slightly less time for the winner to plan their trip, but we think this in the best interest of all makers interested in participating in this unique contest.

The contest dates and deadlines are now as follows:

• Applications accepted until Monday, April 6, 2015 (11:59pm PDT)
• Public voting runs April 7 – April 15, 2015
• Winners will be notified between April 20 – April 23, 2015 and announced on or after April 24, 2015.

It’s exactly the same format, just with postponed dates. We hope this gives all makers the breathing room they need to put aside time to learn this board and experiment with a design they’re comfortable with submitting to the Challenge.

(Don’t get distracted by March Madness near the new April 6 deadline.)

Response to this kit has been outstanding, even overwhelming. As such, we’d like to offer another opportunity to readers who weren’t able to get one of the kits previously but are still interested in exploring the PSoC 4 BLE, whether for the purpose of entering the contest or simply to tinker with a new development board. We’ve worked with Cypress Semiconductor and Arrow Electronics to offer readers a discount on the PSoC 4 BLE kit. You can find the board’s datasheet and specifications (and non-discount price) here, and if you’re interested in the kit you purchase one significantly cheaper via this special discount link.

Enter the PSoC Pioneer Challenge and you could win $2,500 for travel to Maker Faire Bay Area in May. Projects should include the PSoC 4 BLE kit from Cypress Semiconductor. This new development board includes Bluetooth and CapSense, along with a software IDE that makes building for the IoT both challenging and fun .