Announcing the Winners of the Raspberry Pi Design Contest

In celebration of Raspberry Pi’s first birthday earlier this year, MAKE partnered with MCM Electronics to launch the Raspberry Pi Design Contest. Challenging makers to build projects that use the Pi as an intrinsic part of their builds, projects were slotted into one of the following four categories: Artistic, Education, Enclosure, or Utility. Multiple prize packs were up for grabs, one for each category, as well as a best-in-show Grand Prize package that included an entry-level, but capable 3D printer.

The contest judges included: Red Hat Open-Source Community manager, GeekMom contributing editor, and Raspberry Pi Hacks author Ruth Suehle; Bryan from Ohio-based electronics component distributor MCM Electronics; Matt Richardson and Shawn Wallace, co-authors of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi, a great primer for booting up your first Pi, and whose posts and projects you have also seen here at the MAKE blog.

With over one million Raspberry Pis sold in over 60 countries around the world, it is clear that makers of all skill sets have been eager for a lightweight single-board computer capable of driving all types of applications. The Raspberry Pi Design Contest reflected these ambitions, with the Pi being used to power home security systems, to collect weather data and manage gardening projects, to teach subjects such as mathematics or geography as well as assisting in learning the piano. The Pi has been modded into an Altoids tin even though it shouldn’t fit, and all-in-one Pi computers have emerged as a phenomenon all their own. Custom shields have been built for the Pi, and coupled with the Arduino the possibilities grow. On Google+, the Raspberry Pi community has over 38,000 members, and other communities are appearing all over the net in addition to meetups in person for Pi hackers and makers. All of this in just one year since the Pi’s release. Here’s to another year of impressive Pi projects.

And now for the winners of the Raspberry Pi Design Contest!

The Grand Prize Winner is urbanSTEW’s Intonarumori:

Intonarumori is a series of interactive sound boxes created by an art/tech collective, urbanSTEW. The project is based on a century-old futurist movement in which noise-generating machines were created. Inspired by this, urbanSTEW built six new noise machines, each equipped with a Raspberry Pi and various sensors/controls. The boxes are self contained and only need to be plugged in. Intonarumori was presented at a creativity festival where they were played by over 2,000 children/adults.

The Grand Prize Winner urbanSTEW will receive a Printrbot Jr. 3D printer, as well as an MCM Electronics prize pack, that includes a USB digital multimeter, a DC power supply, a digital soldering iron, a Gertboard expansion board, a Pi Face, a Pi View HDMI to VGA adapter, a Wi-Pi wireless adapter, and a Raspberry Pi iron-on skill badge.

The category winners shown below will each receive the MCM Electronics prize pack, valued at over $600. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the makers who participated in this world-first contest utilizing the Raspberry Pi single-board computer.

Artistic Category Winner: Lobbyist Meter
by Tom Lee

I took a vintage voltmeter that I found at Uncommon Objects in Austin and modified it to make its voltage range more Pi-friendly. A utility class to handle calibration made this into a first-class display device. With a little help from our designers at work, we used it to create a meter registering the number of new lobbyists that register each week.

Education Category Winner: Raspberry Pi-based State Poster
by Scott Bennett

Every year at my daughter’s school 2nd graders are assigned a state board poster project. She had done numerous craft projects before and had just learned to solder and started building kits a few months before. After some brainstorming, we thought it would be nice to bring electronics to the traditional state board project with the Raspberry Pi. For my daughter, who is interested in engineering, use of the Pi made it possible to combine so many more types of learning on the project.

Enclosure Category Winner: Walnut Raspberry Pi Enclosure
by Chris Crumpacker

Some times all you need is a bit of scrap wood for inspiration. I had some walnut left over from a previous project. I just love the look of walnut. I had seen other wood cases but they where always 6 pieces of wood glued or nailed together to make a box. I wanted it to be one hunk of wood and my intentions where to carve out a home for the Raspberry Pi.

Utility Category Winner: Raspberry Pi Powered Cat Feeder
by David Bryan

Back in February I started teaching my Raspberry Pi 101 class at The Hack Factory. After the first class I think I had Pi on the brain, I was scheduled for a quick weekend trip out of town with my girlfriend, and she was due to leave her two cats behind. She said that she was going to leave a large bowl of cat food out, and with that I suggested that I build an automated cat feeder for them. This project is the finished project, working and in action!

For my first project i wanted to make a battery powered wireless internet radio stream player. Something that could connect to the internet and flip though a list of radio streams. I had never used Linux before but am a .NET developer with Googling skills. Turned out I found a way to get it to work. I now have a flawless radio player for my office. I can even change stations and volume from my phone. Project Link

Color My Desk is a publicly controllable string of lights illuminating my daily workspace. It’s built on a Raspberry Pi made to interface both with RGB lights and a web server. Do you need to exercise some control over the physical world, but don’t want to leave your computer? Well then, take a minute to set the color of my desk on a day of your choosing at http://colormydesk.com/ Project Link

It starts with my 320 watts of solar panels on the roof, connected to a micro grid tie inverter, which is connected to a converted killawatt unit to measure the power output form the panels. Data leaves the killawatt via an XBee transmitter with a data stream signal going to a XBee receiver which is connected to the Raspberry Pi. The Pi collects this data, and my webserver picks up the data from the Pi and displays the power output. Project Link

I have built a scrolling marquee LED matrix all enclosed in a custom oak box. The matrix is driven by a Raspberry Pi. The project is coded entirely in Python. It currently is set to pull from ESPN’s API every 15 minutes and display the current news ticker (filtered for Cincinnati Bearcats). Also been used as a clock.I also have it setup to be used in my wedding this summer. Guests will scan their table cards (via bar-code scanner) and the Pi will display the appropriate table number. Project Link

I spent quite a bit of time debating on the best case to use for my first Raspberry Pi, and after looking around for a bit, I stumbled across across this N64. So after much planning, cutting, fixing, and reformatting, I have a beautiful Raspbmc pi tucked inside. The power switch is hard-wired to the power supply (inside the stock N64’s p/s) for easy on-off. I use the 64’s stock av port for the SD video and sound, and an HDMI out for my HD output. I’m quite happy with it and I hope you like it. Project Link

The system known as ‘CheckinDJ’ utilises NFC enabled objects, linked to individual venue patrons social network accounts, to create a dynamic music play-list for the venue based on the combined music genre preferences of the customers currently present. The novel approach to an old time classic (‘The Jukebox’) revealed through the curation of ambient music played in venues through Near Field Communications (NFC) enabled check-ins. Project Link

I have bought this incredible little board and it worked grate looked grate but it was missing something. It was missing a case. I order to be practical (not to short things out ) or just to be creative and make something beautiful. So I have made the following sort of a box using clear Plexiglas and some screws. The main idea is the box to be so cheap and accessible as the board itself. Project Link

We designed an in-garden device to live by your plants. It is solar-powered, with a moisture sensor, connection to a drip irrigation system, and XBee. Soil moisture readings are sent to a Pi. The Pi is a webserver. You can view your plants’ statuses in a graph and compare to their ideal moisture. You can set up automatic watering, or a one-time watering for today. Your instructions are sent to the garden devices. They use internal servos to control flow through the drip irrigation system. Project Link

RPi that collects data from (2) Arduinos & Twitter, temperature and pressure readings that RFs them to a Ard Mega & USB connects to the RPi. RPi gets the temp. & press. for a RPi hosted web site. It hits Twitter for news feeds that I like. The RPi runs on WiFi, which can be a little trouble, but it ran for 22 days straight. I can provide much more information, if needed. I’m just a little short on time tonight. I wrote all the code in shell script and Java. Temp. & press can Tweet on Twitter. Project Link

Server room environmental monitoring supporting 144 temperature sensors, humidity and light level. It comprised of a Raspberry Pi providing the network interface and UI. The Pi communicates with a PCB containing a ATMEGA328P. The PCB does the work of collecting environmental data. Project Link

Gathering all components is a problem. Solution: A box, to hold all & serve as a display. The top is the monitor, protected by felt. The box is hinged and locked with a clasp. When the keyboard is removed, the shelf is the display for the Raspberry Pi. There are holes, so wires can be brought up through the shelf. In the compartment is a power strip.

Back in February I started teaching my Raspberry Pi 101 class at The Hack Factory. After the first class I think I had Pi on the brain, I was scheduled for a quick weekend trip out of town with my girlfriend, and she was due to leave her two cats behind. She said that she was going to leave a large bowl of cat food out, and with that I suggested that I build an automated cat feeder for them. This project is the finished project, working and in action! Project Link

Build an egg-coloring robot that is completely independent of external computers: Embed a Raspberry Pi into an EggBot. Project Link

If you have a Raspberry Pi computer board, you can make a great inexpensive case for it out of an Altoids mint tin. Project Link

An all in one desktop computer, based on the Raspberry Pi. The goal of this project was to produce a computer system, based on the Raspberry Pi, with an absolute minimum of cable clutter. Project Link

I built this project/gadget to solve a problem where people (contractors, gardeners, neighbors) would come by my house when I was not around. And I really wanted to know who had come by and when. So, I used the RaspberryPi and Arduino to build my home gadget for $90 which sends me almost instantaneous notification on my cell phone. I’m modifying this to send me email so that costs are kept low. I would use the prize money to teach girls programming via codechix.org. Project Link

Using a large red switch connected to the GPIO and a USB webcam, the computer will take a picture when the switch is pressed. The controlling software provides a webserver that will allow one to view the pictures taken by the camera. The webserver also provides a simple API for taking a picture via a web request. Project Link

Install a VNC server on the Pi and a VNC client on the iPhone/iPad. Example provided with iPad controlling an EggBot. Now the Pi needs no external computer, keyboard, mouse or monitor — it is all controlled wirelessly from iPad or iPhone. Project Link

The basic idea of of the NaNoBox is to use a mini computer to access the NaNoWriMo wordcount API and do the following: 1. Every hour, get the current word count of a small list of NaNoWriMo participants; 2. Loop through the list of participants and: illuminate something that represents a NaNoWriMo participant and show the progress of the represented participant as a percentage on an analog meter. Project Link

“Chicago Faces” is a guerrilla art piece that photographs the faces of unsuspecting civilians using open source hardware and software. A street camera is embedded with a Raspberry Pi running a facial recognition algorithm. Once a face is discovered, it is photographed, and automatically uploaded to the twitter account, twitter.com/chicagofaces for public view. Project Link

Meet Raspberry Jolt, my mini nerf-dart-shooting robot with WIFI control and remote video recording. It’s powered by the Raspberry Pi, a servo with a linear-conversion kit, and a nerf gun housed on top of a first-gen Romo by Romotive. Romotive was so tickled by this project that they sent me their next-gen Romo for free. Project Link

I’m a system administrator by trade and I want to find a way to inspire students to look under the hood of their computers and networks. I want to invite them into the steam tunnels and smithies of the internet. Students are told “look at the shiny stuff on top. Keep your hands off those sparky bits behind”. The Pi Lab is meant to provide students with access, control of and visibility into a whole network. It includes not just the Pi but also power control and control of the router. Project Link

I recently launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for a Raspberry Pi all in one carrying case. After designing foam packaging for various industries and being an avid techy, I was able to incorporate the best of both worlds. Now you can have a portable command station for your pi, and not have to worry about damage again. Project Link

Toasty is a motion detecting toaster. When motion is detected, the machine plays a random audio file from a collection of files that people have sent me. Most are nice, some are mean. Toasty also has a web API for accepting strings of text to speak via espeak TTS engine. Pressing one of the button on the toaster will flash an LED and send API commands to my stereo to queue an Iron Maiden song. Project Link

1.) Build a siriproxy server on raspberry pi,we use it to send voice control to the Pi; 2.) Build a webiopi server on Pi, it’s responsible for turn on/off the LEDs; 3.) When siriproxy receive the voice control, it will invoke the webiopi RESTFul API and send command to the GPIO so that the LEDs will be turn on/off; 4.) When you say “Open”, the LED turn on, and when you say “Close” the LED turn off. Project Link

This is an open source home alarm monitoring system using Raspberry Pi, Netduino Plus, ATTiny 85 and a typical home alarm system. When a zone or sensor is compromised (monitored by Netduino Plus), Raspberry Pi sends notification to my Android device and send e-mail details of the compromised zone. For this project I share my experiences and source code so that it should take you less time if you decide to build it too. Project Link

We made the Easy as Pi Piano system to make learning chords faster and easier. The Easy as Pi Piano system functions as a piano teacher. Learn to play the chords to your favorite song! The servo-motor lasers will show you which keys to play. Slow it down or speed it up with the scale. On the monitor, you will see finger placements, the current chord, and the lyrics to the song. Project Link

Some times all you need a bit of scrap wood for inspirations. I had some 8/4? walnut left over from a previous project. I just love the look of Walnut and when it came to making an enclosure for the Raspberry Pi. Project Link

BrickPi is a board that converts Raspberry Pi into a robot. The project is a board and case that connects LEGO Mindstorms Sensors, motors, and parts to turn your credit card size computer into a robot. The BrickPi connects 3 LEGO Motors and 4 Sensors. It has a 9V battery power source that powers the motors, sensors, and Raspberry Pi, untethering the Pi from the wall. Finally, it has a sturdy case with holes that snap with LEGOs. The brains of a Raspberry Pi and the build of LEGO. Project Link

The purpose of this project is to build a device to control an electric garage door opener and show the status of the door, via the web, and make it smart phone friendly. This project was started under a different platform, and migrated to the Raspberry Pi once it became available. Project Link

Every year at my daughter’s school 2nd graders are assigned a state board poster project. She had done numerous craft projects before and had just learned to solder and started building kits a few months before. After some brainstorming, we thought it would be nice to bring electronics to the traditional state board project with the Raspberry Pi. For my daughter, who is interested in engineering, use of the Pi made it possible to combine so many more types of learning on the project. Project Link

The Little Village Air Quality Initiative is based on multiple sensors programmed to collect Carbon Monoxide, Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, Temperature, and Relative Humidity levels in real-time, then visualizing the data to the public. Visualizations are written in C++ using openFrameworks and loaded on the RaspberryPi. There will be many Raspberry Pi’s with display monitors visualizing data in local business and public spaces. Project Link

A Plug and Play, EASY, educational Raspberry Pi setup, configured to serve pre-loaded Khan Academy offline content (more than 2,300 selected video lectures on Math and Science) in a classroom or community center where no Internet connection is available. The whole educational server fits into a 16GB card. Just download the image, burn it, insert the card into your RPi and plug the Pi to a local network. The Khan Academy content will be available from any network connected device. Project Link

RFID door entry system for my hackerspace, Utilizes a RFID card reader that checks the tag against a SQLite database. Also tweets when someone arrives as well as logs to the database. A 4.5 lcd screen that plays videos when someone scans. Can also be controlled over GoogleTalk. Authorized user can open/close the door, add/remove users from the database, check the current temp, callerID lookups, geoIP lookups, play sounds/videos, and send messages to twitter . All from your cell phone or laptop Project Link

My Raspberry Pi is packed like sardines…literally! I cut open a sardine can from the bottom (leaving the peel-away tab on the top intact) & crammed my Raspberry Pi in. There is absolutely NO wiggle room! It works brilliantly too! I cut holes in the sides to accommodate the exposed ports & covered the top with a hand-cut/hand-sanded acrylic lid complete with hand-painted Raspberry Pi logo! It’s the first of it’s kind I’ve seen anywhere. Now, if only I could get rid of that sardine smell…

This project arose from the need to package 32 Raspberry Pi boards to construct a Raspberry Pi cluster for my daughter’s science fair project. She came up with the idea of arranging 16 boards on a circular acrylic plate and stacking them up. The stack was then placed on an acrylic stand with a shelf to place an Ethernet switch and power supply. The entire package was designed using Autodesk Inventor and fabricated using acrylic sheets. The cluster is now fully operational. Project Link

I needed a nice case for my Pi running Raspbmc, serving as my Media-Center, so I built this case. All media is supplied over network from my Synology NAS (DS409+ with 8TB of storage) Project Link

I was asked how hard it would be to create a charging station that would use our existing campus ID cards. By that weekend I had already threw together the necessary pieces. Project Link

I took a vintage voltmeter that I found at Uncommon Objects in Austin and modified it to make its voltage range more Pi-friendly. A utility class to handle calibration made this into a first-class display device. With a little help from our designers at work, we used it to create a meter registering the number of new lobbyists that register each week. Project Link

Hydroponic Automation Platform Initiative (HAPI) is evolving food production capabilities through collaboration around open source technologies. We’re using Raspberry Pi and Arduino to automate food production sites including control of lighting, pumps, nutrient/pH levels, tank flushes, data logging, and interfaces. The project will create: code, reports, designs and documentation. Project Link

A Raspberry PI monitors the tweets to @OurCatDoor. The PI’s GPIO acts as inputs to a PICAXE 18M2 which controls servos on a robot hand. If your tweet includes any of the text below, the “Hand of PI” obeys your command. Valid commands are (lowercase): one (holds up one finger); peace (peace sign); three (three fingers); hookem (Texas Longhorn fan); fist (ready to fight); open (‘high five’); finger (well… this will be the most tweeted command) Project Link

I wanted to make my Raspberry Pi look good, be accessible, and be protected. I decided to house it in a metal socket set box my dad gave me a while back that looks pretty awesome and has plenty of room for a battery. I made a Raspberry Pi logo top, then dremeled out holes for the ports. I used Sugru to stabilize the pi and battery, then decided to make some removable caps for the ports I don’t often use with the excess. Project Link

Intonarumori is a series of interactive sound boxes created by an art/tech collective, urbanSTEW. The project is based on a century-old futurist movement in which noise-generating machines were created. Inspired by this, urbanSTEW built 6 new noise machines, each equipped with a Raspberry Pi and various sensors/controls. The boxes are self contained and only need to be plugged in. Intonarumori was presented at a creativity festival where they were played by over 2000 children/adults. Project Link

I built a ceiling lamp that can be controlled over the net. However, it has a ring of 60 LEDs in the bottom that can be software controlled for different types of displays. I was able to finish a clock display before the contest date ended but I plan to use it for many different effects. A music visualizer, a weather/surfing/home status indicator, a rain simulator, etc. I also built in space to expand for PCB’s and other hardware. Project Link

This is an embeded sound server with: 1.) MPD installed on a Raspberry Pi with a music library stored on a USB attached hard drive; 2.) A Pulseaudio server installed on the Pi with computers in my apartment configured to stream sound to it; 3.) A physical control panel attached to the Pi, which displayed player information and let me start/stop, mute/unmute, select songs, and change the volume on the device Project Link

I love the Raspberry Pi, but I couldn’t find case that I loved just as much. That’s when I decided to make my own. I wanted a case that was simple yet elegant… Functional but not a jack of all trades. My inspiration turned into the Spin Case. It is made using high end cnc machines. Opening the case is a hardware free with just a simple twist to separate the cover and chassis. Best of all, the cables are routed out the back so everything looks neat from any direction. Project Link

My design was conceptually relatively simple, it being an educational tool, the intent of which was to teach the user to quickly and easily convert between hexadecimal and Binary numbers. It was designed especially for the use of a budding young Computer scientist or Electrical Engineer, but hobbyists have much to gain as well. It includes two educational games, and the ability to track scores. It is entirely contained to the controller and an LCD which displayed the game, menu, and leaderboards. Project Link

Thanks to all the makers for participating in the first ever Raspberry Pi Design Contest, sponsored by MCM Electronics.

See all the winners of this first-ever Raspberry Pi contest here!