The Power Hop Challenge

If you are a winner, we will contact you directly via email to arrange the shipment of your prize.

Once you are an official contender, you will be entering into a legally binding agreement with Hackster to deliver a solution based on your proposal. Contenders who receive free hardware and do not finish the challenge may be ineligible for future challenges and competitions unless the hardware is returned. If you receive free hardware and become unable to finish, please contact us at hello@ribbitnetwork.org and let us know as soon as possible. We may choose to arrange for the hardware to be shipped to another proposal.

To be eligible for judging, you must meet ALL of the following requirements unless otherwise stated:

General Requirements

• You must be registered as a participant for this Contest.
• Your Entry must be your own original work.
• Your Entry cannot have been selected as a winner in any other Hackster Contest.
• Your Entry must be a new project and not an exact duplicate of an existing project.
• Your Entry must be submitted to the Ribbit Community Hub on Hackster.io by visiting https://www.hackster.io/Ribbit/projects and clicking the "Submit a project" button.

Proposal Requirements

Note: If you choose to submit an application for free hardware, you must meet the following requirements.

• Your Proposal must be submitted via the online application form found on the Contest page’s “submit a proposal” tab.
• Your Proposal must be written in English.
• Your Proposal must include functional use of the Ribbit Frog Sensor Kit V4, the Nordic nRF9151 and nPM1300, a STEMMA QT /Qwiic connection for the sensors, a connection, a SIM card slot, an input for a solar panel, an input for a battery, a programming/option battery charging USB C connector and include a build quote from PCBway.
• Your proposal must be submitted by Jan 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM PT.

Build Requirements

• Your project Entry must be created using the Nordic nRF9151 and nPM1300.
• Your project Entry must be tested with the Ribbit Frog Sensor Kit V4
• Your project Entry must include a STEMMA QT /Qwiic connection for the sensors, a connection, a SIM card slot, an input for a solar panel, an input for a battery, and a programming/option battery charging USB C connector.

Project Documentation Requirements

• Your project must include a project name, short project description, cover image, bill of materials (BOM), full instructions, images, and relevant resource files (schematics, code, CAD).
• Your project must be written in English.
• Your project must be submitted by Mar 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM PT.

All Contenders who successfully complete the project requirements and submit their Entry on the Contest page by the stated submission deadline will be eligible to receive a payout, subject to the acceptance and approval process described herein.

Before any Base Payout is issued, Hackster and/or the Sponsor will review the submission for compliance with the Contest rules and confirm the Entry complies with the accepted Proposal. Failure to submit an acceptable Entry to meet the rules or to accept the payout terms may result in forfeiture of the prize.

Following the judging criteria outlined below, Hackster will select one Entry to receive the Bonus Payout, based on Hackster’s determination of the best submission. All decisions made by Hackster and/or the Sponsor regarding the Contest, including but not limited to eligibility, judging, and prize awards, are final and binding on all participants.

Your project will be judged according to the rubric below.

Proposal Selection

• Project Documentation - 20 points. Does the project include a detailed explanation of the plan, how the components will be used and any notes or analysis done for their solution?
• Complete BOM - 10 points
• Schematics - 10 points
• PCBA Layout - 10 points
• Did the proposal include the required interfaces? - 10 points
• Did the proposal include the required components from Nordic (nRF9151 and nPM1300 )
• Was the proposed solution creative and solve the problem in a good way? - 20 points?

Bonus

• Was an approximate power budget included? - 5 points
• Was a battery / solar panel selection included? - 5 points
• Was a plan to modify the software included? - 5 points
• Can the design fit inside the current enclosure? - 5 points

Final Judging

• Did the final report include a log of the board bring-up, verification, and testing performed? - 20 points
• Did the solution work well? - 10 points
• Was the solution fully documented so that the Ribbit team can reproduce and use the results? - 10 points

Bonus Points for Final Judging

• Did the submission test with the actual sensors, battery and solar panel proposed? - 10 points

• $2000 Payout (3 are available)

• $1000 Bonus + Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer for Judge's Choice ($1,500 value)

Step 1: Register for the Contest

• Start by creating a free account on Hackster.io (or sign-in if already a member).
• Become a verified member by completing the verification form at https://www.hackster.io/verify.

Step 2: Design Schematic and Submit the Proposal

• Design a schematic for the custom PCBA and BOM
• Go to the proposal page by clicking “Submit a proposal” and complete the proposal form.

Step 3: If your proposal is accepted, complete a board layout and quote with PCBWay

• Finalize your printed circuit board design
• Get a quote for fabrication from PCBWay
• Document your board design as a Hackster project and submit your project by clicking "review and submit project" on the Contest page.

Step 4: Receive your sensor kit and PCBA back from Fabrication

• The Contest team will review your PCBA design and upon acceptance will provide you with voucher codes to fabricate your design via our sponsor PCBWay. The fabricated boards will be mailed to you.
• The Ribbit Network team will also mail you a kit for the current Frog sensor which includes the sensors for you to test with.

Step 5: Test and Document Your Design

• Once you receive everything, fully test your design. The more testing you do, the more likely you are to win.
• Edit the project you created in step 3 above to document your design and the testing that you performed on your design.

Step 6: Submit Your Results as a Hackster Project

• Complete a final review of your project by Mar 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM PT to make sure it meets all the submission requirements prior to judging.

Challenges are a new type of contest. We are in the beta stage for this new feature.

Contenders will be announced by January 24, 2025. The list of contenders will be visible on the Submit a proposal tab.

Contest winners will be announced on April 11, 2025. The list of winners will be visible on the main page (Contest brief).

These are the Specific Contest Rules (“Specific Rules”) that govern participation in The Power Hop Design Challenge (“Contest”) organized by Hackster.io, an Avnet community (“Hackster”), and sponsored by Nordic Semiconductor and PCBWay (hereinafter referred to as the “Sponsors”) in relation to any individual (hereinafter referred to as an “Entrant”) who enters, attempts to enter or in any way participates or attempts to participate in this Contest.

In these Specific Rules, “we,” “our”, and “us” refer to Hackster and/or the Contest Sponsor. “You” and “yourself” refer to an Entrant. The full rules for this Contest also include the Official General Contest Rules (“General Rules”) posted at https://www.hackster.io/contest-rules and all eligibility, requirements, and judging criteria recorded in the “rules” tab of this Contest page. In the event there is a discrepancy or inconsistency between the General Rules and these Specific Rules, the Specific Rules shall control.

Contest Description:

This is a skill-based Contest brought to you by Hackster and sponsored by Nordic Semiconductor and PCBWay. The object of this Contest is to create technical resources using Nordic, Ribbit and PCBWay resources as outlined in the requirement section below. For the purposes of this Contest, each idea you submit will be called a “Proposal ” and each completed project solution you submit in the Contest will be called an “Entry”. Entrants submitting the highest quality Proposals as determined by Hackster will be awarded a project contract (“Contender”). All Entries submitted by Contenders on or before Jan 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM PT will be judged using the judging criteria below to determine the best Entry.

There will be up to three (3) Contenders awarded in this Contest. The base prize payout for this Contest will be USD $2,000 (“Based Payout”) and the bonus prize payout will be USD $1,000 + Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer (“Bonus Payout”). The Bonus Payout will be awarded to the Contender with the Best Entry as described below.

Eligibility:

You are eligible to enter if you meet the following requirements at the time of entry:

• You are at least 18 years of age, or the minimum age of majority in your place of residence at the time of entry.
• You are a citizen of and reside in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States or Vietnam.
• You have a verified Hackster user account.
• You are not involved in the execution or administration of this Contest.
• You are not a Hackster, Avnet or Nordic Semiconductor employee or an immediate family member or household member of a Hackster employee or otherwise engaged in the execution or administration of this Contest.

Only official contenders are able to submit solutions to this challenge. Please take your time and submit a thorough proposal in order to be considered.