Now that Im actually in possession of one of TI’s slick little LED Piccolo-powered LED developer’s Kits, it’s time to formally launch the giveaway contest I hinted at last week (click here click here to see the original article). Up for grabs is a complete development kit, which includes a modular mother board that contains all the electronics required to support 8+ channels of high-precision LED lighting and a complete suite of software development tools – valued at $379 (USD). If you want some details about the kit, check out TI’s demo video below site or check out my May 7 review.

The object of this giveaway is to make sure this kit finds a home with someone who wants to use it to either develop a new application or make an innovative improvement on an existing one. If you’re interested, all you have to do is to tell me how you’d use TI’s LED dev kit to create a new application or put an innovative twist on the lighting systems, screen backlights, electronic signs and other places that LEDs have already found widespread use.

Contest Basics

To make the contest as easy to enter as possible, I’m staging it in two rounds. For the first phase, known as the “Back of the Napkin Round”, all you have to do is supply a brief description of the application you want to create with TI’s LED developer kit and show me that it’s technically feasible. A couple of paragraphs, a simple block diagram, and a rough parts list should do the trick. Of course, any extra details you want to add to boost your entry’s credibility or improve its “sizzle factor” will be welcomed.

I’ll sift through the mountain of brilliant entries I’m expecting to select the five best design concepts for the Round II competition. The final round steps up the challenge a notch and requires you to flesh out your design a bit more thoroughly with a rough schematic of any circuitry you’d have to add to the dev kit and some documentation of how you’d approach the software development. Since we’re only giving away a $379 kit, you’re not required to provide a full design but I’d like to see enough detail to be confident that you will be able to follow through with your project. This “do-ability” factor is reflected in the addition of a practicality category in the round II scoring system.

Scoring Points

Entries for Round I will be scored on a 5-point scale for technical feasibility, market potential, uniqueness of the application, and creativity for a maximum total of 20 points.

Entries for Round II will be scored on a 5-point scale for technical feasibility, market potential, uniqueness of the application, creativity and practicality (do-ability) for a maximum total of 25 points.

It’s Your Freaking IP

It can be a tough call about whether to enter a design contest and share a potentially profitable idea with the world before you’re ready to capitalize on it yourself. To encourage you to come play with us, The Bright Idea giveaway is structured to help you earn a little fame (and a cool dev kit) without giving away all of your IP.

While many contests require you to surrender rights to your design in return for the prize, the Bright Idea giveaway lets you keep whatever you’ve developed for your own use. Unless you say otherwise, the only information about your project I will share in my blog (or with anyone else) is the short description of your project that you submit in the Back-of-the Napkin round. If your entry has any extremely sensitive details that you'd prefer to not be published, please let me know.

That said, if any finalist wants to share the details of your design with their fellow readers, I’d be happy to help you prepare an article to be published as a feature on the TechBites Green power community. Publishing with us is a great way to share your ideas with your fellow green-techies, not to mention earn a little street cred.

 Entering the Bright Idea Giveaway

Entering the contest is pretty straightforward. Simply e-mail me a short document (MS Word format preferred) that contains the following:

-          A brief (1-2 paragraph) description of the application you want to develop. If it’s based on an existing application, be sure to explain what you’ve done to improve on it.

-          A simple block diagram of your application and a short description of the software you intend to develop.

-          A rough list of the components you will need to add to TI’s Dev kit to realize your design.

-          Additional details that add interest or credibility to your entry are welcomed but not required.

Entries should be mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To help battle the legions of spambots that infest the Web, please include “Bright Idea Contest Entry” in your subject header.

The deadline for entries for the Phase I competition is Friday June 25, at 12 noon, EDT.  I’ll announce the finalists the following week. The five finalists will have until Friday, July 9 to submit their phase II entries. The winner of the Bright Idea giveaway will be announced the week of July 12.

 The Legal Fine Print

1 - Please note that the contest winner selection is final and will be chosen by me, Lee Goldberg.

2  - Since TI is giving you the chance to win a pricey dev kit, they deserve something in return so by entering this contest, you are giving permission for me to pass your contact information on to Texas Instruments. They will use it to follow up with you via email to see if they can help you with your particular application.  

3 - Since I don’t want to be hit with some frivolous lawsuit or spend time in jail, I hereby invoke the hallowed phrase; "This contest shall be considered void where, and to the extent, prohibited by law."

 I’ll be posting any interesting developments here as they so keep your browser pointed at this space!