Thanks to Texas Instruments’ generosity-  and some great feedback from our loyal TechBites readers, the Bright Idea LED Dev Kit Giveaway contest has gotten easier to enter and easier to win. Several readers wrote to say that they wanted to enter the contest to win TI’s Piccolo-powered LED developer’s Kit but were not sure that they would be able to find the time to complete second stage of the competition if they ended up as finalists. To make sure nobody gets left out, I’ve simplified the rules even further and extended the entry deadline by 2 weeks to Friday, July 9. In addition, TI has come up with a bunch of neat bonus prizes (shirts, coffee mugs, pens, etc…) that all 5 finalists will receive.  Read on to learn more about the new, simplified contest rules and the cool prizes we’re giving away.

The updated, simplified rules below make it easier than ever to win TI’s LED development kit, which is based on their powerful Piccolo microcontroller. The kit 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.

Contest Basics

To make the contest as easy to enter as possible, the contest now consists of a single “Back of the Napkin Round”, where  all you have to do is supply a brief description of the application you want to create with TI’s LED developer kit.  Just show me that our idea id technically feasible with 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 using a very straightforward scoring system to select the five best design concepts, with the highest-scoring entry being the grand prize winner.

Scoring Points

Entries for the contest 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.

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) will be the short 2-3 paragraph description of your project that you submit. If your entry has any extremely sensitive details that you'd prefer to not be published, please let me know and I’ll accommodate you..

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 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 July 9, at 12 noon, EDT.   The winners 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!