There is nothing I love more than a competition based on creativity. A few cool prizes thrown in the mix like a 3D printer, doesn’t ever hurt either. Last night Shapeways, along with Instructables, Popular Mechanics,
Ultimaker, and Sphero, announced the Gadget Hacking & Accessories Contest.
The contest will run from April 7th until Jun 2nd at 11:59pm PT. Here is how it will work:
- Create an Instructable with a step by step process, video, or photos, in which you show the world how you created your hack. Their definition of a gadget hack according to the contest rules is fairly broad: “Gadget hacking is modifying, accessorizing, updating gadgets (electronic or otherwise) of any type”
- When submitting your Instructable for publishing, check the box for “open contests,” and then select “Gadget Hacking and Accessories Contest.”
- The Instructables staff will review all entries, and accept those that qualify within one business day. As long as the Instructable is submitted by the deadline on June 2nd, it will make the cut-off.
- There will be a voting period in which Instructables members will be able to vote for an entry. The voting period will be the entire period after you submit your project, all the way until June 5th.
- A panel of judges made up of Instructable staff and respected members of Instructables will choose their favorite entries via a rating system. The average score of all the judges on each project will be the determining factor for which ones win.
- Winners will be announced here: https://www.instructables.com/contest/gadgethacking
The prizes for the winners will be as follows:
Grand Prize (One Winner):
- You will have your project featured in the Popular Mechanics Magazine

- $200 in Shapeways printing credit
- Ultimaker 2 3D Printer
- Sphero 2.0 + Nubby Sphero Cover
- Instructables prize pack, including t-shirt and more
Judges Prize (One Winner):
- $200 in Shapeways printing credit
- Ultimaker 2 3D Printer
- Instructables prize pack, including t-shirt and more
First Prize (Three Winners):
- $100 in Shapeways printing credit
- Sphero 2.0
- Instructables prize pack, including t-shirt and more
Second Prize (Five Winners):
- $50 in Shapeways printing credit
- Instructables prize pack, including t-shirt and more
The official rules and eligibility of this competition can be found here. Discuss this contest at the 3DPrintboard thread set up just for that purpose.
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