We first met Paul Beech in 2011, when he won a competition we were running to find a logo design. (That’s it, up at the top of the page.) Paul, Eben and I hit it off immediately over a shared love of toast and dripping. Since then, Paul’s become a familiar face here at the Raspberry Pi farm, especially since he set up a small business called Pimoroni with his friend Jon Williamson, and started making the Pibow, which we still think is the best-looking case that’s available for the Raspberry Pi.
This is a bit of a special time for us. It’s the first anniversary of the Raspberry Pi’s launch on Friday (or Thursday, depending how you count; we launched on a leap day last year). You’ll be able to read more about that on Friday, but to celebrate, Pimoroni have launched a competition with one of the most drool-worthy prizes I’ve seen. Paul says:
A lot of you have asked for custom Pibows. Alas, we’re not set up for it, but you can always grab the design and get your own cut. For everyone else, there’s this competition.
The aim is simple, show us your tasteful/useful/insane* vision for your own custom Pibow.
The person who comes up with the best design wins a customised Pibow – and everything that’s in this box. (And the box.) Click the image for the entry page.
What’s in there? You’ll get a special Pibow, made to your custom design, AND:
- The awesome Sortimo compartment case that contains all this fine loot!
- Raspberry Pi Model B (512MB from the Sony plant)
- Raspberry Pi Model A with Pibow Model A
- Pibow VESA mount
- 25W Antex soldering iron (like the one Jon has been using since he was 12)
- Brass soldering sponge essential tip cleaner
- Desoldering wick
- Multi-colour Sugru pack (this stuff is amazing)
- Breadboard jumper leads
- Six coloured mini breadboards
- Luminous cable ties
- Adafruit ADC breakout board
- Adafruit T-Cobbler (essential GPIO hacking fodder)
- Adafruit Pi-Plate
- Digital calipers (useful more often than you’d think)
- A selection of components
- Crocodile clip leads
- Sparkfun cerberus USB cable
- Sparkfun hydra USB cable
- HDMI noodle
- Pink and blue USB noodles
Jon adds:
This is a totally spiffy and positively super collection of useful stuff to pimp, mod, and extend your Raspberry Pi with. Even better you can tote it around with you as your own awesome mobile hacker space! This is all stuff we use ourselves at Pimoroni Towers so we know you’ll love it.
Paul interrupts:
Gotta mention the mini-servos and the 7-seg displays, and the range of resistors and caps. anna anna pony anna anna hekiloptor!
(Have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what Paul is on about – I’m not sure if you get mini-servos, and I’m almost certain you don’t get ponies or helicopters as part of the prize.)
So get to it, and submit your designs for the competition. We’ll be featuring the winner here so everyone else can sulk jealously at your good fortune.
