First off, thanks for everyone that participated. I looked at each design, weighed the pros and cons of each and then slept on it. A day later, my mind was clear about which was best and why. I wanted to choose an aesthetically pleasing design, but functionality and 3d Printability/ease of assembly won out. There were a lot of great ideas, a few from left-field that really deserved a second round of testing and revisions. Ultimately, the choices reflected the view of 'What can we design, print and use more or less now with the least number of problems'. So... who won?
First Prize - $300
RF Design (Ruben Freire) - Cucoy
RF Design (Ruben Freire) followed all of the specs and paid special attention to the capabilities of simple FDM 3D Printer (like Makerbot or Reprap), crafting a design that can be downloaded and printed more or less immediately. It's certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing - a sacrifice I don't like to make. But you have to praise the functionality of the design, although it might be difficult to get the LED filament into the bottle with the LEDs attached (a fairly easy fix). Beyond that, the 'Cocuy' seems to be easy to make and assemble by anyone, and easy to install in any location.
Second Prize - $100
I was really blown away by this idea. Voibor's design used fibre optics to transmit lgiht to the bottle, solving a number of problems from a manufacturing point of view (fewer pieces to make, no need to waterproof LED filament). I really wanted to give Voibor first prize, but it seemed a little more difficult to 3D print with FDM.
Special Prize: 'Most Helpful' - $100
Stephen Nyberg (picture of his submission - couldn't find a nice picture)
Another tough decision. Stephen Nyberg went above and beyond the call of (design) duty. He uploaded a number of models of the panels and screws to help others create their own submissions and answered questions and commented on other models. I made this prize because lots of people usually work hard on these challenges in more ways than one and deserve to be awarded for that. Thanks Stephen!
Thanks to everyone who submitted work! Next up? The Gearing Up Challenge. Good times.
