Teardown 2024, puzzle hunt, new projects, and video livestream

Nordic was a proud gold sponsor of Teardown 2024, the annual hardware conference hosted by Crowd Supply, in Portland, Oregon, featuring presentations, demos, installations, and workshops.

Nordic team at Teardown 2024

Talks & workshops featuring Nordic technology

Solving Puzzles with the Nordic Thingy:91

In this workshop, you will learn about Nordic software, development tools, nRF Cloud, and the Thingy:91 cellular IoT prototyping platform. You will learn how to compile and download a sample program to your Thingy:91, create an nRF Cloud account, and get the Thingy:91 onboard.

IoT Development with Nordic

IoT is one of the fastest growing markets out there. Long range, short range, there are numerous benefits for wire replacement and connectivity. In this space, Nordic is a boon for any developer, closed or open source. Nordic leads with the lowest power (and one of the smallest and most integrated) LTE-M modems you can find, the only solution today for DECT NR+, and any given month is 30-40% of qualified BLE designs in the market for our leading lowest power, efficiency, and support. Nordic has even broken into PMIC and Wifi-6 now.

From Making an Open Source Patient Monitor to Making it Wearable: The HealthyPi Story

This talk tells the story of HealthyPi, an open source patient monitor concept that we made, and how it evolved to the HealthyPi Move, a wearable monitor that can be used for continuous monitoring of vital signs, and also everything in between.

Nordic Semiconductor

Stop by our table to learn more about our cellular connectivity solutions. Hear about the nRF Connect SDK, a unified code base for all Nordic hardware, built on the Zephyr RTOS. See nRF Cloud, a complete cloud connectivity service for our cellular devices. Learn about our world-class support, including the DevZone support forum staffed by Nordic experts. Demos will include the latest version of our asset tracker application, a nice combination of Bluetooth with an LCD screen, and a BLE Audio Auracast application.

On the hunt with Puzzler:91

On top of the usual talks, workshops, demos, and exhibits, Teardown 2024 featured a puzzle hunt that took teams of attendees around town solving puzzles. Each puzzle leads to another puzzle until the finish line is crossed. The puzzle hunt kicked off at the popular Solving Puzzles with the Nordic Thingy:91 workshop put on by the local Nordic team. During the workshop, participants converted a normal Thingy:91 into an extraordinary Puzzler:91 by giving it a firmware upgrade and connecting it to their Crowd Supply accounts so they could stream messages over the Nordic nRF Cloud API.

Once teams had their Puzzler:91 working, the hunt was on! Over the course of Teardown 2024, 19 teams solved 69 puzzles with their skill, wits, tenacity, and 7,359 nRF Cloud API messages, as mapped by the Puzzle Brainiac:

Colored dots represent the locations from which messages were sent from each team's Puzzler:91. Each team is a different color.

Ultimately, teams had to find eight cryptic magnets scattered across Portland. When combined with the Teardown 2024 lunchbox and show poster (what kind of conference doesn’t have a lunchbox and show poster?), the magnets unlocked the answer to the final puzzle.

First team to finish the puzzle hunt showing off their lunchbox, magnets, Puzzler:91, and prizes.

The Teardown 2024 show poster at the puzzle hunt finish line.

Puzzle hunt teams walked away with the pride of a job well done, appreciation for after-hours Portland, and a nice bit of Nordic kit for their workbenches.

Pete Skeggs, Nordic Thingy:91 workshop

Puzzle hunt participants

Teardown Sessions Livestream

In the latest Nordic sponsored Teardown Session, Crowd Supply’s Helen Leigh talks with Rajeev Piyare from Conexio, the creator of the Conexio Stratus and the soon-to-come Conexio Blitz and Conexio Stratus Pro cellular IoT prototyping platforms.

Projects launched, funded, and added

NRFICE

A dongle-free, wireless MCU plus FPGA board with a built-in J-Link OB debugger, an Arduino Uno form factor, and everything you need for edge-computing applications

Part of Nordic Community Hub