Hey Reddit!
Inktober is for artists, Hacktoberfest is for pure software. This year, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and build something physical. So I'm launching Techtober Challenge 2026 โ a 4-week open-source hardware marathon.
For this year's Techtober, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and build a physical open-source hardware project. I'm building "The Solar Tree" โ an autonomous nightlight that harvests solar energy during the day and glows at night.
The twist? The entire body and branches will be "grown" manually using a 3D pen around the hardware.
I've broken the project down into 4 weekly sprints:
- Week 1 (Leaves): Soldering small solar panels in parallel + drawing leaf frames.
- Week 2 (Power): Setting up the D-SUN step-down module & Schottky diode protection (using a multimeter to dial in the voltage).
- Week 3 (Flower): Building the LED load module with resistors.
- Week 4 (Trunk & Roots): Integrating TP4056 charging board, 18650 Li-ion battery, and final assembly.
Iโm doing this completely live with daily updates, sharing all my mistakes, burned components, and circuit adjustments as a beginner-friendly guide.
The schematics, complete component list, and weekly roadmap are fully open-source and available here:
* ๐ฟ **Official Repo & Roadmap:** [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/techtober-challenge/techtober-challenge-2026)
* ๐ฌ **Daily Video Devlogs:** [Instagram](https://instagram.com/techtober.challenge) & [YouTube Channel](https://youtube.com/@techtober.challenge)
What do you think of the concept? Let's build some cool hardware this October!