Add-on dossier
A linkable lifecycle record for hardware expansions, app ecosystems, firmware upgrades, cases, radio parts, and post-event badge experiments.
The project is publicly shown in staged progress from idea collection through prototyping, electronic design, firmware, and delivery, with budget fit called out as the next challenge.
Badge context
Badge.Team homepage advertising HackerHotel 2027 badge ambitions and project phases.
Commits by Renze Nicolai and Julian Scheffers from September 14 to October 22, 2026: initial commit, LCSC part numbers, switch to the WCH LED-matrix controller with many more LEDs, battery circuit, LED routing, infrared, programming and UART headers, buttons, a moved IR section and different debug connector, on October 18 a change to a six-layer board with some LEDs temporarily removed, 0 unrouted, and no DRC errors, and on October 22 basic routing done followed by the final push for prototype 1.
Official event site for HackerHotel context.
CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Permissive, added October 11, 2026. It covers the design files; the repository holds no badge photo.
Badge.Team KiCad project for a starfish-shaped HackerHotel 2027 board: schematic, PCB, starfish outline and silkscreen artwork, CH643, infrared, LED, and push-button libraries, and a production folder with BOM, positions, and netlist. Layout was still being routed on October 17, 2026; an October 18 commit reports a six-layer board with 0 unrouted connections and no DRC errors after some LEDs were temporarily removed, and on October 22 the production folder gained a prototype-1 Gerber, BOM, and placement package.
Renze Nicolai's October 22, 2026 commit, titled as his final push for prototype 1. It sets schematic revision 1 dated October 22, adds Badge.Team stamp footprints, replaces the separate UART and debug headers and CC solder jumpers with one 6-pin 1.27 mm debug header, and regenerates the six-layer Gerber zip (F.Cu, four inner layers, B.Cu), BOM, IPC netlist, and placement file. The placement file lists all 314 LEDs, the IR LED, and four switches. The commit does not say where, when, or in what quantity prototypes are made.
MIT-licensed Rust and C firmware by Anne Jan Brouwer for the CH643 starfish board, created October 12, 2026: games, name tag, infrared name swap and four-in-a-row, factory and bring-up tests, a WebUSB setup page, and a PC emulator. Its README says it compiles but has never run on a board and that the USB port is not tested on a CH643.
Source trail
Secondary first-hand source by a Badge.Team member that ties the starfish board to Hacker Hotel 2027, lists the LED matrix wiring, buttons, IR, LiPo charger, and debug pins, and names the hardware repository; it is explicitly theoretical and untested on hardware, so it does not document official firmware.
Primary current source for LoRa, keyboard, big screen, ESP32-P4, budget challenge, and project phase status.
Primary Badge.Team design source for the CH643Q LED-matrix controller, 279 single-colour and 35 RGB LEDs, USB-C with ESD protection, infrared LED and receiver, LiPo connector and charger, four tactile switches, a 6-pin 1.27 mm debug header, and starfish outline, as listed in the October 22, 2026 prototype-1 BOM. That package is six-layer and places all 314 LEDs, after the October 18 commit had temporarily removed some LEDs from the layout. No production release is tagged, and the repository does not show which design attendees will receive.
Official event site giving February 19-21, 2027 and Hotel Zuiderduin, Zeeweg 52, Egmond aan Zee as the 2027 dates and venue, with room-based ticket prices. It does not mention the badge.