Lifecycle
Badge ecosystems keep moving after handout: apps, hexpansions, SAOs, antennas, cases, repair parts, firmware updates, and post-event hardware experiments.
The RSSI sketch and HugQuest command path scan channels 11 through 26 and display channel signal-strength readings on the SMART Response XE screen.
SourceThe official firmware carries a Meshtastic-derived mesh stack on an SX1262 radio, with node database, beacon, and hop-scaling logic and a ROOTCON 20 region lock that forces the PH_433 band.
SourceThe badge runs as a Meshtastic client node on the SX1262 radio, pairs with the official Meshtastic phone app over Bluetooth using a PIN shown on the OLED, and sends and receives broadcast and direct messages without internet or cellular service.
SourceThe official Tildagon hexpansion guide preserves jasonalexander-ja's DECTspansion as a community-made radio expansion example for the reusable EMF 2024 badge platform.
SourceThe 2013 development post lists 2.4 GHz radio as one of the headline badge features, placing Hackover in the same radio-badge experimentation era as other early European badges.
SourceRadioFunctions.h initializes the ATmega128RFA1 2.4 GHz transceiver and constrains channels to 11 through 26 for packet send/receive and RSSI reads.
SourceThe official BSidesSLC page identifies a custom ESP32-S3-WROOM electronic badge with a LoRa module and custom Meshtastic firmware.
SourceThe 144 MHz Morse app uses GPIO and FPGA behavior for a ham-radio-style badge experiment, broadening MCH2022 beyond ordinary MicroPython apps.
SourceLoRa depends on the supplied external antenna, and the repository includes an OpenSCAD case intended to hold battery, antenna, and LEDs.
SourceThe LoRa docs expose regional frequency settings and configuration paths, which matter for legal and practical radio use.
Sourcekliment's OG Hexpansion is the official gallery's reference-style PCB example exposing badge-edge pins and linking back to the EMF 2024 hardware repository.
SourceThe badge was listed as a 50 NIS electronic-badge add-on with limited availability and explicit no-on-site-sales guidance.
SourceDEF CON's official ticket page says preregistration guarantees a DEF CON 34 Human badge when the ticket is redeemed onsite in Las Vegas.
SourceThe official event page documents ticket classes for the March 18, 2026 in-person conference at Valur FC Club House, but does not describe electronic badge behavior.
SourceThe badge workflow depended on taking attendee photos at the entrance, transferring them, laying out the badge, and printing personalized IDs in the field.
SourceThe official organizer-linked Eventbrite page now labels the event completed and sales ended. It preserves event context but not ticket-class details, sales count, purchaser list, pickup terms, receipt data, replacement policy, or fulfillment record.
SourceOfficial registration guidance documents Sunday early registration for pre-registered donor-drive badge holders and Monday-Wednesday main registration with separate queues for different badge types. It establishes a current pickup workflow rather than a complete allocation ledger or a claim that every badge type has the same form or access rights.
SourceThe Friday and Saturday registration schedule pages say volunteers issued a printed badge or an electronic badge depending on ticket type.
SourceThe Arizona LoCo notes say CactusCon 2018 required tickets because the event was growing and had moved to Mesa Convention Center.
SourceSANS lists a Hackable Badge Competition among the in-person CyberThreat 2026 inclusions. The page does not say whether that listing grants a physical badge, which registrants may participate, whether there are badge variants, or how the competition operates.
SourceThe diploma package includes DragonJARCON 2026 entry. The official event home separately advertises a standard 2026 kit and official CTF for the September 10-11 conference, but does not state that the standard kit is electronic or identical to the diploma package's badge.
SourceThe default firmware mapped buttons for Hack Live website launch, voting, sabotage, hint, and live audience commands.
SourceThe official docs now preserve concrete repair paths for damaged screens, FPC cables, LEDs, and battery connectors, treating Tildagon as maintainable camp hardware rather than a disposable novelty.
SourceThe commit-pinned README names an RP2040 microcontroller, MPU-6050 gyro/accelerometer module, thirty WS2812 RGB LEDs, and MicroPython. It does not establish a complete board design, exact component variants, power design, final manufactured revision, individual-unit functionality, performance, safety, or compatibility.
SourceThe repository description and README frame 5ohBEE as a SMART Response XE-based pager project with board setup through an ATmega128RFA1 development-board profile.
SourceThe official SaikoCTF page says the hardware badge exposes physio, cyber challenge, and programmable hardware component interfaces for the HITB Bangkok challenge.
SourceThe recruitment statement says participants received an electronic SaikoCTF badge as a participation token together with a brief soft-skills assessment summary.
SourceThe study workflow put participants in VR goggles and physiological sensors for a roughly one-hour simulated-network CTF using a Kali Linux VM, questionnaires, and researcher check-ins.
SourceThe stock firmware included a Z80 emulator running CP/M with classic software hooks such as Zork and Sargon, turning the badge into a tiny retrocomputer.
SourceThe immutable README describes an ESP32-S3, color touch display, LoRa radio, storage, buttons, LEDs, sound, expansion, and two-AA or USB-C power surface. It is a documented design summary, not a final-batch bill of materials, final hardware revision, safety claim, or configuration guide.
SourceThe first public source-release commit preserves KiCad 8, schematic, and fabrication files whose paths identify 2024_def_con_badge_v1. This demonstrates a source-published hardware archive without proving the date of manufacture, board quantity, assembled population, test results, physical distribution, or a right to manufacture derivatives.
SourceThe repository's public releases visible in the reviewed source pass are dated July 2026, after the 2024 event. They establish a later public software trail without identifying software installed on any 2024 unit or a current supported operating path.
SourceRetia's current repository name says DefconBadge2026, but its metadata calls the project a Retia 2024 DEF CON badge and the immutable first source-release commit/README explicitly say 2024. This records the source conflict and 2024 provenance without treating the repository label as a 2026 event association.
SourceThe page says the badge can be used as a normal Meshtastic node after the event, keeping the artifact useful beyond DEF CON 33.
SourceThe badge reused surplus ZBD 55c-RB / EPOP55 electronic shelf labels with CC1110 control hardware and a bistable LCD that keeps its image without power.
SourceVersion 1.6 fixes listed in the August source commit demonstrate that the public design continued after the June summit. The current post-event V1.6 KiCad revision is therefore not presented as a photograph, render, or authoritative specification of every physical summit badge.
SourceThe Bot jewel boosted power for four large servos and was documented as the building block for turning Ph0xx into a bipedal robot.
SourceThe Ph0xx documentation points toward turning the badge into or mounting it on a robot using its hardware and mounting holes.
SourceMarc Merlin's first-hand report documents a Donkey Car kit with an onboard camera connected to a Raspberry Pi and a custom last-minute Raspberry Pi HAT.
SourceMarc Merlin's first-hand report identifies the 2020 DingoCar as controlled by a Raspberry Pi and shows it as the hardware focus of the Open Hardware Miniconf.
SourceEkoparty's official attachment pages preserve attendee, speaker, and workshop badge-art variants for the 2021 set.
SourceTwo separate boards share the cassette outline and logic: the attendee cassette's LEDs step forward so it appears to play, and the volunteer cassette's step in reverse so it appears to rewind.
SourceHuman, Goon, Press, Speaker, Vendor, Contest Organizer, and Uber badge shapes could be placed together as a puzzle, and Smitty & The Minions / Team Halibut earned honorable mention for combining all seven badges with modified firmware animations.
SourceThe badge how-to and orga notes preserve safeR, orga, participant-name-sign, and area-owner context for different visible badge roles.
SourceJonTheNiceGuy's Now & Next app shows current and upcoming EMFCamp stage items, carrying the badge from novelty hardware into a live event companion.
SourceAttendee feedback explicitly called out the lack of an official badge challenge, so the record treats DEF CON 25 as a non-puzzle standard-badge year.
SourceThe badge challenge used ARM TrustZone separation with non-secure and secure stages, command-line interaction, snake warm-up behavior, and unlock states.
SourceGrand Idea Studio links post-event research into over-the-air remote code execution against the badge's NFMI subsystem.
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