36th Chaos Communication Congress · Germany · 2019

Unofficial 36C3 Badge

Bring-your-own-controller WS2812B LED badge

An unofficial 36C3 badge kit made as a bring-your-own-controller blinky platform with a PCB, eight WS2812B addressable LEDs, eight 100 nF capacitors, lanyard, prototyping area, and controller examples using an Adafruit Feather M4 Express with CircuitPython.

36C3 Chaos Communication Congress Germany Unofficial Badge WS2812B NeoPixel CircuitPython Adafruit Feather Badgelife Europe

Event36th Chaos Communication Congress

SeriesChaos Communication Congress

LocationLeipzig

CountryGermany

People

Authors & Credits

36C3 badge designer and documentation author

Thomas Flummer

Project owner and publisher of the 36C3 badge announcement, project page, and CircuitPython example.

Source

36C3 logo/artwork source

Bleeptrack

The project page credits Bleeptrack's 36C3 logo as part of the badge design source material.

Source

Why It Mattered

It shows Congress badgelife moving from a single discrete-circuit indie board into a deliberately open hardware prompt: attendees could bring Arduinos, FPGAs, or other controllers and make the same badge blink in different ways.

Hardware

The project page documents a controller-less PCB kit including eight WS2812B LEDs, eight decoupling capacitors, lanyard, bottom-center VCC/data/GND LED-string pads, prototyping area, and example low-profile female-header mounting for an Adafruit Feather M4 Express.

Software & Apps

The badge has no fixed onboard firmware. Thomas Flummer published a CircuitPython NeoPixel example using board.A2 and neopixel.mpy, but the badge was explicitly intended to accept many controller and firmware choices.

Lore

The project page describes the badge as inspired by the first Hackaday Superconference badge, with 36C3 design elements from Bleeptrack and an open challenge to make the LEDs light up with unusual controllers and share the results.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge architecture source-backed

Bring-your-own-controller badge core

The 36C3 badge intentionally shipped without a controller so attendees could attach Arduinos, FPGAs, Feather boards, or other battery-powered controller choices.

Compatibility: Unofficial 36C3 Badge

Source

firmware example source-backed

CircuitPython NeoPixel example

The project page includes a CircuitPython snippet using neopixel.mpy and board.A2 on an Adafruit Feather M4 Express to run a rainbow animation.

Compatibility: Unofficial 36C3 Badge plus external controller

Source

visual hardware source-backed

Eight-LED WS2812B string

The kit included a PCB, eight WS2812B addressable LEDs, eight 100 nF capacitors, a lanyard, and bottom-center VCC/data/GND LED-string pads.

Compatibility: Unofficial 36C3 Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

controller-scope caveat note

The badge kit came without a controller, so microcontroller, battery, firmware, and enclosure behavior depend on each attendee's external setup.

The record documents the shared PCB and LED kit without implying a single official firmware or complete electronics stack.

Confidence: primary project page
Status: documented
Timeframe: kit design
Source note: Thomas Flummer 36C3 badge project page.

missing rights-cleared image note

No 36C3 badge image is published because the visible project images have not been paired with complete reuse rights, attribution, and processing notes.

The entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying project-page imagery without a clear catalogue reuse basis.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy and Thomas Flummer 36C3 badge pages.

unofficial badge classification note

The badge announcement and project page identify the artifact as unofficial and distributed informally as kits at Congress.

The catalogue keeps it separate from official CCC event identity and models it as independent Congress badgelife.

Confidence: primary project-owner sources
Status: documented
Timeframe: 36C3
Source note: Thomas Flummer 36C3 announcement and project page.

Resources

36C3 wiki official event wiki · Official archived 36C3 wiki source for event context, Leipzig setting, and annual four-day CCC congress framing. My unofficial 36c3 badge project announcement · Project-owner announcement for the unofficial 36C3 badge kit, bringing kits to Congress, and the bring-your-own-controller blinky-badge goal. Unofficial 36c3 badge project page · Project-owner source for PCB kit contents, eight WS2812B LEDs, prototyping area, VCC/data/GND pads, and CircuitPython example.

Sources

Chaos Communication Congress: 36C3 Wiki Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Official event source for 36C3 as the 2019 annual four-day CCC congress in Leipzig. Thomas Flummer: My unofficial 36c3 badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary project-owner announcement for the unofficial 36C3 badge, kits at Congress, and open controller experimentation. Thomas Flummer: Unofficial 36c3 badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary project-owner technical source for the kit contents, WS2812B LED string, controller pads, Adafruit Feather M4 mounting example, and CircuitPython NeoPixel snippet.