DEF CON 24 · United States · 2016

AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Unofficial DEF CON 24 STM32 and RFM69 badgelife badge

The AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 24 badgelife badge with a Bender-shaped PCB, STM32F103 controller, OLED screen, RGB LEDs, RFM69W 433 MHz radio, USB serial terminal behavior, games, GPIO breakouts, and a public post-event hardware/software archive.

AND!XOR DEF CON United States Las Vegas Unofficial Badge STM32F103 RFM69W OLED USB Serial Badgelife North America

EventDEF CON 24

SeriesDEF CON

LocationParis Hotel and Bally's Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

Hackaday field-report author

Mike Szczys

Author of the hands-on article used for unofficial DEF CON context, hardware observations, and USB serial behavior.

Source

badge creators and project publisher

AND!XOR

Project identity behind the DC24 Bender badge, production logs, repository, and released hardware/software archive.

Source

badge team member

Andrew Riley

Hackaday identifies Andrew Riley as one of the trio behind the AND!XOR badge.

Source

badge team member

Jorge Lacoste

Hackaday.io lists Jorge Lacoste on the AND!XOR DEFCON 24 Badge project team.

Source

project log author and badge team member

Zapp

Hackaday.io lists Zapp on the project team and attributes multiple production, radio, terminal, and revision logs to Zapp.

Source

Why It Mattered

It captures the unofficial North American badgelife ecosystem around DEF CON: small teams built independent electronic badges that did not grant conference entry but became serious social, RF, firmware, and hardware-hacking artifacts in the same hallway culture.

Hardware

Hackaday's hands-on article and the project-owner Hackaday.io logs document an STM32F103CBT6 ARM Cortex-M3 badge, 128x64 OLED, 16 Mbit flash, RGB LEDs including Bender's eyes, five switches, reset, three AA batteries, male USB connector, 11 GPIO pins, RX/TX/DIO/RST/power breakouts, RFM69W radio module, and 433 MHz coil antenna. The GitHub repository preserves a schematic PDF and Gerbers.

Software & Apps

Public sources document STM32Duino/Maple-style firmware, USB serial at 115200 baud, menu entries for Chat, Peers, Ninja, Progress, self-test, airplane mode, RF debugging, about/version screens, DFU flashing, bootloader provisioning, flash-data loading, and released software/provisioning files in the repository.

Lore

The project logs record a planned production run of 100 white badges, 20 black badges, and 50 LED-only bling badges, with weekend assembly, radio startup failures, LED timing problems, and bootloader fixes. The catalogue models it explicitly as unofficial DEF CON-adjacent badgelife, not as the official DEF CON admission badge.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge software interface source-backed

USB serial terminal and shell

Hackaday documented USB CDC serial behavior at 115200 baud and a terminal mode, while project logs describe a shell for badge control and extra interactions.

Compatibility: AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Source

badge-to-badge interaction source-backed

RFM69W 433 MHz social radio

The badge used an RFM69W module and 433 MHz coil antenna for peer/chat and social radio behavior, with project logs documenting radio startup failures and bootloader timing fixes.

Compatibility: AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Source

firmware lifecycle archived

DFU and provisioning workflow

The repository README documents entering DFU mode and flashing provisioned human badge binaries; Hackaday.io discussion records bootloader and NAND flash loading paths.

Compatibility: AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Source

hardware architecture source-backed

STM32F103 Bender badge core

The hands-on coverage and project-owner comments identify an STM32F103CBT6 ARM Cortex-M3 controller running at 72 MHz with the badge firmware built through STM32Duino-style tooling.

Compatibility: AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Source

hardware expansion source-backed

GPIO, RX/TX, DIO, RST breakouts

The hands-on article documents 11 GPIO pins plus RX/TX, DIO, RST, power, and ground breakouts as hardware-hacking surfaces.

Compatibility: AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No AND!XOR DC24 badge image is published because Hackaday and Hackaday.io photos have not been paired with complete original-photo provenance, explicit reuse rights, attribution, and processing notes for catalogue publication.

The unofficial badge entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying article or project images without a clear reuse basis.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, Hackaday article media, Hackaday.io project media, and ANDnXOR repository media.

production issue note

Project logs record RFM69 startup failures, oscillator/load-capacitor diagnosis, bootloader timing fixes, and WS281x LED timing issues that moved failed badges off the rework pile.

The entry preserves real production and firmware bring-up caveats that matter for surviving badges and reproduction attempts.

Confidence: project-owner logs
Status: documented
Timeframe: 2016 production and rework
Source note: AND!XOR DEFCON 24 Badge Hackaday.io production and radio/LED logs.

unofficial badge classification note

The AND!XOR Bender Badge was not the official DEF CON 24 admission badge and did not grant conference entry; it is modeled as an unofficial DEF CON-adjacent badgelife artifact.

Country, event, and series pages can show the badge's historical importance without confusing it with the official 1o57 skull badge.

Confidence: source-backed
Status: documented
Timeframe: DEF CON 24 hallway badgelife
Source note: Hackaday hands-on article and Hackaday.io project context.

Resources

AND!XOR DEFCON 24 Badge project project page · Project-owner Hackaday.io source for production logs, STM32/RFM69/OLED/RGB features, shell behavior, production quantities, and failure/fix history. ANDnXOR DC24 badge Gerbers hardware source · Repository Gerber directory preserving fabrication outputs. ANDnXOR DC24 badge README source · Raw README source for DFU flashing, provisioned human badge binary path, and boot behavior. ANDnXOR DC24 badge license license · Repository license source for code/archive reuse context; badge-gallery does not republish repository images in this pass. ANDnXOR DC24 badge repository source repo · Public repository preserving README, schematic PDF, Gerbers, provisioning files, software tree, and license. ANDnXOR DC24 badge schematic hardware source · Repository schematic PDF source for hardware-archive scope. ANDnXOR DC24 badge software tree source · Repository software directory preserving released badge code and support files. Hands-on the AND!XOR unofficial DEF CON badge article · Hackaday hands-on source for unofficial DEF CON context, visible hardware, controls, radio, GPIO breakouts, USB serial behavior, games, and sale/distribution plan.

Sources

GitHub / ANDnXOR: ANDnXOR/ANDnXOR_DC24_Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Source repository preserving schematic PDF, Gerbers, provisioning files, software tree, README, and license. GitHub / ANDnXOR: ANDnXOR DC24 badge README Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Raw README source for DFU flashing instructions, provisioned human badge binary path, and boot LED behavior. GitHub / ANDnXOR: AND!XOR DEF CON 24 Badge Schematic Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Repository schematic PDF source corroborating hardware-archive availability. GitHub / ANDnXOR: ANDnXOR DC24 badge LICENSE Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Repository license source for code and archive context; local image reuse is still withheld pending image-specific provenance. Hackaday: Hands-on The AND!XOR Unofficial DEF CON Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Technical and context source for the unofficial status, STM32F103, OLED, flash, RGB LEDs, RFM69W, coil antenna, three-AA power, USB serial terminal, GPIO breakouts, games, and sale plan. Hackaday.io / AND!XOR: AND!XOR DEFCON 24 Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Project-owner source for badge concept, production quantities, STM32Duino development, RFM69 radio work, shell behavior, production updates, and radio/LED failure fixes.