BSides Canberra 2023 · Australia · 2023

BSides Canberra 2023 bPod

ESP32-S2 colour-screen badge with touch controls, games, and hardware tools

The 2023 BSides Canberra bPod badge is source-backed by the official BSides archive, schedule material, and public GitLab repository containing KiCad hardware, firmware, updater, and server code.

BSides Canberra Australia bPod ESP32-S2 ST7735 Touch Controls SAO KiCad Snake Tetris Scoreboard Hardware Village Oceania

EventBSides Canberra 2023

SeriesBSides Canberra

LocationNational Convention Centre, Canberra

CountryAustralia

People

Authors & Credits

attendee CTF writeup author

Sijing Zheng / Shea Security

Author of the attendee writeup documenting the bPod game, firmware-dump, online-scoreboard, and CTF context.

Source

bPod developer and repository publisher

Peter Rankin / pjranki

The BSides Canberra 2023 speaker export names Peter as developing the 2023 badge, and the GitLab repository preserves the bPod source archive.

Source

event and archive publisher

BSides Canberra

Official publisher of the 2023 event page, schedule export, archive entry, and badge-repository link.

Source

Why It Mattered

It deepens Oceania coverage with a modern Australian badge that combines conference identity, a colour screen and touch interface, SAO expansion, embedded-protocol learning tools, snake/tetris games, and online scoreboard infrastructure.

Hardware

The bPod source trail documents an ESP32-S2 badge, ST7735 colour display, capacitive touch controls, SAO connector, USB-C, flash, PSRAM, LEDs, KiCad 7.0 schematic and PCB files, PCBWay manufacturing exports, BOMs, placement files, Gerber/drill archives, and flashing material.

Software & Apps

The repository preserves ESP-IDF/Arduino firmware, touch-wheel code, menu apps, schedule display, WiFi scan, I2C detect, I2C/SPI sniffing, UART terminal, GPIO and MCP23S17/MCP23017 tooling, snake and tetris games, score-token generation, bPodUpdater packaging, and a scoreboard server.

Lore

Peter Rankin's BSides Canberra talk framed the bPod as a colour-screen badge with touch controls, a hardware-learning device, and a CTF challenge. Attendee writeups later called out badge firmware dumping plus snake and tetris online scoreboard manipulation as part of the 2023 event experience.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge game and server source-backed

Snake and tetris online scoreboard

The firmware and server trees preserve snake and tetris apps, score-token generation, online scoreboard tables, and bPodUpdater/server packaging.

Compatibility: BSides Canberra 2023 bPod

Source

firmware apps source-backed

Hardware-tool app suite

The firmware tree includes apps for schedule, WiFi scan, I2C detect, I2C/SPI sniffing, UART terminal, GPIO, MCP23S17/MCP23017 tooling, LEDs, brightness, QR, text, and diagram viewing.

Compatibility: BSides Canberra 2023 bPod

Source

hardware architecture source-backed

ESP32-S2 colour-screen badge core

The bPod repository and update page document an ESP32-S2 badge with ST7735 colour screen, capacitive touch controls, USB-C, LEDs, SAO connector, flash, and PSRAM-related hardware files.

Compatibility: BSides Canberra 2023 bPod

Source

hardware source archived

KiCad and PCBWay manufacturing archive

The repository preserves KiCad schematic/PCB/project files plus PCBWay render, BOM, placement, Gerber/drill, flashing binary, and flashing instruction artifacts.

Compatibility: BSides Canberra 2023 bPod

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No local BSides Canberra 2023 bPod image is published because the public repository images and event materials have not been paired with a clear reuse license, attribution, source URL, and processing notes for catalogue publication.

The entry stays source-backed and image-free rather than copying repository renders, event screenshots, or attendee photos without complete image provenance.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, BSides archive, bPod repository, and attendee writeups.

repository license caveat note

The bPod repository is public and contains exact hardware, firmware, updater, server, and manufacturing artifacts, but this pass did not find a top-level project license covering reuse of repository images or source material.

The catalogue can cite the repository as evidence while keeping image publication and license-sensitive reuse conservative.

Confidence: repository audit
Status: needs explicit project license
Timeframe: current bPod archive pass
Source note: pjranki/bpod repository file tree and badge.gallery image policy.

Resources

BSides Canberra 2023 CTF writeup attendee writeup · Attendee/team writeup documenting the bPod electronic badge, snake and tetris games, badge firmware dumping, online scoreboards, and event CTF context. BSides Canberra 2023 event page event page · Official event page for the September 28-30, 2023 edition at the National Convention Centre. BSides Canberra 2023 schedule schedule · Official exported schedule page linking the 2023 sessions, speakers, and schedule JSON; the speaker export includes Introducing the new bPod. BSides Canberra archive archive index · Official archive index linking the 2023 Webpage, CSides meetups, and 2023 Badge Repository - bPod. bPod repository hardware and firmware source · Public GitLab repository preserving bPod KiCad files, PCBWay manufacturing exports, firmware, updater packaging, and scoreboard server code.

Sources

BSides Canberra: BSides Canberra Archive Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary archive source linking the 2023 Badge Repository - bPod. BSides Canberra: BSides Canberra 2023 Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary event source for the September 28-30, 2023 National Convention Centre edition. BSides Canberra: BSides Canberra 2023 Schedule Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary schedule source for the exported 2023 schedule and the Introducing the new bPod speaker material. GitLab / Peter Rankin: pjranki/bpod Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary repository source for bPod hardware files, firmware, updater, scoreboard server, schedule data, manufacturing exports, and ESP32-S2/ST7735/touch/SAO evidence. Shea Security / Sijing Zheng: Winners of BSides Canberra 2023 CTF Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary attendee writeup source for bPod game, scoreboard, firmware-dump, and CTF impact context.