BSides Cleveland 2026 · United States · 2026

BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge

Discrete-logic cassette LED badge with attendee play and volunteer rewind variants

The BSides Cleveland 2026 conference badge, published by the organizers on October 6, 2026 as CC0 KiCad designs: a cassette-tape-shaped, all-SMD coin-cell board in two variants. A Schmitt-trigger oscillator clocks a 74HC4017 decade counter that steps rings of orange, green, and blue LEDs, so the attendee cassette appears to play and the volunteer cassette appears to rewind. The back artwork hides a Vigenère-and-ROT13 easter egg that decodes to Hack The Planet. The September 26 event is officially completed, but no source gives a badge count or describes the handoff.

BSides Cleveland Security BSides United States Ohio Cleveland Electronic Badge Discrete Logic 74HC4017 CR2032 LED Badge Cassette Volunteer Badge Easter Egg KiCad CC0 Open Hardware North America No Image

EventBSides Cleveland 2026

SeriesBSides Cleveland

LocationTinkham Veale University Center, Case Western Reserve University, 11038 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, Ohio

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

badge designer

Anthony G.

Signs the Making a event badge writeup describing the design, parts choice, artwork brief, production, and easter egg; only the first name and initial are published.

Source

event organizer and badge-file publisher

Security BSides Cleveland

Owner of the BSidesCLE GitHub organization whose Badge-2026 repository publishes the 2026 conference badge files under CC0.

Source

Why It Mattered

It is a compact example of a microcontroller-free event badge: the animation comes from three logic chips, and the organizers released both role variants into the public domain together with a designer writeup explaining the circuit, production, and puzzle.

Hardware

The attendee and volunteer KiCad 10 schematics share a 74AUP1G14 Schmitt-trigger inverter set up as an RC oscillator (5.36 MΩ with 4.7 µF), a 74AUP1G74 flip-flop, and a 74HC4017 decade counter driving orange, green, and blue 0603 LEDs laid out in six-LED reel rings, powered from a CR2032 in an SMTU2032 surface-mount holder through a DMG2305 P-channel MOSFET, with a push switch. The attendee variant adds a BAT54C diode network that resets the counter at power-up. The outline is a 100.4 x 63.8 mm cassette with a top-centre lanyard hole, the LEDs and power switch sit on the front, and the remaining parts sit inside the back artwork. The writeup says PCBWay fabricated the boards, UV-printed the front and back artwork, and sourced and assembled the units. No production count or photo is published.

Software & Apps

There is no firmware: the LED patterns are fixed by the oscillator, flip-flop, and counter wiring, with the volunteer board stepping in the reverse direction to look like rewinding. The software-free puzzle is the back artwork, where Hack The Planet was encrypted with a Vigenère cipher keyed ClevelandBsides, then ROT13, then reversed; the writeup says the key is printed on the badge itself.

Lore

BSides Cleveland 2026 took place on September 26, 2026 at Case Western Reserve University's Tinkham Veale University Center, and the official conference page now marks it Completed. The writeup by the designer, Anthony G., explains that the brief was a cassette front with creative back artwork, separate volunteer and attendee badges, and playful LEDs, chosen for runtime and production cost, and states that ChatGPT generated the back artwork from supplied concept art. The files were pushed to the BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 repository on October 6, 2026.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge puzzle designer-documented easter egg

Hack The Planet artwork cipher

A message hidden in the back artwork was encrypted with a Vigenère cipher keyed ClevelandBsides, then ROT13, then reversed, with spaces kept between words; the key is on the badge itself, and the writeup's spoiler gives the plaintext as Hack The Planet.

Compatibility: BSides Cleveland 2026 Cassette Badge artwork

Source

role variants organizer design files

Attendee play and volunteer rewind variants

Two 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.

Compatibility: BSides Cleveland 2026 attendee and volunteer badges

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

AI-generated artwork disclosure note

The designer writeup states that ChatGPT generated the back artwork, seeded with supplied concept art, before the steganographic message was added.

The disclosure is recorded as design provenance; it is a further reason not to treat any rendering of the artwork as a documentary badge image.

Confidence: designer writeup
Status: documented design provenance
Timeframe: 2026 badge design
Source note: BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 badge_writeup.txt.

distribution and quantity gap note

The writeup says PCBWay fabricated, printed, and assembled the units and the official page marks the event completed, but no source states how many attendee or volunteer badges were made, whether every attendee received one, or whether the files are the exact production revision.

The record treats the badge as a real event artifact without asserting attendee-wide allocation or a unit count.

Confidence: organizer repository and official event page
Status: design and fabrication documented; handoff unpublished
Timeframe: post-event as of 2026-10-15
Source note: BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 writeup and the BSidesCLE 2026 conference page, checked 2026-10-15.

missing rights-cleared image note

No BSides Cleveland 2026 badge image is published. The CC0 repository contains KiCad design files but no photograph or official raster render of the finished badge, and no other rights-cleared photo was found.

The entry stays image-free rather than rendering the KiCad artwork or copying event photos.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy; BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 repository.

Resources

Attendee badge schematic schematic · KiCad schematic for the attendee play variant with the 74AUP1G14 oscillator, 74AUP1G74 flip-flop, 74HC4017 counter, BAT54C power-up reset network, LEDs, MOSFET, switch, and CR2032 holder. BSides Cleveland 2026 badge writeup designer writeup · Designer Anthony G.'s notes on the cassette brief, the play and rewind LED patterns, the logic parts, all-SMD construction, UV-printed artwork, PCBWay fabrication and assembly, ChatGPT-generated back artwork, and the easter-egg hints with spoiler. BSides Cleveland 2026 conference page official event page · Official conference page for September 26, 2026 at the Tinkham Veale University Center, Case Western Reserve University. The October 15, 2026 check found it marked Completed with Tickets Closed and the line Thanks to everyone who spoke, sponsored, volunteered, and attended BSidesCLE 2026. See you next year! It does not mention the badge. BSides Cleveland 2026 on Sessionize official call for sessions · Organizer call-for-sessions listing giving the 26 Sep 2026 date, the CWRU venue, and the BSides Cleveland Board of Directors as organizer. BSidesCLE/Badge-2026 official badge repository · Repository in the BSidesCLE organization, created August 20, 2026 and filled on October 6, 2026 with the attendee and volunteer KiCad projects, custom footprints for the cassette outline, LED rings, and lanyard holes, component libraries, and the designer writeup. Badge-2026 licence license · CC0 1.0 Universal dedication covering the repository's design files and writeup. It does not provide a badge photograph, so no image is published. Volunteer badge schematic schematic · KiCad schematic for the volunteer rewind variant, sharing the oscillator, flip-flop, and counter design without the attendee BAT54C reset network.

Sources

Anthony G. / BSidesCLE GitHub: Making a event badge Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary designer source for the two variants and their play and rewind patterns, the counter, flip-flop, and timer parts, the coin-cell power choice, all-SMD construction, UV silkscreen front and back, PCBWay fabrication and assembly, the ChatGPT-generated back artwork, and the Vigenère, ROT13, and reversal easter egg. BSides Cleveland / Sessionize: BSides Cleveland 2026 call for sessions Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Organizer-maintained listing corroborating the date, venue, and organizer. Security BSides Cleveland: BSidesCLE 2026 Conference Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary official source for the September 26, 2026 date, the CWRU Tinkham Veale University Center venue, and the post-event Completed status and thank-you that mark the edition completed. It does not mention the badge. Security BSides Cleveland / GitHub: Badge-2026 Retrieved 2026-10-15 · Primary organizer artifact source describing itself as assets and resources related to our 2026 conference badge, with the CC0 attendee and volunteer KiCad designs pushed October 6, 2026. It does not state a production count or describe distribution.