Hacker Con Badges

BSidesDFW 2026 · United States · 2026

BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge

Attendee-built ESP32-C6 Super Mini badge with 13 SK6812 LEDs and a badge mesh network

The BSidesDFW 2026 badge for the completed November 7, 2026 conference at the University of Texas at Arlington. The official sessions page invites attendees to build their badge in the Hardware Hacking Village and then figure out what it does, says it forms a mesh network with other badges, teases that somehow a MIDI keyboard is involved, and says it needs power from a USB-C device such as a phone or power bank, with a USB-C cable supplied. Designer Malcolm Galland published the KiCad design and Gerbers the night before the event as version 1.0, as manufactured for the con: an ESP32-C6 Super Mini module with 13 SK6812MINI-E RGB LEDs. The day after the event, the firmware followed in a separate repository that builds the badge mesh on Thread through OpenThread.

BSidesDFW BSides United States Texas Arlington Electronic Badge ESP32-C6 ESP32-C6 Super Mini SK6812 RGB LEDs Mesh Network Thread OpenThread ESP-IDF USB-C Power KiCad Gerbers Hardware Hacking Village Attendee Build North America No Image
EventBSidesDFW 2026
SeriesBSidesDFW
LocationNedderman Hall, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas
CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

badge designer and Hardware Hacking Village lead

Malcolm Galland

The README and PCB silkscreen credit Malcolm Galland with the badge design. The official sessions page lists him as presenter of the Hardware Hacking Village and the badge talk, and as President of Digital Demolitions.

Source

badge firmware

Robert Fontenot

The PCB silkscreen credits the firmware to Robert Fontenot. The firmware repository published on November 8 belongs to the account wobbol, credited separately.

Source

designer's company

Digital Demolitions

The PCB silkscreen carries DigitalDemolitions.com and the tagline We break your hardware before someone else does, and the sessions page names Malcolm Galland as its President.

Source

firmware repository author

wobbol (N. Fontenot)

Author of every commit in the BSides Dallas 2026 badge firmware repository; the GitHub profile name is N. Fontenot. Not asserted to be the same person as the Robert Fontenot named on the silkscreen.

Source

Why It Mattered

It adds a first Dallas-Fort Worth BSides badge to the catalogue, with official village and talk listings and the designer's as-ordered production files published before the doors opened, and a firmware repository published the day after that shows how the mesh teaser was built, though the MIDI teaser stays unexplained.

Hardware

The designer's BOM lists an ESP32-C6 Super Mini module (U1, no LCSC part number), 13 reverse-mount SK6812MINI-E RGB LEDs (D1-D13), 13 1 uF capacitors, and one 330 Ohm resistor. The schematic has separate WSLED_ONBOARD and WSLED_STRING LED nets. The PCB silkscreen lists solder jumpers JP1 (5 V for the LEDs), JP2 (3.3 V for the LEDs), and JP3 (remap the onboard LED), with JP4 to JP6 marked ???. The repository holds the KiCad 10 project, Gerbers, drill files, BOM, and placement file, with metro-themed custom footprints for the board art. No battery is listed, and the official page says the badge must be powered from a USB-C device.

Software & Apps

The firmware repository wobbol/bsides_badge_2026, published November 8, 2026 and titled BSides Dallas 2026 badge firmware, is ESP-IDF v6.0.1 C code for the ESP32-C6. It runs OpenThread on the native 802.15.4 radio as a Full Thread Device on channel 15 with the OpenThread command-line shell, and badges exchange link-secured UDP messages on port 1337 that set the 13 RGB LEDs, set GPIO LED brightness, start an animation, or ping. Console commands led and attract send LED states to another badge and flash a green pattern, and pins GPIO0 to GPIO2 pulled low at boot set hacker, ruser, and oper flags, of which hacker scrambles the LED colours. The source has no MIDI code. The repository's v0.0.16 release, named Conference version and published November 8, 2026, tags commit 2e13a16 of October 13, 2026 and says it is the code that ran on the badges at the 2026 Dallas BSides conference; it ships source archives only, no binaries. The PCB silkscreen credits Robert Fontenot with the firmware.

Lore

BSidesDFW 2026 is a free one-day conference at Nedderman Hall, University of Texas at Arlington. The Hardware Hacking Village in Room 111 runs from 08:15 to 16:45, and Malcolm Galland's 14:00 talk on Track 0x01, How I built the badge you're (hopefully) playing with currently, filled a last-minute cancellation and was written the night before. The village blurb asks how we can take down capitalism without organization. The PCB silkscreen credits badge design to Malcolm Galland, art to Olivia Fisher, and firmware to Robert Fontenot, and carries the Digital Demolitions tagline We break your hardware before someone else does.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

attendee build session scheduled November 7, 2026; event completed

Hardware Hacking Village badge build

The official sessions page invites attendees to come build their badge for BSidesDFW in the Hardware Hacking Village, Room 111, from 08:15 to 16:45, and then figure out what it does.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge.

Source
badge firmware feature documented in firmware repository

OpenThread LED messaging

The firmware joins badges into an OpenThread network on the ESP32-C6's 802.15.4 radio and listens on UDP port 1337 for messages that set the 13 RGB LEDs, set GPIO LED brightness, start an animation, or ping. From the serial console, led sends an LED state to another badge's address and attract flashes an alternating green pattern.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge with the wobbol/bsides_badge_2026 firmware.

Source
badge talk scheduled November 7, 2026

How I built the badge talk

Malcolm Galland's 14:00 talk on Track 0x01 gives a behind-the-scenes look at the compromises, revisions, and hardware design of the badge. The abstract says it was written the night before to fill a last-minute cancellation.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 programme.

Source
hardware configuration documented on the PCB silkscreen

LED voltage and remap solder jumpers

The PCB silkscreen lists JP1 to run the LEDs from 5 V, JP2 to run them from 3.3 V, and JP3 to remap the onboard LED. JP4 to JP6 are marked ???.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge version 1.0 PCB.

Source
hidden firmware mode documented in firmware source

Boot-strap role pins

Pulling GPIO0, GPIO1, or GPIO2 low at boot sets hacker, ruser, or oper flags. In this source only the hacker flag has a visible effect: it XORs random noise into every non-black LED colour.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge with the wobbol/bsides_badge_2026 firmware.

Source
official feature teaser mesh documented in firmware published November 8, 2026; MIDI undocumented

Badge mesh network and MIDI keyboard teaser

The official sessions page says the badge forms a mesh network with other badges and that somehow a MIDI keyboard is involved, and declines to explain how. The firmware published after the event builds the mesh on Thread through OpenThread; it contains no MIDI code, so the MIDI part stays unexplained.

Compatibility: BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge.

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

build and distribution undocumented note

The official home page now reads See you next year, but no reviewed source says how many badges were made, which parts attendees solder themselves (the BOM lists the ESP32-C6 Super Mini without a JLCPCB assembly part), or whether every attendee received one.

The record treats the event as completed without claiming quantities, kit contents, or attendee-wide distribution.

Confidence
official pages
Status
open; event completed November 7, 2026
Timeframe
November 7, 2026
Source note
BSidesDFW 2026 sessions page and the bsidesdfw_2026 README and BOM, retrieved 2026-11-07; BSidesDFW home page, retrieved 2026-11-10.
firmware provenance and MIDI gap note

The firmware went public the day after the event in wobbol/bsides_badge_2026, which names the BSides Dallas 2026 badge and credits collaboration with Malcolm Galland, and implements the mesh as OpenThread UDP messaging. Its v0.0.16 release, named Conference version, tags the newest commit (October 13, 2026) and says it is the code that ran on the badges at the conference; that statement comes from the repository author, not the organizers. It contains no MIDI code. The PCB silkscreen credits firmware to Robert Fontenot and the repository profile reads N. Fontenot; the record does not treat the two as the same person.

The record describes the mesh as Thread through OpenThread from the published source and cites the release as the author's statement of the con build, but does not claim a MIDI interface or the firmware author's identity.

Confidence
official page, designer repository, and post-event firmware repository
Status
partly resolved: conference firmware published November 8, 2026
Timeframe
November 7-12, 2026
Source note
BSidesDFW 2026 sessions page, the bsidesdfw_2026 PCB silkscreen (retrieved 2026-11-07), the wobbol/bsides_badge_2026 README, badge.c, and sdkconfig (retrieved 2026-11-10), and its v0.0.16 release (retrieved 2026-11-12).
missing rights-cleared image note

No BSidesDFW 2026 badge image is published. The repository has no photos or renders and no license, and the official pages show no badge picture.

The record renders without an image until a photo or render with a reusable license or explicit permission, attribution, and processing notes is available.

Confidence
local project policy
Status
needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe
current catalogue build
Source note
BSidesDFW 2026 sessions and schedule pages and the malcolmputer/bsidesdfw_2026 repository, retrieved 2026-11-07.

Resources

BSidesDFW 2026 badge Gerbers fabrication files · As-ordered Gerber and drill files for the badge PCB, which the README says was designed for order and assembly through JLCPCB. BSidesDFW 2026 schedule official event schedule · Official schedule listing the Hardware Hacking Village and the talk How I built the badge you're (hopefully) playing with currently. BSidesDFW 2026 sessions official event programme · Official sessions page with the Hardware Hacking Village build-your-badge blurb (mesh network, MIDI keyboard teaser, USB-C power) and Malcolm Galland's badge talk. bsides_badge_2026 v0.0.16 Conference version firmware release · Maker release published November 8, 2026 that tags commit 2e13a16 (October 13, 2026) and describes it as the code that ran on the badges at the 2026 Dallas BSides conference. It has GitHub's source archives only, no prebuilt firmware. malcolmputer/bsidesdfw_2026 designer hardware repository · Designer repository for the BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge: KiCad 10 project, schematic, PCB, BOM, placement file, custom footprints, and Gerbers, uploaded as version 1.0 as manufactured for the con. GitHub reports no license. wobbol/bsides_badge_2026 badge firmware repository · ESP-IDF v6.0.1 firmware repository titled BSides Dallas 2026 badge firmware, published November 8, 2026 with commit history from July 13 to October 13, 2026. The README credits original idea, testing, and collaborative effort with Malcolm Galland. It builds an OpenThread command-line shell on the ESP32-C6. GitHub reports no license.

Sources

BSidesDFW: Sessions - BSidesDFW 2026 Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Primary official source. The Hardware Hacking Village (08:15-16:45, Room 111, presented by Malcolm Galland) invites attendees to build their badge and figure out what it does, says the badge forms a mesh network with other badges, teases a MIDI keyboard, and says the badge must be powered by a USB-C device, with a USB-C to USB-C cable supplied. The talk How I built the badge you're (hopefully) playing with currently (14:00-14:45, Track 0x01) covers the compromises, revisions, and hardware design. BSidesDFW: Schedule - BSidesDFW 2026 Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Primary official source listing the badge talk and the Hardware Hacking Village by Malcolm Galland. BSidesDFW: Venue - BSidesDFW 2026 Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Primary official source for the return to Nedderman Hall at the University of Texas at Arlington. The home page gives the November 7, 2026 date. BSidesDFW: BSidesDFW home page Retrieved 2026-11-10 · Official home page. After the November 7, 2026 event its Attend step and header button read See you next year instead of a registration link. Used for event completion only; it gives no attendance, badge count, or wrap-up. Malcolm Galland (GitHub): bsidesdfw_2026 README Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Designer source naming the BSidesDFW 2026 Electronic Badge, designed by Malcolm Galland with art by Olivia Fisher (@livtostich), designed in KiCad 10.0 for order and assembly through JLCPCB. The repository API reports no license. Malcolm Galland (GitHub): bsidesdfw_2026 BOM Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Designer BOM: ESP32-C6 Super Mini module without an LCSC part, 13 SK6812MINI-E LEDs, 13 1 uF capacitors, and one 330 Ohm resistor. Malcolm Galland (GitHub): bsidesdfw_2026 KiCad PCB Retrieved 2026-11-07 · Designer PCB whose silkscreen credits badge design to Malcolm Galland, art to Olivia Fisher, and firmware to Robert Fontenot, lists solder jumpers JP1-JP3 for LED voltage and onboard-LED remapping with JP4-JP6 marked ???, and carries the Digital Demolitions tagline. Malcolm Galland (GitHub): bsidesdfw_2026 commit history Retrieved 2026-11-07 · The repository was created at 03:37 UTC on November 7, 2026, and commit c02b8a3 at 03:46 UTC uploads version 1.0, as manufactured for the con, hours before the event day began in Texas. wobbol / N. Fontenot (GitHub): BSides Dallas 2026 badge firmware README Retrieved 2026-11-10 · Firmware source naming the BSides Dallas 2026 badge firmware, crediting the idea, testing, and collaboration to Malcolm Galland, the BSidesDFW badge designer, and giving ESP-IDF v6.0.1 build and flash steps that end in an OpenThread command-line shell. The repository was created November 8, 2026, the day after the event; the newest commit is dated October 13, 2026. The README itself does not say which build was on the badges at the con; the v0.0.16 release does. wobbol / N. Fontenot (GitHub): bsides_badge_2026 release v0.0.16 (Conference version) Retrieved 2026-11-12 · Release created by wobbol at 20:17 UTC and published at 20:20 UTC on November 8, 2026, the day after the event, with target main and tag v0.0.16 on commit 2e13a16 (Hack led_strip_set_pixel and esp_console_repl_t, October 13, 2026), the newest commit in the repository. The release text reads: The code that ran on the badges at the 2026 Dallas Bsides conference. It attaches no binaries. This is the firmware author's own statement; no organizer source confirms it. wobbol / N. Fontenot (GitHub): bsides_badge_2026 main/badge.c Retrieved 2026-11-10 · Firmware source for the mesh behaviour: badges exchange UDP messages on port 1337 over OpenThread with link security, with message types for ping, ten GPIO LED brightness values, colours for 13 RGB LEDs on GPIO7, and starting an animation, plus a plain-text and a base64 input form. Console commands led and attract send LED states to a badge address and flash an alternating green pattern. Pins GPIO0, GPIO1, and GPIO2 pulled low at boot set hacker, ruser, and oper flags; the hacker flag XORs random noise into LED colours. No MIDI code is present. wobbol / N. Fontenot (GitHub): bsides_badge_2026 sdkconfig Retrieved 2026-11-10 · Build configuration targeting the ESP32-C6 with OpenThread enabled on the native IEEE 802.15.4 radio as a Full Thread Device, the OpenThread CLI, channel 15, and the default OpenThread-ESP network name.