PCBWay
Badge Pirates identifies PCBWay as the full-assembly vendor for the 250 BSidesKC 2025 ESP32 touchscreen badges.
SourceBSidesKC 2025 · United States · 2025
BSidesKC 2025 Badge
Badge Pirates ESP32-S3 touchscreen conference badge with a later firmware path
The BSidesKC 2025 badge was a Badge Pirates fully electronic conference badge documented through public production and fulfillment updates: 250 fully assembled ESP32 touchscreen badges from PCBWay with 3.2 inch touch screens, Wi-Fi, SD card slots, customs delays, tariff impact, and post-event pickup or shipping handling. A current maker-hosted flasher identifies its target as ESP32-S3, while a 2026 Badge Pirates announcement says the delayed 2025 hardware, not a new board, received a Lunar Lander contest continuation for BSidesKC's Ad Astra programme.
EventBSidesKC 2025
SeriesBSidesKC
LocationKansas City, Missouri
CountryUnited States
People
Authors & Credits
Badge Pirates
Badge Pirates published the BSidesKC 2025 tariff and shipping updates used for the badge's hardware, production, customs, and fulfillment evidence.
SourceBSides Global
BSides Global lists BSidesKC as an April 25-26, 2025 Kansas City, USA event.
SourceWhy It Mattered
It extends the Kansas City Security BSides lineage beyond the rights-cleared 2019 badge with a later regional-con production run whose public trail captures modern small-batch badge manufacturing, international assembly logistics, customs classification, tariff exposure, attendee fulfillment accountability, and a carefully bounded cross-year firmware continuation.
Hardware
The 2025 batch is 250 fully electronic badges built around an ESP32, with 3.2 inch touch screens, Wi-Fi, SD card slots, and full PCBWay assembly, per Badge Pirates. The maker-hosted BSidesKC 25 flash manifest identifies an ESP32-S3 chip-family target; it does not identify the exact module, board revision, power design, schematic, BOM, Gerbers, enclosure, or a source-to-unit mapping.
Software & Apps
Badge Pirates' current browser flasher offers a selectable BSidesKC 25 entry and a version 1.0.0 manifest with ESP32-S3 bootloader, partition, and firmware binaries. Its 2026 announcement says a Lunar Lander contest was ported to the prior badge and asks owners to bring it, expressly saying there was no new hardware. No public source code, changelog, signed-release provenance, challenge walkthrough, scoreboard, or source proving which binary ran at the 2026 event was recovered.
Lore
Badge Pirates first posted a 2025 shipping update saying the badges were still held at U.S. Customs, then published a tariff writeup after receiving most of the shipment. The later production note records customs scrutiny, opened packaging, and roughly $1,000 in tariffs on a roughly $5,000 order. In 2026 the maker said the delayed badge was finally getting the conference it missed through an Ad Astra Lunar Lander continuation, but this record does not turn that reuse statement into a new physical 2026 badge.
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
cross-year firmware programme
maker-announced; no new hardware
2026 Ad Astra Lunar Lander continuation
Badge Pirates said it ported a Lunar Lander contest to last year's BSidesKC badge for the April 2026 Ad Astra programme, told owners to bring that badge, and expressly said there was no new hardware. The announcement does not prove an individual badge was reflashed or used at the event.
Source
firmware delivery
current binary manifest
Maker-hosted ESP32-S3 browser flash path
Badge Pirates' selectable BSidesKC 25 manifest names version 1.0.0 and an ESP32-S3 bootloader, partition, and firmware-binary path for browser flashing. It does not publish source code, a signed release, or a mapping to the 2026 Lunar Lander continuation.
Source
fulfillment process
badge-maker documented
Pickup or shipping fulfillment path
The Badge Pirates shipping update says badge purchasers would be emailed after customs clearance and could choose pickup at later events or mailed delivery.
Source
production batch
badge-maker documented
250 fully assembled ESP32 badges
Badge Pirates documents a batch of 250 fully electronic badges built around ESP32 boards with touch screens, Wi-Fi, and SD card slots.
Source
production constraint
badge-maker documented
Tariff and customs production lesson
The tariff writeup records customs scrutiny, opened packaging, delayed delivery, and roughly a 20 percent tariff hit on the production order.
SourceOperational history
Issues & Camp Impact
fulfillment and cross-year use caveat
note
Badge Pirates said the badges were held at U.S. Customs after the 2025 event and that purchasers would be contacted for pickup or shipping once they cleared. Its later announcement says last year's badge was finally getting the conference it missed, but does not report how many prior owners received, reflashed, brought, or used the hardware at BSidesKC 2026.
The record presents real delivery friction and the announced later programme without implying frictionless 2025 distribution or universal 2026 participation.
- Confidence
- badge-maker fulfillment and continuation updates
- Status
- documented; actual 2026 deployment unconfirmed
- Timeframe
- 2025 delivery period and 2026 continuation announcement
- Source note
- Badge Pirates BSidesKC 2025 shipping update, tariff writeup, and 2026 Ad Astra update.
missing rights-cleared image
note
No BSidesKC 2025 badge image is published because the recovered Badge Pirates production, continuation, and firmware-delivery pages expose no reusable physical badge photo or full upstream raster render with complete license, attribution, source URL, and processing provenance.
The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying blog art, firmware-page imagery, screenshots, social photos, or generated approximations.
- Confidence
- local project policy
- Status
- needs licensed original replacement
- Timeframe
- current catalogue build
- Source note
- badge.gallery image policy and Badge Pirates BSidesKC 2025/2026 source trail.
technical-source gap
note
The public sources prove an ESP32 touchscreen badge batch with Wi-Fi, SD card slots, PCBWay assembly, customs/tariff logistics, and a selectable ESP32-S3 binary manifest. They still do not recover a schematic, BOM, Gerbers, source code, changelog, signed release, challenge files, battery details, full component placement record, or source-to-event deployment mapping.
The catalogue records the verified chip-family flashing target and maker-announced continuation while avoiding unsupported board, firmware-source, challenge, and production claims.
- Confidence
- badge-maker production and binary-delivery sources with limited archive depth
- Status
- binary delivery documented; needs schematic, BOM, source, and deployment recovery
- Timeframe
- refreshed 2026-08-05
- Source note
- Badge Pirates tariff/shipping updates, public 2026 Ad Astra update, and BSidesKC 25 flash manifest.
Resources
BSidesKC 2025 BSides Global listing
event metadata · BSides Global event listing for the April 25-26, 2025 BSidesKC event tagged Kansas City and USA.
BSidesKC 2025 badge shipping update
fulfillment update · Badge Pirates update documenting BSidesKC 2025 badge orders, U.S. Customs hold status, and planned pickup or shipping choices for badge purchasers.
BSidesKC 2025 tariff writeup
badge-maker production writeup · Badge Pirates production source documenting 250 fully assembled ESP32 electronic badges from PCBWay with 3.2 inch touch screens, Wi-Fi, SD card slots, customs scrutiny, and tariff impact.
BSidesKC 2026 official event page
official cross-year event context · Official source for the April 25, 2026 Kansas City Kansas Community College event named in the later continuation context; it does not map an individual 2025 hardware unit to the event.
BSidesKC 25 ESP32-S3 flash manifest
firmware manifest · Machine-readable maker-hosted manifest identifying BSidesKC 2025 version 1.0.0 as an ESP32-S3 target with bootloader, partition, and firmware binary paths; it is binary delivery evidence, not public source code or a dated event-deployment record.
Badge Pirates 2026 Ad Astra update
badge-maker continuation update · Badge Pirates' public update says the delayed prior-year badge received a Lunar Lander contest port for BSidesKC 2026, instructs owners to bring it, and expressly says there was no new hardware.
Badge Pirates firmware flasher
firmware delivery · Maker-hosted browser flasher with a selectable BSidesKC 25 entry and USB delivery path. It does not identify its presented firmware as the 2026 Ad Astra build.
Sources
BSides Global: BSidesKC
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Event source for the April 25-26, 2025 Kansas City, USA BSidesKC listing.
BSidesKC: BSidesKC 2026
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Official source for the April 25, 2026 event context referenced by the maker's prior-badge continuation update; it does not independently confirm actual reflashing or participant use of a 2025 unit.
Badge Pirates: Bsideskc badge shipping update
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary fulfillment source for BSidesKC 2025 badge orders, customs hold status, and pickup or shipping plan.
Badge Pirates: BSidesKC Tariff Woahs
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary production source for the 250 fully assembled ESP32 badges, 3.2 inch touch screens, Wi-Fi, SD card slots, PCBWay assembly, customs inspection, and tariff impact.
Badge Pirates: Badge Pirates BSidesKC 2026 Ad Astra update
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Clearly attributable badge-maker update saying a Lunar Lander contest was ported to last year's BSidesKC badge for 2026, with no new hardware.
Badge Pirates: BSidesKC 25 flash manifest
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Maker-hosted version 1.0.0 manifest for the selectable BSidesKC 25 browser-flasher target, identifying an ESP32-S3 chip-family build and binary components. It does not name an Ad Astra release or publish source code.