CactusCon 11 · United States · 2023

CactusCon 11 Badge

Badge Pirates ESP32-S2 home-automation badge

The CactusCon 11 badge was an ESP32-S2 WROOM electronic conference badge by Badge Pirates and the CactusCon team, built around the event's Nightmare House theme, IoT interaction, LEDs, buttons, optional OLED support, GPIO expansion, and USB serial access.

CactusCon United States Arizona Mesa Badge Pirates ESP32-S2 WROOM WiFi NeoPixel CH340N GPIO North America

EventCactusCon 11

SeriesCactusCon

LocationMesa Convention Center, Mesa, Arizona

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

badge PCB fabrication

PCBWay

Badge Pirates states the CactusCon 11 badge PCBs were made by PCBWay before Badge Pirates lab assembly, testing, and initial programming.

Source

badge design, build, and writeup publisher

Badge Pirates

The Badge Pirates writeup documents the CactusCon 11 badge hardware, theme, production workflow, and caveats.

Source

event and badge collaborator

CactusCon

Official publisher for the CactusCon 11 event context; the badge-maker writeup describes the badge as a CactusCon team and Badge Pirates collaboration.

Source

Why It Mattered

It adds Arizona's largest hacker and security conference to the North American badge map with a badge that bridged event identity, home-automation theming, hardware-hacking village expansion, and take-home IoT experimentation.

Hardware

Badge Pirates documents an Espressif ESP32-S2 WROOM microcontroller with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, two reverse-mount RGB LEDs for top windows, three individually addressable RGB NeoPixels, one reverse-mount red LED for the drone detail, five input buttons, optional OLED support, remaining GPIO pinouts, an onboard CH340N USB-to-serial chip, and a separate development board available at the Hardware Hacking Village.

Software & Apps

The public badge-maker writeup documents USB serial access, direct UART/JTAG possibilities, and wireless firmware-pull behavior used during the conference, but it also says the CactusCon crew's deeper software writeup would come later. This catalogue record therefore avoids claiming a public firmware repository, challenge code, or complete on-site infrastructure details.

Lore

The Badge Pirates article describes the badge as a joint CactusCon and Badge Pirates effort split across artwork, hardware, and software, with PCBWay fabrication, lab assembly/testing/programming, a Nightmare House theme, and production constraints handled before the Mesa event.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge interface source-backed

RGB LEDs, NeoPixels, red drone LED, and five buttons

The hardware writeup documents two reverse-mount RGB LEDs, three individually addressable RGB NeoPixels, one reverse-mount red LED, and five input buttons.

Compatibility: CactusCon 11 Badge

Source

event theme interaction historical

Nightmare House IoT platform

The badge was designed around CactusCon 11's Nightmare House theme and home-automation interaction rather than a generic blinky-only board.

Compatibility: CactusCon 11 Badge

Source

firmware workflow source-backed

CH340N USB serial and wireless firmware path

The badge writeup documents onboard CH340N USB serial access plus wireless firmware-pull behavior used during the conference.

Compatibility: CactusCon 11 Badge

Source

hardware architecture source-backed

ESP32-S2 WROOM badge core

Badge Pirates identifies the central controller as an Espressif ESP32-S2 WROOM with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi for the badge's IoT behavior.

Compatibility: CactusCon 11 Badge

Source

hardware expansion source-backed

GPIO pinouts and Hardware Hacking Village development board

Remaining GPIO pins were broken out, and a separate development board was available at the Hardware Hacking Village for extra components or functions.

Compatibility: CactusCon 11 Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No CactusCon 11 badge image is published because the available official and badge-maker page imagery has not been paired with complete source URL, license or permission basis, attribution, and processing notes.

The entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying blog or event imagery without a clear catalogue reuse basis.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, CactusCon event pages, and Badge Pirates CactusCon 11 badge writeup.

production supply-chain caveat note

Badge Pirates says the badge encountered supply-chain issues, but that PCBWay fabrication plus lab assembly, testing, and initial programming still reached the event.

The record preserves production reality without overstating it into a failure or delivery controversy.

Confidence: badge-maker writeup
Status: historical
Timeframe: pre-event badge production
Source note: Badge Pirates CactusCon 11 Badge writeup.

software-source caveat note

The badge-maker writeup says the CactusCon crew planned a software-side writeup and hints at event wireless infrastructure, but this pass did not recover a public firmware repository, complete challenge source, or software architecture note.

The catalogue records verified hardware and firmware-access surfaces while avoiding unsupported claims about the badge's full event game or OTA backend.

Confidence: badge-maker writeup
Status: needs software archive recovery
Timeframe: current CactusCon 11 pass
Source note: Badge Pirates CactusCon 11 Badge writeup.

Resources

Badge Pirates badge-maker site · Badge-maker organization context for the CactusCon 11 badge record. CactusCon 11 Badge writeup badge-maker writeup · Badge Pirates source for ESP32-S2 WROOM hardware, LEDs, buttons, optional OLED, GPIO, CH340N USB serial, wireless firmware behavior, production notes, and image-rights boundary. CactusCon 11 InfoconDB record event metadata · InfoconDB source for dates, Mesa Convention Center location, free general admission, and schedule metadata. CactusCon 11 overview official event page · Official event source for the January 27-28, 2023 Mesa Convention Center CactusCon 11 context.

Sources

Badge Pirates: CactusCon 11 Badge (2023) Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Badge-maker technical source for the ESP32-S2 WROOM controller, Wi-Fi, LED/button/OLED/GPIO surfaces, CH340N serial path, wireless firmware behavior, PCBWay production, and supply-chain caveat. CactusCon: CactusCon 11 Overview Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Official event source for the Mesa Convention Center edition, dates, in-person/streaming framing, and CactusCon Kids context. InfoconDB: CactusCon 11 (2023) Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Event metadata corroboration for CactusCon 11 dates, venue, and official page links.