Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts
Flickr identifies Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts as the author/account for the DEF CON 14 badge photo and publishes it under CC BY-NC 2.0.
SourceDEF CON 14 · United States · 2006
DEF CON 14 Badge
First official DEF CON electronic badge
A Joe Grand-designed skull-shaped PCB badge for DEF CON 14, built around active electronics, open hackable circuitry, two blue LEDs, one button, seven soldermask role variants, and an official badge-hacking contest.
EventDEF CON 14
SeriesDEF CON
LocationLas Vegas, Nevada
CountryUnited States
Image Provenance
- Asset
- optimized WebP from Flickr documentary photo
- Status
- licensed original photo
- Source
- DefCon 14 2006
- License
- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic
- Attribution
- Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts, Flickr
- Notes
- Original 1024x768 Flickr photo downloaded from the photo page's static Flickr image URL and preserved in Public/images/source. The published WebP delivery asset is metadata-stripped, kept at source dimensions, and otherwise kept as the real CC BY-NC 2.0 documentary photo. The Flickr title identifies the image as DefCon 14 2006 and the page caption notes the badge eyes blink in different patterns; this is not generated content or a placeholder. The published badge.gallery delivery file is an optimized WebP generated from the rights-cleared local derivative/source with metadata stripped, WebP quality 82, and a maximum side cap of 1600 pixels when the source is larger; upstream source URL, license, and attribution remain unchanged.
People
Authors & Credits
Grand Idea Studio
Publisher of the primary project page, schematics, BOM, slides, paper, test procedure, and source-code links.
SourceJoe Grand / Kingpin
Grand Idea Studio documents Joe Grand's DEF CON 14 badge design and linked source materials.
SourceScott Scheferman / Shagghie
Creator of the Event Generator Ghoul synthesizer hack described on the project page.
SourceWhy It Mattered
It is a North American root record for modern badgelife: the official DEF CON badge became a circuit board attendees were expected to modify, document, contest, and keep hacking.
Hardware
Grand Idea Studio documents a Microchip PIC10F202 6-pin microcontroller, two 10 mm blue LEDs, a momentary pushbutton, battery power, DEF CON-logo PCB art, seven soldermask colors for attendee roles, and a production target above 6,000 units under a tight per-unit cost.
Software & Apps
The public documentation links source code for the PIC10F202 implementation, plus schematic, BOM, assembly drawings, test procedure, paper, and slides. The firmware exposed LED states for steady, blinking, alternating, pseudo-random, and sleep behavior.
Lore
The badge-hacking contest winner, Event Generator Ghoul, used badge LED behavior as event generators for an analog synthesizer, and other hacks included TV remote behavior, multicolor LED work, flame effects, and Morse-code firmware.
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
event challenge
historical
DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest
Grand Idea Studio hosted a badge-hacking contest for obscure or mischievous badge hacks, including synthesizer control, TV-B-Goon, multicolor LEDs, flame effects, and Morse-code firmware.
Source
hardware hack
historical
Event Generator Ghoul
The winning contest entry connected badge LED behavior through a stereo plug into an analog synthesizer as event generators and added piezo debug output.
SourceOperational history
Issues & Camp Impact
historical naming
note
Primary designer materials use DEFCON while current event branding is commonly written DEF CON.
The compendium uses DEF CON for the series and event but preserves DEFCON in source titles where that is the original title.
- Confidence
- primary designer source
- Status
- documented
- Timeframe
- 2006 and later histories
- Source note
- Grand Idea Studio DEFCON 14 materials and current DEF CON naming.
image provenance
note
The DEF CON 14 image uses Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts' Flickr documentary photo of the badge under CC BY-NC 2.0.
The entry now has a real rights-cleared documentary photo without copying Grand Idea Studio's all-rights-reserved project-page images, generated art, or placeholders.
- Confidence
- Flickr license metadata
- Status
- licensed original replacement applied
- Timeframe
- current catalogue build
- Source note
- Flickr photo page for DefCon 14 2006 and badge.gallery image policy.
Resources
Badgelife history
article · VICE/Motherboard history placing the DEF CON 14 badge in the origin story of DEF CON badgelife.
DEF CON 14 Flickr badge photo
licensed photo · Flickr source for Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts' CC BY-NC 2.0 documentary photo titled DefCon 14 2006.
DEFCON 14 badge project page
project page · Primary designer page with hardware, production, role-color, contest, documentation, source-code, and hack details.
DEFCON 14 badge slides
slides · Joe Grand's DEF CON 14 slide deck covering badge conception, specification, PIC firmware, production, and contest context.
Sources
Flickr: DefCon 14 2006
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · CC BY-NC 2.0 original photo source by Eliot Phillips / RobotSkirts showing the DEF CON 14 badge; used for image provenance, not as a hardware-spec source.
Grand Idea Studio: DEFCON 14 Badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary source for first-DEF CON-electronic-badge claim, PIC10F202 hardware, LED modes, production quantity, role-color variants, and contest lore.
Grand Idea Studio: Behind the Scenes of the DEFCON Badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary slide source for specifications, 6,055-unit quantity, cost target, feature set, firmware states, and production process.
VICE / Motherboard: A History of Badgelife, Def Con's Unlikely Obsession with Artistic Circuit Boards
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary history source for DEF CON 14 as the first electronic badge and the broader badgelife context.