Hackaday Supercon 2019 · United States · 2019

Hackaday Supercon 2019 FPGA Badge

ECP5 RISC-V badge in a Game Boy form factor

The 2019 Hackaday Superconference badge put a Lattice ECP5 FPGA, RISC-V soft-core SoC, color LCD, eight buttons, cartridge slot, HDMI, SAO headers, PMOD footprint, and mass-storage app workflow into a Game Boy-like handheld.

Hackaday Supercon United States ECP5 FPGA RISC-V Game Boy Form Factor Cartridge HDMI SAO North America

EventHackaday Supercon 2019

SeriesHackaday Superconference

LocationSupplyframe DesignLab and Los Angeles College of Music, Pasadena, California

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

ECP5 toolchain package maintainer

Sean Cross / xobs

Hackaday.io points badge hackers to Sean Cross's packaged open-source ECP5 toolchain for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Source

badge hardware and software designer

Jeroen Domburg / Sprite_TM

Hackaday.io identifies Jeroen Domburg / Sprite_TM as the hardware and software designer for the 2019 badge.

Source

badge reveal author and team member

Mike Szczys

Author of the Hackaday reveal article and listed team member on the Hackaday.io badge project.

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badge-hacking ceremony reporter

Roger Cheng

Author of the Hackaday post-event story used for ceremony, cartridge, software, and Linux-on-badge context.

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behind-the-scenes reporter

Tom Nardi

Author of the Hackaday production-context story used for late-stage assembly and distribution details.

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event and badge publisher

Hackaday

Hackaday published the event page, badge project, reveal, production story, hack roundup, and public repository links.

Source

Why It Mattered

It pushed open-source FPGA tooling into mainstream badge culture: attendees could hack C apps, Verilog, the IPL, custom cartridges, HDMI output, memory expansion, and even Linux-on-badge experiments instead of treating the badge as a fixed microcontroller board.

Hardware

Official project notes document an ECP5 LFE5U-45F FPGA with 45k LUTs, two Lyontek LY68L6400 64 Mbit SRAM chips, Winbond W25Q128JVSIQ 128 Mbit NOR flash, 480x320 color LCD, eight user buttons, 40-pin cartridge slot with flash-backed prototyping cartridges, MicroUSB, HDMI, two SAO v1.69bis X-treme headers, a PMOD footprint, IRDA module, mono-audio solder point, and AA battery power.

Software & Apps

The public SoC repository contains gateware, boot and IPL code, SDK material, example apps, USB mass-storage file loading, PicoRV32, HDMI, audio, USB, cache, framebuffer, and a PIC16F84 soft core for LED driving. Hackaday.io also points attendees to ECP5 toolchains, DFU flashing paths, and FPGA badge workshops.

Lore

Sprite_TM designed the badge with a large Hackaday team helping stabilize the toolchain, workshops, stock apps, and event firmware. Post-event reporting highlighted custom cartridges, enclosures, software demos, and a Linux-on-badge build using a 32 MiB SDRAM cartridge.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

event challenge historical

Badge-hacking ceremony projects

Post-event coverage records custom cartridges, enclosures, C demos, color-palette animation, splash screens, and a Linux-on-badge SDRAM cartridge project shown through the ceremony and hack list.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2019 FPGA Badge

Source

gateware/software workflow archived

FPGA SoC and IPL hacking

The public repository lets badge hackers modify the FPGA SoC, bootloader, Initial Program Loader, SDK, example apps, and peripheral blocks instead of only writing firmware on a fixed MCU.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2019 FPGA Badge

Source

hardware expansion source-backed

Flash-backed cartridge ecosystem

The 40-pin cartridge slot and prototype cartridges with onboard flash let attendees build removable hardware and software modules for the badge.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2019 FPGA Badge

Source

hardware source archived

CC BY-SA hardware artwork

The PCB repository publishes hardware artwork and errata under a CC BY-SA 3.0 statement attributed to Sprite_tm / Jeroen Domburg.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2019 FPGA Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

hardware-errata caveat note

The PCB repository documents practical hardware quirks including swapped SAO signal names/silkscreen, an oscillator routing caveat for Lattice Diamond, larger-than-intended buttons, and intentional lack of USB power operation.

The badge is a serious open FPGA platform, but catalogue readers should not treat the public PCB as a frictionless reference design without reading the errata.

Confidence: primary repository
Status: documented
Timeframe: current Supercon 2019 pass
Source note: Spritetm/hadbadge2019_pcb README and Hackaday.io hardware overview.

missing rights-cleared image note

No local Supercon 2019 badge photo has been added because article images and project images have not been paired with complete reuse rights, attribution, original-source URL, and processing notes.

The entry remains image-free rather than copying Hackaday article photos, Hackaday.io images, or repository assets without a complete image provenance record.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, Hackaday article images, Hackaday.io project images, and GitHub repository assets.

Resources

2019 Supercon FPGA badge project project page · Official Hackaday.io project page for ECP5 FPGA, Game Boy form factor, buttons, display, cartridge adapter, flash-backed cartridges, toolchain setup, and hardware overview. 2019 Supercon PCB repository hardware source · Public PCB artwork repository with hardware errata and CC BY-SA 3.0 hardware-license statement. 2019 Supercon SoC repository source · Public gateware, IPL, bootloader, SDK, example apps, USB mass-storage, HDMI, audio, PIC soft-core, and app-development repository. 2019 Supercon badge hacks article · Post-event Hackaday source for badge-hacking ceremony results, custom cartridges, software demos, and Linux-on-badge with SDRAM cartridge context. 2019 Supercon badge hacks list community archive · Hackaday.io list preserving enclosure and SDRAM-cartridge hack projects for the 2019 FPGA badge. 2019 Supercon badge reveal article · Hackaday reveal article for RISC-V soft core, open FPGA tooling, Jeroen Domburg / Sprite_TM design credit, and 500-plus attendee badge production context. Behind the scenes of the 2019 badge article · Hackaday source for last-minute production, volunteer/team effort, distribution timing, and manufacturing context. Supercon 2019 event chat event page · Hackaday.io event source for the Pasadena, CA, November 15-17, 2019 Superconference dates and badge-hacking community setup. Supercon 2019 press release event page · Hackaday press source for fifth annual Superconference context, Supplyframe DesignLab and Los Angeles College of Music venues, dates, workshops, badge hacking, talks, and demos.

Sources