Hackaday Supercon 2024 · United States · 2024

Hackaday Supercon 2024 SAO Badge

Six-port Pico W SAO hub

The Supercon 8 official badge used a Raspberry Pi Pico W and six SAO ports as an I2C playground, bundling touchwheel, LED petal matrix, blank protoboard, and CH32V003 I2C proto-petal add-ons with MicroPython examples.

Hackaday Supercon United States SAO Raspberry Pi Pico W MicroPython I2C CH32V003 Badge Contest North America

EventHackaday Supercon 2024

SeriesHackaday Superconference

LocationSupplyframe DesignLab, Pasadena, California

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

CH32fun library author

Charles Lohr

The repository README says the CH32V003 proto-petal workflow piggybacks on Charles Lohr's CH32fun library.

Source

LED petal matrix and schematic contributor

Voja Antonic

Hackaday credits Voja Antonic with the spiral LED petal matrix and hand-drawn circuit diagrams for the Supercon 2024 badge ecosystem.

Source

SAO contest and winner reporter

Tom Nardi

Author of the post-event Hackaday article documenting the Supercon 2024 badge add-on winners and production plan.

Source

badge reveal author and Hackaday editor

Elliot Williams

Author of the Hackaday article used for main badge hardware, SAO, I2C, and MicroPython details.

Source

capacitive touch wheel designer

Todbot

Hackaday credits Todbot with the capacitive touch wheel starter petal.

Source

event, badge, and repository publisher

Hackaday

Hackaday published the Supercon 2024 badge reveal, event pages, contest pages, post-event winner report, and public badge repository.

Source

Why It Mattered

It made the SAO connector itself the main conference badge theme, pushing add-ons from decorative blinky boards toward addressable peripherals, badge-to-add-on software, contest entries, and reusable functional hardware.

Hardware

Hackaday describes a main badge with Raspberry Pi Pico W, six SAO connectors, individually accessible GPIO lines on every slot, two hardware I2C buses split across badge sides, three front buttons, and starter petals for capacitive touch, LED matrix display, blank prototyping, and CH32V003 RISC-V I2C experiments.

Software & Apps

The public repository says the badge runs MicroPython and can be used over serial terminal, Thonny, or VSCode. It documents boot.py and main.py demos, memory-mapped I2C-style interactions, libraries, badge-hacks, software, hardware, and an I2C proto-petal tutorial that uses CH32fun.

Lore

The badge was coupled to the 2024 Supercon Add-On contest: entrants designed functional SAOs before seeing the badge in person, winners were announced at Supercon, and selected designs were planned for Hackaday Europe 2025 distribution.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

bundled add-ons source-backed

Starter petal collection

Hackaday documented four included starter petals: capacitive touch wheel, spiral LED petal matrix, blank protoboard, and CH32V003 I2C microcontroller proto-petal.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2024 SAO Badge

Source

event challenge historical

Functional SAO contest

The Supercon 8 Add On Contest pushed entrants toward functional SAOs using I2C, GPIO, sensors, displays, radios, and other active peripherals.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2024 SAO Badge

Source

firmware workflow archived

MicroPython I2C workflow

The repository README describes MicroPython setup over serial terminal, Thonny, or VSCode, with boot.py/main.py demos and memory-style I2C read/write patterns.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2024 SAO Badge

Source

hardware expansion source-backed

Six-port SAO hub

The main badge exposed six SAO connectors with individually accessible GPIO and split left/right I2C buses for experimenting with add-on peripherals.

Compatibility: Hackaday Supercon 2024 SAO Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No local Supercon 2024 badge photo has been added because article images and repository glamour shots have not been paired with complete reuse rights, attribution, and processing notes.

The entry remains image-free rather than copying Hackaday article images or repository photos 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, and GitHub repository image assets.

repository-license caveat note

The public repository exposes hardware, software, and photo resources, but this pass did not identify a top-level license file that clearly covers image reuse for the catalogue.

The catalogue records technical facts and outbound source links while withholding local images and avoiding license assumptions.

Confidence: source-backed but incomplete
Status: needs license audit before media reuse
Timeframe: current Supercon 2024 pass
Source note: GitHub repository contents API, repository README, and badge.gallery image policy.

Resources

2024 Supercon SAO Badge README source · Raw README source for six-SAO-hub framing, MicroPython workflow, I2C memory-style use, CH32V003 proto-petal workflow, and Super-8 MQTT badge framework note. 2024 Supercon SAO Badge repository source · Public repository for badge-hacks, hardware, resources, software, I2C address notes, and the I2C proto-petal tutorial. 2024 Supercon SAO badge reveal article · Hackaday source for six SAO ports, Raspberry Pi Pico W, GPIO/I2C topology, bundled petals, MicroPython, CH32V003 proto-petal, and contest framing. Supercon 2024 badge add-on winners article · Hackaday post-event source for winning and honorable-mention SAOs, production plan for Hackaday Europe 2025, and functional I2C/NFC/IR/LED add-on context. Supercon 2024 schedule event page · Official Hackaday.io event source for November 1-3, 2024 dates, Supplyframe DesignLab venue, and Pasadena address. Supercon 8 Add On Contest contest page · Hackaday.io contest source for functional SAO challenge rules, deadline, categories, judging, and winner list.

Sources

GitHub: Hack-a-Day/2024-Supercon-8-Add-On-Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Public repository for hardware, software, resources, badge hacks, I2C addresses, and tutorial structure. Hack-a-Day / GitHub: 2024 Supercon 8 -- 2025 Hackaday Europe -- Simple Add-On Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · README source for six-SAO-hub framing, MicroPython setup, memory-style I2C interactions, CH32V003 proto-petal workflow, and Super-8 badge framework mention. Hackaday: The 2024 Hackaday Supercon SAO Badge Reveal Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary article source for Pico W hardware, six SAO slots, individually accessible GPIO, dual I2C buses, starter petals, MicroPython, CH32V003, and repository release. Hackaday: Supercon 2024: Badge Add-On Winners Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Post-event source for winners, honorable mentions, production plan, and functional add-on descriptions. Hackaday.io: Hackaday Superconference 2024 Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Event source for Supercon 2024 dates, venue, Pasadena address, and schedule navigation. Hackaday.io: Supercon 8 - Add On Contest Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Contest source for functional SAO challenge goals, categories, rules, timeline, and winner list.