Hackers Teaching Hackers 2026 · United States · 2026
nRF52840/SX1262 electronic conference badge with a public post-event GPL firmware archive
Hackers Teaching Hackers' official materials establish the June 3-5, 2026 Columbus-area practitioner conference with villages and a CTF. Zack Nagaich's public Eagle 5 repository labels itself the 2026 HTH conference-badge firmware and documents an nRF52840 plus SX1262 electronic badge with LEDs, USB roles, RNode/Reticulum-oriented firmware, on-badge CLI, and CTF source context. An attendee account independently says their light-up badge was part of the conference CTF, while the organizer has not directly published this 2026 repository or a distribution record.
People
Official HTH sources identify the annual information-security practitioner conference, its hacker/village/CTF context, 2026 Spaceballs edition, and Columbus-area venue. This is an event-context credit, not an assertion that the organizer owns the Eagle 5 repository or controlled its distribution.
SourceThe public GitHub profile identifies Zack Nagaich, and the July 15 initial release under syn-ack-zack explicitly names the Eagle 5 HTH 2026 badge firmware. This is a scoped source-publisher credit, not a claim of sole hardware design, event badge leadership, manufacture, fulfilment, branding, or image authority.
SourceThe named public attendee account describes a worn HTH 2026 badge as lighting up and being part of the conference CTF. This is a first-hand artifact/CTF corroboration credit, not a design, source, manufacture, distribution, or image-reuse attribution.
SourceIt introduces a current Ohio hacker-conference badge with a substantial public firmware archive while keeping the crucial provenance distinction visible: the 2026 source is a long-standing HTH badge publisher's post-event release, not an organizer-owned 2026 distribution ledger or a complete production archive.
The Eagle 5 README identifies an nRF52840-QIAA controller, SX1262 LoRa radio, a 74HC595 shift register driving nine single-color LEDs, one RGB wing, and dual USB CDC roles. The public repository does not include a native schematic, PCB layout, BOM, Gerbers, fabrication output, enclosure specification, battery/power source, antenna specification, radio-region configuration, production test result, or a final populated-board declaration.
The GPLv3 repository provides a PlatformIO-oriented firmware tree, RNode integration, Reticulum-oriented modem context, an on-badge command-line interface, LED animations, BLE-related source, and CTF state/source material. A single July 15 post-event initial-release commit introduced the public tree, with no GitHub tag or release. This dossier describes the source at a high level and does not reproduce operating, flashing, radio, or challenge instructions.
HTH describes itself as an annual information-security practitioner conference for hackers, defenders, makers, breakers, and hobbyists, with hands-on villages and CTF challenges. Its official GitHub organization previously forked Zack Nagaich's 2025 HTH badge repository, and Zack's account also preserves 2019, 2021, and 2024 HTH badge repositories. The July 2026 Eagle 5 source release therefore has a strong badge-team lineage, while its non-organizer ownership, post-event publication timing, and source-controlled badge photo require a careful boundary on official status, fulfilment, and image rights.
Lifecycle
The README identifies a 74HC595 plus nine single-color LEDs, one RGB wing, and dual USB CDC roles. No schematic, PCB, wiring, electrical limits, display, button map, or final component-population documentation was recovered.
SourceThe Eagle 5 README identifies an nRF52840-QIAA controller and SX1262 LoRa radio. It does not state frequency configuration, regulatory region, antenna characteristics, actual transmit behavior, final board revision, or a complete radio/power design.
SourceThe README and changes document an RNode-oriented modem integration and Reticulum mesh context on the documented board. This is an archive-level capability statement only; the record does not state a frequency, configuration, deployment, coverage, legal authorization, field result, or operating procedure.
SourceThe Eagle 5 repository calls itself the HTH 2026 conference-badge firmware, and its publisher has a multi-year HTH badge archive. The official HTH organization previously forked the publisher's 2025 badge source. Together this supports a conservative badge-team association, not an assertion that HTH owned the 2026 repository or administered all distribution.
SourceThe repository provides a GPLv3 root license and README statement for the firmware. That source-license record is kept separate from any physical badge, manufacturing, branding, image, or support claim.
SourceThe July source archive includes firmware code for a badge CLI, LED animations, BLE-related components, and CTF state material. The catalogue records the published source context without giving operational, radio, flashing, or challenge-completion instructions or claiming a deployed production image.
SourceOperational history
The entry does not turn a public source archive or one attendee account into a distribution record or a claim that every conference participant received the same badge.
The catalogue preserves the narrow source-backed hardware outline without representing it as a complete build specification, safety assessment, compatibility guarantee, or fabrication recipe.
GPLv3 source information is recorded for research, while any local photo asset remains blocked until its individual source, reuse basis, attribution, and processing record are complete.
The dossier treats it as valuable code evidence without claiming the current checkout is the final deployed badge firmware or a supported update/recovery path.
The catalogue credits only the named event organization, source publisher, and attendee report without inferring individual design, production, distribution, branding, or image-use roles.
The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying the repository photo, social-media media, GitHub previews, logos, screenshots, or generated/approximate badge imagery.
The catalogue records a real HTH 2026 electronic-badge source trail without claiming an organizer-owned repository, a formal event endorsement, or universal official issuance from affiliation alone.
The catalogue records high-level communications capability only and deliberately omits operating instructions, frequency/configuration guidance, challenge tactics, and claims about lawful or safe field operation.