JawnCon 0x1 · United States · 2024

JawnCon 0x1 Modem Badge

Hayes SmartModem-inspired Wi-Fi modem badge

The JawnCon 0x1 modem badge was a wearable miniature Hayes SmartModem homage for the October 2024 Philadelphia-area hacker con. JawnCon's official write-up says it used RetroWiFiModem to simulate the AT command set and drive the LEDs, with a PCB carrying an ESP radio, level shifter, and vintage red LED front; Hackaday covered it as an ESP8266-powered Wi-Fi modem badge for early-Internet services.

JawnCon United States Philadelphia Area Pennsylvania Modem Wi-Fi Modem RetroWiFiModem Hayes Command Set ESP8266 ESP32 3D Printed LED Badge North America

EventJawnCon 0x1

SeriesJawnCon

LocationArcadia University Commons Building, Pennsylvania

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

Hackaday JawnCon badge article author

Tom Nardi

Author of the Hackaday technical coverage corroborating the JawnCon 0x1 modem badge, ESP8266/RetroWiFiModem lineage, and Philadelphia-area con context.

Source

RetroWiFiModem project author

mecparts

The JawnCon write-up links mecparts' RetroWiFiModem repository as the firmware lineage for AT command simulation and LED control.

Source

event and badge write-up publisher

JawnCon LLC

The official JawnCon site publishes the 0x1 event page and detailed modem badge write-up used as the primary evidence trail.

Source

Why It Mattered

It adds a small North American conference badge where the production story is unusually well documented: in-house 3D printing, hand-soldered headers/radio/LEDs, laser-marked front panels, and a real modem interaction model rather than a purely decorative retro shell.

Hardware

The official write-up describes a three-piece 3D-printed PLA case, silver silk PLA shell, front panels, printed snap clips, PCB slots, PCB-anchored lanyard strain relief, through-hole right-angle LEDs, surface-mount level shifter and LED resistors, and hand-installed headers/radio/LEDs. The same write-up calls the PCB an ESP32 radio plus level shifter and LEDs; the linked RetroWiFiModem project and Hackaday coverage describe ESP8266 / Wemos D1 lineage, so this catalogue preserves the source discrepancy instead of normalizing it.

Software & Apps

JawnCon says the badge used RetroWiFiModem to simulate Hayes-style AT commands and control the LEDs. The upstream RetroWiFiModem repository documents an ESP8266 RS-232/Wi-Fi modem with Hayes commands, LED indicators, Wi-Fi SSID/password setup commands, ATDT dialing, Telnet modes, and OTA update support, but this pass did not recover a separate JawnCon-specific firmware fork.

Lore

The badge follows JawnCon 0x1's late-1980s/early-1990s theme and copies the recognizable Hayes SmartModem industrial language at wearable scale. The official write-up says about 200-250 attendees made in-house 3D printing feasible, that a single Prusa MK4 printed shells for about a month and a half, and that front-panel laser marking took about 45 seconds per badge with strong safety caveats.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge theme officially documented

Hayes SmartModem industrial design

The official write-up identifies the Hayes SmartModem as the badge's visual and command-set inspiration for the late-1980s/early-1990s event theme.