Ninja Party at DEF CON 17 · United States · 2009

Ninja Networks DC17 Party Badge

Electronic party-invitation badge with published docs and firmware

Ninja Networks' 2009 DEF CON party invitation was an electronic badge built for DEF CON 17, documented by a primary DEF CON forum post plus a technical archive with Creative Commons Attribution schematic/Gerber docs, public-domain badge code, and a BOM.

Ninja Networks DEF CON 17 United States Unofficial Badge Party Badge Invitation Badge YETDA Eagle Gerbers Public Domain Firmware North America

EventNinja Party at DEF CON 17

SeriesNinja Networks

LocationArtisan Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / DEF CON 17

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

assembly space and equipment supporter

Redwire LLC

The forum post credits Redwire LLC with providing space and equipment for the badge-assembly effort.

Source

badge code publisher and assembly coordinator

cstone

The technical archive and forum narrative credit cstone for publishing the badge materials and doing a major share of the work around code, assembly, and documentation.

Source

badge hardware designer

Amanda Wozniak / Woz

The forum narrative credits Woz with designing the custom PCBs in Eagle and doing a major share of the project work.

Source

financial supporter

XeroBank

The forum post thanks XeroBank for financial support during the badge project.

Source

party organizer and badge publisher

Ninja Networks

The forum post identifies Ninja Networks as the DEF CON-adjacent party organizer and publisher of the 2009 electronic invitation badge.

Source

Why It Mattered

It captures a key unofficial badgelife pattern around DEF CON: a party invite became a real electronic artifact with source files, public build drama, sponsor support, and a volunteer soldering sprint that finished roughly 500 working badges.

Hardware

The primary writeup documents custom PCBs designed in Eagle and built by Advanced Circuits, 16-segment HIOX-format YETDA LED displays, a battery holder, surface-mount parts, hand-inserted through-hole displays, and the abandoned USB storage and radio time-sync features. The technical archive preserves schematic and Gerber files plus an ODS BOM.

Software & Apps

The technical archive publishes the badge source tarball and labels the code as public domain. The record avoids claiming unrecovered firmware behavior beyond the source release and the badge's electronic invitation role.

Lore

The project story says more than 750 people came to the Artisan Hotel party, about 500 with Ninja Badges, and that the team had to finish the badges through a last-minute community soldering effort after delays, stolen batteries, failed optional features, and thousands of remaining solder joints.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

assembly lifecycle historical

Volunteer soldering sprint

The forum narrative says the team used solder paste, a hotplate, and manual display insertion to finish about 500 functional badges before the party.

Compatibility: Ninja Networks DC17 Party Badge

Source

firmware release archived

Public-domain badge firmware

The technical archive links the badge source-code tarball and labels the code as public domain.

Compatibility: Ninja Networks DC17 Party Badge

Source

hardware documentation release archived

Creative Commons Attribution hardware archive

The technical archive publishes schematic and Gerber documentation and states that the documentation is Creative Commons Attribution licensed.

Compatibility: Ninja Networks DC17 Party Badge

Source

unofficial invitation badge source-backed

Electronic party invitation

Ninja Networks built the DC17 badge as the electronic invitation artifact for its DEF CON-adjacent party at the Artisan Hotel.

Compatibility: Ninja Party at DEF CON 17

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

firmware-feature caveat note

The forum narrative says USB storage and radio time-synchronization features were planned and then dropped, so this record does not claim those features shipped on attendee badges.

The badge page describes the published public-domain source and visible electronic invitation hardware without upgrading abandoned goals into production behavior.

Confidence: source-backed but intentionally narrow
Status: documented
Timeframe: 2009 production sprint
Source note: DEF CON forum thread and unsynchronized.org source-code archive.

missing rights-cleared image note

No local Ninja Networks DC17 badge image is published because the available forum, Flickr, Hackaday, and process-video media have not been paired with complete reusable image rights, attribution, and processing provenance.

The record stays source-backed and image-free rather than copying social, article, video-frame, generated, placeholder, or uncleared media.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, DEF CON forum thread, unsynchronized.org archive, Hackaday article, and linked Flickr set.

unofficial party scope note

The badge is modeled as a Ninja Networks party invitation for DEF CON 17 weekend, not as the official DEF CON 17 admission badge.

The compendium keeps the unofficial party-badge lineage separate from the official DEF CON badge series while preserving its badgelife significance.

Confidence: primary forum narrative
Status: documented
Timeframe: DEF CON 17 adjacent event
Source note: DEF CON forum thread and unsynchronized.org Ninja Networks party badge archive.

Resources

Defcon 17 Ninja Networks Party Badge technical archive · Technical archive landing page for the Ninja Networks DC17 party badge, including documentation, source code, BOM, process video, and contributor/sponsor notes. Hackaday Ninja Networks party badge article article · Contemporary secondary coverage pointing readers to the Ninja Networks DC17 party badge archive and photos; used only as corroborating context. Ninja Networks DC17 assembly process video process video · Assembly-process movie linked by the technical archive; treated as documentation evidence and not copied as a still image because reusable image rights were not established. Ninja Networks DC17 badge code source code · Badge source-code tarball linked by the technical archive, which labels the code as public domain. Ninja Networks DC17 bill of materials bill of materials · ODS bill-of-materials file linked by the technical archive for component and sourcing context. Ninja Networks DC17 hardware documentation schematic and gerber archive · ZIP archive linked by the technical page for the schematic and Gerber files, with the page stating that the documentation is Creative Commons Attribution licensed. The 2009 Ninja Badge / Ninja Party primary forum narrative · DEF CON forum post documenting the Ninja Networks party history, Artisan Hotel party context, electronic badge-invitation purpose, 500-badge assembly effort, YETDA displays, sponsor support, and dropped USB/radio feature goals.

Sources

DEF CON Forums: The 2009 Ninja Badge / Ninja Party Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary narrative source for the unofficial Ninja Networks party badge, including party venue context, electronic-invitation framing, roughly 500 working badges, YETDA display evidence, sponsor support, and production problems. Hackaday: Ninja Networks Party Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary contemporary source corroborating the public release of the Ninja Networks DEF CON 17 party badge archive and media pointers. unsynchronized.org: Ninja Networks DC17 schematic and Gerber archive Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary documentation archive source; the archive page states that schematic and Gerber documentation is Creative Commons Attribution licensed. unsynchronized.org: Ninja Networks DC17 badge code Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary source-code archive; the technical archive labels the badge code as public domain. unsynchronized.org / Ninja Networks: Defcon 17 Ninja Networks Party Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary technical archive source for the public documentation, source-code, BOM, process-video links, licensing notes, contributor acknowledgements, and official project framing.