SAINTCON 2014 · United States · 2014

SAINTCON 2014 Arduino-Compatible Badge

Arduino-clone badge with FTDI header, blinky expansion board, and hidden challenges

The SAINTCON 2014 badge was an Arduino-compatible conference badge designed for attendee soldering and badge hacking, with FTDI programming, LED blinky behavior, a companion blinky expansion board, and hidden Hacker Challenge secrets documented in first-hand and Hackaday coverage.

SAINTCON United States Utah Ogden Arduino FTDI Soldering Hardware Hacking Village Blinky Hacker Challenge North America

EventSAINTCON 2014

SeriesSAINTCON

LocationOgden, Utah

CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

badge assembly and support context

SAINTCON Hardware Hacking Village

Coverage ties badge assembly and attendee support to the SAINTCON Hardware Hacking Village.

Source

blinky expansion board designer

Klint Holmes

Datko credits Klint Holmes and Luke Jenkins with the custom blinky board.

Source

blinky expansion board designer

Luke Jenkins

Datko credits Luke Jenkins and Klint Holmes with the custom blinky board.

Source

first-hand badge write-up author and badge developer

Josh Datko / Cryptotronix

The first-hand write-up documents Datko's badge work, Arduino-compatible hacking path, FTDI programming, and event context.

Source

hidden badge-source secret finder

Matt Lorimer

Datko says Matt Lorimer found one of the secrets by looking through the source code.

Source

Why It Mattered

It pushes the SAINTCON lineage back to an early hands-on badge-hacking year, before the later Wi-Fi, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi, ESP32, Enigma, and MiniBadge records. The public trail shows a small community badge built to teach Arduino-style hardware hacking inside the event.

Hardware

Josh Datko's first-hand write-up and Hackaday coverage describe an Arduino clone badge developed by Cryptotronix with an FTDI header for programming, components distributed in the attendee bag, an HHV soldering workflow, and a companion blinky board designed by Luke Jenkins and Klint Holmes. This pass did not recover an authoritative schematic, BOM, board file, MCU part number, or production count.

Software & Apps

The first-hand write-up says the badge used Arduino-style hacking and that Matt Lorimer discovered a hidden secret in the source code tied to the Hacker Challenge. It also describes loading code onto the badge through the FTDI header. No final firmware repository, challenge source archive, or authoritative release image was recovered in this pass.

Lore

The source trail places SAINTCON 2014 in Ogden from October 20-23 and frames the badge as a teachable Hardware Hacking Village artifact. SparkFun and Hackaday amplified the badge-hacking story after the event, while Cisco later described SAINTCON's show badges as a two-year program by 2015.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

assembly workflow source-backed

HHV bag-of-components assembly

Hackaday describes attendees receiving a bag of components and assembling the badge in the Hardware Hacking Village soldering environment.

Compatibility: SAINTCON 2014 HHV

Source

badge add-on first-hand documented

Blinky expansion board

The first-hand write-up documents a custom blinky board by Luke Jenkins and Klint Holmes that extended the badge-hacking experience.

Compatibility: SAINTCON 2014 badge

Source

challenge mechanic first-hand documented

Hidden Hacker Challenge code secret

Datko says Matt Lorimer found one of the SAINTCON secrets by examining the badge source code, tying the badge to the Hacker Challenge trail.

Compatibility: SAINTCON 2014 Hacker Challenge

Source

lineage note retrospective context

Show-badge lineage context

Cisco's 2015 write-up frames SAINTCON's show-badge program as having run across the prior two years, supporting 2014 as part of the event's early badge lineage.

Compatibility: SAINTCON show badges

Source

microcontroller badge first-hand documented

Arduino-compatible badge core

Datko and Hackaday describe the SAINTCON 2014 badge as an Arduino clone or Arduino-compatible badge built for attendee hacking.

Compatibility: SAINTCON 2014 attendee badge

Source

programming interface first-hand documented

FTDI programming header

The badge could be programmed through an FTDI header, giving attendees a direct Arduino-style code-loading path.

Compatibility: SAINTCON 2014 Arduino-compatible badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

image-rights boundary note

The first-hand post and coverage pages include badge photos or media, but this pass did not recover a badge photo or official render with complete reusable image license, attribution, source URL, and processing provenance.

The entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying blog, SparkFun, Hackaday, or event media without explicit reuse permission.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, Datko write-up media, SparkFun repost media, and Hackaday coverage media.

missing rights-cleared image note

No SAINTCON 2014 Arduino-Compatible Badge image is published because the current public source trail has not been paired with a reusable original badge or artifact photo or official upstream raster render with source URL, license or permission basis, attribution, and processing notes.

The United States record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying source-page media, documentation screenshots, event photos, social media, placeholders, or generated approximations.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy and Josh Datko first-hand write-up, SparkFun repost, Hackaday coverage, and Cisco SAINTCON show-badge lineage context.

source-depth caveat note

The recovered public trail proves an Arduino-compatible badge, FTDI programming path, HHV assembly context, hidden challenge behavior, and blinky expansion board, but this pass did not recover an official 2014 archive page, schematic, BOM, PCB source, MCU identification, final firmware repository, production count, or complete build manual.

The record preserves verified badge behavior and named-source context without inventing unrecovered electronics, firmware internals, component values, or manufacturing details.

Confidence: first-hand write-up plus secondary coverage
Status: needs badge-team archive
Timeframe: current SAINTCON 2014 pass
Source note: Josh Datko write-up, SparkFun repost, Hackaday coverage, and Cisco retrospective context.

Resources

Cisco SAINTCON show-badge context retrospective partner context · Cisco's 2015 write-up frames SAINTCON show badges as a two-year program, used here only as lineage context rather than as a source for unrecovered 2014 electronics details. Hacking the SAINTCON Badge first-hand badge write-up · Josh Datko first-hand source for the SAINTCON 2014 badge, Arduino-clone framing, FTDI programming, HHV soldering context, hidden source-code secret, blinky expansion board, and designer/support credits. Hacking the SaintCon Badge partner repost · SparkFun repost/context source for the October 20-23, 2014 Ogden event window and badge-hacking narrative. SAINTCON Badge: Badge Hacking for Mortals event report · Hackaday coverage source for the Arduino-compatible badge, bag-of-components distribution, HHV assembly workflow, FTDI header, challenge secrets, and blinky-board add-on context.

Sources

Cisco: Badges? We got badges! Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Retrospective SAINTCON show-badge lineage context; not used to infer unrecovered 2014 component or firmware details beyond the existence of prior-year show-badge activity. Hackaday: SAINTCON Badge: Badge Hacking for Mortals Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary coverage source corroborating Arduino-compatibility, FTDI header, bag-of-components distribution, HHV soldering, blinky board, and hidden challenge behavior. Josh Datko / Datko.net: Hacking the SAINTCON Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · First-hand badge source for the Arduino-compatible SAINTCON 2014 badge, FTDI programming, hidden Hacker Challenge code, blinky board, and named contributors. SparkFun News: Hacking the SaintCon Badge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · SparkFun repost/context source for the October 20-23, 2014 Ogden event and badge-hacking write-up trail.