Hacker Con Badges

SEC Youth Challenge at DEF CON 31 · United States · 2023

SEC Youth Challenge 2023 Flux Decoder Badge

DEF CON 31 youth-challenge ATtiny1614 LED badge

The Flux Decoder was a Social Engineering Community Youth Challenge badge for DEF CON 31, preserved through a public repository with KiCad board files, schematic material, and Arduino-style firmware for an ATtiny1614-powered flux-capacitor LED badge.

Social Engineering Community SEC Youth Challenge DEF CON DEF CON 31 United States ATtiny1614 LED USB-C Puzzle Badge Youth Challenge North America
EventSEC Youth Challenge at DEF CON 31
SeriesSocial Engineering Community
LocationLINQ Hotel, Social A, Las Vegas, Nevada / DEF CON 31
CountryUnited States

People

Authors & Credits

Youth Challenge organizer and repository publisher

Social Engineering Community

The repository is published under the secommunity organization and describes the badge as the SEC Youth Challenge Flux Decoder badge for DEF CON 31.

Source

event-listing publisher

DEF CON Forums / number6

The DEF CON forum post preserves the public DEF CON 31 Youth Challenge event listing used for schedule and location context.

Source

hardware title-block and firmware credit

Cyber City Circuits

The KiCad schematic title block lists Cyber City Circuits as company, and the firmware comment credits Cyber City Circuits / Make Augusta for software.

Source

Why It Mattered

It records a village/community badge from DEF CON 31 without confusing it with the official DEF CON admission badge. The artifact also broadens the compendium's youth-program coverage: a puzzle-oriented hardware object tied to a public challenge context, not only an adult contest or mainline conference badge.

Hardware

The repository preserves KiCad project files for `SEC Youth Challenge - DC31`, a schematic dated 2023-08-10 and marked Cyber City Circuits, a USB-C power-only connector, a Microchip ATtiny1614-SS microcontroller, one pushbutton, and ten PLCC-style LEDs arranged as top, left, right, and center flux-capacitor LED groups.

Software & Apps

The public `SEC Flux Decoder Code.ino` file identifies the project as the Social Engineering Community Youth Challenge for the DEFCON 2023 SEC Village, maps LED groups and a mode button to ATtiny pins, runs startup LED sequencing, breathes the center LED in the main loop, and triggers a `jigawatts()` animation when the mode button is pressed.

Lore

DEF CON forum and schedule sources place the Youth Challenge in the Social Engineering Community Village at DEF CON 31, with challenge categories including decoding, hacking systems, cryptography, social engineering, and network security. The current SEC page later documents the Youth Challenge as a DEF CON youth program that ran through 2024 before being retired in favor of DC NextGen.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

firmware behavior source-backed

Mode-button jigawatts animation

The firmware watches a pull-up mode button and triggers a named animation routine that ramps the center LED before stepping the grouped LEDs.

Compatibility: SEC Youth Challenge 2023 Flux Decoder Badge

Source
firmware workflow source-backed

megaTinyCore programming note

The PCB silkscreen records ATtiny1614 Arduino instructions pointing builders toward the megaTinyCore workflow for the microcontroller family.

Compatibility: SEC Youth Challenge 2023 Flux Decoder Badge

Source
visual hardware source-backed

Flux-capacitor LED groups

The schematic labels top, left, right, and center LED groups with ten LEDs total, while the firmware drives three three-LED arms plus a center LED.

Compatibility: SEC Youth Challenge 2023 Flux Decoder Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No Flux Decoder image is published because the repository has no top-level license and the live SEC site is all-rights-reserved; board-cache images and page artwork are not copied without complete reuse provenance.

The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than publishing generated, placeholder, screenshot, repository-cache, or uncleared page imagery.

Confidence
local project policy
Status
open
Timeframe
current catalogue build
Source note
badge.gallery image policy, Social Engineering Community site footer, and FluxDecoder repository license probe.

Resources

DEF CON forum Youth Challenge page event context · DEF CON forum source for the DEF CON 31 Youth Challenge hours, Social Engineering Community Village location, and puzzle-topic framing. Flux Decoder README project readme · Repository readme naming the SEC Youth Challenge Flux Decoder badge and linking the historical project page. Flux Decoder firmware firmware source · Arduino-style firmware source for LED group pins, mode button behavior, center LED breathing, and jigawatts animation. FluxDecoder repository hardware and firmware archive · Public Social Engineering Community repository for the DEF CON 31 Youth Challenge Flux Decoder badge. SEC Youth Challenge KiCad PCB board source · KiCad PCB source for badge artwork, reverse-mounted PLCC LED footprints, Cyber City Circuits logo footprint, and SECYC sponsor silkscreen context. SEC Youth Challenge KiCad schematic hardware source · KiCad schematic source for ATtiny1614, USB-C power-only input, pushbutton, LED groups, and Cyber City Circuits title-block context. SEC Youth Challenge retirement note official lineage note · Current Social Engineering Community page documenting the Youth Challenge as a DEF CON youth program that ran through 2024 before retirement. The One DEF CON 31 contest listing schedule mirror · Consolidated DEF CON 31 schedule mirror corroborating the Social Engineering Community Youth Challenge listing. The One DEF CON 31 village schedule schedule mirror · Consolidated DEF CON 31 village schedule placing SECV Youth Challenge activity in the Social Engineering Village room block.

Sources

DEF CON Forums: Social Engineering Community (SEC) Youth Challenge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Official DEF CON forum source for DEF CON 31 Youth Challenge schedule, LINQ Social A village location, and challenge-category context. Social Engineering Community: Youth Challenge Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Current official SEC page documenting the Youth Challenge as a DEF CON youth program, naming supporting staff, and recording retirement after the 2024 chapter. Social Engineering Community GitHub repository: FluxDecoder Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary repository source describing the project as the Social Engineering Community Youth Challenge Flux Decoder badge for DEF CON 31 and exposing KiCad and firmware files. Social Engineering Community GitHub repository: SEC Flux Decoder Code.ino Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary firmware source identifying DEFCON 2023 SEC Village context, Cyber City Circuits software authorship, LED pins, mode button, startup animation, center LED breathing, and jigawatts behavior. Social Engineering Community GitHub repository: SEC Youth Challenge - DC31 KiCad schematic Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary hardware source for the ATtiny1614-SS microcontroller, USB-C power-only connector, pushbutton, ten LED count note, labeled LED groups, and Cyber City Circuits company title block.