ZACon V Badge
A South African free security-conference badge built around an ATmega328 with Arduino bootloader, Nokia 5110 LCD, 433 MHz AM/OOK transmit and receive modules, LEDs, buttons, and a mesh-style interaction graph.
Country dossier
South Africa
Worldwide badge coverage for South Africa, grouped into seeded badges, event editions, add-ons, operational issues, resources, and evidence sources.
Seeded artifacts
Badges
BSides Cape Town 2016 Badge
A BSides Cape Town 2016 badge built around ESP8266, 128x64 OLED display, eight UI buttons, rear reset and program buttons, IR transmit and receive, level LEDs, faction RGB LED, USB-charged 600 mAh LiPo, schedule UI, challenges, and an organic faction game.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
A BSides Cape Town 2017 badge system documented as two separate physical badges: a black flux-capacitor badge with an ESP chip and a red RF badge with a CC1111 RFCat-compatible radio, USB port, and button.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
BSides Cape Town 2019's badge was an ESP32 electronic badge with a 1.3-inch 240x240 IPS colour display, touch buttons, 18650 battery, custom PCB, 3D-printed case, Arduino/ESP32 firmware, local SDL debugging support, WiFi high-score sync, Bluetooth GamePad experiments, and a public GPL-3.0 firmware repository.
BSides Cape Town 2025 Badge Sponsor Slot
BSides Cape Town's official 2025 sponsorship page lists a dedicated Badge Sponsor slot, while the official Quicket page anchors the December 6, 2025 Lagoon Beach Hotel & Spa event and swag-ticket context.
Events
Camp and Event Editions
ZACon V
A free South African security conference represented by Andrew MacPherson's source-backed mesh-networked badge with 433 MHz RF interaction tracking.
BSides Cape Town 2016
A South African BSides edition whose ESP8266 badge used IR interactions, OLED UI, game factions, challenges, and post-event unlock tooling.
BSides Cape Town 2017
A South African BSides edition whose RFCat challenge writeup documents a two-part badge made from a black ESP-based flux-capacitor badge and a red CC1111 RF badge.
BSides Cape Town 2019
A South African BSides edition represented by source-backed evidence for an ESP32-WROOM-32U badge and surviving firmware references.
BSides Cape Town 2025
The December 6, 2025 BSides Cape Town edition whose official sponsorship page lists a dedicated Badge Sponsor slot and whose ticketing page documents the Lagoon Beach event and swag context.
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
source-backed
ESP32 repurposing surface
Later writeups treated the 2019 badge as an ESP32-WROOM-32U board suitable for C# NanoFramework and ESP32 game/video experiments.
BSides Cape Town 2016 Badge
source-backed
Pong and RPSLS badge games
The badge exposed unlockable games including two-player Pong and Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock badge-to-badge interaction.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
RFCat broadcast chat client
Released client code implemented a half-duplex RF broadcast chat system for badges using RFCat, 868 MHz operation, sync words, modulation settings, queues, and retransmission.
BSides Cape Town 2016 Badge
source-backed
Warbadging WiFi scanner
A challenge-unlocked Warbadging mode scanned up to 30 nearby WiFi networks and displayed signal strength, ESSID, encryption type, and channel coverage.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
source-backed
GameOn-derived badge game framework
The making-of post documents a colour GameOn-derived firmware with menu, single-player game, raycaster, voxel landscape, high-score JSON/WiFi workflow, setup screens, achievements, and debug screens.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Black flux-capacitor ESP badge
The 2017 badge system included a black flux-capacitor badge with a 2AL3B ESP chip, WiFi capability, power-bank wiring, USB charging path, and rear buttons.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Red CC1111 RFCat RF badge
The red RF badge carried a CC1111 RFCat-compatible chip, USB port, button, and exposed rear contacts, becoming the radio surface for the 2017 challenge.
BSides Cape Town 2017 RFCat Badge
source-backed
Challenge server and unlock flow
The challenge server used distinct RF settings, periodic hints, player-state persistence, 88-miles-an-hour and 1.21-gigawatts stages, and an XOR/base64 unlock payload for the final box.
BSides Cape Town 2016 Badge
source-backed
IR faction game
Badges were assigned red, blue, or green factions and used IR interactions plus server-side logic to convert or level nearby badges during the conference.
BSides Cape Town 2025 Badge Sponsor Slot
source-backed
Redacted event and swag context
The official Quicket page places the Redacted-themed event at Lagoon Beach Hotel & Spa on December 6, 2025 and offers swag-bag plus swag-ticket context without publishing badge design details.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
source-backed
GPL-3.0 firmware archive
The public repository preserves the badge firmware, ESP32 binary, assets, Arduino build settings, TFT_eSPI configuration, SDL local-debug path, games, demos, OTA code, WiFi scanner, and Bluetooth material.
ZACon V Badge
source-backed
Hackable pinout and EEPROM commands
External ICSP, RX, TX, and reset access made reflashing and serial extension possible, while special RF codes could store text in EEPROM or trigger visual effects.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
source-backed
Colour IPS ESP32 game badge core
The first-hand making-of post documents an ESP32 badge with 1.3-inch 240x240 IPS colour display, custom PCB, touch buttons, 18650 battery, and 3D-printed case.
BSides Cape Town 2016 Badge
source-backed
Post-event challenge hash unlocks
After the conference, a badge-number form could output correct hashes to unlock all challenges and add-ons such as Pong, WiFi scanner, and animations.
ZACon V Badge
source-backed
433 MHz interaction graph
Badges exchanged badge numbers and relationship data over short-range 433 MHz RF, then pushed interaction relationships toward a main PC graph.
BSides Cape Town 2025 Badge Sponsor Slot
source-backed
Badge Sponsor slot
The official 2025 sponsor page lists one dedicated Badge Sponsor slot for the event.
Operational history
Issues & Camp Impact
The recovered public source trail proves a Badge Sponsor slot for the 2025 event, but does not prove an electronic badge, final printed credential design, lanyard artwork, sponsor imprint, attendee distribution count, schematic, PCB, firmware, challenge behavior, or production files.
The dossier preserves the real public badge-sponsor evidence while avoiding unsupported hardware or final-artifact claims.
ZACon V Badge
note
The author documented unexpectedly low battery capacity and 20-25 mA draw, then handled the event by providing multiple batteries per badge.
The badge record preserves the production constraint instead of describing the hardware as a polished low-power device.
The challenge author states that he did not have a badge before the conference and used Yardstick One hardware to mimic the badge RF environment during development.
The dossier distinguishes the badge hardware from the off-badge development and challenge-server test setup.
The original making-of post and GPL-3.0 firmware repository are recovered, but this pass still did not recover public schematic, PCB, BOM, manufacturing, case source, production-count, or image-rights material for the 2019 badge.
The entry can now describe the badge hardware and firmware from primary sources while avoiding unsupported board-layout, production-run, or image-reuse claims.
The current public source describes visible badge components and challenge behavior, but does not recover schematics, board files, bill of materials, firmware for the ESP badge, or a full original badge-team build writeup.
The record preserves the source-backed two-part badge without inventing component-level details that are not public in the recovered sources.
ZACon V Badge
note
No local ZACon V badge image has been added because a rights-cleared original photo and attribution have not been verified.
The record ships without imagery rather than copying mirrored photos or article images without image provenance.
No local BSides Cape Town 2016 badge photo has been added because image reuse rights and attribution for the public article/writeup images have not been cleared.
The record remains text-and-source only until a licensed documentary photo can be added.
No local BSides Cape Town 2017 badge image has been added because the public writeup photos have not been paired with an explicit reuse license, attribution, and processing notes for catalogue publication.
The record stays image-free rather than copying SensePost or blog imagery without complete provenance.
No local BSides Cape Town 2019 badge image has been added because public image rights and exact original photo provenance have not been verified.
The catalogue keeps the record image-free while preserving the source-backed badge existence and ESP32 core.
No local BSides Cape Town 2025 badge image has been added because the official sponsor and ticketing pages do not provide a reusable badge photo or official raster render with source URL, license or permission basis, attribution, and processing notes.
The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying event-site imagery, ticketing graphics, sponsor logos, social-media images, screenshots, or generated artwork.
The badges did not start normally after the event unless they could connect to the expected WiFi network or were configured over serial or reflashed.
The record documents the operational dependency that affects reuse of surviving badges.
Resources
ZACon V badge build mirror
archive mirror · Mirror of Andrew MacPherson's build-time writeup with Arduino/ATmega328, 433 MHz RF, Nokia 5110, battery, pinout, EEPROM, and attendee-hack details.
Hackaday BSides Cape Town badge report
article · Hackaday report documenting the ESP8266, OLED, IR, LEDs, LiPo, faction game, schedule, challenges, and unlockable applications.
Hackaday ZACon V badge report
article · Hackaday report summarizing the free South African security-conference badge hardware, mesh behavior, 77 final boards, and Maltego visualization.
BSides Cape Town 2017 event listing
event listing · Secondary event-context listing for the December 2, 2017 Cape Town date, venue, and BSides Cape Town website pointer.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge Firmware
firmware source · Public GPL-3.0 GitHub repository preserving the badge firmware, prebuilt ESP32 binary, assets, platform code, demos, games, OTA code, WiFi scanner, Bluetooth material, SDL tooling, and Arduino/ESP32 build instructions.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Making a badge
first-hand making-of writeup · Tony Mamacos first-hand post documenting the 2019 badge hardware, ESP32 processor, colour IPS display, touch buttons, 18650 battery, 3D-printed case, firmware architecture, game content, WiFi high-score flow, Bluetooth controller experiment, and post-event lessons.
BSides Badge Config
guide · Post-event configuration guide for WiFi setup, serial configuration, firmware modification, and challenge hash unlocks.
BSides Cape Town 2025 sponsors
official sponsorship page · Official organizer source listing a dedicated Badge Sponsor slot for the 2025 event and expected attendee/sponsor context.
BSides Cape Town 2025 tickets
official ticketing page · Official Quicket event source for the December 6, 2025 Lagoon Beach Hotel & Spa event, Redacted theme, ticket classes, CTF, swag-bag and swag-ticket context.
Arduboy TV on ESP32
project page · Hackster project noting that the author ran the ESP32 TV-output experiment on a BSides Cape Town 2019 badge and pointing to the original badge software writeup.
BSides CPT Badge 2016 writeup
project page · Andrew MacPherson writeup documenting hardware, game goals, screen/UI behavior, challenge unlocks, WiFi behavior, and team credits.
BSidesCPT17 RFCat challenge writeup
project page · First-hand SensePost writeup documenting the two-part 2017 badge hardware, CC1111/RFCat RF badge, ESP flux-capacitor badge, RF chat idea, and challenge flow.
Repurposed BSides Cape Town Badge
project page · Third-party writeup identifying the 2019 badge core as ESP32-WROOM-32U and explaining why it was suitable for C# NanoFramework experiments.
BSides CPT 2017 RFCat challenge sources
source · Public gist containing the RF chat client, challenge server, XOR helper, RF parameters, hint flow, and expected solve path for the badge challenge.
BSidesBadge2016 pinout
source · Raw pinout source for screen, IR, buttons, shift registers, reset, ADC, and IR LED wiring.
BSidesBadge2016 repository
source · Public repository containing badge code, server, Python client, interactive UI, pinout, 8bit assets, and game models.
Sources
8bitresearch: Re-purposed BSides Cape Town Badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Source for 2019 badge existence, ESP32-WROOM-32U core, C# NanoFramework reuse, and contrast with the 2016 ESP8266 badge.
AndrewNohawk: BSides Badge Config
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary post-event source for WiFi dependency, serial configuration, firmware modification, and challenge unlock behavior.
AndrewNohawk: BSides CPT Badge 2016
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary author writeup for hardware design, game mechanics, screens, challenge unlocks, WiFi scan mode, and roles.
AndrewNohawk / Sechub mirror: ZaCon V Badge [1/2]: Build Time
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary author writeup mirror for design goals, free-conference constraints, RF behavior, pinouts, battery limitations, EEPROM effects, and attendee hacks.
BSides Cape Town: BSides Cape Town Sponsors
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary official source for the 2025 Badge Sponsor slot; used narrowly as badge-sponsor inventory evidence, not as proof of electronics or final badge design.
GitHub: AndrewMohawk/BSidesBadge2016
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Source repository for 2016 badge code, server, Python client, interactive UI, assets, pinout, and game models.
GitHub / Tony Mamacos: tonym128/BSidesCPT2019-Firmware
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary GPL-3.0 firmware archive for the BSides Cape Town 2019 badge, including source files, firmware binary, assets, ESP32/Arduino build notes, TFT_eSPI pin configuration, SDL local-build path, games, demos, and support code.
GitHub Gist: BSides CPT 2017 - RFCat Challenge Server and Client Sources
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary released challenge-code source for RF settings, challenge-server behavior, player-state persistence, periodic hints, XOR helper, and intended badge solve path.
Hackaday: Building A Mesh Networked Conference Badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary article source for the South African conference context, ATmega328, Nokia 5110 LCD, 433 MHz RF modules, mesh relationship tracking, 77 final boards, and Maltego visualization.
Hackaday: Zombie Badges Take Over Security Con
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary article source for BSides Cape Town 2016 badge hardware and faction-game behavior.
Hackster.io: Arduboy TV on ESP32 with PS3 Remote Control
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary project source for later ESP32 experimentation on a BSides Cape Town 2019 badge and original software-writeup pointer.
Quicket / BSides Cape Town: BSides Cape Town - 6th December 2025
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Official ticketing source for the Lagoon Beach Hotel & Spa event context, Redacted theme, CTF and challenge programming, and swag-ticket context.
Security.World: BSides Cape Town
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary event-context source for date, Cape Town venue, and the public 2017 event listing.
SensePost: building the bsidescpt17 rfchallenge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · First-hand source for the 2017 two-part badge hardware, flux-capacitor ESP badge, red CC1111 RF badge, RFCat challenge, RF chat behavior, challenge box, and solve flow.
Tony Mamacos / ttech: BSides Cape Town 2019 Making a badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary first-hand source for 2019 badge hardware, ESP32 and display details, custom PCB, touch buttons, battery and case, firmware framework, games, WiFi high-score sync, Bluetooth GamePad experiment, debugging screens, and design lessons.