DEF CON
The 2016 DEF CON edition whose Ryan Clarke / 1o57 electronic skull badge used buttons, LED eyes, a mini processor, printed codes, serial strings, lanyard data, conference-media files, and Konami-code red herrings in the badge challenge.
Paris Hotel and Bally's Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada · United States · 2016
A Ryan Clarke / 1o57 DEF CON 24 electronic skull badge with a mini processor, buttons, LED eyes, printed codes, hidden-trace/silkscreen text, serial strings, lanyard data, conference-media files, and a badge challenge that used the Konami Code as an early visible hook.
The AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 24 badgelife badge with a Bender-shaped PCB, STM32F103 controller, OLED screen, RGB LEDs, RFM69W 433 MHz radio, USB serial terminal behavior, games, GPIO breakouts, and a public post-event hardware/software archive.
Lifecycle
Hackaday documented USB CDC serial behavior at 115200 baud and a terminal mode, while project logs describe a shell for badge control and extra interactions.
The badge used an RFM69W module and 433 MHz coil antenna for peer/chat and social radio behavior, with project logs documenting radio startup failures and bootloader timing fixes.
The challenge expanded beyond the skull PCB into lanyard data, room keys, standee glyphs, DEF CON media-server files, conference CD material, and program equations.
Writeups documented that entering the Konami Code on the badge buttons unlocked LED-eye behavior and serial text, even though the visible code path was not the final puzzle answer.
The repository README documents entering DFU mode and flashing provisioned human badge binaries; Hackaday.io discussion records bootloader and NAND flash loading paths.
The hands-on coverage and project-owner comments identify an STM32F103CBT6 ARM Cortex-M3 controller running at 72 MHz with the badge firmware built through STM32Duino-style tooling.
The hands-on article documents 11 GPIO pins plus RX/TX, DIO, RST, power, and ground breakouts as hardware-hacking surfaces.
DEF CON 24 solving notes used badge backs, hidden traces, common encoded text, badge-type-specific silkscreen strings, and visible printed codes as puzzle material.
Operational history
The compendium records observed behavior and published challenge paths while avoiding unsupported claims about the badge's internal firmware architecture.
The entry can show a real badge photo while preserving the project rule against generated, placeholder, press, video-frame, or uncleared writeup imagery.
The unofficial badge entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying article or project images without a clear reuse basis.
The entry preserves real production and firmware bring-up caveats that matter for surviving badges and reproduction attempts.
Country, event, and series pages can show the badge's historical importance without confusing it with the official 1o57 skull badge.
