DEF CON
The 2018 DEF CON edition whose Tymkrs / Toymakers official electronic badge used a PIC32MM, LEDs, capacitive controls, USB serial text adventure, badge-to-badge connector, add-on header, and firmware-update trail.
Caesars Palace and Flamingo, Las Vegas, Nevada · United States · 2018
A Tymkrs / Toymakers official DEF CON 26 electronic badge with a PIC32MM0256GPM controller, reverse-mounted LEDs, capacitive controls, four-AA battery stack, USB serial interface, badge-to-badge connector, add-on header, and a retro text-adventure badge challenge.
The AND!XOR DC26 Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 26 badgelife board themed as the Wild West of IoT, built around an ESP32-WROVER module with WiFi/Bluetooth, a color LCD, microSD, IS31FL3736-driven RGB lighting, CP2102N USB serial, LULZCODE scripting, the B.E.N.D.E.R. console challenge, and badge-to-badge networking ambitions.
Lifecycle
The ARG and retrospective logs describe the Badge Enabled Non Directive Enigma Routine as a serial text-adventure challenge spanning hardware hacking, reverse engineering, cryptography, wireless capture, badge actions, and social collaboration.
The retrospective and Hackaday review describe the switch from WS2812B pixels to an IS31FL3736 common-anode RGB LED driver controlling 31 RGB LEDs plus screen LEDs around the Bender eye artwork.
The LULZCODE log describes a LOLCODE-derived badge language extended for microcontroller peripherals, with high memory usage that drove the ESP32-WROVER external-RAM choice.
The retrospective and Hackaday review document the micro-USB CP2102N path used to expose the serial console for the B.E.N.D.E.R. game after the DC25 wireless terminal experience.
The bottom connector enabled inter-badge progress, with public notes documenting Human-to-Human and Human-to-Goon interactions that changed movement or game state.
The retrospective documents the 220x176 LCD upgrade, 40 MHz SPI and SD-card behavior, double-buffered display goals, and reduced frame-rate decisions caused by SD-card constraints.
The badge enumerated over USB and exposed an interactive retro text adventure whose ASCII-art map mirrored the physical PCB face.
DEF CON's media-server update and forum-curated notes documented flashing the PIC32MM0256GPM048 with MPLAB X IPE and PICkit 3 or 4 to reach newer firmware versions.
The project page and retrospective document the move to ESP32-WROVER for WiFi/Bluetooth, external RAM, LULZCODE memory needs, and faster display/SD-card paths after the DC25 BMD-300 badge.
Operational history
The catalogue records the ESP32-WROVER migration as a deliberate capability upgrade while preserving the team's documented engineering tradeoffs.
The software record describes the intended and observed challenge surface without implying a completed public solve path for every attendee.
The catalogue records the verified hardware and update workflow while leaving complete firmware archaeology for a later artifact-level pass.
The entry now has a real rights-cleared documentary photo without copying article media, Hackaday.io photos, screenshots, generated art, or placeholders.
The entry now has a real rights-cleared documentary-photo derivative with source URL, license, attribution, and processing notes instead of generated, placeholder, article, project-gallery, or social-media imagery.
The record cites project-owner logs and hands-on technical coverage while avoiding stronger open-source hardware/software claims until a repository or archive mirror is recovered.
The compendium preserves the community hardware lineage without confusing it with the official DEF CON 26 text-adventure badge.
