SiNE
A small Electromagnetic Wave badge with ATTiny44A, 20 location LEDs, IR receiver/transmitter, unique-ID beacon behavior, coin-cell power, and a ship-wide treasure hunt.
Electromagnetic Wave
Electromagnetic Wave 2013
The EMF spin-off event that used the SiNE badge for LED effects, IR-based games, locator beacons, and a scurvy-themed scavenger hunt.
Milton Keynes · United Kingdom · 2013
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
SiNE
historical
Treasure-hunt LED alphabet
The wiki describes hidden beacons around EMWave/Stubnitz: reaching a clue location and holding the badge near the matching letter lit the corresponding location LED, with progress preserved in EEPROM.
SiNE
historical
Development-board bring-up path
The team built three development boards before final production so hardware wiring could be checked and firmware could be written while the final badges were produced.
SiNE
documented
ISP flashing and fuse settings
The badge wiki documents avrdude/ISP flashing for ATTiny44A with t44 part flag and low/high/extended fuse values, pointing deeper work to the firmware Makefile.
SiNE
historical
Locator ID and erase workflow
Each badge transmitted a random 9-bit ID about five times a second, showed the ID on LEDs A-I at power-up or with the ID button, and allowed users to clear the ID by holding Erase.
Operational history
Issues & Camp Impact
SiNE
note
The clue list and badge behavior are preserved, but the wiki notes some details were only filled in after EMWave had passed and still left some answers to be added.
The hidden-beacon mechanic is source-backed, while exact participant gameplay reconstruction remains partial.
SiNE
note
Firmware hacking required ISP programming, avrdude, the ATTiny44A t44 part flag, and specific fuse values rather than a beginner-friendly USB bootloader path.
The badge was hackable, but deeper firmware work assumed AVR tooling and care around fuse configuration.
SiNE
note
SiNE was designed to transmit a random badge ID to Raspberry Pis around the ship for movement trails, with public data planned after the event and a user-visible erase workflow.
The plan makes SiNE an early example of a playful badge feature with privacy implications; the wiki also states that the Raspberry Pis were never set up, so no location data was collected.
SiNE
note
No SiNE 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 Kingdom record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying source-page media, documentation screenshots, event photos, social media, placeholders, or generated approximations.
Resources
SiNE firmware repository
firmware · Public archived firmware repository linked from the EMF badge wiki.
SiNE flashing and fuses
hardware hacking notes · Wiki notes for avrdude, ISP programming, ATTiny44A part flag, and low/high/extended fuse values.
SiNE badge wiki
official wiki · Primary EMF badge wiki page for treasure hunt, locator ID behavior, sponsors, dev boards, flashing, components, PCB, and firmware links.
SiNE PCB repository
source · Public archived PCB repository with Gerbers, production board files, schematic files, and dev-board files.
Sources
EMF Badge Wiki: SiNE
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary source for SiNE's treasure hunt, locator ID behavior, sponsor credits, dev boards, flashing/fuse notes, components, and linked resources.
GitHub: SiNE-Firmware
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Archived firmware repository linked from the badge wiki.
GitHub: SiNE-PCB
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Archived source repository linked from the badge wiki, with Gerbers and Eagle board/schematic files.