The Defcon Badge

posted Aug 2nd 2007 4:40pm by Will O'Brien
filed under: cons

I made it over to pre-registration earlier and scored my badge. It’s a pretty interesting piece of work by [kingpin]. It’s got 95 SMD leds forming a matrix display. The top and bottom icons on the badge are touch sensitive buttons. It’s got selectable modes, programmable text scrolling, a pre-set POV mode and adjustable scrolling speed.

Update: I started digging through the CD they’re handing out at registration and found the schematics, BOM, layout, everything. I’ll have it posted as soon as it finishes uploading over my evdo connection. The board has provisions for wireless, 3 axis accelerometer, serial interface and it’s using a Freescale QF16 processor. (I tried looking up the chip number earlier, but utterly failed)

Update 2: I’m putting interesting defcon files up here. All the badge info I have is online. I noticed a confidentiality notice on one of the files, I’m assuming that it’s ok to distribute since they’re distributing this freely on the conference CD. If I hear otherwise, I’ll have to pull it.

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Comments [22]

Reader Comments

one word: WOW!

Damn, that looks really tight!

Posted at 5:22 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by matt bee

Neat, not that I’m not impressed or anything, but does it have anything else cool? Have you run it by an RFID scanner yet?

Posted at 5:47 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by David

How do you change the custom message?

Posted at 6:11 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by knvb1123

If only I could be there :( Is there any simple way to make a fake badge this year?

Posted at 6:31 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by Ironchief

nice! Anybody plan to rip one apart and DIY more of them? I’d like plans to make a few for other purposes…

Posted at 7:05 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by buzz

Do you get to keep the badge after the conference?

Posted at 7:18 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by Skyler Orlando

WHERE DO YOU REGISTER AT? tHE bADAGE iS aWSOME.

Posted at 7:18 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by Ph@ntom2kode

w00t my plane leaves in ~ 2 hours and i’ll have my badge soon after.

Posted at 7:24 pm on Aug 2nd, 2007 by Will

qf16 looks a lot more like a chip package than an actual IC. http://www.emulation.com/catalog/cross/motorola/testclip.htm

The actual IC is probably buried in the BOM somewhere, but I’d guess it’s a standard 68xxx series microcontroller.

How thin is it, though?

Posted at 12:20 am on Aug 3rd, 2007 by threepointone

Looks like the Binary on the back of the badge says “Go Voice” if converted to ascii. Btw, hope to see ya at the con!
=)
-Eureka

Posted at 3:47 am on Aug 3rd, 2007 by Eureka

Mod idea:
Wireless Pong!

Posted at 9:10 am on Aug 3rd, 2007 by Computer_kid

Nice! How about a larger image (or youtube video?) of it in action?

Posted at 1:11 pm on Aug 3rd, 2007 by tillin9

Nice! How about a larger image (or youtube video?) of it in action?

Posted at 1:24 pm on Aug 3rd, 2007 by tillin9

I didn’t put too much thought into is, but it looks like the datasheet for the processor is here:

http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/data_sheet/MC9S08QG8.pdf

I love findchips.com; it’s the best.

Posted at 1:38 pm on Aug 3rd, 2007 by WmD

How about scanning the book, for those of us not fortunate enough to be able to attend?

Posted at 4:28 pm on Aug 3rd, 2007 by Tavor

and some hi-res photos, I wish i was able to go to DC 15 but i got banned from the riv. :( DAMN YOU ASS HOLE!!!!!!

Posted at 6:56 pm on Aug 3rd, 2007 by Kaine

Hey, what about a packed file with all the docs/code/etc? Great job, Kingpin!!!

Posted at 12:04 pm on Aug 4th, 2007 by Alexandre Souza

Its open source free and for use to remake and use…. but the schematics and boards (id love to print my own) are PDF files how does one make a board from a PDF?

Also a PDF that is password protected from ANYTHING but looking at it and printing it….

Would love some EAGLE Cad files all ready know a few things id love to change and modify to make a whole new one :)

Posted at 10:24 am on Aug 5th, 2007 by scott

Here’s the video of mlp showing off the winning entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgfAJspEsUs

We spent nearly all of DEFCON hacking on those badges, but it was probably the most fun I’ve had at the con since DC8.

Posted at 9:45 pm on Aug 8th, 2007 by rabbi

But no guess!

Posted at 2:16 am on Aug 10th, 2007 by Courtney

I am glad everyone liked the badges we made for Defcon 15 as well as last years badges. If you have questions on how to create a unique item from a PDF or anything else that has to do with PC boards please feel free to e-mail me. Thanks

Posted at 5:37 pm on Aug 16th, 2007 by Mike Friedman

I love cons.

Posted at 4:47 am on Aug 21st, 2007 by gabe