Comments on: Ninja Networks Party Badge

By: Sheridan Bojanowski

Sheridan Bojanowski — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:21:29 +0000

good Kharma keeps the wheel turning…

By: redbeard

redbeard — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:32:20 +0000

it *was* supposed to be a challenge for those who had hardware in hand. i’d suggest looking at the device and just generally playing. that’s what defcon was all about. i tell you. to make any progress i had to hustle just getting the actual badge let alone figuring it out. part of getting that badge was showing that you had the chops to be a ninja. you either have the skill or are at least in the know. i even tried to get a broken board from the folks at the hack-a-day table but they were quite mum with letting even jacked up ones walk off.

anyways, i’ll let up on the rant. there were only two instructions provided. it’s kindof like fight club. if i told you any more about it, i would be breaking the second instruction:
play
fair

By: vissago

vissago — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:15:35 +0000

Glad the pics served you guys well :D

By: m0bi1e

m0bi1e — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:57:24 +0000

@redbeard

I know that “don’t cheat” has to do with the challenge.

I know the challenge is over, but I still want to get through all the steps. Any hints on where to go from here?

By: charliex2

charliex2 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:25:56 +0000

hey shyft, small world indeed !

those scrolling led badges are useful for 21×7 matrix displays, i pulled one apart for part of a badge hack i was doing, they use a blob ic and a serial i2c eeprom, i started hacking away at the i2c hoping to control it remotely, instead what i’ll probably end up doing is the same as furan did and just cutting the ic off then running my own wires to control the display, there is nothing much in the eeprom, just the custom messages/speed etc.

To get more control you need to either reprogram
whatever that IC is, or just use it as a display.

By: redbeard

redbeard — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:03:20 +0000

don’t
cheat

By: barry99705

barry99705 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:48:43 +0000

Just don’t wear it into a bank…..

By: dcept905

dcept905 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:03:52 +0000

@tim: “IT OBVIOUSLY TOOK ALOT MORE ENGINEERING THAN SOME OF THE OTHER ELECTRONIC BADGES OF PAST YEARS.”

@kingpin: “Care to elaborate?”

…I smell trouble brewin’ :P FWIW I tink your badges kick ass Joe! Next year I’m showing up prepared w/ an entry :D

By: agent420

agent420 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:39:50 +0000

I mean, if you popped the board out of this $5 led matrix name badge, it’s about the same…

http://the-guide-company-llc.amazonwebstore.com/Led-Scrolling-Name-Badge/M/B000IZGIQC.htm?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle

By: agent420

agent420 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:34:03 +0000

its ok, but personally i appreciate the original badge more with it’s mic etc.

led badges are cool, but when myhiphopblingbling.com sells scrolling led belt buckles for $10 i’d think you’d want to be just a bit different than generic consumer crap.

personally, the smt building process is the most interesting aspect of this thing – would have been 100% if they had etched their own boards.

By: nubie

nubie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:26:56 +0000

@ Roman D, when you can get micro-controllers with free C compilers for $1 or less apiece, and they are available all the way down to the Attiny23 SOIC 8, up to a 40-pin package it is pretty powerful.

I have a couple Atmega8, one to connect 2 PSX pads and the other currently on a solderless breadboard for a Gamecube controller, they run OBDev USB firmware and appear as standard HID devices. That is pretty darn cool in my opinion.

Check out: http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/projects.html

The hacks are “arduino based” because the Atmega chips are so cheap, powerful and plentiful, the arduino is just a PCB with easy prototyping features, power supply, RS-232, USB etc. I personally find “arduino” over-priced (I am quite poor, and a tightwad), but I like a rats nest of wires and my solderless breadboard, which I move to solder breadboard when the circuit is tested.

This project doesn’t seem to use Arduino, but a neat one to check out with an Atmega chip is this two-chip and some resistors game console! http://belogic.com/uzebox/howitsmade.htm

By: DUSTIN

DUSTIN — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:30:08 +0000

I’m not looking to make something this fancy but if I wanted to make something like this (like something that scrolled my name) where would I start?

By: kingpin

kingpin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:33:19 +0000

@tim: “IT OBVIOUSLY TOOK ALOT MORE ENGINEERING THAN SOME OF THE OTHER ELECTRONIC BADGES OF PAST YEARS.”

Care to elaborate?

By: Roman D

Roman D — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:43:59 +0000

Ok, I must have been living in a cave or something, what’s with everyone using Arduino? Ok, so I did live in Harrisonburg, Virginia for 13 years so might as well say I lived in a cave but seems like every other hack is Arduino based. ….. tap tap tap…. no I must resist!!!! Maybe I’ll just go ahead and port King’s Quest to SNES or something instead……. :P

By: Drone

Drone — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:16:40 +0000

Does this have the stupid Arduino headers too?