HackTheBadge 1.0

hb_bw_prev_s (Custom)

[Martin] tipped us off to HackTheBadge 1.0. Possibly more elusive than the NinjaBadge, HackTheBadge has a Dpad, a 3×5 LED matrix, Arduino compatable headers, and 46 GPIO channels. You can download the open source plans if you didn’t get one at Defcon. You probably didn’t, there were only 14 given out. You can also order one pre assembled.  This makes us wonder, does being low in quantity qualify this as elusive?

17 thoughts on “HackTheBadge 1.0

  1. They are supposed to be sort of Arduino clones, but nobody has ported the Arduino core over to them. The designer has solicited help from the arduino dev mailing list to do it and posted a preliminary patch, but it’s yet to be seen if it will be accepted into the core project. Seems like too many integrated peripherals to me…

  2. they need to stop screwing around and just hand out laptops or PDAs. these badges are just getting silly.

    actually, here’s what i want to see: your “badge” is a blank PCB and a bag of parts. any number of interesting devices could be built, though your choices are restricted by the parts.

    it would be easy to build something simple and run-of-the-mill, so creativity would separate the men from the boys. no wussy software mucking, where someone pretty much provides you a hardware platform – yawn.

  3. “Arduino compatible headers”. Who in his/her right mind would propagate the ludicrous non-standard spacing of the Arudino headers? Arduino should have been eliminated from the planet by now via natural selection. But nooooo… It lives :-(

  4. drone,

    There are a number of arduinos that use a pretty standard DIP package spacing (mini, mini pro) as well as ones that are close but not quite arduinos such as Pololu.com’s Baby Orangutan B-168.

    In my case, I chose to follow the arduino shield pin headers simply because there was a high chance that people coming to DefCON for badge hacking might already have shield peripherals.

    —–

    John,

    There are no more integrated peripherals on the hack the badge than you’d find on, say, the arduino mega. The buttons and LED matrix display are on pins not normally brought out (PORTC/PORTA), leaving the shield pins free for general use.

  5. it does look like a demo board more than a badge.

    and i simply don’t get all the arduino hype… i understand the need for an inexpensive, easy and well documented learning platform for beginners. but i would think that once you’ve done a project or two you’d want to move on to a plain old avr chip and std c.

  6. Eric,

    Putting any wireless component onboard makes international shipment of the board a nightmare. Depending on the country, there are different RF regulations and requirements.

    I checked on the component cost for a nordic wireless chip for 2.4 and 900Mhz, and it’s still pretty prohibitively expensive with a production run of 100 units.

  7. Dr. Volts : 2.4GHz band is free for use in all countries as long as you don’t use it for voice applications.

    What do you consider “prohibitively expensive” ? Right now an nRF24L01 is 1.77€, antenna is 0.9€, and I didn’t bother to check the passive components but they’re not expensive parts. Total around 4€.

  8. @eric – Yeah, I was thinking a a truly useful (unofficial?) Hack a Day badge you be cool. Maybe there could be a contest?

    How about a badge that detects any RFID chips in the vicinity? It wouldn’t have to read them, just go nuts when the sheep’s within range.

  9. Magic,
    2.4 Ghz is one of the most common frequencies, next behind it is 900, the 5.8… there are only so many public freqs and going with anything BUT 2.4 would be outrageously expensive for ANYONE that is just giving something away.(Most common cordless phones sold WORLDWIDE are 2.4)

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