NFC Business Cards To FPGA Cubes, Skull Badges To Bandoliers, Here’s The Hardware From Breakfast At DEF CON

August 17, 2019 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

We had our biggest Breakfast at DEF CON ever on Sunday. So big, in fact, that the carefully laid plans went awry immediately.

This is the fifth year we’ve hosted the event, which kicks off the final day of DEF CON with some hardware show-and-tell. We really thought we had it all figured out, since this time we actually booked a space in Paris hotel. For the first three years we were just banditing the space — asking everyone to show up at this place and it’ll become an event. Last year we planned to have it in the Hardware Hacking Village, but the casino stopped us from bringing in pastries that morning and we ended up camping out in a dining area that wasn’t open until the afternoon.

Last weekend we had a cafe booked, with pastries and coffee on order. The only problem is that you are all too awesome. We had a couple hundred people show up and the cafe didn’t want us standing, which limited our space to the number of booth seats available. No worries, as is the tradition we spilled out into a lounge area on the casino floor and enjoyed ourselves!

Here’s some of the hardware that showed up at this gathering.

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Breakfast At DEF CON This Sunday

August 5, 2019 by Mike Szczys 2 Comments

Nurse your hangover with the Hackaday and Tindie crews as we host the 5th Annual Breakfast at DEF CON.

Everyone knows the days at DEF CON are long, and the nights are longer. Whether you’re just rolling out of bed, or walking straight in from the previous night of partying, we want to see you and your hardware show-and-tell projects this Sunday morning at 10:30 AM in Paris Hotel, Las Vegas.

We’re congregating at Le Cafe Ile St. Louis in the front part of Paris. Just walk through the doors coming off of Las Vega Boulevard and it’s in the big open area. A nice touch is that you don’t need to have a DEF CON badge to get in on the Hackaday breakfast.

Regular Breakfast at DEF CON attendees will remember that last year we were squatting in a restaurant space which isn’t open for breakfast. Thankful we’ve secured a location this year and you can score coffee and a pastry on us. We would like to have an idea of how many people to expect so please drop us an RSVP.

Breakfast At DEF CON — The Greatest Illicit Meetup Of All

August 16, 2018 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

Every year we host Breakfast at DEF CON on the Sunday morning of the largest hacker conference in the United States. I think it’s a brilliant time to have a meetup — almost nobody is out partying on Sunday morning, and coffee and donuts is a perfect way to get your system running again after too much excess from Saturday evening.

This year marks our fourth Breakfast and we thought this time it would be completely legit. Before we’ve just picked a random coffee shop and showed up unannounced. But this year we synced up with some of our friends running the Hardware Hacking Village and they were cool with us using the space. Where we ran afoul was trying to wheel in coffee and pastries for 100+ people. The casino was having none it.

Great food went fast. This was an hour in and after another hour it was all gone.

We don’t mind mixing googly-eyes with flatware

Mmmmm… Coffee.

But to their credit, we were forbidden from bringing the food into the conference center, not into the greater casino. We ended up squatting in a restaurant seating area that wasn’t open until 5pm. The awesome Hackaday Community rolled with the venue change, and a fantastic time was had by all! For what it’s worth, this ended up being the best space for a Breakfast yet! There was plenty of room with many tables, and we had no problem filling all of the space.

“Most dropped parts” trophy for SMD soldering challenge

SMD soldering challenge under way

Tindie and Hackaday were sponsors of the SMD Challenge this year (a timed soldering challenge going all the way down to 0201 packages that was also judged for quality). Jasmine announced the winner live at the meetup, that’s the image at the top of this article. I thought the award the Solder Skills Village made for the Most Dropped Parts was pretty epic. It’s a round pendant with a piece of carpet and a bunch of components that was on display during the meetup.

Badges of DEF CON past

The number one piece of hardware people brought with them was badges. Since we’re doing in-depth badge coverage I won’t go into that here. But I’d like to mention that for the second year in a row, Brian McEvoy brought some epic hardware. Last year it was an OpenSCAD controller demo, this year it’s a custom mechanical keyboard design system.

Taking wide shots of crowds is frowned upon at DEF CON so what follows are posed shots. I made sure to ask all involved before snapping the image. DC27 is a long way away, I’m hoping to see many of these awesome folks much sooner than that when Supercon gets going this November.

Jasmine Brackett, Mike Szczys, Katie Huber, Erin Kosewic

Kerry Scharfglass, Mike Szczys, and Brian McEvoy

Sunday: Breakfast At DEF CON

August 8, 2018 by Mike Szczys 1 Comment

Nurse your hangover by having Breakfast at DEF CON this Sunday. You’re invited to this yearly ritual with Hackaday and Tindie. We’re celebrating the beginning of the end with coffee and pastries beginning at 10:30 am in the Hardware Hacking Village.

Head over to the Breakfast at DEF CON event page and hit the “follow event” button to keep on any new info about the event.

Extra internet points go to those who bring some hardware to show off… and especially for anyone who is making this the end of their Saturday rather than the beginning of Sunday. We had tons of great hacks show up last year and want to outdo ourselves this time around.

Come hang out with too many Hackaday and Tindie folks to list here. Also don’t forget to check out the SMD Challenge throughout the weekend.

Sunday: Breakfast At DEF CON

July 25, 2017 by Mike Szczys 6 Comments

Nurse your hangover by having Breakfast at DEF CON with Hackaday this Sunday. You’re invited to our yearly ritual by marking the beginning of the end with coffee and pastries at 10:30 am.

Choosing an exact location in advance is always tricky (anyone who’s been to DEF CON understands). We’ll pick a place once we hit town later this week. For now, head over to the Breakfast at DEF CON event page and hit the “join the team” button on the bottom left so we can let you know when we’ve found the perfect location for the breakfast meetup.

Extra internet points go to those who bring some hardware to show off… and especially for anyone who is making this the end of their Saturday rather than the beginning of Sunday. [Brian] and [Mike] will be there, joined by our friends [Jasmine] and [Shulie] who are on the scene for Tindie, a sponsor of the IoT Village this year. See you on Sunday!