Hands-On: Whiskey Pirates DC29 Hardware Badge Blings with RISC-V

The Whiskey Pirates have once again dropped an excellent electronic badge for DEF CON 29. This is, of course, unofficial, but certainly makes the list of the hottest custom bling seen so far this year.

I'm not able to make it to the con in person, but the Pirates sent over one of these badges anyway for an early look. It's gorgeous, and peering into the circuit board it would be easy to think that the chip shortage ain't got nothin' on #badgelife. But this was possible only because of some very creative parts sourcing, and a huge dose of inspired design work.

The Aesthetic

I usually begin with an overview of the hardware, but come on, this thing looks spectacular! Let's talk about the aesthetic. This is one of the more polished looks for a hardware badge, akin to the Queercon 15 badge which used PCB faceplate and back, separated by edge-lit acrylic. [TrueControl] sandwiched the PCB between two sheets of acrylic, one that serves as a faceplate with both etched and translucent areas, and a clear backplate that carries the side-firing RGB LEDs to where they can be seen.

At the end of each of the cross-bones there is a black rectangle. At first I thought these were some kind of IR reflectance sensor, but they're actually button caps. It looks like they've been cut out of acrylic of a thickness sized perfectly to be flat with the faceplate. They been superglued to the momentary push switches on the board.

The look of these caps is awesome. The function is a bit rough though, as the throw of the switch is very shallow. I did accidentally pop one of these off, probably by pressing too much on one end. A dab of glue has fixed it right back up.

An OLED display shines through the forehead of the faceplate. The badge acts as a nametag which can be customized from the menu. One of the nice touches is that [TrueControl] once again used his fancy firmware trick that tilts the letters of your name to match the angle of the badge. Pretty slick!

Tearing Down the Hardware

You have to be ambitious to get a good look at the populated board since it's normally covered by an acrylic plate and the AAA battery holder. After desoldering that and removing the Torx head screws we are left with a really beautifully assembled board.

We find some creative part sourcing at work here. The main chip is a GigaDevices GD32VF103 (PDF datasheet) which is a RISC-V core (not to be confused with the GD32F103 which is an ARM Cortex-M3). [TrueControl] speculates this may be the first #badgelife project to feature a hardware RISC-V core -- the 2019 Hackaday Supercon badge had a RISC-V software core running on an FPGA. Also on board are a PDK13 (one of the Padauk chips -- take a look at [Jay Carlson's] guide we featured a while back) and there's an 8051-based USB chip (CH552T PDF datasheet) near the bottom of the board for debugging.

There's a hard power switch to one side. I also find two top-down USB ports next to the battery holder. I tried each of them; one enumerates and powers the badge, the other doesn't enumerate but it does power the badge. When probing on the serial ports I saw characters echoing back but haven't explored much beyond that.

The two RGB leds that make up the eyes appear to be flickering and I suspect there's some data transfer happening there. If you look closely at the circuit board near the button on the bottom right bone, there is a two-pad footprint and a cutout in the faceplate clears the way for it. It's possible this is some type of light sensor, although It may simply be an IR LED as I would expect a receiver to have three legs.

There's another trick at play here, which is how to inexpensively source the OLED screens. Looking closely at this one you can see the hack that allows the tails of the pin header to be bridged to some pads on the PCB. These modules are cheap and abundant, but have you ever tried sourcing bare screens and placing your own components to drive them?

Yet Another Superb Offering from the Whiskey Pirates

The most important aspect of making a hardware badge is easily found in this one: passion. Pandemics and chip shortages be damned, [TrueControl] executed on great ideas and got this one over the finish line. The electronic design is quite interesting, and the look achieved reaches a level that everyone will geek out about.

The package arrived with several versions of the face plate. I'm honored that he took the time to etch my name into not one, but three of those plates. And take a look at that part of it -- it didn't end with the etching, those letters are filled with white paint to make them stand out.

If you're at DEF CON 29 this year, keep an eye out for people wearing these. That's the Whiskey Pirate crew, and they're a blast to hang out with. Hopefully I'll have the chance to do so again at DC30!

#cons #reviews #badgelife #ch552 #defcon29 #electronicbadge #gd32fv103 #hardwarebadge #padauk #pdk13 #riscv #whiskeypirates

Hands On: DEF CON 29 Badge Embraces the New Normal

To say that 2020 was a transformative year would be something of an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic completely changed the way we worked, learned, and lived. Despite all those jokes about how much time people spend on their devices rather than interacting face-to-face with other humans, it turns out that when you can't get more than a few people together in the same room, it throws our entire society into disarray.

Our community had to rethink how we congregated, and major events like HOPE, DEF CON, and even our own Hackaday Supercon, had to be quickly converted into virtual events that tried with varying degrees of success to capture the experience of hundreds or thousands of hackers meeting up in real life. While few would argue that a virtual hacker convention can ever truly replace a physical one, we learned there are undeniable benefits to embracing the advantages offered by cyberspace. If nothing else, the virtual hacker meetups of 2020 saw a far larger and more diverse array of attendees and presenters than ever before.

As we begin seeing the first rays of light at the end of the long, dark, tunnel we've been stuck in, it's clear that some of the changes that COVID-19 forced on our community are here to stay. As eager as we all are to get back to the epic hackfests of old, nobody wants to close the door on all those who would be unable to attend physically now that they've gotten to peek behind the curtain.

With this in mind, this year's DEF CON is being presented in both physical and virtual forms simultaneously. If you made to Las Vegas, great. If not, you can follow along through chat rooms and video streams from the comfort of your own home. Following the theme, the DC29 badge is not only a practical tool for virtual attendees, but an electronic puzzle for those who are able to bring a few of them together physically. Let's take a closer look at this socially distanced badge and the tech that went into it.

Streaming Sidekick

On its own, the DC29 badge is a four-key RGB mechanical macro pad that connects to your computer over USB-C. Out of the box the keys are configured to work with Discord, allowing you to do things like mute your microphone and fire off some appreciative emotes. Along the right side of the device are three touch pads which are configured to work as a volume slider, nicely completing the array of available media controls.

The badge enumerates as a serial device, and if you connect to it with a terminal emulator, you'll be presented with a simple user interface for re-configuring not only the function of each of the four keys, but their individual RGB color values. The touch pads on the side can't currently be configured through this UI, but as you're notified when first connecting, this is only a minimal firmware implementation; a more complete version is scheduled to be released during DC29.

Speaking of which, firmware updates are installed using a method that will be familiar to anyone who's worked with MicroPython. Holding the bottom right key while plugging in the badge will cause it to show up as a USB Mass Storage device that contains the firmware in UF2 format, providing a user-friendly and cross-platform way of getting new code running on the badge. The virtual drive also contains an HTML file, but at least for now, it simply points you to the DEF CON site.

Mechanical keyboard aficionados will be pleased to learn that the badge's four Gateron Blues are installed in hot-swappable sockets, should you want to customize the board's tactility with a new set of switches. Each key is topped with a custom DEF CON relegendable keycap, allowing you to insert your own printed artwork. The caps appear to have been resin 3D printed, and given the fairly obvious variability in color, clarity, and quality that can be seen even with a sample size of only four, it seems their production was likely the result of a breakneck collaborative effort.

Between the configurable software, hot-swappable switches, and customizable keycaps, the DC29 badge is a surprisingly robust little macro pad. It seems safe to say that, long after this year's con is wrapped, many people will still be using this badge on a daily basis.

Under The Hood

The two layers of the badge are held together with four plastic pegs, and pulling them apart uncovers a surprisingly barren interior. In fact the only component really worth mentioning is the Atmel ATSAMD21, a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller. This 48 MHz chip includes 256 KB of flash, 32 KB of SRAM, a capacitive Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC), and an integrated USB controller.

Outside of the MCU, there's just a buzzer, what's presumably a voltage regulator, and some passives. There are no obvious sensors or radios, but the array of physical connectors on every side of the badge does hint that there are still a few tricks to be revealed.

Fun With Friends

The DC29 badge is eminently useful on its own, in fact, it arguably ranks up there with the most practical event badges ever conceived. But it's also designed to work in conjunction with other badges, as the edge connectors and silkscreen messages hint. Multiple badges can either snap together or be interlinked via USB cables, and thanks to the onboard CR2032 battery, they don't need to be tethered to the computer for power.

As for what they do when they're connected…well, we're going to have to wait a bit before we find out. For one thing, it's not immediately clear that the current firmware even supports linking the badges together. While hardly an exhaustive investigation, searching the firmware for ASCII strings doesn't uncover any messages that would pertain to any functionality beyond acting as a macro pad.

Those attending DEF CON physically may find they need to perform a firmware update before their badges will actually do anything interesting when connected to each other, but by all means, give it a shot and let us know.

A Badge For a New Era

The rise of Badgelife has always been fueled by the hacker's desire to show off their collection of glittering artisanal electronics. But what happens when there's no packed convention hall for you to wander around in? That neck full of PCB bling doesn't have quite the same appeal when you're attending a con from your bedroom. How do you make a badge compelling for an individual who might never get within a hundred kilometers of another holder?

Creating a device that combined the traditional form and function of DEF CON badges with the socially distanced nature of a virtual convention was no easy task, but the DC29 badge certainly managed to pull it off. As a single unit it's a useful and customizable gadget, and in large quantities, it doubles as a piece in an interactive puzzle. As hacker conventions continue to blur the line between physical and virtual attendance over the coming years, this design will inevitably be the yardstick by which future badges are measured.

Whether or not the majority of DC29 badges ever get the chance to connect with another of its kind, one thing is for sure: each one will be a prized possession by any hacker that was able to get their hands on one.

#cons #currentevents #featured #hardware #reviews #badgelife #defcon #defconbadge #defcon29 #hardwarebadge #macropad #mechanicalkeyboard #usbhid

AND!XOR’s DEF CON 29 Electronic Badge is an Assembly Puzzle

For years I've looked forward to seeing each new unofficial hardware badge that comes out of the #Badgelife powerhouse known as AND!XOR. A mix of new and interesting components, alternate-reality game, and memes, you never know what they're going to throw down.

A bubble pack landed on my desk on Thursday with the newest offering, the AND!XOR electronic badge built for DEF CON 29, happening this weekend as a hybrid in-person and online conference. While each previous year upped the ante on complexity and manufacturing magic tricks, it's no surprise considering the uncertainty of both the global pandemic and global chip shortage that they took a different tack. What we have here is a badge hacking puzzle that challenges you to just figure out how to put the thing together!

The Hardware

Unpacking the badge it is clear that this is a solder kit. In addition to the main PCB and four daughter PCBs, there's a small zipper bag of components in tape, along with two coin cells, a battery holder, and a beautiful color lanyard. You've got to put all of this stuff inside of a package to ship it, so the meme factory decided to roll out a pack of "Damonitos", a play on Doritos-brand corn chips and the badge collective's recently adopted hashtag-mascot, Matt Damon. I haven't asked why and neither should you.

The thing is, there's nothing programmable here; through and through this is a hardware badge. I'll dive into the assembly details later on, but this looks like surface mount resistors, capacitors, and transistors, and one through-hole trimpot. It's a clever way to sidestep the problem of reliably sourcing microcontrollers in any kind of volume in 2021.

The boards themselves are obviously the "After Dark" treatment of OSH Park (and sure enough, their logo is on the back of the board). The iconic treatment uses black substrate (the board itself), clear solder mask to let the copper traces show through, ENIG plating for golden pads, and white solder mask.

The Assembly Puzzle

I think AND!XOR is hands-down the best at documenting their badges, but within a limit of the puzzles they design into them. In this case, most people would reach for the schematic and begin putting paste on the board for assembly. But head over to their project page and you'll find no such resources available.

What you will find is encouragement to break the glyph cipher used as component reference next to each footprint on the back of the board. There are sixteen icons used in the key, which strikes me as nice number for hex-values, but I'm just spitballing. I have not yet had time to start work on this challenge, but it's all I want to do right now. Not great for the outlook on getting my actual work done, thaaaaaanks AND!XOR.

Three-legged footprints are easy enough to figure out, but two different tape strips of transistors have me thinking that you'll need to establish PNP versus NPN. Even if you get that sorted out, and crack the code on resistor values, there's also a routing puzzle afoot.

The daughter PCBs themselves are an interesting part of the challenge. The front of each has two faces, split in half at the edges. Castellated edges on the tip and bottom match up with footprints on the front of the main PCB. For some reason this bring to mind slot machines, where you want to match up like images for each spin. On the back of the daughterboards you can see that electrically they each route traces to different destinations.

I'm told the board is sized to exactly match an official CDC COVID vaccine card (which I suppose also explains the alcohol wipe and bandaid that came with it). Other notable features include the "rounded" edges that use the 1980s style of 8-bit rounded corners. The square holes for badge lanyards continue the aesthetic.

While this doesn't rise to the same heights as something like their DC27 badge which included phosphorescent stickers that integrated with the PCB, light pipes for dimensional effects, and masterful use of a stippled silk screen, we're living in a very different world from two years ago. After our lives got turned upside down, it's refreshing to see a new take that is much more accessible to your average person than the multiplayer, only-at-the-con challenges of previous years. Even if you don't have this kit in your hands, you should be able to take images I included in this article, map the traces, and crack the code to figure out the circuit. I'm smitten.

AND!XOR put together 800 badge kits. So far about 400 have been sold through their online store. The rest will be given out in person at DEF CON 29, and they'll once again resume their practice of having "local drops" at points around the globe. If you want to get one, and can tolerate -- or even embrace -- a constant stream of memes, follow their socials over the next few days.

#hackadaycolumns #reviews #andxor #badgelife #defcon #defcon29 #hardwarebadge