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Re: Welcome to the DEFCON Badge Hacking Contest
The badge is a pretty good beginner board, it just lacks some switches and interface stuff.
Freescale sell a starter board which is pretty good.
However if you are just starting in electronics, but do have a background in programming, i'd got to frys or radio shack/tandy, or whatever your local electronics place is and pick up a basic stamp kit that you have to put together, they're cheaper and don't need extensive dev tools, once you've got the hang of those, the freescale dev boards would be next, or if you want to stick to the basic stamp but play around a bit more with electronics, i really like the comfile CB220/280 dev kit stuff, again reasonably priced but you can do a lot with it, and the dev kit has lots of switches, dials and leds to play with.
if you want something bigger than that, go with one of the Mikroe EasyPIC/ARM/AVR boards, they're awesome ,but they're pre made (as are the comfile boards)
the freescale dev boards are fairly simple to play with as well as easy to obtain, it also mostly matches the badge.
HC08 dev kit
http://www.freescale.com/files/abstr.../HCS08DEMO.htm
Comfile's CUBLOC ( different processor, its based on the ATMega, but its a fun and easy board with a ladder logic or basic style language, and it comes complete, all you need is an rs232 to upload code, and you can make production pieces very simply with their proto board, they have displays and all sorts of stuff, spi,i2c etc. Their forums are a little bit inactive with some of the tougher questions, but there is a fair few sample apps on there too.
http://cubloc.com/product/01_05.php
Mikroe maybe overwhelming choice here, i have an EasyPIC4 for fast prototyping.
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/
HC908 based, so freescale, similar to the badge
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/easyhc908/ (not out yet)
Sparkfun etc have some little dev boards to play around with, but they're not the best for beginners, as they usually just sell you the part and you're on you own, they do supply some stuff, sometimes, but it seems like its aimed more at the more advanced user. http://www.sparkfun.com
Also for simplistic development with sensors, inputs and so on, can't really go wrong with phidgets, but it gets expensive quickly and you're ultimately limited by their system.
http://www.phidgets.com/
Personally i like to teach with the basic stamp kits from places like frys, then move to the comfile, then to the mikroe and then to the freescale kits etc.
http://shop1.frys.com/product/5229937
http://shop1.frys.com/product/5229667
Dependant on where you're located, you'll have different options, but most electronic places carry the little kits that you have to solder up, make radios or small processor circuits with basic stamps.
mouser and digikey carry most of the large OEM development kits.
Best of luck
The badge is a pretty good beginner board, it just lacks some switches and interface stuff.
Freescale sell a starter board which is pretty good.
However if you are just starting in electronics, but do have a background in programming, i'd got to frys or radio shack/tandy, or whatever your local electronics place is and pick up a basic stamp kit that you have to put together, they're cheaper and don't need extensive dev tools, once you've got the hang of those, the freescale dev boards would be next, or if you want to stick to the basic stamp but play around a bit more with electronics, i really like the comfile CB220/280 dev kit stuff, again reasonably priced but you can do a lot with it, and the dev kit has lots of switches, dials and leds to play with.
if you want something bigger than that, go with one of the Mikroe EasyPIC/ARM/AVR boards, they're awesome ,but they're pre made (as are the comfile boards)
the freescale dev boards are fairly simple to play with as well as easy to obtain, it also mostly matches the badge.
HC08 dev kit
http://www.freescale.com/files/abstr.../HCS08DEMO.htm
Comfile's CUBLOC ( different processor, its based on the ATMega, but its a fun and easy board with a ladder logic or basic style language, and it comes complete, all you need is an rs232 to upload code, and you can make production pieces very simply with their proto board, they have displays and all sorts of stuff, spi,i2c etc. Their forums are a little bit inactive with some of the tougher questions, but there is a fair few sample apps on there too.
http://cubloc.com/product/01_05.php
Mikroe maybe overwhelming choice here, i have an EasyPIC4 for fast prototyping.
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/
HC908 based, so freescale, similar to the badge
http://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/easyhc908/ (not out yet)
Sparkfun etc have some little dev boards to play around with, but they're not the best for beginners, as they usually just sell you the part and you're on you own, they do supply some stuff, sometimes, but it seems like its aimed more at the more advanced user. http://www.sparkfun.com
Also for simplistic development with sensors, inputs and so on, can't really go wrong with phidgets, but it gets expensive quickly and you're ultimately limited by their system.
http://www.phidgets.com/
Personally i like to teach with the basic stamp kits from places like frys, then move to the comfile, then to the mikroe and then to the freescale kits etc.
http://shop1.frys.com/product/5229937
http://shop1.frys.com/product/5229667
Dependant on where you're located, you'll have different options, but most electronic places carry the little kits that you have to solder up, make radios or small processor circuits with basic stamps.
mouser and digikey carry most of the large OEM development kits.
Best of luck
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