DC18 Badge Design Competition

**TheCotMan** · September 10, 2009, 16:23

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Good idea. It would be interesting to see what other ideas are proposed. It is possible that some day Joe Grand may retire from Badge design, and other people will be needed.

I have a request in with DT to ask if it is ok to bring out the Pre DC18 planning forum. Usually, I bring it out once an announcement about DC18 appears on the main site, or DT announces something about DC 18 on the forums, or even twitter, now.

Once I get approval, I'll create the forum, move this to the DC18 pre-planning forum with an symlink for the old location and then delete this comment on procedure because it contributes nothing to the topic at hand. (That is, unless someone replies to this and quotes something from this post... then I'll leave this post here, because removal would break continuity.)

**Tacitus** · September 15, 2009, 13:56

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

There have been some awesome badge hacks in the past, and the hardware hacking side of the con has definitely been growing in recent years.

I think it would be awesome to see what kind of ideas the community can come with with given the real-world restrictions (time/money etc) of developing a real product.

I know I have had some ideas over the years, and fitting them within the price restriction I see above has thrown out a lot of them!

**kallahar** · October 5, 2009, 09:38

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

We made some pretty good progress on our design this weekend. It's mocked up on an Arduino, but it's fairly easy to port code between microprocessors. I found out that the atmega 328 only has 2k of RAM, and my array was 3k, so it was overwriting program space. surprise!

I'll have a web page up with all our design and code soon, anyone else have badge ideas they'd like to float? The idea really needs to be 100% done by thanksgiving in order to get it made in time for con...

Kallahar

**Vyrus** · December 17, 2009, 18:16

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

/me waves flag in support ;)

**Xenos** · December 18, 2009, 00:13

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

i've got an idea,
to go to contact electronics composant dealer, and examinate the different cost of composants
If the price of composant are different ,i contact you
If you want help me, can you give me the exactly reference of composants.
one of my friends have a specialist shop composant ;-)
Why not the composants are very small price in Belgium

**kallahar** · December 18, 2009, 08:20

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Defcon 17 badge:
All part numbers are from digikey:
a99327: $1.31
p189 $0.14 (battery, not included in price)
399-1096-2 $0.02
399-4922-2: $0.09
aaa3528surkqbdcgkc09 $0.93
prm0408le5h-tb $2.27
misc resistors $0
mc9s08jm60clh $3.21
Total: $7.83

These are all in quantities of 5,000.

I really doubt belgium is that much cheaper (make sure to include higher shipping cost).

**TheCotMan** · December 18, 2009, 08:25

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Many parts of Europe also have a VAT that is much higher than sales tax in most U.S. states, and it should be considered as part of the total price.

**kallahar** · December 18, 2009, 08:57

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Here's some of the ideas we were working on too:

$8 max component cost (calculated from previous years BOM's: excludes board, fab, assembly, battery) - http://kallahar.com/defcon/2010/badge/kingpin_bom.xls

Badges communicate with each other over IR
Badge is programmed with any TV remote control
Badge defaults to "receive" mode, so other badges can transmit messages to their badge

What things do people have easy access to at con?
- keys
- knife
- led lights
- phone
- pda
- thumbdrive
- lighter
- laptop
- camera
- mag stripe cards
- booze
- money
- coins

Games the IR communication could allow:
- easter egg hunt for certain unique id's
- points/unique id found
- tokens passed between badges
- laser tag/assassin/etc
- emergency broadcast system
- store and foreward data
- corewars
- life (automata)
- health/life bar
- fox/hound
- outbreak
- some badges could have extra components (speaker, wireless, etc?)

Ideas that are probably too expensive:
- program/UI via a TV (RCA out)
- Radio communication

**heisenbug** · December 18, 2009, 09:02

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Originally posted by kallahar

Here's some of the ideas we were working on too:
- booze

Best requirement ever.

I would love to see how you make a badge using this. A beer glass with a programmable LED screen stuck to it would be awesome. Especially if it could be hung around the neck somehow.

**FlyBoy2** · December 31, 2009, 07:33

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

You know the thing I would suggest is having access to soldering irons and tables after the halls close for the evening. I know everyone tromps back to their room but it would be nice if there was a more public place that was open 24x7. I am not trying to make more work for the Goons but just an idea.

**streaker69** · December 31, 2009, 07:35

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Originally posted by FlyBoy2

You know the thing I would suggest is having access to soldering irons and tables after the halls close for the evening. I know everyone tromps back to their room but it would be nice if there was a more public place that was open 24x7. I am not trying to make more work for the Goons but just an idea.

That's probably a severe liability issue due to possible injuries and fire.

**charliex** · December 31, 2009, 11:28

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

I asked one of the Goons about that last year, they gave me the response as you expected, what you don't think we have enough work to do! Which of course they do.

Also some of the space might be being reused after close ?

Maybe we'll finally get a 702 hackerspace going, even if its just a temporary defcon one it'd be start, I can at the least setup something in the garage, but i'm at the southern end of town.

**big chopper** · January 2, 2010, 12:21

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

Speaking for the vast majority of us--if I may, who simply need a badge to enter the con.... I am SO TIRED of the badge dictating the rest of the con.

Most or many of the problems at DEFCON are caused by the complex nature of the badge. I'm talking about:
1.) Waiting in a long line to get your badge only to learn that tomorrow you need to wait in an even longer line to get your "real" badge,
2.) Badges that are missing parts,
3.) People missing talks because they're waiting in line, or
4.) People just giving up because the registration line is too long.

This is DEFcon not BADGEcon. Come on people, get a perspective on this.....!
Can we just get simple concert-style one-time-use wrist bands this year? Man, think how that would simplify things...
--BC,

**Thorn** · January 2, 2010, 12:50

Re: DC18 Badge Design Competition

Originally posted by big chopper

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

Speaking for the vast majority of us--if I may, who simply need a badge to enter the con.... I am SO TIRED of the badge dictating the rest of the con.

Most or many of the problems at DEFCON are caused by the complex nature of the badge. I'm talking about:
1.) Waiting in a long line to get your badge only to learn that tomorrow you need to wait in an even longer line to get your "real" badge,
2.) Badges that are missing parts,
3.) People missing talks because they're waiting in line, or
4.) People just giving up because the registration line is too long.

This is DEFcon not BADGEcon. Come on people, get a perspective on this.....!
Can we just get simple concert-style one-time-use wrist bands this year? Man, think how that would simplify things...
--BC,

I like the hardware badge and look forward to it. In fact, I'd be willing to pay a premium to get one if DT were to determine a majority really didn't want them.

DC18 Badge Design Competition

DC18 Badge Design Competition

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment