Making the DEF CON 33 Badge
Mar details the design, engineering, artistic creation, and electronic manufacturing process behind the official DEF CON 33 electronic badge.
Summary
The Tradition of the DEF CON Electronic Badge
The annual DEF CON badge represents a fusion of embedded engineering, artistic design, and interactive hacking challenges for tens of thousands of conference attendees.
Hardware Engineering and Component Selection
Badge creator Mar walks through the iterative hardware design process, from microcontroller and sensor selection to circuit schematic layout and power optimization.
Manufacturing and Production at Scale
Managing mass electronic manufacturing under strict deadlines requires solving PCB fabrication bottlenecks, automated surface-mount assembly challenges, and firmware flashing logistics.
Interactive Puzzles and Community Hacking
The finished badge features interactive hardware puzzles and expansion headers, encouraging attendees to reverse engineer the device and develop custom hardware add-ons.
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