DarkNet Badge Hardware and Software

At many Confrences now, vendors bring custom-designed electronic badges to sell and give away. These badges are primarily for entertainment, but in some cases are also presented as kits to introduce people to soldering and hardware hacking, and most of them are programmed with puzzles and games.

Getting into the world of badge making can be daunting.  How are badge boards designed?  How do I pick the right microcontroller for my badge?  How do I program my badge to do something cool?  This talk will be a crash course in badge design working from a concrete example badge.  We’ll go step by step through the process.  You might not know exactly how to build your own badge at the end of the talk, but what you will know is 1) it’s not as scary as it seems, 2) what pieces you’ll need to consider in designing your badge, and 3) where to go for more information.