DEFCON 22 Badge: Code, Schematics and Information

DEFCON 22 Badge: Code, Schematics and Information

DEFCON 22 Badge: Code, Schematics and Information!

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Parallax P8X32A Multicore Microcontroller and DEFCON 22 Badge
DEFCON 22 Attendees: files you might need for the badge contest are right here!
You ve arrived at Parallax's DEFCON 22 badge resource page. If you re in Las Vegas and participating in the DEFCON 22 badge contest to win one of the coveted Uber badges, this page offers a starting point for resources and source code. You'll learn a bit about the contest at the DEFCON 22 Opening Ceremonies on Friday at 10:00 am.
If this is your first time to Parallax forums we welcome you! Feel free to use this forum for anything you need - our local Propeller experts will be happy to answer any questions!
The DEFCON 22 Badge was designed and manufactured for the largest continuously running hacker and computer security convention in the world This year's DEFCON is a four-day technical session held at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, founded and run by Jeff Moss (Dark Tangent). Ryan Clarke , Jonny Mac, and Parallax designed this years badge as a core part of the hacking contest. Jon Williams authored the badge firmware and you will be familiar with his coding style if you've seen it before. Parallax was invited to do this project on June 1st, providing only 60 days from concept through production yet our team pulled it together and manufactured almost 14,000 units in our Rocklin, California facility in July!
DEFCON 22 Badge Overview
The badge is based around the Propeller P8X32A 32-bit Multicore Microcontroller. The circuit consists of a Propeller (microcontroller, EEPROM, clock), an infrared LED and receiver for badge-to-badge communication, a bank of eight LEDs for visual feedback, four button touch pads and a USB circuit for data access and programming. Most importantly, this badge is useful well beyond DEFCON because it's a complete Propeller development board. All I/Os, Vss , Gnd connections are clearly ported to the side of the badge so you can solder directly to the I/O pins or jump them off to a breadboard. Stop by DEFCON s Hardware Hacking Village to work with others on badge hacking. You’ll need a micro USB cable which you can source from one of the hardware vendors if you need to reprogram. I suggest asking Garrett Gee at Godai Group - I asked him to bring 300+ micro USB cables.
The contest code is available as a zip archive, below. The contest code initially excludes the infrared communication method required for the contest, yet the infrared objects are included. Therefore, you're only missing a small portion of the firmware. When the contest is over, you get every piece of code including the methods that communicate with the infrared objects.
The badge types were produced in eight color schemes for different types of attendees: ARTIST, CONTEST, GOON, HUMAN, PRESS, VENDOR, UBER, and SPEAKER. The HUMAN badge was produced in eight different variants for 13 unique badge styles.
At the DEFCON 22 opening ceremony attendees will receive key information about how the badge is used to solve the challenge. We really don t know much about the Badge Challenge, but it s really clear that people need to mingle to unlock some cryptology clues. Take a walk around, connect your badge to Parallax Serial Terminal to see who ve you encountered. Everybody has access to the Propeller objects used in the top-level firmware. They're available for download below.
Propeller P8X32A Verilog Hardware Design Files Released!
Timed with DEFCON 22, Parallax has also announced that the entire Propeller Multicore Microcontroller hardware design is now released open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You can now access the Propeller 1 Verilog files and run them on an $89 DE0-Nano FPGA board, changing the code as you wish.
Helpful Resources and Downloads
DEFCON 22 Badge Resources (Creative Commons 3.0), at the bottom of this post:

  • Badge Schematic Page 1 (PDF)
  • Badge Schematic Page 2 (PDF)
  • Badge Schematic (DipTrace)
  • DipTrace Layout (DipTrace)
  • dc22_badge_human - Archive [Date 2014.07.12 Time 14.32].zip - for contest, as provided on DEFCON 22 CD - absent the methods used to talk to to the infrared objects
  • DCBadgeMaster.zip - full badge source code now posted, in entirety, Sunday evening at 9:41 pm Pacific Time
  • DEFCON-22-Badge-C-Code.zip - thanks to David Betz we now have the Spin/ASM code ported to C for running in SimpleIDE. Added on October 2, 2014 and available for download below.

Propeller Multicore Microcontroller Resources (GPL v3.0):

  • P8X32A Multicore Microcontroller Open-Source Page. Verilog design files.
  • PropellerIDE, an open source editor for Spin/ASM for Mac, Windows and Linux
  • Propeller Tool, the Parallax editor for Spin/ASM Windows only
  • SimpleIDE, an open source C editor for Mac, Windows and Linux
  • Propeller Manual
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