Gothcon 2026 Blinky Badge

Pre-order for a Gothcon 2026 badge. Gothcon is a goth themed dance party at the DEF CON 34 hacker convention in Las Vegas, on Saturday, August 8th. This badge is a fundraiser for the party -- the party is free and receives no funding from DEF CON or any source besides this one. Having a badge is not required to attend the party (though you do need a DEF CON badge since it is inside the DEF CON convention grounds), it's just a cool thing to wear around con & help support our ability to put on the show.

This year's badge is a custom PCB LED badge. It's in the shape of the bat from the Gothcon logo, with 44 LEDs around the edges. 

Features:

• 44 independently-controlled RGB LEDs
• 2000 mAh Li-Po battery able to run the badge for 24-36 hours
• USB-C recharging with overcharge protection
• Library of LED patterns & colors, independently selectable. Twinkle, wash, chase, etc. with single colors, combinations of colors, or a full rainbow.
• Removable laser-etched acrylic Gothcon logo shield
• Sublimation-printed custom Gothcon lanyard in DEF CON 34 colors
  

Hackability: 

• ESP32-C3 Microcontroller with 4MB flash
  
• Wi-Fi and BLE radios with antenna (not used in default firmware, available for your own projects)
• All LEDs individually addressable, with helper functions for patterns
• Well-documented MicroPython firmware for maximum hackability which will be made available on GitHub before DEF CON
• Bootloader mode switch on the board to allow full firmware reimaging
• Board was intended to have SAO connectors wired to the microcontroller, and does, but it turns out they are wired mirrored from how they should be and thus aren't functional with a standard SAO, and it's too close to con to be able to fix this.

Badges pre-ordered will be shipped unassembled, but assembly takes less than 5 minutes and requires no skills. Firmware will be preinstalled but you should probably check for an update on github before con. The badge will also be sold at DEF CON, for the same price (but with no shipping of course, and with tax included in the price.) On pre-orders, tax will be an additional charge on orders in Washington state. Shipping is via USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate Box.

Pre-order package contents:

• Badge PCB
• Acrylic shield with Gothcon logo
• 3 screws & 3 nuts for attaching shield (easily applied by hand)
• Full-color sublimation printed Gothcon lanyard
• 2000 mAh LiPo battery 
• Mounting tape for attaching battery to badge

Limit 3 per address to prevent reselling. All badges will be shipped by Priority Mail (1-2 day) no later than Monday 7/27, and presales will be ended on that date; if you want a badge after 7/27 you'll need to buy it from us in person at DEF CON.